Taking "Nephalem Rifts" one step further

#1 - Nov. 12, 2013, 6:37 p.m.

So as far as I understand you plan to shuffle all the Monsters and area designs together in the new instances called "Nephalem Rifts". Thats cool and will guarantee some interesting encounters.

But what about going completely nuts, what about the Elite/Champ packs themselves?
Couldnt they be also a mix of different Monster-Types working together to make your life harder?

Im thinking of a Champ Pack consisting of a Copperfang Lurker, Demonic Tremor and a Phasebeast. Add Affixes like Health link and Shielding and this will be a viable Challenge.

Or this Elite Shaman from Act 3 with his Maiden, Savage beast and Berserker Minion?

Or a Pack with a Grotesque, Blazing Guardian and a Mallet Lord with Fast, Teleporter, Vortex and Jailer?

Basically, if youre really unlucky and you count the natural abilities of the monsters you can have up to 8 "affixes" in one pack. Not to mention the new monster types and affixes you guys will come up with in RoS.

This would stirr up things really good imho. Since you planned to slow down the A in ARPG anyways I think there might be combinations presented to you by the RNG that will actually demand some sort of strategy.

Also asking for more nasty enemy/affix combination others can think of.

Grimiku

#5 - Nov. 12, 2013, 11:12 p.m.

At Blizzcon there was a Diablo III Q&A panel, and someone asked if we're making any changes to Unique and Elite monsters. The short version is that we are making them more interesting, but I'll quote the actual response below. You can follow this link to diablo.somepage if you want to read their full Q&A blog.

Q: Currently the Uniques and Elites are boring; are you making any changes for them?

A: We have internally done some changes to both Champion and Rare packs. Champions mostly we varied the number of guys, so it's not just 3 blue dudes who are the same. For Rares, instead of 1 yellow guy + 3 smaller ones, we're varying from 2-7 for minions, and changing them so they are different creatures. There will be variety in the types of monsters who can spawn with a Rare.