I was in the camp of people saying to pause development on seasonal mechanics and fix the base game instead. Seems like that's pretty much what they did, so I'm pleased with it
But do expect an outrage nonetheless because like many communities its just a toxic mess of entitled people. I wasn't surprised, I did suspect a bit more to the "seasonal theme" but honestly I didn't have much I could fathom with the iron wolves and what to do that tied to the player or another companion or something.
@@ak_getright9905 PTR had real potential. Some Overpowered mechanics to be dialed down and a few other issues to be fixed but overall excellent changes to the game.
They should've been transparent about what they were doing. Because after they released ptr and info about the loot changes they were still saying shit like "season theme will be announced in the next coming weeks" like...mother fuckers you already showed us everything and could've just been honest.
@therotten6152 not sure what here constitutes as less than bare minimum but sure mate let's go with that, let's continue the delusional scenario you decided to envision. I was only pointing out if you had any reading comprehension that people will complain anyways, and if my reading comprehension failed on the first section of your comment well it failed, just means I need better reading comprehension.
i know the lack of a meaty seasonal theme will likely garnish backlash, but i think it's a good idea to use this season to establish a baseline of power before getting back to seasonal powers in subsequent seasons, given that so many interconnected systems were just overhauled.
@@hiddenxalpha7053 first off you probably didn't it was some players ontop of that there were still changes afterwards and more that we will get in a few days, as such all of that needs further testing.
I think people are missing one thing about this season's theme in that the Iron Wolves narrative beats will continue into the game's future lore. This, I think, is what they should establish for seasonal themes going forwards. Each season, play out a story, then either tie it into the next season's story, or revisit the story in future seasons with new narrative beats but the same mechanic.
Why not still have the season theme still iron wolves though? If its just the mercenary system I guess add that but I suspect its almost identical to the construct which would raise even more backlash so they want to add the mercenary and other stuff to the following season.
Avoiding a huge mechanic is actually smart - as it then won't overshadow the base changes and let you actually fully evaluate and balance the new content without being diluted.
Obviously the lack of a season theme will upset some people, as their proposed Loot Reborn system should have been a part of the base game since launch.
true, if GGG can rebalance the whole game, add a bunch of permanent systems AND add a season all within 3-4 months, then there is no excuse Blizzard can't.
The game at Launch was designed to Sell$$. Specifically to Call of Duty/Madden/Spider Man Gamers. And working Dad’s who like KFC and Megan Fox. I don’t think Tempering and Master working belonged at all. Season 4 is the Perfect time. The game at Launch was designed to have a Good Campaign, Simple Upgrading, working Servers, fun game play. This is something Old school Diablo 2 people and No life PoE players failed to grasp. D4 is for a much WIDER audience/console players. It was NOT designed for Basement dwelling, Unemployed incels. Who play on PC 18 hours a day. The Lack of End game and simple “crafting” was done on purpose. The casuals need to be able to Dip their toe in the water. Not Dive head first into the deep end.
ARPG's with actual trading don't really need themes because the season reset is an economical reset and gives everyone the same opportunities to get rich from trading/finding loot. I'd much rather see meaningful changes that improve the game than gimmicky bologna that rotates out.
That and there's no just no excuse. PoE once a year easily re works MAJOR systems and they still release a new league mechanic and a balance pass along side it no problem.
@@FartSmucker Id rather have the items reworked than a gimmicky temporary seasonal themes. I hate them they are pointless if they are not permanently added
Honestly this is always what made sense to me for this season if we had this huge additional power item that was giving us a bunch of cool things I think that would take away from what this rebalance is and how it works. I think this is exactly what I expected and I think the iron wolves faction and the potion will probably also go “core” after the new season they are just limited to the season so they can feel free to tweak the rewards and mechanics when they decide to include it going forward You know just like POE did for years First time I am honestly excited for a d4 season loooing forward to the 14th
It's actually rad they decided to put ALL their effort into just rebuilding the itemization and were like "eh we don't need a theme, have fun with the new endgame"
In my opinion it's a bit disappointing, I see the item rework as a patch/fix, not really a season theme, it's no different than playing the release game again, if they really had no time to make a season, they could just release the item rework, and tell people that they will set season 4 a month or 2 back, so they have time to develop it, calling this a season when there is no season mechanic is just an excuse because they didn't put the work on it.
@@countryc0unt Well, it would be supposed that they had something already started, or at least planned, so it would cut the time they need, they normally do it in 3 months, 1-2 months should be enough to make one, even if more simple than what they would normally do, the fact is that they made a season that is not a season, it's just a patch, this is no different than playing the first release.
Not really, because the game shouldn't have launched with such crap itemization to begin with. They should have taken feedback in Beta and PTRs ahead of launch and listened to the community or even looked at their own previous games. Now we have a season + battle pass of "Hey here's D4 v1.0 out of alpha and into beta! Enjoy!"
nah, new season starts. i delete my chars that are in the Eternal realm. except my barb that i got 100 with on HC and made it onto the Statue of Lilith. thats one ill keep forever.
@@dnice374 Well that's your decision. I make new toons with new builds and the changes the season brings keeps it fresh! Once the season ends, I find little enjoyment in persisting with my level 100 fully geared hero for everything in the game now provides very little challenge.
I'm an exceedingly harsh critic of D4. Honestly, I think this team is entirely clueless, however, I couldn't care any less about the lack of a true theme outside of itemization. For the love of god, I'd much rather have meaningful changes that improve the game as a whole, rather than meaningless rotational gimmicks. If I had things my way, they'd put 100% of their effort into making a great game rather than stupid bologna in the form of a seasonal theme. This is a huge win.
@@aceTL87 Primarily itemization, skills, and systems. Creating a plethora of new items, revamping skills, and working on systems for things like trading, not loading the stashes of everyone around (lol), PVP, events, multiplayer, chat -- the list goes on forever, regarding the ways they could improve the game.
The stat changes along with the decreased amount of drops and less inventory management are the best things to me. ARPGs in general give me inventory fatigue because there's just too many items and stats to check that going through loot feels more tedious than exciting.
tbh I will. Was better than +50% to AoE radius making you as a rogue pretty much just a walking simulator andy trying to find a single mob not being demolished by WW bards, Nova sorcs and Tendril necros...wow such a good change of itemization...
