How Do You Know Which Greater Rift You Can Do

Content of this article:

Introduction
Cadre Concepts of Pushing
Rift Fishing Explained
Finding the correct GR Tier to push
Good Maps
Skillful Monster Types
The Progress Calculation
Decision-making during the Run
Creating Density
Fighting the Rift Guardian
Additional Pushing Tips
Video Guide
Related Content and Videos
Summary

Introduction

Greater Rifts are the main endgame activity in Diablo 3 and you lot will spend between seventy-95% of your fourth dimension hither. After leveling to 70 and acquiring some Greater Rift Keystone due south in Nephalem Rifts, you lot will be trying to get together more loot, experience and Legendary Gems here.

These rifts are randomized and require you to make full a progression bar that ultimately spawns a Rift Guardian you will have to defeat. They have multiple floors out of a predetermined map pool with randomized layouts. Each floor spawns with 1 out of 33 predetermined monster sets and an amount of Elite enemies corresponding to the size of the layout.

In short, Greater Rifts are designed to offer further endgame progression that goes beyond the stock-still difficulty settings of Normal to Torment Sixteen and provides (near) infinite scaling. These days, most Meta endgame builds will easily crush the highest regular difficulty and instead desire to aim much higher in Greater Rifts, which provides bigger benefits and rewards. If you lot are more interested in farming, you should accept a look at this mail service explaining Feel Mechanics for Paragon farming as well u.s.a. our Experience Farming Tier List and the Group Experience Meta. The rest of this post will cover full general Greater Rift pushing.

Core Concepts of Pushing

Afterwards all is said and done, the items and paragons accept been farmed, the gear augmented, loads of Greater Rift Keystone acquired, there comes a point where it is fourth dimension to finally see how far you can go with your character. This process is chosen pushing (the leaderboards or your personal best), as you lot try to become to the highest Greater Rift Tiers possible. This is typically done at the terminate of a flavor (or when yous decide to end information technology for yourself), when your grapheme has reached its pinnacle.

Information technology'due south piece of cake to beat a dream rift that serves y'all the perfect RNG on a silver platter, only information technology'due south in those where things don't go according to plan where you can distinguish yourself as a player the most. This is why you demand to learn almost how to push most effectively.

Different speedfarming, which is what yous do most of the fourth dimension, pushing is a lot more tedious-paced, skill-based and decision-oriented. In the end, it comes down to doing one successful run out of yet many attempts you want to give information technology. So you build your character, use up all your mats, use your augments - in short: become the most you lot tin can out of it.

The deed of pushing is more of a journey, and not something that yous simply practise. Yous demand to set a goal that you want to reach, put your mind to it, and then continue at information technology until you reach it. Only this way you will be able to reach the highest yous can before you might exist pulled abroad by colorlessness or other things.

This means yous will have to fish for maps, you will find a lot of runs that accept nearly all the things lined up, and you will fail some of them very closely. Until, somewhen, the stars marshal and you lot finally spawn that right Rift Guardian with enough time to finish it. Even though only i successful run counts for your personal best or a leaderboard spot, information technology'due south nevertheless very important to prove consistently expert operation, as the meliorate you play, the less yous have to rely on RNG to beat yourself or others. If you finally manage to go the dream rift and so play sloppy so that you fail closely, you will feel bad and have wasted a great opportunity. This is something y'all desire to avoid.

Understanding Hit Points Scaling

Unlike in Farming, here y'all will not impale anything very easily. Fights, especially confronting elites and Rift Guardians, will commonly last multiple minutes, in some cases even up to half of the total fourth dimension (7.5 out of 15 minutes). It's very common to fight elites for minutes and eventually leave them behind at 10% HP considering it would just take besides long to finish them off. Since the monster HP rises past 17% multiplicatively every single Tier, you lot cannot outright beast-force your fashion to GR150 because a Diablo 3 character tin can merely be so strong before you run out of things to improve. Fifty-fifty farming more paragons volition only clasp out a few more Tiers at the finish afterward gearing (e.k. the divergence between a paragon yard and a paragon 3000 graphic symbol is around iv Tiers (+/- one depending on build), and to a paragon 5000 character maybe another 2-3 Tiers).

