Please explain seasons to me

PC General Discussion
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Hello! I am a diablo noob and im not sure how to understand seasons. Basically if i start a Sorc at the start, will i be able to progress said Sorc every new season to get levels on it and rewards and such or do i have to make a new character and level it from scratch every time a new season comes out?

Also i see that cosmetics are class specific. If i buy cosmetic on one sorc will it be available on another?

I kind of prefer to have a main character that i progress rather than start from scratch every time. Could someone please help explain?

Thanks!

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You will have to make a new character from scratch at every season if you want to play seasons. But at the end of the season it goes in the eternal realm and you can continue to play it there if you wish.

As for cosmetics, my understanding is that you can use them on any character of a given class.

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god damn it. was hoping to progress just 1 or 2 toons.

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You can. Blizz mentioned that every season there will be a continued story, you dont have to play seasons if you dont want to.

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Will you be ale to progress every new season?:

Yes and no. There is an eternal realm which is basically opting out of new seasonal content and you could continue any previous characters there. To participate in new seasonal content (may include dungeons, bosses, new uniques, who knows what), you will have to start a new character within that seasonal realm. If you want to see a game that does seasonal content and fresh starts, check out PoE

Cosmetics are per account iirc, so yes any cosmetic that is applicable to a given class (like you cant wear necro cosmetics on a barbarian) will always be available across all characters and seasons.

Again, you could keep working on just the 1 character, but you would then be opting out of seasonal content and leaderboards? if that is your thing.

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In general ARPGs arent designed or balanced to play 1 character forever. For 1 thing, eventually you will get the best possible gear in every slot. But long before that happens, youll get gear that is close to the best possible and get like 90% of the power possible in your build.
As your power level approaches max, it takes longer and longer to get smaller and smaller upgrades.

Once you get to that point, you have a choice: keep grinding for many hours for small.improvements, or make a new character to try a new build. Both are viable.

But because so many people like to make a new character at this point, seasons have become a standard in ARPGs.
Seasons are a fresh start, where you get to truely play the early game again, and start the journey over. Seasons also tend to have new interesting mechanics that change the way you play.

At the end of a season, your seasonal character becomes a regular character.
It is absolutely viable to play through a season with the same class as your main.

What happens if you choose to play the same class as your main in season is you get to put in those grind hours needed to power up your main, but you get faster progression in the season.

Maybe at the end of the season you end up with 1 item that is an upgrade for your main character. Thats great! Thats what you would expect to get rarely on a near max power character.
But instead of having a stagnant power level the whole time, you got to have fun progressing a new character with new mechanics.

TLDR: Seasons are just another way to play. And attractive when your power gains slow down to almost nothing in endgame

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Seasons seem to be monetised test servers, it’s actually quite brilliant of whoever came up with this idea, but from my point of view it isn’t very gamer friendly - having to repeatedly level a temporary character every time they have new systems to test, while paying for the experience.

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Uh… its not a subscription based game. Seasons have been a thing in ARPGs for like a decade.

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You don’t have to pay anything to play seasons. You pay only if you want additional cosmetics from the premium battlepass.

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When you consider it as continously adding new content/mechanics and even season specific storylines, which you don’t have to pay an extra dime for, then it’s just a way to keep the game fresh and give long-time players an incentive to start a new character with a new build to have a new experience of the game.
I welcome seasons greatly, though I understand some level of frustration about the separation between season and eternal realm in terms of “losing progress”

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You don’t subscribe to seasons, you pay for the battlepass (or do the free one). But having a paid battlepass on seasons is like asking for money to play on a test server then rewarding the paying test subjects with a special outfit or an emote.

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You decide for yourself if the cosmetic additions warrant for any extra money from your side though. It’s not necessary to pay to access any of the new content in terms of gameplay. Just the cosmetic side of things, which is very fair imo.
And the testing part is actually just the way online games work these days. They need the player feedback to find out about specific balancing issues, bugs or qol additions some might want. Using seasons to test out new features while at the same time taking the players’ feedback into account is basically just benefitting both sides and better than the alternative of having a game just be the way it is without a singular change ever.

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There is an upper bound on character progression such that no further progression is possible outside of collecting cosmetics. A season might introduce some new legendaries or sets or w/e but those will also come to the eternal realm. If you’re already maxed out you most likely already have equivalent gear anyways.