I think the Iron Wolves story may be the prelude to the expansion (or at least the start of it). If this season lasts 3 months, that brings us to mid-August, meaning there's max 1 more season before the expansion unless they delay it. They showed us Travincal in the teaser and Kurast is where the Iron Wolves were based in D2. I think weaving them into the expansion would be a cool way to loop back to D2.
Except this is coming YEARS before it ever came in Diablo 3's lifespan. Diablo 3 took many years and a literally entire new dev team to turn into an okay game.
@@gobira26 Diablo 3's problems were not Diablo 4's problems. Diffferent problems required different solutions. It is really easy to say they should have learned from that, but Diablo 3 had a lot more issues beyond not enough end game and itemization. Diablo 3 was fucked in practically every way a Diablo game could be.
I'm fine with it, to be honest. No amount of season theme gimmicks will save the game if the foundational systems don't work. I can see what they were going for with conditionals - and there's definitely ways of doing that well, and they should explore that idea but probably not as an item affix, better as a passive or as part of the boards at the end - sort of the way PoE does keystone passive skills.
One small update compared to PTR: it seems like that the "numerals" (from PTR) indicating greater affixes are represented by the (amount of?) stars in the name which improves overall readability => easier to notice.
I personally don't think not raising the level cap past 200 is a problem. Most of us that work and only have time here and there to play will probably not reach that higher tier in a season anyway
I'm 100% ok with this. I just want D4 to be good, and they've spent (I hope) a lot of their time working on the base game instead of developing new stuff for the season. That's ok. There's only so much that can be done in a given amount of time, and they've prioritized making the baseline game better, and I'm ok with that. I love the changes I've seen, and I'm stoked to dive into S4 and try them out.
Im more excited for a massive core game overhaul than I am for a seasonal theme. Not to mention they added tempering, masterworking, and The Pit. Alongside new helltide changes and tormented echoes, this is HUGE for this game.
I wonder if the devs were worried about power creep if they added a seasonal mechanic in addition to the itemization overhaul. I mean, our base power (without malignant hearts, vamp powers, and the robot) will likely be much more powerful than ever before. It is entirely possible that they focused all their energy on getting the new itemization right, and it had nothing to do with power creep. I'm still excited to jump into the new season!
You're probably right, if I was on their place, I'd probably just delay the season 1 or 2 months, let people test things out, use that time to make the season theme, and also, bugfix and patch anything that comes out of the rework. When calling something a season, there is that expectation that it will come with it's own unique mechanic, it's something that has been stablished on this genre with time, at least that's how I personaly feel, but I've seen a lot of people say this is the best decision, so maybe it's just me xD
I get that we have come to expect a complete and separate seasonal theme from aRPG seasons, but I believe we will be very powerful this season without one. Also, having a separate seasonal mechanic would just introduce more bugs and OP interactions. I think that it was wise to make this a more vanilla seasonal theme to give players time to get comfortable with the rework. Also also, adding a seasonal mechanic on top of the rework could have been overwhelming to many players.
MacroBioBoi had a video about expectations for seasonal theme and he touched on this exact topic. Adding an extra layer of balance from a seasonal theme probably wasn't a good move.
@@Acuas Maybe for braindead PoE players. Diablo 2, the game that invented the arpg season, never had seasonal themes and it was just fine. People can and should be just fine without absolutely requiring a theme applied to every season. One of PoE's biggest problem comes from their seasonal themes anyway.
@blaynegreiner9365 yeah man I'm cool with the season just being a character reset with a tiny quest line. I was going to play S4 no matter what, so whether it had a seasonal theme or not wasn't really a factor for me.
I’m a console player and did not get to participate in the PTR, so I’m am fully looking forward to checking out all the awesome new stuff they added. No complaints here. Bring on the demon hordes and that poison whore Andariel.
Love crafting in general. Looking forward to this season and happy they’re progressing these systems. Hoping for the best as this arpg is my favorite art style and gameplay.
Weirdly, I'm ok with no season theme. Because it means we won't be so grossly overpowered as the past two seasons, so the game will be more difficult. The game is too easy overall, so it's kind of nice.
Assuming you haven’t seen Barbarians twister build and one shotting bosses before the twisters even really have to spawn? lol their game sucked so they just made everything overpowered so people can have “fun”.
@monsterzero_17 Agreed! I was also a bit afraid of builds being more imbalanced because look at how the vampiric powers in season 2 affected powers for builds in general.
@@gravitationalmusic3037what’s wrong with being op in a Diablo game? People okay these games for the power fantasy. If you want soul crushing hard play the garbage last epoch or PoE (which is good)
I think you overlooked that the ptr was super charged. The amount of materials we got (especially making multiple chars) the drop rate was buffed, and even aspect maxing was simple we multiple toon/deletes. So getting to pit 200 was sped up. Trust me people will complain 200 is too high during the regular season
What it sounds like is you will get tempering manuals specific to just this season, that is the mechanic. Maybe the tempering manuals from this theme will alter you skills even more than the normal manuals?
There's a lot of changes. I think too much mechanics will lead to more bugs. Trust me. Over development will make balance harder. I'm excited for season 4
One of the concerns i had on the PTR was the loot overhaul, I'm now referring to the mats specifically, they have spread out where you get mats from, ie; Prisms etc, only seemed to drop from the world boss and only one per boss, leading to make me think their answer to people leaving the game a week after season start is to make it much more of a grind with all in game content having to be played in order to receive certain mats needed to progress. Now the drop rates are adjusted on the PTR and therefore this may just be that, and live game being fine, but i think this season will be much more of a grind to max a character than a lot have bargained for. Many will like that, but the casuals won't.
You can't have a theme with this huge of an update to the loot system. They need to be able to see what is broken and what needs buffs; this would be very difficult if they were contending with a season theme as well. Blizzard needs to fix the game, then they can worry about system themes.