Because of the multiplicative nature of GR-scaling and the exponential increases through Expanse Impairment, the HP (and hence our required and dealt DPS) values skyrocket actually quickly when inbound the loftier Tier rifts. Here are some values to help you sympathise just how much more than impairment you demand to do to shell sure levels:

+1 Tier = 17% (x1.17 HP)
+2 Tiers = 37% (x1.37 HP)
+3 Tiers = 60% (x1.60 HP)
+4 Tiers = 87% (x1.87 HP)
+5 Tiers = 119% (x2.19 HP)
+10 Tiers = 381% (x4.81 HP)
+fifteen Tiers = 954% (x10.54 HP)
+20 Tiers = 2211% (x23.11 HP)
+25 Tiers = 4966% (x50.66 HP)
+30 Tiers = 11060% (x111.06 HP)
+35 Tiers = 20712% (x208.12 HP)
+forty Tiers = 45530% (x456.thirty HP)
+45 Tiers = 99940% (x1000.41 HP)
+50 Tiers = 219235% (x2193.35 HP)

Equally you can come across, the HP scaling gets ridiculous very quickly, and even the terminal value of 219235% from 50 Tiers tin nonetheless be taken to the power of 3 considering at that place are actually 150 Tiers in the game. This should give you lot an idea how nosotros even got into a situation where a Rift Guardian in solo 150 has roughly 500 Quadrillion HP to brainstorm with.

This table should besides assist to underline the importance of gameplay and Surface area Damage specially. In that location is no way to increase the raw (sheet) damage of a Graphic symbol by these amounts later you lot accept already built the core setup such as your 6-slice set, the primary legendary items, leveled some paragons and legendary gems, etc. Compared to these values, everything yous practice becomes quite miniscule in the grand scheme of things, including changing your setup for some more DPS choices. Most optimized builds tend to solo speedfarm somewhere around GR95-110 in ii to 3 minutes.

However, in pushing, they are able to do somewhere betwixt GR130-150, which means an increase of over 100 to 200 times in monster HP. Since even the speedfarming variations typically don't drib whatsoever of the cadre multiplier items that make a build, you can only adjust your overall harm done past mayhap a few times (e.g. by swapping legendary gems, passives, maybe 1-2 utility items to more DPS, ...) until y'all run out of options. The remainder of that x100 to x200 gap in HP must mainly come up from Kiting, Area Damage, Conduit Pylons, Blight of the Stricken and a few other things.

In short: Monster HP rises extremely fast through exponential scaling because it multiplies the value of the previous GR Tier by 1.17 each time. This means that going fifty-fifty two-3 Tiers below your realistic cap will make beating a rift significantly easier while barely changing the rewards.

The Value of Area Impairment

The main manner to calibration upwards your damage (with only a few exceptions of builds where it doesn't piece of work) is Area Impairment. Essentially, you increase your harm done not simply by calculation more monsters on the screen so that you tin hitting more, but you also deal more damage to each of them per enemy. So by kiting large packs of monsters together, you tin scale your damage exponentially, which is what eventually allows you to overcome the ridiculous requirements to beat out a high Tier Greater Rift. This is too why in many guides and particularly solo pushing variations, this is one of the near important stats, and playing around information technology well is also one of the most crucial things to learn to improve your overall performance.

To show y'all how of import it really is, take a await at the following tables. This one shows the total damage done with a base value of 100 per target, and the impairment done by Area Damage procs at three different hypothetical values (l%, 100%, 150% full Surface area Damage on the character). The numbers assume the (unrealistic) scenario that all enemies are stacked on top of each other, which will prove difficult to exercise in most solo pushing situations later a sure indicate.

Targets	Damage	AD (l%)	AD (100%)	AD (150%)
1	100	0	0	0
2	200	xx	40	60
3	300	lx	120	180
5	500	200	400	600
7	700	420	840	1260
10	1000	900	1800	2700
12	1200	1320	2640	3960
15	1500	2100	4200	6300
20	2000	3800	7600	11400
25	2500	6000	12000	18000
30	3000	8700	17400	26100
35	3500	11900	23800	35700
40	4000	15600	31200	46800
50	5000	24500	49000	73500
60	6000	35400	70800	106200

Every bit you tin see, while your normal hit impairment merely scales linearly (100 x corporeality of targets hit), your area damage starts deadening and then speedily overcomes your bodily damage washed, until it eventually skyrockets to incredible values.

