Got home last night and noticed that Diablo 3 season 33 ended at 8pm EST. I play on the Nintendo switch NA server. Waking up today I see friends can log into their seasonal characters and create new ones but sadly I can do neither.
Is there anything I can do or is my season over while others can still play?
I’ve seen blizz is aware but I created a ticket and was directed to post here.
Hey Prcheek,
There isn’t anything the players can do.
Right now things are a mess with the three regions all experiencing different issues due to the attempt to reinstate the season.
It’s a waiting game at this point.
Hi there - I am having what I think is a similar issue? I posted about it here:
Long story short, I just started the game/a campaign for the very first time a few days ago with a seasonal character. Now I can’t even play the campaign from where I left off. I can’t play that character at all anywhere (note I am not a Nintendo Switch online member).
Is this by design or the result of a bug? Hard to find a straight answer anywhere.
Thanks
Hey Hagar,
There was an incident over the weekend where the season ended early by mistake. Bliz tried to reinstate it, but it came with a handful of side effects/issues.
So far, Bliz hasn’t communicated about the issues so we’re all in the dark as to what the plan is, if any.
Oh bummer, but thanks for the heads up. So in that case is this normally how seasonal characters work or a result of the season ending early? I’m just trying to figure out if I have to restart the campaign/character from scratch, and if so, should I just make a normal character instead of a seasonal one so this doesn’t happen again?
I just want to play through the game, I was really enjoying it up until this… LOL
Actually, none of this is technically normal.
There’s never been a time when a season ended early by mistake. All the issues that surfaced were likely due to Bliz scrambling to create a solution on the fly without time to test/troubleshoot it.
As for your existing character, nobody knows how that will turn out. As a console player, there isn’t an individual rollback option that I know of (what other console players have said).
As for making a new char, my guess is that Bliz will let the season go to when ever the planned end date was (not annouced, but there’s estimated to be about a month left. But I could be wrong, so if you want to play it safe, you could make a non-season character to play the campaign. You definitely don’t need the season perks to get through it.
Just my luck, I start the game for the first time ever three days ago then this happens!
So in a normal situation my “seasonal” character would be able to just keep playing the campaign and even carry over to the next season?
Either way, it sounds like my best bet is to restart the game from scratch with just a normal hero (going against every recommendation that a seasonal hero has all benefits and no draw back). Will that allow me to eventually play end-game content, group up and play news seasons or do you actually need a seasonal hero for that?
Sorry for all the questions but as a new player I’m just trying to get a handle on how all this works and no one pays attention to the New Player forums anymore lol
Yeah. It was unfortunate timing. Nothing like this has happened before. Normally, there’s an announcement of a season’s end date.
When it ends, the seasonal character converts over to a non season character and everything in the character(s) stash is sent to the non-season mail, and the paragon experience is added to non season paragon.
Nothing carries over season to season. Each season is a fresh start. When the season starts, you can either create a fresh seasonal character, or “rebirth” a non season character into the season. Rebirthing strips the character back down to brand new (and sends anything it was wearing to the non season mail).
So for example, if you make an new seasonal character now to start over, when the season ends, it will convert into a non season character. When the new season starts, no matter which path you choose (new season character or rebirth of existing character) it will start in a new, fresh state.
It’s not required for end game play, but the majority of D3 players are in season, so non season will be a bit dead.
All good!
To be honest, I’d make a new seasonal character. At least you’ll have the season perks. And even if Bliz decides to terminate the season early (due to all the side effects of the reinstatement), it will just convert to non season where you can pick up where you left off. And, that is going to happen at some point anyway.
Edit:
Based on what Ksathral said below, it sounds like new seasonal chars may not be possible on Switch.
new seasonal characters are met with the same error for me on the switch, I don’t know if everybody experiences the same. For me season is not playable on the switch, I hope Blizz just ends the season if this is happening to other players on the switch as well…
Ah! That changes things. I’ll amend my post above.
But I’d be 100% for just ending it and starting the next one.
Thanks for the explanation. So based on your amendment it sounds like it makes zero sense to create a seasonal character on Switch to actually be able to play through the game?
Per the above - so I’m clear this includes everything the character is wearing as well? Or just in the stash? And does their level reset back to 1 at this time?
So let’s say I start a brand new seasonal character now, play through the campaign, level him to max, get a bunch of gear, etc. Now the next season starts in three months or whenever. He is basically starting again brand new at level 1 with no equipment at all?