I agree with you on this. Increasing damage and defensive stats with seasonal mechanics will not be very accurate in seeing their true numbers of all the itemization updates and changes in a non-PTR release. In fact I can see them using this season to make adjustments throughout the season.
Ypu know they could have just thrown out the update when it was announced and described about 5 weeks back. Then we all test it till about now. They take the data and re balance what needs updating. Then launch the season with the new gear. But they have somehow managed to turn an exciting event into a slightly meh one.
I'm completely good with no big seasonal mechanic, people can say all they want "it should have been at launch" but that doesn't change the fact that it takes people doing work to change things in the game. If I could have them make major game-changing improvements that will carry forward forever, I would pick that 100 times out of 100 over a temporary thing to learn and then never see again
I was on a break with D4. I played quite a bit Season 1, and barely played season 2. To me, not having a season mechanic, just the itemization overhaul doesn't sound so bad. I'm looking forward to checking out the game on season 4.
Season 4 basically has no theme and that's ok. PTR was a blast and I'm looking forward to building up my character fully master worked and tempered. I didn't even try that super Uber bosses that much
Dev team has put in a ton of work into improving the base game. Given the team isnt infinitely large that time investment had to come from somewhere. I'm totally ok with a lighr seasonal theme when they've done so much to improve the state of the game.
Honestly, I think they needed to do a huge theme for this patch as it would have been a great way to bring people back to the game to try the new loot revamp. I was semi on the fence if I would come back, but with no season theme I am not going to unless a few weeks after the season launch people are still raving about how good it is.
they specifically promised that the PTR wouldn't show everything there was to S4. That is technically true, since the iron wolf side quest wasn't on the PTR, but they also said they'd specify the theme at a later date. We've been fooled for the umpteenth time.
Fixing the game is definitely more important than a seasonal power. Once they gain the data they need the next season will with luck be something crazy. With such a massive overhaul I'm glad it's more bare-bones.
Makes sense to not have a mechanical season theme, when introducing such a massive overhaul to classes/loot. This will provide some better data for balance.
I didnt expect almost no season theme, but im perfectly happy with it. Seasons are supposed to make the g ame feel fresh, new and fun to play all anew and if the overhaul of so many things isnt exactly that i wouldnt know what is. And i get that for people who played the ptr in detail this could feel a bit boring, im glad that this wont be causing 200 new bugs now and tainting the new season and new features!
With the amount of work that went into the changes, I'm not surprised nor disappointed that there was no "season theme". Really this is the season of Reconstruct lol
Honestly, with all my free time since being laid off in July, I’m glad D4 is out. I’m quite interest in these updates and really hope summoner necro is as improved as they say!
From what i see, season mechanic is not necessary if base game is shit. This time devs took their time to fix the game and it's much more important than adding a seasonal mechanic
That's the problem tho, it's called seasonal mechanic because it comes with seasons, I think they should've delayed season 4 one or two months, and let us play with the rework during that time, and then release seeason 4 with a proper unique mechanic, I think that would be the best of both worlds.
I knew people are going to be upset about the "no theme" deal but this is a brand new thing and given that most players play seasonal they can't rely on that very small subset of eternal realm players to test the new loot system. It would be near impossible to test a brand new itemization system if there was also a theme that completetly changed character balance like the pet that gave you extra defense, attacks, whatnot (at least it messed with early game balance). So I expect there being a "Diablo 4 dead even with new update?" video coming from all d4 content creators for extra ragebait clicks. See most of y'all in season 5 I guess if you ever come back.
i understand why some people is mad about the seasonal theme but for me, personally, i never really cared for the seasonal themes, in fact i always thought that having a seasonal theme/mechanic that gives you massive power creep and then is gone was a stupid design, i much rather have cool story lines, quests, some cool items that you get to keep, and maybe a little bit of power its fine, we don't really need more of the likes: season of the barber, season of the metamorphosis and season of the what ever the fuck was good about the s3 pet.
While it sucks there is no seasonal theme, this is a very good thing for the game in the long run. Pausing for a season to fix and improve major issues with the itemization is definitely going to make for a healthier game going forward.
This is all great stuff coming to the game and I can't wait to try it again however they probably should have disclosed that there would be little to no actual season content while they invest resources to fix the base game. TBH I could care less if they lack a full season with content this time around but delivery is important.
tbf most players go through the seasonal story with in the first week of a new season. Granted the seasons had a mechanic that combined with base activities, still not having a core theme is ok. We still are gonna have the season pass to level and have seasonal objectives to complete. Plus new helltide systems, Greater Rifts essentially being added and new builds to do with the new loot systems. This might even be the first season where I wont skip the campaign so I can go through it again but with new systems in place than we had at launch of the game.
Keep in mind kids . A full time streamer saying "we cleared lvl200 pit in the 7 day test" when they started at level 100 , with full legendary 920 gear and the test had double the drops ... while playing it as a job ... is not representative to your normie experience. You will have to play this season for many hours to clear 200 pit from starting at lvl 1 and gearing normally with half the drop rate . This isn't even mentioning that in ptr you could just keep making a character getting 2 sets of loot drops, banking it and deleting it so you had a steady loot farm just in the character creation screen .
I feel like they are setting up for the expansion for season 5? I am actually excited for season 4 as I didn't get a chance to play the ptr so looking forward to trying the new systems out 😊
I hope they change master working after feedback from ptr. It offer’s absolutely nothing new, it’s literally nothing more than increased damage to existing stats gated by a time sink. It would be perfectly fine if it offered something new. Like maybe the final level of masterwork could offer a new stat that can only be obtained by reaching masterworking level 12. There could be a pool of stats exclusive to masterworking. Temper is actually nice because it offers new stats exclusive to tempering.
I hope they add open world enchanting not just helltides. Like boost a region to 130+ with a uber butcher to kill and when you kill him you get glyph totem for anyone in the area. Would be sick af
I think they made the right decision to kinda halt all the seasonal stuff to focus on the meat and bones of the game. I’m fully supportive of this and will give it a shot at least.
Honestly this makes sense to me. The new Helltides, expanded boss ladder, gauntlet off the rip, AND the Pit are all features to explore this season. I'm hoping this is actually a shorter season and that season 5 has a shiny new theme and mechanic for us to explore, but we'll see on Thursday. Like 4-8 week season to get all the new stuff refined, then drop S5.
