Yesterday (or today, as I like to put it, since I haven’t slept yet) I had a rather long and boring day at work. Nothing much to say on that front, it was the normal crap with a bit of back pain and a headache thrown in for good measure. I finished up the shift, got home, checked WoW missions briefly, then finally managed to dive into what I’ve been waiting on for quite a while… Season 4 in Diablo 3.
Seasons are Diablo 3’s ladder system. Each one has a limited time, usually a little over 3-4 months, sometimes more, sometimes less. There’s random dungeons called Rifts that just throw a bunch of mobs onto a randomly created map, and Greater Rifts which do the same thing, but get progressively harder and don’t drop any loot until the end. The ranking part of the season is based around how high of a greater rift you can complete in the time window before the rift closes.
The best part about seasons, in my opinion, is that you get a fresh start. At the end of each season, your seasonal characters become the non-seasonal versions of what they were, and all the loot and stash items go along with them. So, my paragon 239 Hardcore Seasonal Witch Doctor joined my other normal Hardcore characters, and is sharing their bank and gold. Regardless of that, when a new Seasonal character is started for the first time, it gets its own sub-server thing. For example, when I rolled a Hardcore Season Monk earlier tonight and got it killed at level 6, the next hardcore season character I rolled had access to the bank and the gold from the first monk… all 1100 or so gold. But not the 100 million+ gold from my main hardcore account.
Huzzah for whatever attempts to explain all of that stuff. I’ve been craving a new Seasonal experience for a good month or two, now. Hardcore with no safety net and no stockpile of crafting materials to get my characters tweaked out before they leave base for the first time? Oh good gods, do I love it. Sure, I got my monk killed twice before level 10, and had to start over. But now TooFuriosa (was just Furiosa twice, but then I remembered my personal rule about changing the name when they die) is riding nice and cozy at 42, with several legendaries and more than able to farm whatever comes her way.
I’ve already got my build guide lined out, and practicing with the playstyle as I level into the other abilities. It’s the first time I’ve actually played a monk, and not just had it powerleveled and checked out some gimp guide to go along with the random pieces of gear I had in storage. Nope, now I get to deal with all the close calls, and get the muscle memory of twitching a certain way to just barely avoid something that’ll flatten me.
Another interesting part of the new season is the “Chapters” system. It gives you a bit of a guide to follow along, making sure that you deal with different things at the appropriate time. For example, doing a Rift and hitting level 35 are parts of the first Chapter, whereas making sure your follower is fully equipped, leveling the different crafters to 10, and hitting 60 are part of the second Chapter. The fourth Chapter reward is where you get the rest of the seasonal cosmetic items, so it’s got incentive to have players follow through and not just get farmed or carried.
All of that said… any time I can sit down at my computer at 9:30pm, blink, and realize it’s past 2am because of how fully immersed I am in the game? Yeah, that’s a good thing. A bit dangerous, but always enjoyable. And now for sleep before I continue to blitz through and try to start farming for the pieces I need.
-Bane Falcon
“Rest your shields, lean on stones, listen and always remember, long are the arms and legs of men, yet still longer, the Dwarven members!” (a battlefield limerick meant to relieve stressed-out dwarves, usually exclaimed by leaders and commanders whenever the outlook is otherwise grim)
The Driveling Dwarf 