Below you can notice a closer look at one specific data betoken from this table, at 25 targets:

Targets	Impairment	AD (l%)	AD (100%)	AD (150%)
25	2500	6000	12000	18000

Total Dmg		8500	14500	20500
Advertisement Share of Dmg		70.59%	82.76%	87.80%
DPS increase by pct		240%	480%	720%
DPS increase per 20% Advertising		28.2%	16.6%	eleven.7%

As you can see, even for a character using no Area Damage at all from their items (but 50% in Paragons), the overall damage washed past it is still much college than the base damage of the hit (over 70% of full damage washed). This simply becomes more every bit the values of Advertizing increase, up to ~83% at 100% Advertizement and ~88% of full impairment at 150% AD. Here you lot can also come across the value of Area Damage on your items: even at an extremely high Advert value of 150% already present (almost every single slot you tin have information technology, the absolute maximum is 198%), an Advertizing-whorl is very valuable with a 11.seven% overall DPS increase (given you constantly set on 25 stacked targets at a time, which is unrealistic in solo gameplay merely tin can be accomplished temporarily with group abilities such as Piranhas Piranhado, Basis Stomp Wrenching Smash or Black Hole). Typically Area Damage competes with stats similar Assault Speed or Average Damage (on Rings), both of which give you an increase of around 5-7% DPS per roll. Information technology's easy to encounter why AD generally outclasses these stats when pushing. Even at rather minor values of 5 or 10 stacked enemies, the effect is much higher than what other stats would offering:

Targets	Damage	Advertisement (50%)	AD (100%)	AD (150%)
5	500	200	400	600

Total Dmg		700	900	1100
AD Share of Dmg		28.57%	44.44%	54.55%
DPS increase past percent		40%	80%	120%
DPS increase per 20% AD		eleven.iv%	eight.9%	vii.3%

Targets	Damage	Ad (fifty%)	AD (100%)	AD (150%)
10	1000	900	1800	2700

Total Dmg		1900	2800	3700
AD Share of Dmg		47.37%	64.29%	72.97%
DPS increase past percentage		90%	180%	270%
DPS increase per xx% AD		18.9%	12.9%	9.seven%

Obviously, for these numbers to work out in your favor, you accept to be good at making big pulls and constantly fight multiple enemies at a time. This as well doesn't consider that in some situations, you volition merely not be able to add more monsters to the fight (e.one thousand. at the end of a floor or when fighting most Rift Guardians) and thus gain no do good whatsoever from Area Damage (every bit information technology only starts work with at least 2 targets nowadays). In addition, certain builds directly up don't piece of work with the stat at all (due east.g. Witch Doctors with Spirit Barrage The Barber, Wizards with Chantodo's Resolve, Thorns of The Invoker Crusaders, etc.).

In short: the more Area Damage, the improve, but by and large don't curlicue it instead of core DPS stats such as Crit Take a chance, Crit Damage or Elemental Harm.

If you desire to learn more nearly this, check out the in-depth post by sVr: Expanse Damage Mechanics

Rift Angling Explained

Rift fishing is the process of opening and closing rifts until yous notice a expert 1 that is worth trying. The truth is that Diablo 3 is a very RNG-based game and this includes ranking on the leaderboards, too. To fifty-fifty out the RNG (randomness) a bit, players especially further upwards on the leaderboards get straight for just the adept maps and monster types, or in some cases fifty-fifty heavily optimize for very hard-to-find, very specific scenarios.

Greater Rift Tier Gains through Fishing

For the following, consider the example of a well-geared graphic symbol playing an A-Tier build and an experienced player controlling it. The average run they could comfortably clear is around GR125, after which it starts getting a scrap tougher with a real take chances of failing here and there.

In full general, the total RNG range of most builds lies somewhere between ten-16 Tiers, meaning that in the worst case scenario yous could neglect a GR120 (with the i/thou horror rift) and in the all-time case example yous could clear a GR135 (with the ane/1000 dream rift), with your average successful run (effectually 80% of the keys) ranging somewhere in between GR126-130, and the remaining twenty% of keys spread out somewhere over the other Tiers at the lower and the top and, respectively. Effectively, just similar with nearly other real-life occurrences of randomness, the game also follows a normal distribution (Bell Bend) towards both ends of the spectrum, like to this:

RNG distribution in Diablo follows a Bell Curve

Typically I would advise even for more coincidental pushers to skip most bad layouts that you observe on the starting time floor, such as Caves, Keep Depths, Ruins of Corvus and other narrow maps, unless they turn out to take a very good monster set (eastward.g. Vile Swarms). And so all in all, I would only leave effectually 4/five keys immediately upon entering to boilerplate out a little bit on the upper side of the RNG spectrum (so around GR130-132 to stick with the above example, skipping the bottom 80% or more than of all results).