We can basically call this season 1 , 1 year later. Not sure I care at this stage, but at least I like what I see if I ever have the urge to play this again.
Do you think the line "iron wolves quests earns tempering manuals which are key to items in S4" means that those manuals might contain unseen S4 mechanics?? or is it just the manuals we'd seen in PTR..?
I’m 100% okay with the season being just about loot rework. I’d rather have a new baseline for establishing good content going forward. Hopefully they can really deliver, I’m excited to be excited about Diablo again
I don’t really care about some quest and a small mechanic added. But these itemization changes are substantial. I’ll download the game again for this season
Imo it was a great decision to focus on the core game rather than a temporary season gimmick. This is much more likely to bring players back (myself included).
I'm totally fine with no extra season mechanic, but ideally they should have been upfront about it when they announced the ptr, just to set expectations accordingly.
I'm pretty okay with it. Doesn't bother me at all. Nice to have a season where we don't have to learn both a new season theme AND an entire new loot system, learning one will be enough.
Looking forward to D4 2.0 It is good that they pause the seasonal mechanics. Because the Itemization change is a huge deal and a big change. That way the players have time to get accustom to it without getting distracted
Ima come back to check out the overhaul alone. Iron Wolves in there is a dope throwback but hopefully not just tugging nostalgia as a last ditch. Stoked overall tho!
Will want to wait till the dev update, where they will actually discuss the season in more depth. I think they know the cat is out of the bag with Iron Wolves as the theme. Wouldn't be surprised if they do bring in a perma follower with this season ala D2 style.
Great video man! I'm a little surprised that they didn't give the season a cool title like "Age of the Iron Wolves" 😎or something like that but all in all, it doesn't really matter. It really is all about the actual content which I am excited for! Keep up the great work man!
This isn't the first time they've done something like this, Diablo 3 had more than a few seasons where new features were introduced or overhauled that became permanent addiitons to both seasonal and non seasonal play(follower revamp, visions of enmity, Kanai's cube, Darkening of Tristram, Greater Rifts; to name a few).
Im ok with this. Actually perfectly fine as it stands. The many many changes actually bring enough stuff for me to drop in again and hope that this will be the "new launch" a decent baseline to actually grow out of - after all, we are getting the DLC later this year, no ?
The itemization is big enough to make me excited, especially with hell tides. If they just kept the same exact game as the PTR I would have been elated. Weird if people are upset that a “season mechanic” isn’t more prevalent when they are basically overhauling the entire game.
@12:00 Exactly! I don't understand why they would brush aside any theme question if they didn't have one. Maybe they had one but waited to push it to season 5?
@Rhykker I suppose that with all the people laid off/fired, leaving Blizzard, for personal reasons, and possible team changes, people learning their new roles, etc., it's possible the itemization really took up all the time they had to work on the theme for season 4; just a guess.
Ignore the naysayers. This is exactly what we need - a season to get used to these excellent massive changes and sort out our outdated inventories. Iron Wolves theme will be fun goals to aspire too as we adjust to the changes. Really looking forward to Season 4.!
Rhykker. I can't lie to you. I've went back to Diablo Immortal, and I've had the most guilty pleasure in a Diablo game. I can't believe D4 needed a year to have a CODEX while D.I have it since the start!
I was in the camp of people saying to pause development on seasonal mechanics and fix the base game instead. Seems like that's pretty much what they did, so I'm pleased with it
But do expect an outrage nonetheless because like many communities its just a toxic mess of entitled people.
I wasn't surprised, I did suspect a bit more to the "seasonal theme" but honestly I didn't have much I could fathom with the iron wolves and what to do that tied to the player or another companion or something.
Is it fixed tho? How was ptr?
@@ak_getright9905 PTR had real potential. Some Overpowered mechanics to be dialed down and a few other issues to be fixed but overall excellent changes to the game.
They should've been transparent about what they were doing. Because after they released ptr and info about the loot changes they were still saying shit like "season theme will be announced in the next coming weeks" like...mother fuckers you already showed us everything and could've just been honest.
@therotten6152 not sure what here constitutes as less than bare minimum but sure mate let's go with that, let's continue the delusional scenario you decided to envision.
I was only pointing out if you had any reading comprehension that people will complain anyways, and if my reading comprehension failed on the first section of your comment well it failed, just means I need better reading comprehension.
i know the lack of a meaty seasonal theme will likely garnish backlash, but i think it's a good idea to use this season to establish a baseline of power before getting back to seasonal powers in subsequent seasons, given that so many interconnected systems were just overhauled.
And we've tested it.. in the PTR..
That was literally the entire point of it.
Now we get "The season of PTR".
Proof that the fickle player base are the ones currently killing the game, not happy with anything
Yeah I am totally fine with this. Looking forward to return to D4 and see what has happened.
The game has been fixed - now they can concentrate on additional content.
@@hiddenxalpha7053 first off you probably didn't it was some players ontop of that there were still changes afterwards and more that we will get in a few days, as such all of that needs further testing.
I think people are missing one thing about this season's theme in that the Iron Wolves narrative beats will continue into the game's future lore. This, I think, is what they should establish for seasonal themes going forwards. Each season, play out a story, then either tie it into the next season's story, or revisit the story in future seasons with new narrative beats but the same mechanic.
true man
lol who cares at this point.
Not future lore, this is recycled from D2.
Why not still have the season theme still iron wolves though? If its just the mercenary system I guess add that but I suspect its almost identical to the construct which would raise even more backlash so they want to add the mercenary and other stuff to the following season.
There's no reason that the other storylines can't come back in the future.
Avoiding a huge mechanic is actually smart - as it then won't overshadow the base changes and let you actually fully evaluate and balance the new content without being diluted.
Obviously the lack of a season theme will upset some people, as their proposed Loot Reborn system should have been a part of the base game since launch.
true, if GGG can rebalance the whole game, add a bunch of permanent systems AND add a season all within 3-4 months, then there is no excuse Blizzard can't.