This game doesn’t have indefinite progression like an MMO.

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Yep yep. Still, a paid test server is how it looks to work, assuming you buy the battlepass.

If you go in free it’s just basically a test server.

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thank you everyone for your replies. not sure if i have patience to level a new toon every 3 months. depends how stron FOMO is LOL!

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More of an expanded story rather than continued. The questline will be based around the season mechanic rather than the main story. Also, because it is based on the season mechanic it’s unlikely it will make it to the eternal realm.

You can believe what you want. To a certain extent it’s true, but do you think launch is going to be any different? It’s a 70$ test server. Season are just what they focus on and then choose what to add to the base game after it’s over. It’s more that eternal is an afterthought rather than seasons being a test server.

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The character you create, that’s non-seasonal one, won’t be deleted. You can play how many hours you want with it. However at some point there are no further option for your character to improve.

A season usually bring in new mechanics, progress the story, bring in new items and new skins.

Your non-seasonal character, will still be able to progress the story, get skins but can’t enjoy the season specific mechanics.

To enjoy the seasonal bonuses, you need to create a new character and start from zero. As if you just created a new account. Your money and chest aren’t shared between seasonal and non-seasonal characters.

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Eternal Realm: Here, your characters are store forever (until you delete them or if they’re Hardcore character, when they die in-game). There is a 10 slot limit if I’m not wrong.

Seasonal Realm: Here is where you start afresh with new character for each season, lasting around 3 months time. You get rewards like new items and cosmetics just by playing the seasonal contents. At the end of 3 months, characters here are transfer to your Eternal Realm slots.

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If you play enough then you get bored because you’ve pretty much maxed out everything to the point that you’re only getting an upgrade every 24 hours of play or something. And because of shared stash and resources, starting a new character is also pretty boring because you just hand your new alt all the money and gear they need to never be less than overpowered.

So the main point of seasons it that they put up a wall between your new character and everything you’ve achieved in the past. No shared gold, no shared items, etc. Also everyone playing the season starts out exactly equal, just like it was June 2023 again. You can have the same chance at success as a new player as someone who has been playing since release.

It ends up being something you’ll look forward to.

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June 20, 2023

Replying to: “Please explain seasons to me”
And a little mention about the current XP in D4!

Hi Kel!

Yes and No.

For some clarity, based on my experience with Diablo 3, your current characters and game progress you build up in Diablo 4 on the Eternal Realm remain unaffected regardless of D4 season game play. You don’t have to create a new character and play any D4 season, but you will miss out on some Diablo 4 epic game goodies, loot, achievements etc… so you may want to try out season game play in Diablo 4. :slight_smile:

However, if you participate in any Season of Diablo 4, you need to start from level 1 to max level for every new season, etc., same as Diablo 3. It has always been this way. It’s a choice all players have in Diablo 3 and 4. So again, your current progress with your existing characters on the Eternal Realm server will not be affected in any way during any Diablo 4 season.

The first Season of Diablo 4 won’t launch until late July or latest August 2023, (no set date yet), but once you complete the main campaign story line with Lilith and Inarius you should have access to create a new seasonal character, which is separate from your existing characters on the Eternal Realm. Once the season finishes (usually in 3 months), your seasonal character(s) will be moved to the Eternal Realm where your current characters are, which you can also continue playing them.

Any loot, gold, achievements, etc. will also be sent to the Eternal Realm where your main account characters are. I’m not sure how it will work out if all of your character slots are full, though. Unless Blizzard has it figured it already.

So there is your answer: Yes, you have to recreate, rebirth, and re-level a new character for every new Season of Diablo 4.

And No, your existing characters are not affected in any way regardless of any D4 Season in the game. So you are good. :slight_smile:

On Players XP and D4 Improvements From Blizzard:
Lastly, each new Diablo 4 Season can also bring quality-of-life improvements, and hopefully a nice BOOST to our awful XP in Diablo 4! - We are all hoping! - You LISTENING Blizzard D4 Team!!? Stop Nerfing everything! Make the game fun and rewarding, cause it’s a hell-grind right now! - Thank you! :wink:

I hope this post helps answer your questions on Diablo 4 Seasons and your existing characters.

Cheers,
JJ

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