I’m going to make a consolidated list of issues and concerns regarding the season 22 theme (both the clones and Kanai cube parts). The goal of this thread is to put all the issues regarding the season theme in one place.
I will update this thread periodically as I get new information and read reports about other issues. I will also list known bugs here but will remove them if they get patched in a later PTR build. Please list only issues with the season theme and not general balance issues or regarding new/updated items.
I will also rank the severity of the issue from 1 to 5 with stars and propose a few ideas to address the issue in a simple or fair way if possible!
List of Season 22 Theme Issues
Seasonal clones’ projectiles can be reflected by certain enemies
Issue severity: 
Background
Dune Dervish and Sand Dweller type enemies have attacks which can reflect projectiles. This effect has been in the game since the release of Diablo 3; however, in earlier eras, the disparity between a player’s damage and toughness was not as great as today. Nowadays, virtually any projectile will instantly kill a player, even with a very high amount of toughness (e.g. a projectile with 10T damage cannot be mitigated).
Issues if not fixed
- This will be a very big problem for hardcore players as this makes the aforementioned monsters far to dangerous to fight for any class. The reflected projectiles are far stronger than even a GR150 molten explosion! No random enemies in lower difficulties should be more dangerous than the highest difficulty bosses!
- Additionally, groups will struggle and must also skip those enemies as the clones will cause imminent deaths.
- Nemesis Bracers currently has about a ~25% or so chance to spawn an elite with Dune Dervish minions. This item will see little use (or be very risky) in high GR group settings if the issue is not addressed.
Solution 1
Dune Dervish and Sand Dweller type enemies should have their reflect abilities removed or at the very least, scaled with the monster’s attack power and not the player’s. A more extreme adjustment which may be quicker to implement would be the removal of these types of enemies with the exception of named enemies/bosses of these types.
Solution 2
All seasonal clones’ abilities which are categorized as projectile and thus reflect-able should have their skills changed to non-projectile skills or flagged as special attacks which cannot be reflected.
Seasonal clones do not follow the player to different areas
Issue severity:
Background
Currently, the seasonal clones’ behavior is set to follow players in the same area. If one player in a group leaves that area, their clone will follow another nearby player in the original area. If no players are present, the clone(s) will continue engaging targets in the original area.
Issues if not fixed
- Certain bounties (e.g. cursed chest events) can be exploited by starting the event, clicking a nearby shrine, returning to the chest and teleporting back to town. The clone will kill the targets on their own and can possibly finish the bounty itself if they last long enough to kill the last monsters.
- Some GR group meta setups might involve splitting the group by leaving behind a support-build player on a previous floor while the clones of the other players assist them in killing enemies.
- It is possible for a seasonal clone on an earlier rift floor to spawn the boss. This then forces the player or group to backtrack quite a bit, even multiple floors!
- Seasonal clones spawned from shrines and pylons at the end of a rift floor are essentially worthless since there is nothing left for them to kill and they will wait idly by the exit as the player or group continues to the next area.
Solution 1
The simplest fix is to have the seasonal clones follow the player at all times and reappear when the player enters a new area.
Solution 2
To avoid aforementioned exploits, the seasonal clones can be set to disappear or deactivate (stand idle) if the player leaves the area. While this is simple to apply, it is still unfair to the player (especially if summoned near the end of an area).
Seasonal clones have no indicator and their power is hidden
Issue severity:
Background
Currently, the seasonal clones do not have an indicator or timer to show the remaining duration on the clone (or even the type/variant of the clone). Also, while it was stated in the patch notes that a clone’s strength will be based on the player’s power, it isn’t clear what that exactly means.
Issues if not fixed
- The duration of a clone is set to 60 seconds so it could feasibly be okay to simply mind the remaining duration of the shrine/pylon effect. However, if multiple shrines are attained, their duration is not shown in the buff bar and instead a number is shown (indicating the number of shrine buffs). Also, it is difficult to tell the variant of the clone summoned until they use a few skills.
- Since the clone’s power level is hidden from the player, it will make it difficult for new players to understand what they should equip in order to increase the power of the clone. Over time, dedicated players will empirically reverse-engineer the clone’s power formula but this information should be shared with everyone!
Solution 1
The simplest fix is to add a shadow clone icon in the buff bar which lasts 60 seconds and has a number next to it to indicate the variant type. Also, the patch notes can be more transparent on what does or does not affect a clone’s power.