To give a very broad example of the impact of line-fishing, here is a list that I have created based on my experience of pushing over 20000 keys throughout many seasons:

~10 keys: 1 Tier
~25 keys: 2 Tiers
~50 keys: iii Tiers
~100 keys: iv Tiers
~250 keys: v Tiers
~800 keys: vi Tiers
~2000 keys: 7 Tiers
~5000 keys: eight Tiers

Plain these numbers don't necessarily mean that you will go exactly this issue in that amount of keys, as the rifts and outcomes are nevertheless random. It's more meant in the sense of "on average (given the specified amount of attempts), you will find one rift that - if played perfectly - yous will be able to beat on that Tier with your current graphic symbol". This listing does not consider your own potential failures as a role player (eastward.g. past taking incorrect decisions or dying too much), but instead focuses on the theoretical possibility of being able to clear the given rift.

Important RNG-Factors that play a Role

Here's a (very rough) listing and estimation for the different RNG factors that you tin encounter:

Top 4 map (Desert / Shrouded Moors)
Top 2 map (Battlefields of Eternity / Festering Woods)
Good layout ("four-corner-layout")
Top 50% mob type
Peak 10% mob blazon
Conduit
Well-positioned Conduit
Other proficient pylons
Proficient elites
Even better elites
Easy affixes
Good follow-upwardly maps
Fifty-fifty better follow-up maps
Practiced Rift Guardian
GG Rift Guardian
Build specifics

Each indicate of which would increment the overall expected result by around 1 Tier. In some cases, some factors might manner more or less (due east.g. a Conduit pylon is much more constructive when wearing The Flavor of Time, some builds don't care much nigh elite affixes, some builds require open maps much more than others, some builds benefit a lot from line-fishing for exactly 1 specific monster type instead of simply the top 5, etc...), just typically information technology evens out over the different types of builds. At that place are certain builds (e.g. Impale Demon Hunter or Invoker Crusader that are very consistent and much lower on the RNG spectrum simply because of how they overall perform in different situations, while some others testify extreme highroll potential (such equally Spirit Barrage Witch Doc) due to their extraordinary requirements of loftier density monster packs at all times.

In short: RNG plays a role and near of the bad stuff can be either eliminated or played around by simply throwing away 4/5 or 9/10 keys in order to get some decent chances for a articulate already. A handful more Tiers tin can be squeezed out with more and more investment.

Finding the right GR Tier to push

If yous are playing strictly solo (or at to the lowest degree unlock Tiers in solo only), you will not have such an issue with this topic. However, information technology can be useful to figure out how far you can realistically go past getting a few more information points from other players. All in all, information technology can exist quite difficult to estimate what your graphic symbol should be capable of doing, every bit particularly for non close-to-maximum optimized characters in that location tin be huge differences in how the builds play and feel (eastward.g. due to lack of specific resistances, lack of Cooldown Reduction rolls, low Expanse Harm values, ...).

Determining your "Realistic Cap"

When pushing, it is important to - in add-on to your graphic symbol'south - understand your own personal limits that you want to stick to. Yous have to realize how many attempts you would like to carry before giving up or running out of time earlier y'all begin other projects or obligations. You besides have to go along a bit of a buffer for the unlucky streaks, where you might put hundreds of keys without getting something that you lot would otherwise look.

So earlier you start your actual Push, be aware of how far you want to get, and adjust your goals accordingly (equally provided by the list above). It can feel very bad to button your grapheme and never get a clear until the end of the flavour - even after hundreds or thousands of attempts - considering you overstretched the RNG requirements by one Tier (only could have washed one lower multiple times). Trust me - been there, washed that. Non absurd. If you are not ready to become for an infinite amount of attempts, lower your goal by 1-two tiers.

Adept Maps

Distribution of maps on the beginning floor when entering a Greater Rift

In that location are varying types of maps, most of which are plain terrible or at the very least not really neat to button on for about builds. As you endeavour to make big pulls and kite aristocracy for many minutes until they eventually die, you lot demand something where there's a little bit of infinite to work with.

A good map is the most influential factor when deciding at the showtime of the run which is a worthy endeavour and which I should remake. In essence, you can get one of the top 4 maps (Festering Woods, Battlefields of Eternity, Shrouded Moors, Desert) in around 1 in v keys used. The first two are notwithstanding another bit better than the second two, as they typically have more big rooms and density in general.

In that location are a few more that piece of work well some of the time, when you get a good combination of layout and monster type on elevation of information technology. These are Plague Tunnels, the Wudicave (Vile Cavern from Act 2), Silver Spire and Arreat Crater. Combined with the acme 4 maps, we are looking at a chance of around 1 in 3 keys to notice one of these. Withal, compared to the height ones, most of the time these extra maps don't turn out very great and are merely quit afterwards a very short time when it becomes clear that the map might be likewise modest, has terrible monster types or merely only very narrow tiles in the layout.