The game at Launch was designed to Sell$$. Specifically to Call of Duty/Madden/Spider Man Gamers. And working Dad’s who like KFC and Megan Fox. I don’t think Tempering and Master working belonged at all. Season 4 is the Perfect time. The game at Launch was designed to have a Good Campaign, Simple Upgrading, working Servers, fun game play. This is something Old school Diablo 2 people and No life PoE players failed to grasp. D4 is for a much WIDER audience/console players. It was NOT designed for Basement dwelling, Unemployed incels. Who play on PC 18 hours a day. The Lack of End game and simple “crafting” was done on purpose. The casuals need to be able to Dip their toe in the water. Not Dive head first into the deep end.
ARPG's with actual trading don't really need themes because the season reset is an economical reset and gives everyone the same opportunities to get rich from trading/finding loot. I'd much rather see meaningful changes that improve the game than gimmicky bologna that rotates out.
That and there's no just no excuse. PoE once a year easily re works MAJOR systems and they still release a new league mechanic and a balance pass along side it no problem.
@@FartSmucker Id rather have the items reworked than a gimmicky temporary seasonal themes. I hate them they are pointless if they are not permanently added
Honestly this is always what made sense to me for this season if we had this huge additional power item that was giving us a bunch of cool things I think that would take away from what this rebalance is and how it works. I think this is exactly what I expected and I think the iron wolves faction and the potion will probably also go “core” after the new season they are just limited to the season so they can feel free to tweak the rewards and mechanics when they decide to include it going forward
You know just like POE did for years
First time I am honestly excited for a d4 season loooing forward to the 14th
It's actually rad they decided to put ALL their effort into just rebuilding the itemization and were like "eh we don't need a theme, have fun with the new endgame"
In my opinion it's a bit disappointing, I see the item rework as a patch/fix, not really a season theme, it's no different than playing the release game again, if they really had no time to make a season, they could just release the item rework, and tell people that they will set season 4 a month or 2 back, so they have time to develop it, calling this a season when there is no season mechanic is just an excuse because they didn't put the work on it.
so restart and use the same damn skills you've been using for the past 3 months for an additional 3 months with nothing much added? gag
@@Acuas ah yes, the season theme that only takes a month to make :)
@@countryc0unt Well, it would be supposed that they had something already started, or at least planned, so it would cut the time they need, they normally do it in 3 months, 1-2 months should be enough to make one, even if more simple than what they would normally do, the fact is that they made a season that is not a season, it's just a patch, this is no different than playing the first release.
Not really, because the game shouldn't have launched with such crap itemization to begin with. They should have taken feedback in Beta and PTRs ahead of launch and listened to the community or even looked at their own previous games. Now we have a season + battle pass of "Hey here's D4 v1.0 out of alpha and into beta! Enjoy!"
Season of Eternal Realm 🎉
Nah
nah, new season starts. i delete my chars that are in the Eternal realm. except my barb that i got 100 with on HC and made it onto the Statue of Lilith. thats one ill keep forever.
@@SuperZakaru some of us don't like to do the same thing over and over again for no reason, nor do we have the time. i am thrilled to play my ER toons
@@dnice374 Well that's your decision. I make new toons with new builds and the changes the season brings keeps it fresh! Once the season ends, I find little enjoyment in persisting with my level 100 fully geared hero for everything in the game now provides very little challenge.
@@dnice374"For no reason" glad you think playing a video game needs a purpose, but for most of us we just play for fun.
I think giving the theme a rest will be good since everyone complains about them. It’ll be nice to just work with the changes for now
Sadly they'll just complain there is no real theme this time
@@TheeBricaine that's probably a good thing all things considered even if it does sort of suck
@@TheeBricaine dont listen to the troll and have fun :P
Definitely. There's plenty to learn and do just with the rework
Given how much work went into all the changes I'm not bothered by a season theme being on the thin side.
I’m not mad about season 4. This will give us 3 months to get an understanding of the new mechanics.
Agreed
I'm an exceedingly harsh critic of D4. Honestly, I think this team is entirely clueless, however, I couldn't care any less about the lack of a true theme outside of itemization. For the love of god, I'd much rather have meaningful changes that improve the game as a whole, rather than meaningless rotational gimmicks. If I had things my way, they'd put 100% of their effort into making a great game rather than stupid bologna in the form of a seasonal theme. This is a huge win.
Based
Meaningful changes like what?
@@aceTL87 Primarily itemization, skills, and systems. Creating a plethora of new items, revamping skills, and working on systems for things like trading, not loading the stashes of everyone around (lol), PVP, events, multiplayer, chat -- the list goes on forever, regarding the ways they could improve the game.
They will never stop prioritizing the item shop and battle pass . Game working is only important if we quit
Masterworks all, you can’t go wrong.
The stat changes along with the decreased amount of drops and less inventory management are the best things to me. ARPGs in general give me inventory fatigue because there's just too many items and stats to check that going through loot feels more tedious than exciting.
damn, I'm really going to miss my damage on Tuesdays when it's between 50 and 60 degrees out and I'm walking more than 3 mph
Don't forget the +1 for every bird overhead.
tbh I will. Was better than +50% to AoE radius making you as a rogue pretty much just a walking simulator andy trying to find a single mob not being demolished by WW bards, Nova sorcs and Tendril necros...wow such a good change of itemization...
Hear a dog bark? +3 damage
This will be my first time coming back to the game since I stopped playing before Season 1. I'm excited, but cautious.
took over half a year, but the paid beta seems to be over....gonna give it a try again too
Same here, but I played PTR and I know I'm gonna like it. I'm waiting for S4 to start as soon PTR ended.
Run away and spend those hours better
Same
Like you said in prior videos, now we will have a solid foundation to build on since the core systems will be great.
I’m glad I can actually make a summoning build now
I think the Iron Wolves story may be the prelude to the expansion (or at least the start of it). If this season lasts 3 months, that brings us to mid-August, meaning there's max 1 more season before the expansion unless they delay it. They showed us Travincal in the teaser and Kurast is where the Iron Wolves were based in D2. I think weaving them into the expansion would be a cool way to loop back to D2.
