Blizzard Removes Rift Trials From Diablo III

Developer Blizzard is going to remove the Rift Trials from Diablo III. The studio is not fond of the game format, in which a player has several waves of opponents sent at him. It is not known when the function will disappear and what will replace it.

The Rift Trials, or Realm of Trials as the game is officially called, is not popular, says Wyatt Cheng, senior technical game designer at Blizzard via Twitch. Even within Blizzard itself, no one is a fan of the feature in which a player faces several waves of computer-controlled opponents. Each successive group is more challenging than the previous one. Only through such a Rift Trial can a player gain access to a Greater Rift; dungeons in the game in which good pieces of equipment can be obtained.

But “nobody likes Rift Trials,” Cheng says. So the function will disappear. Cheng doesn’t know when yet, but does state that the option is no longer included in the game’s internal test builds. He doesn’t clarify how Blizzard will control access to Greater Rift once the Realm of Trials is gone from the game. The feature was added in patch 2.1, the first major patch to appear after the Reaper of Souls expansion hit the market.