Seasonal clones are affected by certain legendary item abilities
Issue severity:
Background
It has been tested that a clone’s attack speed is influenced by the Tasker and Theo gloves. Furthermore, if the clones are considered pets, then the Enforcer legendary gem and even the Witch Doctor’s Mask of Jeram can greatly influence a clone’s power!
I don’t have a WD so verification needed on this statement!
Issues if not fixed
- If the clone’s power is influenced by the aforementioned items, the season theme will provide an unfair advantage to pet-based builds. It has always seemed to be the intent of the developers for the season themes to benefit all classes equally in different situations.
Solution 1
The simplest fix is to modify the clone power formula to not include pet-enhancing effects from the aforementioned legendaries.
Seasonal clones behave irregularly or do not appear sometimes
Issue severity:
Background
Sometimes when activating a pylon or shrine the clones that appear do not engage enemies or do not appear at all. There seems to be some reports with the Nemesis Bracers causing issues. Also, there are reports that activating a pylon or shrine during a character’s cheat death ability (e.g. Awareness, Nerves of Steel, etc.) no clones are summoned at all. Lastly, if a player is too far from the activated pylon, they will not receive a clone.
Issues if not fixed
- While this isn’t game-breaking it is indeed a bug and will be frustrating for players to see missing or inactive seasonal clones.
Solution 1
The direct fix is to double check the game code regarding the clone behavior and spawning conditions to avoid these bugs. Also, check the spawning criteria based on range or mention in the patch notes that players must be within a certain range to gain a clone.
Seasonal clones depend heavily on pylon placement
Issue severity:
Background
In addition to pylons appearing near the exits to floors, there is another similar problem. On certain map layouts, pylons can appear off the beaten path and are sometimes missed. This issue has been a problem since GRs were introduced, but now since the theme is centered around pylon usage, the problem is exacerbated.
Issues if not fixed
- The only ways for a player to circumvent this issue is to memorize all possible pylon placements for maps and scout accordingly. While the majority of players resort to gaining such intuition over time, some players use unauthorized 3rd party tools to reveal the map and pylon locations. Such map hack tools already grant an unfair advantage, but with pylons being more important this season, the unfair advantage is increased.
Solution 1
The best solution is adding a chime and map ping to help guide players when when a pylon is spawned. The chime effect should not be too distracting and mute-able unless it’s very short (e.g. short ding sound, or legendary drop noise).
Solution 2
Another solution to avoid the problem is to move pylons to closer spawn points after they are missed. For example, if a pylon appears and has not been scouted, it can teleport to another valid location along the player’s path after say 30 seconds. This effect repeats until the pylon is found or all possible pylon locations have been scouted. Additionally, measures should be taken to mitigate the use of map hacking tools to control pylons by deliberately avoiding them.
Seasonal clones sometimes follow the wrong player and don’t die
Issue severity:
Background
Sometimes the seasonal clones follow other players. For example, if two players have a clone each, and one player leaves the area, both clones will follow the remaining player. This is also likely responsible for the bug in that clones do not disappear when a player dies, if there is another player nearby that the clones can follow. See this clip for a video demonstration of a clone surviving.
Issues if not fixed
- This isn’t a critical bug but rather a minor inconvenience. In a group setting, the group will typically move together and thus it doesn’t really matter who the clones are following. However, in some circumstances, the clones following the wrong player may be a hinderance.
Solution 1
The solution is to double check the code responsible for the clone behavior and escort target rules. Additionally, check the code responsible for clone deactivation upon player death to ensure the correct clones are removed when a player dies.
The Kanai’s Cube 4th slot has missing graphics in some places
Issue severity:
Background
Most notably, the 4th cube slot is missing from the player profile and leaderboard so that it could be very difficult to deduce (if at all) how a someone cleared a certain tier of GR with no additional information. Also, the player’s details tab does not list the 4th cube slot.
Issues if not fixed
- As mentioned above, if the 4th cube slot is not visible to others, it can create issues with leaderboard knowledge. For many builds, the 4th slot is usually an obvious choice to a knowledgeable player but may be something a newer player might not have considered.
Solution 1
The simplest fix is to display the 4th cube slot in the profile as well as the player’s details tab. Currently, the Kanai’s Cube screen as well as the armory profiles display the 4th slot with no issues.
This concludes my list of issues encountered thus far. As I mentioned earlier, I will edit this post as I obtain new information or ideas from others. Please leave a comment below if you have an issue regarding the seasonal theme which I did not mention yet.
Thank you for reading and happy hunting!