Loot 2.0 was a great update for Diablo 3. Hope Loot Reborn is the same.
The very fact that they learnt NOTHING from loot 2.0 from 10 years ago its astonishing
Except this is coming YEARS before it ever came in Diablo 3's lifespan. Diablo 3 took many years and a literally entire new dev team to turn into an okay game.
@@gobira26 Diablo 3's problems were not Diablo 4's problems. Diffferent problems required different solutions. It is really easy to say they should have learned from that, but Diablo 3 had a lot more issues beyond not enough end game and itemization. Diablo 3 was fucked in practically every way a Diablo game could be.
@@blaynegreiner9365 LOL exactly like D4.
I'm fine with it, to be honest. No amount of season theme gimmicks will save the game if the foundational systems don't work.
I can see what they were going for with conditionals - and there's definitely ways of doing that well, and they should explore that idea but probably not as an item affix, better as a passive or as part of the boards at the end - sort of the way PoE does keystone passive skills.
I wonder when Blizzard will embrace the fact that quality of life and game fixing is not the season
One small update compared to PTR: it seems like that the "numerals" (from PTR) indicating greater affixes are represented by the (amount of?) stars in the name which improves overall readability => easier to notice.
I personally don't think not raising the level cap past 200 is a problem. Most of us that work and only have time here and there to play will probably not reach that higher tier in a season anyway
I'm 100% ok with this. I just want D4 to be good, and they've spent (I hope) a lot of their time working on the base game instead of developing new stuff for the season. That's ok. There's only so much that can be done in a given amount of time, and they've prioritized making the baseline game better, and I'm ok with that. I love the changes I've seen, and I'm stoked to dive into S4 and try them out.
Im more excited for a massive core game overhaul than I am for a seasonal theme. Not to mention they added tempering, masterworking, and The Pit. Alongside new helltide changes and tormented echoes, this is HUGE for this game.
I wonder if the devs were worried about power creep if they added a seasonal mechanic in addition to the itemization overhaul. I mean, our base power (without malignant hearts, vamp powers, and the robot) will likely be much more powerful than ever before. It is entirely possible that they focused all their energy on getting the new itemization right, and it had nothing to do with power creep. I'm still excited to jump into the new season!
You're probably right, if I was on their place, I'd probably just delay the season 1 or 2 months, let people test things out, use that time to make the season theme, and also, bugfix and patch anything that comes out of the rework.
When calling something a season, there is that expectation that it will come with it's own unique mechanic, it's something that has been stablished on this genre with time, at least that's how I personaly feel, but I've seen a lot of people say this is the best decision, so maybe it's just me xD
I get that we have come to expect a complete and separate seasonal theme from aRPG seasons, but I believe we will be very powerful this season without one. Also, having a separate seasonal mechanic would just introduce more bugs and OP interactions. I think that it was wise to make this a more vanilla seasonal theme to give players time to get comfortable with the rework. Also also, adding a seasonal mechanic on top of the rework could have been overwhelming to many players.
MacroBioBoi had a video about expectations for seasonal theme and he touched on this exact topic. Adding an extra layer of balance from a seasonal theme probably wasn't a good move.
@@Acuas Maybe for braindead PoE players. Diablo 2, the game that invented the arpg season, never had seasonal themes and it was just fine. People can and should be just fine without absolutely requiring a theme applied to every season. One of PoE's biggest problem comes from their seasonal themes anyway.
@blaynegreiner9365 yeah man I'm cool with the season just being a character reset with a tiny quest line. I was going to play S4 no matter what, so whether it had a seasonal theme or not wasn't really a factor for me.
Lets not expect too much.. lets just try and enjoy this update first and go from there.
I’m a console player and did not get to participate in the PTR, so I’m am fully looking forward to checking out all the awesome new stuff they added. No complaints here. Bring on the demon hordes and that poison whore Andariel.
I mean the percentage that didn't play PTR its going to be all new anyway.
Love crafting in general. Looking forward to this season and happy they’re progressing these systems. Hoping for the best as this arpg is my favorite art style and gameplay.
Weirdly, I'm ok with no season theme. Because it means we won't be so grossly overpowered as the past two seasons, so the game will be more difficult. The game is too easy overall, so it's kind of nice.
Assuming you haven’t seen Barbarians twister build and one shotting bosses before the twisters even really have to spawn? lol their game sucked so they just made everything overpowered so people can have “fun”.
Game is way too easy **If youre playing the redonkulously OP builds that break the game.
@monsterzero_17 Agreed! I was also a bit afraid of builds being more imbalanced because look at how the vampiric powers in season 2 affected powers for builds in general.
No one likes arpg becoming more difficult brother.
@@gravitationalmusic3037what’s wrong with being op in a Diablo game? People okay these games for the power fantasy.
If you want soul crushing hard play the garbage last epoch or PoE (which is good)
I just want more game changing legendaries like they were in D3 Just copy that and call it a day
I think you overlooked that the ptr was super charged. The amount of materials we got (especially making multiple chars) the drop rate was buffed, and even aspect maxing was simple we multiple toon/deletes. So getting to pit 200 was sped up. Trust me people will complain 200 is too high during the regular season
What it sounds like is you will get tempering manuals specific to just this season, that is the mechanic. Maybe the tempering manuals from this theme will alter you skills even more than the normal manuals?
That would be interesting but I wouldn't necessarily count on it.
I agree with most that I'm glad to see them focus on major fixes and in turn that be the focus for the season. To me it's what's best
There's a lot of changes. I think too much mechanics will lead to more bugs. Trust me. Over development will make balance harder. I'm excited for season 4
One of the concerns i had on the PTR was the loot overhaul, I'm now referring to the mats specifically, they have spread out where you get mats from, ie; Prisms etc, only seemed to drop from the world boss and only one per boss, leading to make me think their answer to people leaving the game a week after season start is to make it much more of a grind with all in game content having to be played in order to receive certain mats needed to progress. Now the drop rates are adjusted on the PTR and therefore this may just be that, and live game being fine, but i think this season will be much more of a grind to max a character than a lot have bargained for. Many will like that, but the casuals won't.
