I am a long time fan of Diablo III as well as other blizzard titles. I have always supported blizzard nearly since its inception. I first fell in love with Diablo 1 and even as they have lost steam and support from fans – Blizzard is still EONS above the rest of the gaming industry. I would like to commend and thank the Diablo III team for its continued support and 95% of us appreciate you greatly. With that being said; I feel like we have to talk about S21 and some minor tweaks we could make to vastly improve everyone’s experience
Elements buff: A great idea in theory, but doesn’t work in practice. Perhaps the greatest glaring issue becomes evident when you are doing an intense boss fights when some duplicated effect assets come into play. For example:
Imagine this: You are playing on Hardcore mode and pushing yourself. You get the Belial fight for your Act 2 bounties. Not to be deterred, your connection has been running strong all day and you dont believe you have ever been hit by an avoidable AoE. So, you go in - quite confident. All seems to be going well in this intense fight and THEN… like some “perfect storm” scenario happens. The green meteor elements proc during this fight and the entire screen fills up with green targeting circles. Some are friendly, some are not. How terrified are you now? Does this seem like a fair situation you have been put into? I dont vote no.
Another, You are pushing a Greater Rift and you happen to fight Saxtris and the Tornado elements proc and you are put in that familiar situation.
I can keep going on and on – but there is an easy fix for this. Elect to turn it off. all of the players I have talked to (I would say more than 10) all say they would rather just deactivate this season perk.
An even better solution in my opinion, is to give players the option to opt in to any previous season perk they desire (this is extremely wishful thinking) but everyone all pretty much agree S20 was a major hit.
When I voice up my gut-roiling hatred for “the elements” It sounds like nagging but I feel that it is important to voice my personal opinion on the matter: Its annoying. I feel like my character is getting a cruise-liner blown at it every 90 seconds. Visibility drops to nearly half. the elements almost never actually hit anything. As the gods would have it, it usually starts after a fight, and never before. I havnt had one instance where the elements have invoked one positive emotion in me. I am not a bitter guy and im practically made of patience but this… This is is just the worst…
Please, from the bottom of my heart… I havnt posted on the forums in over 5 years… I do not ask for much… from all of us – PLEASE allow us to deactivate the season buff.
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They don’t support Diablo 3. You run into a problem, nobody from Blizzard is going to help you unless it’s billing-related.
Thanks, OP. You summed up my feelings about perfectly.
As it is right now, the best I can say about the seasonal buff is it’s occassionally helpful for killing big groups of enemies, that is if the lightning or meteors proc. Otherwise, the most it provides is a change in aesthetics, which sometimes sadly obscures screen or results in some glitches (e.g. during/after Malthael fight the background just glitches out of existence with the proc in effect).
So far the best seasonal buffs we got were item-related. Legacy of Nightmares for all, free choice of item type bonuses in the Cube, universal Royal Grandeur… those were simply fantastic. This time around… meh, missed the mark by a long shot. Hopefully the next one will be more in line with the previous ones.
As it is, I kinda hoped we’d just get a SoJ or CoE style bonus to try and play without those items in slot.
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Yes, that really sums it up. Well put, OP.
I would just add the limited visibility to the list of grievances. Others as well as myself have mentioned this in other threads - the darkening of the screen or the falling snow can limit visibility to the point that we have to navigate by minimap. This really doesn’t feel like a buff - more of a de-buff, honestly.
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But what about those of us who love it, and what it on permanently? What about people playing with it turned off playing with people who have it turned on?
I guess the option to play without it exists in the form of non season.
Normally I would say I couldn’t disagree more but in this case, you couldn’t be more wrong. That is not my opinion, you are objectively incorrect. Maybe you should stop playing Blizzard games for a moment and subscribe to EA for a while.
You made a one-time purchase for Diablo III at most ten-some odd years ago. Blizzard doesnt OWE you free DLC. My kid was playing “The SIMS 4” and asked me to buy her a “weather” pack DLC for 40$. Confused, I went in there and EA was trying to sell my kid an ADDON to her game that permits the use of RAIN. for 40$…
Now obviously that is a worse case comparison but have you EVER seen such scummy behavior from blizzard?
I want you to take notice of all the in-game content Blizzard has added to Diablo III and never asked a dime for. Do you know HOW that happens? It happens because Blizzard has allocated a team to support Diablo that essentially doesn’t make money. They are paid because people still pay for World of Warcraft. They are paid because people play and still LOVE Diablo, despite its “shortcomings” Blizzard operates under the ideology that reads “When all you care about is the work and your community, you need not worry about money.”
If all Blizzard cares about is money, they are absolutely abysmal businessmen.
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I’d like to add my thanks to and agreement with the OP.
Other than none of the “elements” being useful, I really dislike how the rest of the environment dims when it’s about to begin. If it’s already a dark map, the rest of the surroundings become completely impossible to see. Not good when in a fight.
Also not a fan of the lightning/fire thing, since it only shoots in the direction you’re facing. If i’m facing an enemy that throws projectiles, it usually means i’m being damaged and not even knowing it…
Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m really appreciative that the Support team continues to think of new ideas and themes for the seasons. It keeps seasons fresh and different.
But this season is really more of a miss. I’d love to be able to turn it off, frankly.
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While I agree Blizzard are better than EA, this statement is simply not true at all. Precisely because they care about money they’d do well in updating and maintaining D3. If you think they are losing money longterm by doing it then you are naive. It’s a strategy choice rather than just an act of charity by Blizzard.