Diablo 3 - New Season Now Live

Battle.net announces the first season is now live for Diablo III, and it offers the chance to compete for the best times to level up a newly made character.

Season Now Live


Diablo III Season 1 is now live in all gameplay regions! To create a Seasonal hero, select your class, gender, and name as usual, then select the "Seasonal Hero" checkbox on the lower left of the screen.

What Are Seasons?

Seasons are an optional, recurring game mode that offers PC players the opportunity to periodically start fresh, leveling new Normal or Hardcore heroes from level 1 without any currency, resources, items, or previously earned Paragon experience. Similar to the separation between Normal and Hardcore game modes, Seasonal heroes will also have their own shared stash and Artisan progression. Any currency, materials, recipes, items, Paragon experience, and Artisan progression earned during a Season will be rolled over to a player's non-Seasonal profile once the Season concludes.

Seasons offer unique rewards and new challenges for players, including new Legendaries, an exclusive Transmogrification set only available to those who compete in each Season, and new achievements called Conquests. Progress within a given Season will also be tracked in our new Leaderboard system.

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More information.

I actually really like where this game is at now. Tinkering around with builds and different items (and there are many build-defining items now) is quite enjoyable, and there is a point to it now that greater rifts with leaderboards have been introduced.

As far as Diablolikes go, this is as good as it gets, IMO.

Seasons are a weak way to introduce replayability and to extend the lifetime of this game.

They should have made the game replayable by making character development strategic and by limiting how you could respec. But I guess that kind of thing is too old-fashioned for most people these days.

Also, the way they've destroyed the biggest part of the social experience by all but eliminating trading is highly unfortunate.

Funny thing is that I was fully motivated to hunt for loot when I knew I could earn real money on the side - as it was a fun way to get a little cash. Now, I don't really see the point as there's really no incentive to optimise your build. Optimising builds to compete in seasons so I can get more gear to optimise builds is like an endless sea of pointlessness.

With all that negative stuff out of the way, it's still - BY FAR - the best ARPG when it comes to pure visceral combat and moment-to-moment gameplay. The sound design alone should win the highest award imaginable - it's just that good.

I don't get seasons at all. How is starting from scratch every now and then a feature?

Maylander said:

I don't get seasons at all. How is starting from scratch every now and then a feature?

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It has to do with competition. For whatever reason, people enjoy the challenge of doing things quicker or better than others.

I can appreciate that, but unless there's some tangible reward - I simply don't get the appeal.

But I'm not really a competitive person anymore. I used to be, but even then - I'd have needed more of a point.

Temporarily exclusive Legendaries in a game where Legendary items are a dime a dozen doesn't quite cut it.

I've started playing since the new season. I like the changes. Nothing too drastic. I just like the economy reset. It just proves the game is still addicting as hell. And yeah, I would have enjoyed it more if there was some permanence to the skill choice. But this way, it allows for more experimentation between different builds. And people are coming up with all sorts of builds. I'm enthusiastic for their next expansion set.

It allows for quicker experimentation, which makes for a game that's much shorter if your primary enjoyment is coming up with unique builds - because the feedback is instant and you don't really get the enjoyment of developing a new strategy as you play.

That's because for any build to be effective, your gear must support it - and that's one primary flaw in how Diablo 3 is structured.

You see, you can't make significant changes in your build and get a clear and immediate picture, because you won't have the loot to support it - and you're not inclined to play for dozens of hours to guage it correctly.

This makes builds feel almost incidental and random - and I'm pretty sure almost all combinations can be effective enough that you really don't want to experiment all that much. That makes the whole thing dull and arbitrary.

No, I don't think their approach is good at all. It's nice on paper until you apply it to how psychology works and what you need to develop a truly satisfying strategy.

Beyond that, the loot is still mostly uninspired when it comes to non-set and non-legendaries. It's the core mechanics that have been too streamlined - and one of the biggest problems is how all weapons feel the same, because they're essentially just number variations. They don't feel or even look different - as the skill itself is what you're seeing on screen in most cases.

That's a huge problem in the core design.

But I could go on, really.

