I want to try Barbarian but I’ve been enjoying my Sorceress too much!
This is my first Diablo and first game with “seasons.” I’m currently playing a level 55 Barbarian. Can someone explain: What can I expect from season 1 and why would I switch to a new character to play it?
Everyone playing seasons has to start a new character. You also don’t have access to your old stash / gear.
Especially for those who play with friends it can be really fun to put everyone at the exact same point again and allow you all to play through again. Seasons are usually big updates that add new unique / legendary items, new gameplay mechanics, new quests, etc. You play the season, get whatever loot and whatnot you can, and (if you want to) try to rise up the seasonal leaderboards. Once the season is over, you can move your character over to a “non-seasonal” character and continue to play them whenever. At this point, Diablo also merges those changes, new loot, etc. into the general game for everyone to get.
So you can generally get all the seasonal stuff later on even if you don’t play the season, but you have a better chance of getting seasonal loot during the season.
That’s basically it.
Two main reasons:
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It’s about the leveling experience being different every season. MMO fans don’t typically understand that the fun in ARPGs (usually) comes from variety, whether that be different skill builds or different loot along the way making every playthrough a little different. Seasons also change mechanics and add new season-exclusive items to tweak the leveling experience.
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New season-only items, cosmetics, and battle pass. Everything other than the battle pass should usually be available on the Eternal realm after the season ends, but you get it sooner on the new Season realm.
A bit to explain what’s the point of seasons in arpgs: basically a season gets a few new changes/mechanics that are supposed to change the experience. Everyone starts fresh, and the seasons theme is what makes it different. It also affects the balance of the game, because it means all the new mechanics affect you from early game - instead of balancing mechanics around uber late game grinders.
With living games, you either do vertical progression, or horizontal progression, or you do seasons and wipe the board clean.
As a casual-ish player I like seasons because everyone is expected to run around sub-optimal setups and the game is balanced around that. Getting stronger is kinda the point. Then once I reach a certain point where my setup is “good enough” I can call it for the season. I’ve “completed” the season, and people who want to push further can keep going and keep perfecting their builds until the season is over.
I’m d3 I’ve played every 2/3 seasons, each time a DH build, and it was a fresh experience each time.
I’m really hoping Sorc gets some buffs to make it more fun to play, I just tried starting a third one (abandoned all 3 before WT3) with full renown bonuses and it still feels like wet tissue paper both offensively and defensively.
As they play now, probably Rogue (movement speed/skills feels so good while leveling) or Necro (just the best feeling overall despite terrible speed).
I actually ditched my rogue for a sorc as i kept running into trouble myself. Felt like i very badly needed some better drops.
It may be dependent on your build, Rogue was the character I beat the campaign with first and got to WT4 first, it was pretty painless.
Used melee Flurry/imbues with Close-quarters combat and combo points. I think it helps that most of the core skill aspects for Rogue (flurry, TB, Barrage) are available from the codex, so you don’t need to rely too much on drops.
I played a sorc to 60 and a barb to 40, but I don’t enjoy the grind for sacred/ancestral items so I quit until they add obtainable chase items.
I might play season one if friends join, and I’ll probably play a rogue.
Anyone else feels items are missing some “flavor” that prevents them from enjoying the grind? I miss the feel of dropping HRs or rare uniques in D2…
New class for me. I’m saving Druid for it.
In both D3 and PoE, I’ve always played one character per season. I don’t really do “alts”.
Knowing this, I’m planning to do the same in D4. I’ve only leveled Rogue to lvl 100 since launch, but haven’t even created other characters. I’ll just spend the first few seasons trying out the different classes. Probably going Sorc for S1, likely starting out with Lightning but time will tell if I stick to it or just try out multiple different builds.
I always played one character per season. There were a few times I rolled alts in a season and they were always a massive pain to gear up. It was never worth it.
Now, we don’t really know what the first season is going to be like. Rolling an alt might not be that big of a deal, who knows. But I have a hard time imagining it not being a waste of time.