Getting a skillful first map is the well-nigh of import step to a successful run, and while theoretically some of the other maps can likewise turn out okay or even adept because of other lucky RNG factors involved (mob blazon, bully elites, good pylons, ...), information technology'south very unlikely that they will and you lot might only waste some minutes playing through them until you enter floor two and leave anyhow. The main reward of the top maps is not just that they are generally wide with lots of room for large pulls and easy kiting, but also that they straight out carry more progression on one floor. This means that whenever yous open up a Festering Woods with one of the good monster types, you can be pretty much sure to complete at to the lowest degree xxx-90% of the total progression bar on that one flooring, fifty-fifty if you might have to skip certain elites, don't get crazy pylons, etc. This effect heavily reduces the to RNG requirements for the follow-up maps, as you lot but need to exercise a piddling bit more progression to get to the Rift Guardian. Even in bad maps, it tin can be easy to just walk into i of the large rooms, blast downwards a medium-sized trash pull, and motion on to the next floor, until you somewhen go the last % needed. Given you accept a big enough fourth dimension reward, you lot tin unremarkably afford to fall behind again a petty bit during the end of the run when most of the juicy parts are cleared already.

Good Monster Types

In total, in that location are 33 unlike combinations of monster types you can roll on every single floor. Some of the best monster types include:

Vile Swarms
Transformers (Dark Vessel, Unburied, Revenants)
Lacuni/Phasebeast
Zombie/Grotesque
Ghost Combo (Ghosts, Shadow Wraith, Ghastly Gravedigger)
Chickens (Armored Destroyer, Hellflyer)
Summoner Combo (Blazing Ghoul, Tomb Guardian, Skeletons)
Bee/Accursed
God Comb (Cultists, Summoner Cultists, Hellions)

These are not necessarily the only monster types that work well, and some others can also highroll to give you a very skillful result. Even so, overall, these piece of work best for most builds as they show one or more than of these characteristics:

a decent mix of enemies with like HP values
actress progression/monster spawns during the run
lots of (fast) melee trash you can kite and pull
very stackable enemies due to small collision boxes

That doesn't necessarily mean that these monster types are easy to defeat, it just ways that if y'all play around them properly, you will be able to get well-nigh progression out of these compared to others, as many other monster types only don't allow you to even have a chance even when you do information technology well.

Regardless, it's withal very likely yous volition fail a map with Lacuni/Phasebeast or Transformers despite those two being among the best in the game, simply considering you need to micro-manage a lot of things in such a run (due to the spawner-types that give you extra Zombies / Night Vessels that you need to avoid killing earlier they alter forms). Along the same lines, every single monster blazon has its own beliefs and patterns that yous demand to adapt to in order to play it perfectly, some more than others. This requires lots of practice and experience with all of them.

The Progress Calculation

At this point information technology'due south important to understand how much progress you gain from killing certain things. In full general, progression is loosely tied to monster HP, their skills and special dangerousness, so you tin understand the overall thought by looking at the following examples:

Maggot (0.04%)
Skeleton (0.09%)
Accursed (0.09%)
Enraged Phantom (0.12%)
Vile Swarm (0.fifteen%)
Ice Clan Warrior (0.xix%)
Arachnid Horror (0.23%)
Unholy Thrall (0.38%)
Fallen Chief (0.46%)
Skeletal Creature (0.64%)
Executioner (0.85%)

In order to fill the progress far, you need to kill a combination of monsters that will amount to 100% total (duh). Yous have 15 minutes time to practice that and impale the Rift Guardian, which, depending on your build, volition take somewhere betwixt 1 to vi minutes in most cases. If we calculate with an average kill time of 3 minutes, this will leave you with 12 minutes to gain 100% progression, or 8.33% progress needed per minute. From the higher up example, this would crave united states of america to kill

x92 Skeletons,
x36 Arachnid Horrors,
x18 Fallen Masters or
x10 Executioners

Fifty-fifty some of these trash fights will last for several minutes, depending on how well they are kitable. If your build is using Convention of Elements, yous tin even break this adding down into individual nuke cycles (5 per minute for Necros, 3 for Monks, around 4 for other classes). As is evident, it'south quite difficult to find and impale shut to 100 Skeletons or 10 Executioers inside a minute, fifty-fifty when you would go at nearly farming speed. This means you need extra progression coming from elites, and just relying on trash monsters is not plenty.

Elites, on tiptop of their usual monster type's progression, provide progression globes when killed. In that location is no inherent do good to killing elite enemies or minions until you acquire these globes. They have higher than normal HP, just all the same requite the aforementioned progression, so finishing them off is the only relevant step in the process of defeating them.

