Summary
Initially my goals were to only complete the season journey, since I had played the PTR and felt that I had experienced the unique flavor of the season. However, after completing the season journey, I found I still had motivation to keep playing to fully augment my gear since it was very accessible. I was also driven to find a specific soul shard - Remnant of Pain with attack speed and attack speed to group. Unfortunately, after farming enough Remnant of Pain to create an entire stash page of them at rank 2 and never finding one, I feel like I’ve come to a close on the season while feeling there is much more fun to be had and primals to find. I was unable to complete the build I wanted to play while still having fun playing the game.
Pros of Season Theme
- Soul shards drastically change and enhance the way some classes can be played. This is refreshing to the game and new builds are not only possible, but viable now. Soul shards create a large level of additional customization for players to choose.
- Interactive bonuses allow for player skill to impact the theme’s power. For example, ring of fire can be used very well or very poorly and the player has full control of that use.
- Having the ability to easily augment gear allows for playing multiple builds and characters. Previous seasons, my preferred method was to only play one class and build. Since augments are more accessible, I can change to other classes or builds without such a steep drop in power.
Cons of Season Theme
- No way to target specific level three soul shard bonuses. You don’t find out what the main power you’re searching for is until you’ve upgraded it three times. There is a good outcome here in that you can use that level three gem to augment your gear and gain power, but if you are targeting a specific bonus then it creates unneeded challenge to obtain it. Also, augments are only useful to a certain extent. I don’t have enough gear to augment with the number of soul shards I have at this point.
- I have an entire stash page of Remnant of Pain rank two that didn’t roll attack speed. It also seems like Cold % damage is a very high chance on Remnant of Pain.
Suggestion
There are many ways to solve these problems like moving the rank three power to rank one, revealing what the soul shard will provide after none or one upgrade, etc.
Conclusion
This has been my favorite season to play. Last season (ethereals) was the best season in a long time and I hope the Diablo team continue to deliver great seasonal themes that allow for customization, adaptation, and QoL improvements with which to enjoy the game!