I agree it's much too streamlined. And they took out stats allocation.
But the items have gotten a lot better since Loot 2.0. And here's hoping it will only get better.

danutz_plusplus said:

I agree it's much too streamlined. And they took out stats allocation.
But the items have gotten a lot better since Loot 2.0. And here's hoping it will only get better.

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Definitely, the game has improved a lot since release. But it's still very, very far from a great Diablo sequel.

To me, that is.

But there are certain problems with the design that can't realistically change now - and the removal of the RMAH means it will never be what I originally hoped it would be.

So, no matter how many improvements they come up with, it's very hard to imagine a "fixed" version.

DArtagnan said:

Definitely, the game has improved a lot since release. But it's still very, very far from a great Diablo sequel.

To me, that is.

But there are certain problems with the design that can't realistically change now - and the removal of the RMAH means it will never be what I originally hoped it would be.

So, no matter how many improvements they come up with, it's very hard to imagine a "fixed" version.

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True. You either accept it took a very different turn from what it was, and enjoy what it does do right, or just blow it off completely. For me, it's the game I turn to when I wanna have some light fun, and I want to turn my brain off. I mute the game music/audio, and listen to some good music while being brain dead.

And even as it is, the item hunt is still surprisingly good for me. I love the enchanting. And the hunt for item skins.

danutz_plusplus said:

True. You either accept it took a very different turn from what it was, and enjoy what it does do right, or just blow it off completely. For me, it's the game I turn to when I wanna have some light fun, and I want to turn my brain off. I mute the game music/audio, and listen to some good music while being brain dead.

And even as it is, the item hunt is still surprisingly good for me. I love the enchanting. And the hunt for item skins.

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Frankly, I'm still trying to decide if it's really worth my time. I can't deny I'm having fun when I turn off the "long-term" criticism part of the brain - and quite a bit of fun at that.

The new Great Rift system is pretty nice because of the vastly improved drops - but it also serves to make the rest of the game somewhat less appealing.

Also, they do have the ability to surprise me - and it's not like I can predict every future change.

I most certainly never thought I'd see them remove the Auction House entirely. That was a big surprise - it was just not the good kind

I bought the expansion over the weekend after having completed the original campaign with a Demon Hunter back in 2012. Because I wanted to start a Crusader, chose to make him seasonal. With the opportunity for new achievements & items I thought it would be fun to try the new seasonal mode. I have no idea if I'll even get to Act V before the season is over, but I'm having fun with it so far. The game has improved quite a bit since the original release-- especially with the removal of the auction houses.

Unfortunately Wasteland 2's upcoming release will probably stymie my D3 progression.

Alright, I admit, I cheesed the Miner's Will bounty in Act 2 on Torment VI and leveled up to 70 in 2 hours on Saturday. This was only after leveling to 30 the legit way on Friday night.

So, in less than a day I accomplished my season goal: hit 70 and get my silly transmog pieces. Now, as others have said, the season is basically no different from regular play. Anyway, what I find weird is Blizzard knew about the Miner's Will trick but doesn't want to change it. So I guess they too know leveling up is super-boring!

Yup, its broken. I do not believe they intended you to go to 70 thru an exploit and with and without killing anything
They will fix it

redman5427 said:

Yup, its broken. I do not believe they intended you to go to 70 thru an exploit and with and without killing anything
They will fix it

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Perhaps they will now that the damage is done. This seems to be how it goes. Many, many players report an issue over and over and warn how it will mess stuff up. Blizzard ignores the reports, but then finally once things get messed up they fix it.

What is really strange is how easy this fix would be: make all the quest require killing stuff. Trivial. Ah, Blizzard, nobody understands your logic or timing.

Ugh, what a terribly boring way to level. Even though it's fast, and allows you to grind for level 70 items sooner, is this fun? Not for me.

I'm playing my first crusader as a season character. Restarting with nothing in my stash, unlevelled crafters, and no legendary recipes. Actually using lower level crafting to keep up'ing the difficulty setting has been fun. I'm about level 64, midway through act IVb on Torment I difficulty, and it's a fun challenge. With NO grinding, BTW.

The speed-running/leveling challenges and conquests that encourage grinding are not my thing...