Lylirra replied to a fan question about Nephalem Trials, which were not seen or spoken of at Blizzcon, to say they’ve been put on hold for now.
The gameplay felt great and was in a good place at gamescom 2013 where we announced them – which is actually why a lot of the individual Trials have been added on their own as standalone events into Reaper of Souls – but the mechanism that made the overall system feel meaningful over a long period of time wasn’t and would take some pretty significant tech and time to implement (in this case, at the expense of other features as well).
Rather than delay the release of the expansion to make sure Nephalem Trials could make it in with all the necessary components, we made the decision to cut them for now and re-focus our efforts on making sure other key systems like 
Adventure Mode, Bounties, Nephalem Rifts, and Clans & Communities (just to name a few) are solid. It’s not an ideal scenario, but these are the kinds of hard calls we sometimes have to make in a world where we can’t stack +Maximum Resource. >.>
Check the Nephalem Trials DiabloWiki.net article for past blue quotes and datamining about what these NTs were going to be. Basically they were going to be rifts you found randomly through the world that would let you pass into a new level with some intense action — the Jar of Souls was the usual event cited for reference, with ever-increasing numbers of enemies. Presumably ones a lot more dangerous and numerous than the weak skeletons that the JoS throws at you.
I liked the idea and how they come back at some point, but honestly, there’s so much to do in Adventure Mode and with a whole new act and class that I don’t think we’ll miss them terribly at RoS’ launch. And when/if they come in a patch a few months later, it’ll be like a new thing! *acceptance*
Nephalem Trials: The new PvP.
Just like Pv… Damnit!
It is just sad that I had the exact same thought as you two did.
Just delay the damn expansion instead. What happened with “it’s ready when it’s ready” instead of this bullshit with “it would’ve delayed the expansion”
LOL… yep, that was my initial reaction… same BS the fed us about PvP
ROFL so expected, here’s something cool, but no we’re not ready. What we really mean is we ran out of ideas for a patch and are with holding this for the first patch that will come after RoS as it already has to many bugs in it that we know it will need a patch.so we are off setting that with this when it happens! k thanks bye
exactly
I’m so disappointed. Just awful, D3 devs. Just awful. I’m not saying I won’t buy RoS or anything, but exceeding expectations would’ve been nice.
They have started the trimming process for RoS. It will come in the second expansion instead.
Don’t worry guys, it’ll be out soon after, just like PvP.
Amusingly the same type of reasons they gave to put it on the shelf were the exact same for putting pvp on the shelf back in december. Though I don’t think they will make the same mistake again that they did with pvp, ultimately they just might merge nephalem trials into what pvp will become.
In fact, I’d say that’s a good bet on what will ultimately happen.
From the language they used with pvp at blizzcon pretty much shored in the theory that they are leaning towards making scrapping player versus player and shoring it up with player vs monster/ vs player. And it is likely they will use Neph trials as a gateway for that.
Why announce it when you’re going to take it away from us half a week later?
Actually, this is how Blizzard usually explains why they don’t tell us anything. Personally, I’d rather have them tell us what they’re working on, even if it not gets released. Better to know how they’re thinking about the game, providing early feedback and all that.
Strangely Nephalem Rifts COULD be the new PvPvE… instead of just opening to a room full of monsters you are transported to a room full of monsters AND another PvP character… thus if you are a group of four you will be in a room full of monsters and 4 other server-wide players.
Each time you find a nephalem rift it is actually a connection to the PvPvE system. You instantly activate a semi MOBA system where overall kills are tallied and you can earn extra kill count when killing the opponent. you can re spawn a maximum of five times and the winner is then selected.
To keep it fair all weapons are dropped inside the rift, and you are equipped with a standard set of class specific weapons – they in turn get upgraded with every X amount of kills.
That’s my 10c on the matter.