Blueish packs requite iii progression globes à i.15% for a total of 3.45%.
Xanthous packs requite 4 progression globes à 1.fifteen% for a full of four.lx%.

This means that killing an elite pack is roughly the equivalent of one-half a infinitesimal of time during a push (bit more for Yellows, bit less for Blues ). Considering that even finishing off a five% elite pack tin can take longer than that, the standard setting for any pack yous see (specially in narrow maps) is: skip it - unless you know you will spend several minutes nearby or a phenomenon happens. For most builds in the game (excluding Impale DH and Frenzy Barb for example) elites are only killable when you can kite them with little fourth dimension loss until they die eventually, or when you get a Conduit Pylon.

There are still situations where it might exist worth wasting a fleck of fourth dimension to finish off certain trash or elites, as long as it doesn't take excessively long. These situations arise for example when you take reached the end of the floor and y'all already know that the next one is quite terrible, or when you look/gamble for the adjacent Pylon spawn shortly that would relieve your run and similar considerations.

In short: Killing big packs of modest monsters is typcially much faster than killing a few big monsters. The same applies to Elites, which by and large have too much health to be even considered worth trying. High Elite HP is the main reason why fishing for a good map is so important - y'all can kite them until they die eventually.

Decision Making

During the run, decision-making is cardinal to success. Information technology's not just about opening the right rift, and having the theoretical possibility to clear it, it's equally near what you make out of that opportunity. It's you confronting the world for 15 minutes, and to testify yourself, you must have each step very carefully. The master points of consideration are explained hither:

Skip versus Kill

By far the most important one, and besides past far the most common mistake, is fighting a hopeless fight: You need to skip enemies. A lot. Equally you lot accept seen higher up with the details about HP-scaling and Area Damage, big pulls are key to dealing any kind of noticeable damage and thus getting whatsoever progression once you get to the highest Tiers. This means that as you thin out the density, your DPS will plummet, and you volition very often detect yourself in a situation with some depression HP trash or elites sitting in that location, teasing you lot to finish them off, but you will simply not exist able to as y'all take simply lost 90% of your DPS from killing everything around them. Wasting time on small pulls is what holds many people back from going higher than they otherwise could.

Similarly, certain monster sets are but so terrible that yous ordinarily want to skip the unabridged floor of them, as they are either too dangerous or also unrewarding or too hard to stack upwards or a combination of these factors. As well, skipping elites is a decision you need to make chop-chop at the moment of engagement. Consider the monster type (you tin can't do much against Armaddons), their affixes (do they spawn Walls or Illusions all the time?), their position on the map (are they at the beginning or stop of the floor?), the possibility for a Conduit nearby (did you spawn a pylon recently?), the dangerousness (do they have a combo that will kill you lot?), nearby trash monsters (tin y'all find enough to fuel Area Impairment procs on them?) and how much progression you however need to make (can yous afford to begin a several minutes-long elite fight earlier fourth dimension runs out?).

As a rule of thumb: When in doubt, SKIP IT.

Manipulating Pylon Spawns

During a Greater Rift, y'all get 2-4 Pylon spawns. This number is randomized and there is no way to become all five Pylons in the same run.

The different Pylon types ranked past overall impact are:

Conduit Pylon
Power Pylon
Shield Pylon
Speed Pylon
Channeling Pylon

Obviously this may depend on the build yous are playing, as especially Channeling Pylons can vary profoundly in value for very Cooldown heavy builds such as Necromancers with Land of the Dead. Conduits are nearly a necessity for builds trying to achieve the highest Tiers using The Flavour of Fourth dimension. Shield Pylons might be useless considering your build is already tanky enough, but tin can be a cracking boon for the squishy ones to finally stand yet and nuke in peace. Speed Pylons tin can be actively harmful to your builds (especially when you rely on grouping ability such as Ground Stomp Wrenching Boom or Piranhas Piranhado).

Pylon spawns in Greater Rifts follow these rules:

all Pylons have equal chances to appear
the aforementioned Pylon tin never announced twice
they spawn on fixed Pylon locations
they can never spawn in explored areas
they can not spawn afterwards the Rift Guardian is summoned
you have to make progression to have a run a risk of spawning ane*
the more progress you make, the more likely you are to notice ane
Pylons spawn offscreen, around 1.5 screens away from the player
typical ranges between Pylons are 10-25% progression
if y'all make too much progress without ever finding a Pylon spot, you lot tin lose it (Rifts with 0-ane Pylons are possible if that happens, but there is a bit of a buffer)

* It's possible to find Pylons at 0% without having ever killed a mob, and similarly it'south possible to find two Pylons in a row without getting extra progression. These cases are very rare though (~1/100).

