Just a post with some quick reminders of new patch things I’ve seen a lot of questions and confusion about.
Click through for explanations and additional details.
Nephalem Rifts
[wiki]Nephalem Rifts[/wiki]: Since you don’t need keys to create them, there’s no need to full clear these anymore. For the best rewards over time, clear to the Guardian, get the drop and shards, and make a new Rift. (It may be worth it to finish up the level you’re on when the Guardian spawns if it’s a great density/Elite area, like Act 5 cemetery…)
Greater Rifts
Also, since you can no longer upgrade LGems when you finish a Grift in more than 15m if you’re pushing to your limit and get off to a bad start so there’s no way you’ll beat it in time, you might as well exit and create a new game. There’s no point in grinding the rest of the Grift when you won’t get an LGem upgrade… though you will still get the items from the Guardian and big EXP from Orek back in town. (This was a real pain on the PTR with the 6 hour queues to create a new game. Not so bad in Live, now.)
Kanai’s Cube Quirks
[wiki]Kanai’s Cube[/wiki]: The cube powers are great, but as some players noticed near the end of the PTR… there’s no way to turn them off. Once you enable an item power via the Cube, you can never get rid of it. You can only switch to a different power in that slot. But if it’s early season and you’ve only got one item in that slot, you’re stuck with that power until you get another one. This has led to some complaints from players who try out something like Hexing Pants or [wiki]Death’s Bargain[/wiki], and then want to turn off that power, but can not, Sorcerer’s Apprentice style.
Also, it’s often asked and yes, cube powers work across your whole account (except outside/inside of season and between HC/SC, of course), so long as the items or buffs aren’t class-specific. Item buffs to things like specific skills only work for that one class, and item types that can only be equipped by one class only work for them via the Cube. Only Wizards can use bonuses from Sources and Wands and Wizard Hats, only Demon Hunters can get bonuses from Cloaks, quivers, and hand-xbows, etc.
Note that there are some quirks. Many classes can’t equip any type of ranged weapons, so don’t get any of those bonuses from the Cube. Conversely, DHs are the only class that can not equip two-handed melee weapons, so they are the one class that can’t utilize The Furnace or other such weapons via the Cube.
Sage’s Journey item set
Sage’s Journey: This forgotten three-piece crafted set is worth rediscovering. It offers some attribute bonuses with 2 pieces, but it’s the three-piece option that’s suddenly relevant, since an additional Death’s Breath will spawn every time you find one. Players in S4 have discovered the dire DBs shortage we PTR testers were warning about for months, and this set is the only way to use items to get lots more of them.
The hard part is equipping it, since Sage’s three item slots are helm, gloves, and boots, which overlaps completely with most of the powerful six-piece sets. A RoRG cuts the Sage items down to 2 and your 6p to 5, but that still makes most six-piece sets unusable with Sage’s. Some of the seven piece sets are valid options: Barbs can wear the Immortal King weapon, chest, belt, and pants, plus one of the helm/gloves/boots, with the other 2 from Sage’s. Wizard’s can wear Tal Rasha’s amulet, belt, chest, pants, and source + 1 of gloves/helm and then 2 pieces from Sage’s… but it’s a tough choice for most classes.
Then again, you probably don’t absolutely *need* your ideal six-piece set bonus to handle T7. Especially not in a party, and speed clearing T7 with almost every Elite dropping 2 DBs would let you accumulate that material a lot more quickly than you would on T10 in your best gear but no Sage’s. (T10 double DB drops seem to be about 25% in v2.3.)
Any other tidbits or hidden tricks you guys have noticed that should be shared more widely? I’ll update the list with anything useful.