Sunday 31 July 2016

Patch 2.4.2 Brings Increased Difficulty, Better Loot



For some people, grinding away in Diablo III is an aggravating activity leading up to the onset of boredom fast - hence all the complaints about the lack of new content lately and about how the game has been reduced to a senseless grind for many. Then, there are those for whom Torment X is a piece of cake. Such players have already reached "end game" so to speak, so things have become rather stale for them too lately. While the former, above mentioned category won't gain much in the way of revived interest through patch 2.4.2 of the game, for the latter category, hours upon hours of more top-level grinding are in the books thanks to it. Patch 2.4.2 accomplishes a lot: it delivers the usual medley of tweaks and improvements, but its  main appeal is the fact that it adds Torment XI through XIII, reigniting the fire in the hearts of hardcore Diablo III grinders. The increase in difficulty comes hand-in-hand with much better loot, including legendary powers and exciting new items.

The Adventure Mode rewards have also been upped with the new patch, and the Nephalem Rifts are the targets of most of these improvements. Upon the completion of any Rift, players are now guaranteed a Greater Rift Key and they may even get a second or a third such key as the difficulty is ramped up. The drop rate for Infernal Machines has been tinkered with as well, in the sense that in Torment IV, the drop chance is now 100%. As with the Greater Rift Keys, players can get a second Infernal Machine as the difficulty goes up.

The bottom line: patch 2.4.2 delivers for diehard Diablo III players, giving them a little bit more to do as they await the official announcement regarding another expansion or Diablo IV even.


Philip Thalberg covers the International 6 for the world's top eSports spot, GosuGamers.