Utilize this knowledge to your reward to play around Pylons. If you go for the highest possible Tier, you have to find a Conduit in a decent spot and so yous can stop off a bunch of elite packs. Acquire the Pylon spots, especially on the expert maps, and acquire how you need to progress to find nearly of them. Sometimes finishing off those few monsters to get another ii% progression might just be what flipped the switch to your GG Conduit Pylon.

If y'all desire to encounter more than on this topic, cheque out the video about how Pylon Spawn Mechanics piece of work.

Using Pylons effectively

In the end it's non just near getting the correct RNG, but also about using it to your advantage. Pylons are precious and shouldn't be wasted, and so especially in the big maps, you lot want to set up for them. Make a pull around them, so you don't have to spend valuable fourth dimension during their effect doing then. A Conduit Pylon should be used primarily for finishing off elites, as it's easier to mow down the trash yourself (benefitting from all the Surface area Damage you have). Best example you tin can stack upwards 4 or more than packs effectually a Conduit, take them already a little bit damaged and the trash cleaned upward, and then activate the Pylon to finish them all. Likewise, y'all want to utilize a Power Pylon or Shield Pylon at your moment of greatest forcefulness, so information technology could be wise to discover all the trash monsters around and bring information technology close earlier using it. Certain builds can unleash devastating combos with a Power with proper preparation (e.chiliad. through Spirit Barrage with The Hairdresser or Fan of Knives with Lord Greenstone's Fan).

Check out this video explaining (with real pushing examples) how to maximize your Conduit Pylons!

Deciding when to leave a run

Fifty-fifty after yous accept found a really good Greater Rift, with a nice map, juicy enemies, groovy elites, you still might not be able to consummate it because something else is missing, exist it the Conduit Pylon in the right spot, be it the right Rift Guardian (every bit some builds require very specific RGs to have a chance), be it because of some gameplay mistakes yous made or some other factors that just didn't piece of work out in your favor. To not waste product your fourth dimension in an otherwise failed run, you demand to realize when information technology'due south time to cut the line and just "become side by side". Learn how much time y'all demand for the typical Rift Guardian and how much you demand for the best Rift Guardian for your build. Retrieve about how likely it is find the next Pylon that could still relieve your run. Or skip a bad floor and see if the next one is incredibly skilful. Fifty-fifty if you take invested 10 minutes into a run already and are shut to spawning the Rift Guardian, it might be already hopeless and yous should only go out and outset another one. You volition need many attempts to push to the highest Tier possible and every minute is valuable on your way to the one successful run.

In curt: Conclusion making is half of your run. If you lot don't play around what y'all are given and apply the odds in your favor to try to kill certain Aristocracy packs or spawn the correct Pylon in the right place, you will lose valuable good attempts that might accept been a successful clear.

Creating Density

I of the biggest factors when pushing is the number of enemies you have on your screen. The more enemies y'all hitting, the more than you can impale at one time, and usually the higher your DPS will be (due to the Area Damage scaling explained above). This means you have to engage as many enemies every bit possible, and since in many cases it volition accept quite long (up to multiple minutes) to kill them, you lot have to continue kiting them through the map as you continue adding more to the pull.

Every monster type has a slightly different behavior when it comes to following y'all, and so you need to develop some experience with it as yous endeavor to progress your mode through unlike rifts. Not every rift that doesn't come with a superlative tier map or mob type has to be automatically forfeit, in that location are many that yet work to go a bit of progress if you lot play around them well. This can exist especially useful to even so salve a run that had a swell start and and so got just bad follow-upward maps.

Generally, most enemies will slowly follow y'all after you walk close or striking them with an ability. DoT effects are especially useful to keep enemies engaged, as you are constantly dealing damage to them. Withal, some monster types are particularly unimpressed by your attacks until you lot walk upward to them, and even when hitting them repeatedly they volition just stand still and wait until you get closer (e.g. Grotesque). Similarly, in that location are other monster types that follow you lot effectually quickly, merely and then get to practise other things such as shouting at you (Fallen Master), barking at you lot (Fallen Cur), fly away through some walls (Enraged Phantom), burrow themselves (Burrowing Leaper) or diverse other things. Be aware of what each monster type does and go on an eye on their movement patterns until information technology becomes musculus memory for you. This is very of import not only for the adept monster types (every bit mentioned to a higher place) but for all of them, as y'all tin ever find them every bit an elite pack and and then accept to understand what to practise with them.

