http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/12413271220#2
Lylirra wrote:
Great question! (I was actually looking for a good thread in which to drop this information.)
So, the 25% bonus to Legendary drops in Nephalem Rifts is multiplicative and will actually stack with the scaling Legendary drop rate bonus in Torment 1-6.
This means if you’re playing through a Rift in Normal-Master, you’ll have a 25% bonus to Legendary drops. If you’re playing through a Rift in Torment 1, you’ll have a 43% bonus to Legendary drops (1.15 * 1.25 = 1.43). If you’re playing through a Rift in Torment 2, you’ll have a 65% bonus to Legendary drops (1.32* 1.25 = 1.65). And so on.
Hope that helps clear some things up a bit. (Also, I really hope my math checks out. >.>)Note that we’re going to continue to keep an eye on Rifts and how rewarding they are (or, more importantly, how rewarding they feel). We’ve already seen some great feedback from players on that topic that we’re taking a look at now. This buff is just a small change we could make quickly, and we’re definitely looking forward to your feedback over the next few days.
People need to remember that it’s a drop rate chance, and that chance depends on what you are killing, and how many. It’s not a simple matter of applying the above bonuses just from playing a rift in a particular difficulty. Stuff like what you kill, and how much, are all part of the formula.
This is why some folks will only hone in on elites (skipping everything else), and do it on a difficulty where they can one shot them since they normally have the highest chance at dropping good loot. Others will kill everything (again, one shotting everything), but ignore objects (destructibles and containers). Others will do entire full clears as fast as possible. While hack and slash games like this aren’t usually about APM (actions per minute), similar rules do apply when it comes to most of the formulas/algorithms which determine drop rate chances.
Thus some folks are trying to extrapolate the above two data points, and trying to figure out the bonuses for all Torment difficulties. While that might be helpful, it still will be relevant to each individual character when it comes to efficiency. As someone who doesn’t really give a squat about playing games of this particular genre like a human bot (optimizing every single second of game play), my main focus is what my character is capable of. Due to Torment specific drops, that objective is clearly Torment I as a base, and getting to that point where most everything is one shot/taken down in no more than 3 hits.
Given the scaling of monster health for Torment II-VI though, the increased bonus drop chance can never scale within a reasonable amount. Thus the only time it makes sense to clear Rifts on higher Torment difficulties, is for those who have managed to outgear those higher difficulties where it feels like Normal difficulty.
