Pylons

Pylons are a sort of super-Shrine and can only be found in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts accessed via Adventure Mode in Reaper of Souls and the Ultimate Evil Edition. As with Shrines their chance of spawn is random and they can possess one of a few bonuses listed below.

Types of Pylons

All Pylons last 30 seconds in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts. Conduit Pylons are the exception, and they last just 15 seconds in Greater Rifts. (One of several Pylon changes in Patch 2.1.2.)

• Channeling Pylon - Resource costs are removed and cooldowns on skills are reduced by 75%.
• Conduit Pylon - Grants characters a massive lightning damage effect, sending out yellow zaps at every nearby monster and destructible. This enables most characters to run through screens, instantly killing almost everything in sight.
• Shield Pylon - A shield grants the player complete immunity to damage from all attacks and debuffs.
• Speed Pylon - Your movement speed is increased to the maximum. Patch 2.1.2 added the ability to run through and knockback enemies, and to instantly smash all destructibles and open doors.
• Power Pylon - Damage from all of your attacks is increased by 400%, causing you to deal five times as much damage.

Big Pylon, Big Effect

Pylon General Information

• All Pylons' effects last for 30 seconds on the player who clicked it and other players on the same level. This is reduced to 15 seconds for Conduit Pylons in Greater Rifts.
• The 30 second duration of the Pylon can be increased (doubled) by The Flavor of Time.
• The Barbarian bonus found on some items 'Life Per Fury Spent' will not apply to the player affected by a Channeling Pylon.
• Wearing Nemesis Bracers when clicking a Shrine or Pylon will cause an enemy champion to spawn. Players can put on the bracers just to trigger this effect, then take them off after the Elite is present.
• Pylons do not regenerate and each pylon or shrine can only be used once per game. Players sometimes bypass Pylons and save them until the Guardian is about to spawn, with one player remaining near the Pylon while others wait near the Guardian to kill it while the Pylon is still active.
• A pylon's effects persist if the player moves between levels, but pylon bonuses vanish when players leave the Rift.
• Pylons of different type can be active at the same time.
• Pylons of the same type do not stack, they simply reset the timer.

Post-Release Changes

Pylons and Shrines have been tweaked in effect and effectiveness several times since Reaper of Souls was released. The biggest change came in Patch 2.1.2 when the Speed and Shield Pylon were buffed, and the Conduit Pylon was reduced in duration in Greater Rifts. Patch 2.1.2 Notes[1]

Pylons

• Shield Pylon
  • Now reflects damage back to attackers
• Speed Pylon
  • Duration has been increased from 30 seconds to 1 minute
  • Now knocks enemies into the air and deals damage to them
  • Now breaks Waller for the full duration

Massive Conduit Pylon damage.

Further changes were made after the patch had been in testing on the PTR for a couple of weeks. A blue post from early December, 2014:[2]

As we stated previously at BlizzCon, we want to avoid removing Conduit Pylons entirely. Conduits feel awesome and exciting when you get them, and that’s something we want to preserve. Not every player is (or will want to be) a top tier competitor, and it’s important that we retain these exciting moments for everyone. However, we recognize that Conduit is currently too good and we’re planning to nerf it.

Specifically, we want to lower its effectiveness against single targets. We’re making some changes in the next PTR patch to accomplish this. While you’ll see little to no change (and potentially some improvement) against multiple targets, it will be significantly less useful in single target scenarios. In addition, the damage dealt will scale off your weapon damage instead of the Greater Rift level. This means it will feel strongest at lower tier Greater Rifts, about the same at Greater Rifts that match your level of gear, and less effective at higher Greater Rifts. Overall, it should still feel cool and powerful to use, but not an ultimate game breaker or something you should hedge your entire build around.

Our intent is that we want there to (a) be a variety of pylons you can encounter and (b) no individual pylon should determine your success or failure. We know that’s not where we’re at right now, but that is the ultimate goal.

As an unrelated (but nifty) addendum, because sharing is caring: The Speed Pylon will also be changed slightly to automatically destroy breakable objects and doors while you retain the buff. It felt a little weird to run full stop into a door with this buff up, so now you’ll just be able to rush right through barricades and the like. Personally, I’m excited to attempt breaking the sound barrier with Warzechian Armguards and Steed Charge on my Crusader with this. Maybe I can break 88 miles per hour!

Both these changes will be in the next PTR patch, and I highly encourage you to give them both a try once they go live.

Achievements

Pylons feature in the following achievements:

Name	Points	Description	Banner

<achievement type="single">Blessed Art Thou</achievement>