Where to create large pulls is a determination based on the surroundings, that map layout, how much you lot accept cleared already and how well the monsters follow you amongst other factors. In the good maps like a iv-corner Festering Woods, you can practise equally footling as 2 pulls to articulate the entire map and almost spawn the Rift Guardian similar that. In other maps, like a Keep Depths, you lot simply have no pick but to move through narrow corridors where well-nigh enemies won't fit until y'all find a somewhat open room to kite some enemies into. It always comes downwards to the situation you find where you arrive.

In short: High monster density is the #1 factor for fast progression and information technology is your chore to either get discover information technology or create it yourself, normally a combination of both.

Fighting the Rift Guardian

As the last piece of the puzzle, yous will accept to defeat the Rift Guardian in time. In Diablo 3, nigh all builds are traditionally very heavily AoE-focused, with very few tools to deal single target damage effectively (which is a trouble amplified past Area Harm, likewise). With the extra HP that a Rift Guardian gets (roughly x3.five that of a yellow aristocracy), information technology can take very long times, upwards to half of your total fifteen minutes on sure builds, to finally kill information technology (even with a Bane of the Stricken equipped.

Without diving too much into the mechanics of Bane of the Stricken at this bespeak, you should be aware of the post-obit:

the gem has an internal Cooldown scaling with Set on Speed (faster = more stacks)
stacks are applied to i target per attack (showtime target hit)
most typical builds will stack upward ~200-400% bonus impairment per infinitesimal
on add fights you need to make certain that you hit the Rift Guardian exclusively almost of the time during stacking
temporary harm buffs (such as Power Pylon, Wrath of the Berserker, State of the Dead) are more effective towards the end of the fight

Some builds have a actually hard time killing the RG, generally because the just reason they accomplish high Tiers at all is considering of insane AoE scaling mechanics (east.g. GoD DH, SB WD, Scythe Necro). This means that in such situations, add bosses such as Hamelin or Saxtris are often optimal, every bit you can get extra targets for Expanse Damage or other effects with Stricken stacks taking a secondary function. For other builds, information technology can be exactly reverse, and you want to get a single target boss in every case considering boosted adds cannot be killed in a timely manner and the actress Area Damage value can't brand up for the loss of stacks on the boss. So, when yous finally spawn your starting time Rift Guardians, fifty-fifty when y'all know y'all're not going to make it in time, it could be useful to try them out to larn how to outplay them and understand how much time you need for which.

In curt: Understand which Rift Guardians piece of work all-time for your build and learn how to fight them. No build has to die to any Rift Guardian if you outplay them.

Additional Pushing Tips

Brand sure you take all the easy upgrades you can get earlier attempting to push, peculiarly rolling the right stats to loftier values at the Mystic, augmenting your items with available Legendary Gems, or reforging them.
Don't overestimate yourself from the start just because other people clear higher Tiers. Try to figure out what you tin can practise with your character.
Don't give up during an unlucky streak of RNG. Good rifts tin can be difficult to detect or appear dorsum-to-back. Always remember the average number of rifts you need to fish for to reach your goal.
Leave rifts that yous know y'all will non have a take chances of completing every bit presently as you know information technology. It doesn't matter if y'all accept already invested 10 minutes into it, you tin spend that time more efficiently another time.

Video Guide

Greater Rift Guide by Raxxanterax

Make sure to check out some of these videos and posts for further informations:

Best Greater Rift Maps explained (video past wudijo)
Pylon Spawn Mechanics explained (video by wudijo)
How to maximize Conduit Pylons (video past wudijo)
Expanse Damage explained (post past sVr)

Summary

Pushing is an endeavor that comes at the end of your journeying to run into what you and your character are capable of. For most builds, the difference between a veteran and an inexperienced thespian is immense and if you desire to brand your way to the acme of the boards or simply keep growing as a player, there are many things to larn and consider.

Make sure yous understand your limits and prepare realistic goals.
Hunt for the right rifts.
Play the RNG in your favor.
Fight big pulls and ignore lone enemies when possible.
Decide what is worth killing and what'south a waste of fourth dimension.
Utilise Pylons wisely.
Don't give up when you get unlucky!

I hope you took some things from this guide that will help yous out on your own personal push. Be it just for a new personal best or to attain the top of the leaderboard, these are some of the core aspects to take to heart if you want to be successful in Diablo three.
Proficient luck!

Credits

Written by wudijo .
Reviewed by Raxxanterax .

mclarenrestake62.blogspot.com

Source: https://d3.maxroll.gg/resources/greater-rifts

How Do You Know Which Greater Rift You Can Do

Content of this article:

Introduction