Ok, long post incoming...
Here is a
full recap (with images) on DiablofansSeasons...I never intended to play them...but turns out, I really enjoy them. I don't push to compete on the leaderboards and I don't think most people should even consider that as a reason to play Seasons. You will not compete unless you sink a large amount of time into playing specific ways, min/maxing gear for those tasks (ie: farming Xp for Paragon levels). I could have 600 Paragon and almost identical gear to someone that has 1300 Paragon. The difference is massive. To get that much Paragon is time consuming, or you have to use a bot and risk getting banned. I already feel like I spend way too many hours playing D3...I'm not going to spend even more time.
5 major problems exist that prevents me from enjoying the game once I hit the Greater Rift "wall".
- Paragon level (see above paragraph) I also think they should cap Season Paragon at 800, but it still accumulates to be added to non-season. This would greatly increase the competition by way of skill on the leaderboards, rather than Paragon level.
- Lag in high end Greater Rifts (especially in groups)
- Cave type tile sets have poor density and are the norm, at least in this season, the open map tile sets for Greater Rifts seem extremely rare.
- To really push high end greater rifts, you are fishing for particular combinations of tile set and monster type combo's.
- Grinding out legendary gem levels on high rank Greater Rifts for a low percentage chance to upgrade them.
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Snapshots. This makes 6, almost forgot. The stupid "snapshot" damage system that was introduced and works better for some classes than others and of course there is no way for casuals to know about it unless they watch the pros vids.
Around rank 40 in Season 2 & 3 was my wall, where it stopped being fun and became a chore. This season, it's around rank 58-60.
I got my Barbarian to 58 and then had to change some gear and build (to IK-Wastes/Rend build, from Wastes WW build) in order to complete a rank 60. It wasn't a build or playstyle I enjoyed, so I immediately switched back and basically was done with pushing Greater Rifts. I also poked away at an Uliana's Monk with a no-crit chance version of the build.
I completed the Season Journey, and there are very few Season Journey steps that can't be completed solo. Some are just made easier in groups.
The last thing I needed for Season Journey was a lvl 70 HC toon. I hate leveling 1 to 70, even in Standard, I generally get a boost...so I did the same from a random HC guy from one of the communities in the game. I ended up playing HC Demon Hunter for awhile.
My profile is here with the near perfect rolls for an Ancient Yang's Recurve Bow. One thing to keep in mind, all my seasonal toons progress was all completed within a month (roughly) of season start.
As for playing Season vs Non-Season...the main reason is being removed with the new gear not being season specific next Season. If they do change the Stash tabs, then that leaves only the cosmetic items as incentive to play Seasons. Turns out, because it's so easy to get geared up now, I kinda like starting over. I can be 70, with a full set of gear in 15hrs or depending on luck. It's mostly become a preference now, I'd rather spend 50 hrs playing a new toon (and getting the cosmetic bonuses, than spending 50 hours to get 1 small upgrade on my non-season toon.
OK, NEW STUFF!
I want those Wings
I hope the Set Dungeon Challenges are not Season specific (I think a lot of people will be pissed if they are). This will get me to play some classes that I haven't yet. Looking forward to trying out the Melee Demon Hunter and some of the other revamped sets. 3 new zones (hopefully not lagfests like Cesspools tileset was when it was first added). Lots of nice Quality of Life changes coming, too many too list, but graphic for Death's breaths and change to Buff icons, being among the top.
Not sure Bounties are going to be any less boring to play. I do the bare minimum to have materials to add gear to the Cube. Other than that I avoid them. The bounty bag bonus even this season really helped with that. Grind out Bounties for 3 days and tons of materials to hold me over for awhile.
So basically I play like a madman for the first month of a season, then take a break and play other stuff and pick away at D3 off and on.
During this break I finally played Path of Exile long enough to get beyond the extremely painful and clunky first 20 levels. They really need to redo the art in the starting area so it doesn't look 15 years old.
I have a long way to go, but finished the game on Normal with a Tornado shot Ranger, despite following a guide, was extremely weak against bosses, but could tear through trash no problem. Slowly picking away at an Arc Witch and think I'm just in act 3 on Normal. So I've got a long way to go before seeing the real meat of the game, but I've already gotten bored of it. Lvl 40 ranger having troubles with bosses and the rinse-repeat non-sense (like D2) design of it when I have no problem killing anything else. The game is slow and clunky, but gets better once you get more movement speed. The biggest issue I think I have is the skills are not responsive at all. I may have to press a skill button 3 (or hold it down for a couple seconds) before it activates...which by then it could very well be too late. Changing from moving to attacking or vice versa, etc, there is always a lag time and it's annoying as fuck. This is an issue in several boss fights, where you are in a small arena and basically there is just massive damage spam all over the arena. I already don't do a lot of damage to bosses, and I can't move quickly to respond to immediate threats...it just adds up to frustration and a lot of 1 shot deaths.
Enjoying the Witch a bit more, but it really sucks when you find a skill you really like, but the only way you can change to that build is by restarting a new character or buying a large amount of passive refund points. I'll be picking away at Path of Exile, but I find the control response and lack of freedom to change builds easily a big problem when it comes to using my time.
Edit: Added video link to explain Snapshots
This comment was edited on Nov 7, 2015, 23:07.