Couldn’t be more stoked for an arpg season! Looking forward to this more than I am last epochs cycle 2.
You can't have a theme with this huge of an update to the loot system. They need to be able to see what is broken and what needs buffs; this would be very difficult if they were contending with a season theme as well. Blizzard needs to fix the game, then they can worry about system themes.
I agree with you on this. Increasing damage and defensive stats with seasonal mechanics will not be very accurate in seeing their true numbers of all the itemization updates and changes in a non-PTR release. In fact I can see them using this season to make adjustments throughout the season.
Ypu know they could have just thrown out the update when it was announced and described about 5 weeks back. Then we all test it till about now. They take the data and re balance what needs updating. Then launch the season with the new gear. But they have somehow managed to turn an exciting event into a slightly meh one.
💯
@@T1tusCr0w It is exciting to most people, though. Just because you have unrealistic expectations, doesn't mean most do.
I mean we all kinda knew this, there's no way to add seasonal power per usual and also test the changes to it's full extent properly.
I'm completely good with no big seasonal mechanic, people can say all they want "it should have been at launch" but that doesn't change the fact that it takes people doing work to change things in the game. If I could have them make major game-changing improvements that will carry forward forever, I would pick that 100 times out of 100 over a temporary thing to learn and then never see again
I was on a break with D4. I played quite a bit Season 1, and barely played season 2.
To me, not having a season mechanic, just the itemization overhaul doesn't sound so bad.
I'm looking forward to checking out the game on season 4.
I never cared for seasons much anyway.. just improvements on the base game and dlcs. Will give this update a try
Season 4 basically has no theme and that's ok. PTR was a blast and I'm looking forward to building up my character fully master worked and tempered. I didn't even try that super Uber bosses that much
Dev team has put in a ton of work into improving the base game. Given the team isnt infinitely large that time investment had to come from somewhere. I'm totally ok with a lighr seasonal theme when they've done so much to improve the state of the game.
lol not improved at all, should have been great from the start,
Honestly, I think they needed to do a huge theme for this patch as it would have been a great way to bring people back to the game to try the new loot revamp. I was semi on the fence if I would come back, but with no season theme I am not going to unless a few weeks after the season launch people are still raving about how good it is.
they specifically promised that the PTR wouldn't show everything there was to S4. That is technically true, since the iron wolf side quest wasn't on the PTR, but they also said they'd specify the theme at a later date.
We've been fooled for the umpteenth time.
Codex upgrade is what I suggested back in the very first campfire chat. Great change.
Fixing the game is definitely more important than a seasonal power. Once they gain the data they need the next season will with luck be something crazy. With such a massive overhaul I'm glad it's more bare-bones.
Makes sense to not have a mechanical season theme, when introducing such a massive overhaul to classes/loot. This will provide some better data for balance.
I didnt expect almost no season theme, but im perfectly happy with it. Seasons are supposed to make the g ame feel fresh, new and fun to play all anew and if the overhaul of so many things isnt exactly that i wouldnt know what is. And i get that for people who played the ptr in detail this could feel a bit boring, im glad that this wont be causing 200 new bugs now and tainting the new season and new features!
I will just be happy if they make the base game a better experience this season, which after playing PTR they feel to be on the right track.
With the amount of work that went into the changes, I'm not surprised nor disappointed that there was no "season theme". Really this is the season of Reconstruct lol
Getting burnt on Last epoch after a 150 hour binge in 2 weeks, so this could be nice in a couple weeks =)
Honestly, with all my free time since being laid off in July, I’m glad D4 is out. I’m quite interest in these updates and really hope summoner necro is as improved as they say!
Rhykker : so are they framing the itemization overhaul as the season theme ?
Me : new fear unlocked
I can’t wait for season four
From what i see, season mechanic is not necessary if base game is shit.
This time devs took their time to fix the game and it's much more important than adding a seasonal mechanic
That's the problem tho, it's called seasonal mechanic because it comes with seasons, I think they should've delayed season 4 one or two months, and let us play with the rework during that time, and then release seeason 4 with a proper unique mechanic, I think that would be the best of both worlds.
I knew people are going to be upset about the "no theme" deal but this is a brand new thing and given that most players play seasonal they can't rely on that very small subset of eternal realm players to test the new loot system. It would be near impossible to test a brand new itemization system if there was also a theme that completetly changed character balance like the pet that gave you extra defense, attacks, whatnot (at least it messed with early game balance). So I expect there being a "Diablo 4 dead even with new update?" video coming from all d4 content creators for extra ragebait clicks. See most of y'all in season 5 I guess if you ever come back.
i understand why some people is mad about the seasonal theme but for me, personally, i never really cared for the seasonal themes, in fact i always thought that having a seasonal theme/mechanic that gives you massive power creep and then is gone was a stupid design, i much rather have cool story lines, quests, some cool items that you get to keep, and maybe a little bit of power its fine, we don't really need more of the likes: season of the barber, season of the metamorphosis and season of the what ever the fuck was good about the s3 pet.
While it sucks there is no seasonal theme, this is a very good thing for the game in the long run. Pausing for a season to fix and improve major issues with the itemization is definitely going to make for a healthier game going forward.
This is all great stuff coming to the game and I can't wait to try it again however they probably should have disclosed that there would be little to no actual season content while they invest resources to fix the base game. TBH I could care less if they lack a full season with content this time around but delivery is important.
one positive note
Urn of Nightmares: Boost Paragon Glyph XP earned in Nightmare Dungeons.
The rest I am not so sure :|
Keep Up the Good Work CJ
tbf most players go through the seasonal story with in the first week of a new season. Granted the seasons had a mechanic that combined with base activities, still not having a core theme is ok. We still are gonna have the season pass to level and have seasonal objectives to complete. Plus new helltide systems, Greater Rifts essentially being added and new builds to do with the new loot systems.
This might even be the first season where I wont skip the campaign so I can go through it again but with new systems in place than we had at launch of the game.
Im shocked the "guys Diablo Diablo Diablo, lets jump in! " didnt happen this time. Shockedddddd.
This is probably the time for me to finally get into it. It's half off on steam right now and they have put it a lot of work since launch
Dont get duped like i did.
