It was pretty bad in the PTR and they said they didn’t have time to fix it and test it again before the end of the PTR. They promised they would tweak it and roll the change out live. Bad Idea. Never, ever go live with an untested product. Bad Blizzard.
9 Likes
That’s doesn’t help with the visuals though. I guess we could also turn our monitors off.
At least, in Season 19, we could control the Theme by waiting 5 seconds between kills. The only way to stop the Theme in Season 21 is to return to town. And even then it isn’t 100% effective. (Last night I completed a Nephalem Rift just as the Lightning Hose effect triggered and blasted Orek in the face for several seconds while trying to close the Portal. 
)
There was feedback and there were changes.
Excerpt from Season Blog:
- Seasonal effects no longer deal area damage.
- Seasonal buff resets if player exits and reenters a rift.
- Seasonal theme should no longer work in Set Dungeons.
- Fixed seasonal buff that sometimes may drop off whenever the player enters an invulnerable state.
- Changed seasonal buff to base its damage on the amount of kills. (not really a bug, more of a change)
Source: Season 21 - Trials of Tempests is NOW LIVE! - Bug Fixes
The current issue is that the Seasonal Buff rarely seems to do effective damage. The audio/visuals of the Theme are overwhelming, distracting, and annoying.
The Trials of the Tempests is not fun. (Personal opinion). But, I will suffer through it. I still need a couple of Stash Tabs on the Europe and Asia Regions. Luckily, I have all my Tabs on the Americas Region. But, I also want the Rocky Pet. 
~𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑜𝑒
3 Likes
Agree completely.
Anything that messes with audio and visuals this much is pretty unplayable for me.
9 Likes
yes these random damage elements that go out was what 2 seasons ago?
there are tons and tons possibilities and they regurgitate essentially what season 19’s theme was. Highly disappointed, very underwhelming
2 Likes
S19 theme was not random at all. Everything happened at a specific kill count, and in a specific order. It was 100% predictable, so it could be used strategically.
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I agree with everyone else here. The seasonal buff is so, so bad, that it made me use the forums again to whine about it.
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What an absolute embarrassment this seasonal theme is. Pure laziness.
Also, why are the tornados 900 times louder in volume than any other sound effect in the game? Can’t even hear my music over them.
Scrap the seasonal theme and jam it in the trash next to the PVP modes that were teased as a means of scamming the consumer .
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I dont mind the sound so much, but I do mind that it seems useless. MOst of the things hit nothing. And the diablo beams that do hit something dont do any damage…
I wonder if they nerfed the ptr values a bit too much…
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I neither like the noise nor the visual. It is flashing like crazy, the sand storms in particular take you the sight. I like Diablo3 cause it is all relaxed and dark. But having sensitive eyes, this crazes me out, fireworks all few minutes. I think I cant play this season. 
It really ruins the gameplay. I hope something will be done about that. I am glad that I am not the only one going nuts with this.
5 Likes
Agree. It’s tough to watch eye candy and see what’s going on. No migraine or headache yet. Didn’t anyone consider the impact visual effects have on older players?
2 Likes
It’s a really bad seasonal theme. Maybe just turn it off and re-enable double goblins and double bounties. Or like others have said turn on a global COE buff. At least that will allow some build variation.
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But hey, when playing with sound off and eyes closed the seasonal theme is really no problem. XD
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So are you going to post your info so we can judge the job you do and if we dont like it as k that you be fired?
Please get a grip.
We might not like the season buff (my team is only playing to get the pets we dont have. After that we are going back to other games.
I have to add.
I logged in an hour late to start the season, was playing the challenge rift and the effect went off in there…
I thought at first it was something with the build, since I hadn’t seen the effects from the season event yet. Then I go to play this season and saw the same thing… LOL
So apparently the CRs also get the seasonal buff. Not sure about non-season.
As for the event itself.
I find it… Lackluster. Sound and extra stuff doesn’t bother me personally as much but the usefulness of it seems pointless. The effects seem to target whereever you are looking when they go off. So if you are facing the enemies, they mostly head in the direction of the enemy. The sound is your visual cue to aim.
But only a couple of the effects can be directed so… Meh?
Anyway, if they provide an option to disable it, that will be fine, but I doubt they do.
Game on.
3 Likes
their fine without you defending them, they will still have a job despite their incompetence. you already said you leaving first chance you get so it proves it bad.
those that want play longer then a week have to suffer for months because who ever tested it did a piss poor job and should be called out for it, also who ever agreed with their piss poor testing should also be called out. this is not a free product given with goodwill, this is something that is bought so there for we have the right to judge. feel free to pay me everytime i type words on the internet and you can judge me and i’ll have others defend me saying get over it.
2 Likes
I can barely see what’s going on when it procs. It is really annoying.
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I agree. Especially the flame wave that barely moves or the iceball that goes every the monsters aren’t. or the meteors that miss all the monsters. or the Tornadoes that go in the opposite direction the monsters are.
And the sound Yuck.
3 Likes
I kind of play without sound. noise is so annoying … and this garbage hardly hurts anyway?
so it’s not just pointless - it even hinders gameplay !!
3 Likes
It reminds me of an early 2000 web page designed by a 12 year old. Can you please add more flashing, noisy, seizure inducing stuff to the game please?
- Sound effect is grating, and annoying
- Fire wave is useless, randomly goes off in uncontrollable direction, missing everything: Useless
- Green Bombs start slightly behind you, hitting nothing, because you have already killed everything back there, and don’t move with you: Useless
- Tornados, see Green Bombs above. Same thing different animation:Useless
- Rainbow Lightning moves with you, can be directed, does minimal damage to mobs, but can be reflected and one shot player: Is this a Joke? Useless.
- Ice ball. Randomly rolls around behind you, or goes off on walkabout only to be seen stuck in a corner bouncing back and forth like a slow pin ball: Useless
- Lighting changes when special theme procs, and you literally just have to stop playing if you are in a cave. Temple of the first born small cave areas are pure black. I shouldn’t need to adjust my Gamma to play the game when everything is perfect until the fireworks show starts.
Also, did you guys re tune Rifts? I have had the rainbow unicorn and teddy bear theme on 4 rifts so far, the mobs with developer names 3 times, and some of the worst possible mob combo possible every other time. Plus the mobs just seem really OP this season. Maybe that’s because I am playing a Monk, and usually play Crusader or Barb…
Come on, why was this not figured out during PTR? Was this all reported but ignored (as usual), or were the people in the PTR just too interested in figuring out the meta, and couldn’t be bothered to report on this mess?
Edit: Forgot the Ice ball.
9 Likes
It’s actually worse than it was in the PTR. And yes it was widely discussed and they said they would fix it afterwards.
10 Likes