Jaxxtraxx… you are a bright little spark my friend
agree wholeheartedly to everything you said, except the last part – to keep it fair?
in my best Leonidas voice: THAIS. AIS. DIEEERRRRBLEEEEERRR!!
Do you mean Trials, not Rifts?
Elly, indeed – got confuckulated by the Neph Trail/rift naming … so indeed TRIALS….
I think they could do with trying to find another word instead of Nephalem – I think Flux suggested the other night Phase Rifts. Too many Nephalems.
Deja vu?
Such a shame.
oh dear, so nephalem rifts are NOT the nephalem trials, only renamed?
that’s actually good news, it means more content will arrive. I don’t care THAT much about pvp but any new content, even delayed, is a good thing.
I feel for the pvp crowd though, I really do.
No, Nephalem Rifts are Loot Runs renamed.
They really need to find a new generic naming device.
So 4 days after BlizzCon they confirmed they are unable to put this hyped system in …
Of course they knew it at BlizzCon …
So tell me this development team is not in full drift mode with no direction whatsoever…
The direction being …. HOW in the world can we replace the AH’s to allow players limited trading to …. sell stuff ?
If they don’t find a DECENT solution to the above question it simply is game over for D3.
Perhaps it is better to cancel it all and start from scratch really.
D3 has been raped too many times to feel fresh again.
No promised PvP, no decent solution to trading and now one of the key features of random challenges and hyped through the roof not delivered.
Still convinced? Please get a grip.
I think you’re confusing NTs with NRs. NRs are much hyped and still in the game and they were fantastic at blizzcon. NTs are small bonus events that they’ve only talked about in brief and in theory.
I had forgotten about Nephalem Trials. After reading the headline I thought they were going to take away the Nephalem Rifts. That’s what you get when everything has to have a name starting with Nephalem.
Yeah, better if it all ends with 2.0
does anyone care anymore? this game, or what is left of it, is falling apart by the minute
You care, obviously.
I hate this, BUT guys, let’s be fair, WE datamined their internal testing, they never announced this feature, or even mentioned, Different than PVP.
If i had to choose between having D3X 1 – 2 months earlier OR this small feature, for SURE i would pick D3X…At same time, i would rather wait 1-2 months to get PVP =p…
Let’s just hope, after launch, most of these great ideas and features are patched in sooner or later…
Wrong, they announce the n. trials on gamescom
Yeah, but the reason the PvP thing was such a kick in the groin was the actual demos w/ PvP that most people agreed was the most fun part. They never had the Mystic in demos before cutting her. They never had trials in demos, and nobody wrote a bunch of articles about how trials were the most fun thing they played during the convention.
That said, it still sucks.
LOL
YEah they will be delayed like PvP Team Arenas… . Still not in game.
So we are already at a point of feature cutting? Not cool.
Where are our promised PvP Team Arenas for fuck’s sake
And so it begins. Need to readjust my hopes for the expansion rapidly. You had me Blizzard, but now you’re losing me again.
Sounds like the targeted release isn’t that far off.
Everything they add now should have been in the normal diablo3 anyway. I fucking h8 myself for actually considering to buy this game because there is no real alternative in this genre….
QUOTE
We didn’t get any info on Nephalem Trials. So technically we’re not losing any hopes for anything 😉
Unless I’m totally missing something, Rifts and Trial sound pretty damn similar, no? Small crazy levels with some big rewards at the end? Sounds like Trials is kind of just a pre-designed Rift instead of a totally random one. Eh.
One big difference is that rifts are just farm city but trials were supposed to have a challenge/reward component where you were compensated based on how well you did. To me that’s a way more interesting design space than just perpetually random farming.
I am cool with this, if it means we are getting the expansion earlier.
Didnt they say this was coming in the free patch before the expansion FREE?!?
How long ago was that, 2 months?
Now it’s not even coming on xp release… -.-‘
lulz..blizz behind schedule? shocker! i never would have guessed give how smoothly things went with d3c.