Iron Wolves is a cool season theme, but no seasonal mechanic seems fine with all the new systems.
Keep in mind kids . A full time streamer saying "we cleared lvl200 pit in the 7 day test" when they started at level 100 , with full legendary 920 gear and the test had double the drops ... while playing it as a job ... is not representative to your normie experience. You will have to play this season for many hours to clear 200 pit from starting at lvl 1 and gearing normally with half the drop rate .
This isn't even mentioning that in ptr you could just keep making a character getting 2 sets of loot drops, banking it and deleting it so you had a steady loot farm just in the character creation screen .
Mechanics are all that matter to me, so I'm excited to jump back in and get another few weeks of fun out of D4
Honestly I would have been surprised if they also put in an actual seasonal mechanic. I am okay with it. S4 is still going to be fun.
Need to normalize the game with new itemization system. You can’t do that while putting in seasonal buffs and stuff.
I feel like they are setting up for the expansion for season 5? I am actually excited for season 4 as I didn't get a chance to play the ptr so looking forward to trying the new systems out 😊
I hope they change master working after feedback from ptr. It offer’s absolutely nothing new, it’s literally nothing more than increased damage to existing stats gated by a time sink. It would be perfectly fine if it offered something new. Like maybe the final level of masterwork could offer a new stat that can only be obtained by reaching masterworking level 12. There could be a pool of stats exclusive to masterworking.
Temper is actually nice because it offers new stats exclusive to tempering.
I hope they add open world enchanting not just helltides. Like boost a region to 130+ with a uber butcher to kill and when you kill him you get glyph totem for anyone in the area. Would be sick af
I think they made the right decision to kinda halt all the seasonal stuff to focus on the meat and bones of the game. I’m fully supportive of this and will give it a shot at least.
Thanks for all you do Rhykker, even if it’s not Diablo related I still follow just because your content is so good. Never stop! 👊
Glad you enjoy it! Thanks for the kind words
I am more than satisfied with the scope of Season 4 👍
Honestly this makes sense to me. The new Helltides, expanded boss ladder, gauntlet off the rip, AND the Pit are all features to explore this season. I'm hoping this is actually a shorter season and that season 5 has a shiny new theme and mechanic for us to explore, but we'll see on Thursday. Like 4-8 week season to get all the new stuff refined, then drop S5.
Most players wouldn't even complete the battle pass, let alone the season journey, in a 4 week season. You are off your rocker.
We can basically call this season 1 , 1 year later. Not sure I care at this stage, but at least I like what I see if I ever have the urge to play this again.
Thanks for expanding on the notes. Looking forward to the chat tomorrow!!!
Do you think the line "iron wolves quests earns tempering manuals which are key to items in S4" means that those manuals might contain unseen S4 mechanics?? or is it just the manuals we'd seen in PTR..?
I’m 100% okay with the season being just about loot rework. I’d rather have a new baseline for establishing good content going forward. Hopefully they can really deliver, I’m excited to be excited about Diablo again
I don’t really care about some quest and a small mechanic added. But these itemization changes are substantial. I’ll download the game again for this season
Imo it was a great decision to focus on the core game rather than a temporary season gimmick. This is much more likely to bring players back (myself included).
I'm totally fine with no extra season mechanic, but ideally they should have been upfront about it when they announced the ptr, just to set expectations accordingly.
I'm pretty okay with it. Doesn't bother me at all. Nice to have a season where we don't have to learn both a new season theme AND an entire new loot system, learning one will be enough.
Looking forward to D4 2.0
It is good that they pause the seasonal mechanics. Because the Itemization change is a huge deal and a big change. That way the players have time to get accustom to it without getting distracted
Ima come back to check out the overhaul alone. Iron Wolves in there is a dope throwback but hopefully not just tugging nostalgia as a last ditch. Stoked overall tho!
Will want to wait till the dev update, where they will actually discuss the season in more depth. I think they know the cat is out of the bag with Iron Wolves as the theme. Wouldn't be surprised if they do bring in a perma follower with this season ala D2 style.
Great video man! I'm a little surprised that they didn't give the season a cool title like "Age of the Iron Wolves" 😎or something like that but all in all, it doesn't really matter. It really is all about the actual content which I am excited for! Keep up the great work man!
This isn't the first time they've done something like this, Diablo 3 had more than a few seasons where new features were introduced or overhauled that became permanent addiitons to both seasonal and non seasonal play(follower revamp, visions of enmity, Kanai's cube, Darkening of Tristram, Greater Rifts; to name a few).
Im ok with this. Actually perfectly fine as it stands.
The many many changes actually bring enough stuff for me to drop in again and hope that this will be the "new launch" a decent baseline to actually grow out of - after all, we are getting the DLC later this year, no ?
The itemization is big enough to make me excited, especially with hell tides. If they just kept the same exact game as the PTR I would have been elated. Weird if people are upset that a “season mechanic” isn’t more prevalent when they are basically overhauling the entire game.
I hope season 4 has me playing pass level 40 or so ...when I fizzled out from playing in previous seasons.
Going to do the campaign again.
I’m fine with it. Gives us time to really get to know all the changes.
@12:00 Exactly! I don't understand why they would brush aside any theme question if they didn't have one. Maybe they had one but waited to push it to season 5?
They planned to sacrifice us to Belial. Iron Wolves! Take bak tha Town!
But first get all the townspeople into the sewers!
@Rhykker I suppose that with all the people laid off/fired, leaving Blizzard, for personal reasons, and possible team changes, people learning their new roles, etc., it's possible the itemization really took up all the time they had to work on the theme for season 4; just a guess.
Ignore the naysayers. This is exactly what we need - a season to get used to these excellent massive changes and sort out our outdated inventories. Iron Wolves theme will be fun goals to aspire too as we adjust to the changes. Really looking forward to Season 4.!
Rhykker. I can't lie to you. I've went back to Diablo Immortal, and I've had the most guilty pleasure in a Diablo game. I can't believe D4 needed a year to have a CODEX while D.I have it since the start!
This is good. No cheesy seasonal theme just good changes all around. Cant wait to try it out!!