I also have no idea what the paragon experience as I am a total noob to this game. Only ever played WoW for context.
I just want to play through the full campaign at my own pace without the risk of this happening again where I can no longer play where I left off – along with the option to enjoy the end game once I reach max level without having to constantly restart from scratch.
It seems like this shouldn’t be super complicated!
every season everybody will start from scratch. (you are not forced to play season and nothing happens to your non season progress / characters / stash etc
After the season ends everything will transfer to non seasonal.
if you want to run through the campaign, just do that on non seasonal if you want, I have not played the campaign in a while and I only play seasons. But if you want to play the campaign as new player, especially now with the issues, do it on non-season.
In season I only play adventure mode and maybe sometimes the challenge to complete act 1 - 5 (the campaign) at max level under an hour
Thanks for your reply. When you say “After the season ends everything will transfer to non seasonal.” What does this mean exactly? For example, my current seasonal character transferred to non-seasonal but from what I can tell there is absolutely nothing I can do with him and no way to continue playing the game in any capacity now that he is “non seasonal”. So is that just the glitch?
Just what they are wearing. Everything in the non season stash stays behind in non season. Level does reset to 1. It’s just like creating a new character.
Right! All seasons are fresh starts, like as if you just bought the game and just started.
Once you reach max character level (70), you start accumulating “paragon levels” and “paragon points”. You can assign those points to various attributes to make your character incrementally stronger.
Under normal circumstances, that 100% possible in either mode, even if the season ends before you finish it. But for end game, if you want to play with people, that’s easier in seasonal mode where most players are.
yeah what happend with this season has not occurred before as far as I am aware.
the season ended prematurely and it got restarted again. However because on the switch the game data is saved offline on your switch, they cannot rollback our data to before the season ended, at least this is my guess since we can play offline, unlike on PC you always play online.
I would not worry too much about season right now, just play the campaign at your own pace, after that do bounties / rifts and greater rifts in adventure mode.
Before you know it you will be speedrunning through the content and then you may want to play season to enjoy a fresh start along with seasonal objectives and a seasonal buff which alters the gameplay in various ways.
Okay much appreciated for all the help here. So to wrap everything up:
Is all this accurate and recommended? Or you are staying start a seasonal character now since its a fresh new season and the benefits outweigh the downsides?
This happened to my account too. Thanks for sharing. I have to start a new hero now. And my seasonal player is un usable in normal and seasonal. I tried to do rebirth…
Mostly what upsets me is i found a llete set… and my demon hunter is wearing it 
I suggest play the campaign on a new non-season character and don’t worry about the season. Just enjoy the story and get familiar with the mechanics of whatever class you are going to play.
When next season starts and you do want to play season just create a new character instead of using rebirth, this way your non seasonal character doesn’t reset it stays as is on non-seasonal. You have plenty of character slots to play with so I would keep one character on non-season.
The reason why I play seasonal is because it makes the gameplay a bit different because of the season buff that changes each season + I like to see how many cheaters I can beat on the leaderboards.
PS. although it has become less, beware of cheaters in public games (inspect their gear often they have 3 gems in their weapon / amulet / rings while the max is one, or they have a very high paragon level.
I had one experience where I got an instant 1000+ paragon from one run (still dunno how that was possible) and that ruined the season for me since you cannot reset your progress.
So on the switch I tend to play solo or with people from my friends list but there is no way to communicate with so it’s a bit annoying to do something specific 
If you want you can add me on the switch (SW-5698-1044-1705) on non season you can join my games, in season I mainly play Solo.
I still would suggest doing the campaign first at your own pace, you won’t be learning how to play by joining me farming darkening of tristam, you won’t see me playing non season normally, this issue with the season ending / restarting is hopefully a one time thing because right now I have several locked characters…
I just check on a secodary nintendo account on my switch which had not played this season at all and I am able to create seasonal characters and login without any issues.
I think only players who had a seasonal character already are affected perhaps.
Could anybody check if they can create and play season on a nintendo account with no save data?
It won’t solve the issue but it would maybe confirm that it is a save data issue… Hopefully not a permanent one
This is the PC Bug Report Forum. Are there that many console players that even read this forum?
I don’t own a console and do not play games on a mobile device. It might be better if @Hagar continues this discussion on the Console Discussion Forum.