I’ve seen a few people explain seasons in terms of characters that are created for each season. What happens to characters that are played generally? How do they fit in the context of seasons? Indeed, what is the point of seasons?
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Think of a season like a “bucket” where characters and progress are stored. Eternal characters are in a bucket like that already. At the end of each season, everything from the “seasonal” bucket is dumped into the “eternal” bucket. It’s just a chance to start over with everyone, typically with new content or mechanics before they’re added to the core gameplay. Diablo 3 has the same system, as well as Path of Exile.
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Do seasons impact the “eternal” game at all concurrently? Are non-seasonal characters locked out of seasons, whatever the seasonal content may be?
Eternal characters are always eternal and aren’t impacted by seasons.
Seasonal character become eternal character at the end of the season.
Gear and some other stuff your seasonal characters collect will still be usable once they transfer to eternal, but only if it’s in your personal inventory, not the shared stash. So, before a season ends, move everything there.
That’s about it, I think.
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…Let me see if I understand this straight. Am I wasting my time playing a character right now thinking that I would be playing it in season one? Blizzard did a smart thing to throw the first battle pass into the deluxe and ultimate editions with the sunk cost thing but alarms are going off in my head.
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Not wasting time if youre enhoying it. But no, your current character will not be part of season 1.
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…What am I supposed to be enjoying considering it doesn’t carry over into the thing that is supposed to keep the game fresh?
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This is how all ARPGs work to extend longevity of the game. Seasons are introduced with some kind of unique, but minor changes to the game such as new powers or enemy types being introduced and you start all over again at the start of each season.
Eternal characters will not be part of the Season. They are separate.
Each new season, you can choose to roll up another season character. They start as level 1 with only the stat boosts from Lilith shrines and rewards you have opened up applying.
At the end of the season, all season characters will be turned into eternal characters so the new season you start a;l over again.
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Eternal characters are separate from everything season related.
Every season will be a fresh start.
Eternal will also be up in parallel you can just play on the eternal server if you like.
This is typical for this genre. However, whether you’re wasting your time on an eternal character now is for you to decide. I wouldn’t call learning how the game, the classes, builds, gear, aspects, glyphs, and paragon work, not to mention all the systems like upgrading and crafting, a waste. You have time now to experiment with various classes and builds, and when season one comes along, you’ll be prepared to make more intelligent choices on which character and build to use.
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I appreciate the clear responses. I think the only thing seasons will test is my will to not be an idiot. I must write I’m genuinely surprised by how stagnant Blizzard is. It’s like they have no instinct for innovation.
What for? And how can such a simple repetitive experience be justified as an opportunity for slow-learners? Is your motivation the leaderboard? Do you understand much of that is a function of time, i.e. you can’t really compete with the people whose literal job this will become, analogous to manual labor grind?
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If it helps OP, I didn’t get all this either and did a lot of looking into it. I never played a game with seasons before.
At this point, I am not rolling out any alts because I am saving them for seasons. When season 1 comes along, I’ll roll out my first alt. When the seasons done, they’ll take some goodies along with them and be moved to Eternal realm and then I’ll play them there when I feel like it. I highly doubt I’ll want to play each and every season. Especially with how bull headed they’re being about having to do (mostly) all renown over again.
Otherwise, just have fun on Eternal. If you’re like me, you’re not speeding to level 100 so there is PLENTY of time to be spent on the Eternal realm. If you’re not like me and speed your way to 100 and just like to hit the markers and “win” the game, I would imagine seasons are where it’s at.
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That’s up to you to decide.
Doing some things now are going to be unlocked acnt-wide that carry over into seasons (Lilith alter renown and stat points + map fog of war).
In PoE and most games everything you have to do from scratch in a new season so at least this is kind of generous of them.
There are also seasonal ladders, so everyone has to start fresh for that reason.
The by far and most part of seasons/ladders is the chance to earn season exclusive rewards/MTX to use whenever you want. Also, seasons in PoE and D3 always have some kind of season mechanic that alters the game somehow and buffs you in some kind of unique way.
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You seem unfamiliar with the ARPG genre and more wanting this to be an MMO where content is infinitely stacked onto what’s already there.
ARPGs play out a bit differently to avoid infinite power spike and always have gear to chase.
If they aren’t for you then you can continue to play on your Eternal character, but the content dry’s up and most ARPG players welcome new seasons to re-experience the content with added changes.
Usually those changes are carried into the Eternal part of the game after the season is finished, sometimes when the season starts, but it’s never enough content to satiate the type of player that wants MMO levels of activity.
What I truly can’t understand is how this is winning. When I watch such streamers they might as well be dead on the inside.
What is this?
I just want it to make sense. lol
Wow, I see. I actually thought seasons would build up onto the game.
I gave WoW a chance. I was literally confused by what I encountered. I actually had a chat with someone in-game where I was expressing my confusion over what is supposed to make this game good and when I was told that this was supposed to be treated “like a second job” I did not turn back.
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This is how arpgs work don’t overthink it that’s the genre and that’s how it’s made a lot of people find it fun you don’t that’s the end do t spend 70$ on something u don’t do research about u could have tried POE and seen how it works without spending money
Maybe the Koreans can do something about this. A game like Lost Ark having its ridiculous monetization excised could move the market forward by beating the dumb and stagnant products of western companies like Blizzard. I can’t believe they spent several years just to refresh a clearly flawed old concept. Gamers like myself are desperate and can’t do anything about this so all you can hope for is competition.
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The “Eternal” characters all get moved to the “Eternal” server where previous seasonal characters live. They will be the level, gear, etc… that you left them on the last day of the season you played them in. You can then continue to enjoy playing them on the non-seasonal world for as long as the service continues.
It truly applies an artificial “fresh start” to the game when a season begins. Depending on how they intend to patch seasonal servers and the eternal servers, generally the most UPDATED version is the Live Seasonal servers. That means in the past, the “eternal server characters” would not enjoy any of the new content, items, rewards, story, etc… until the season ended.
I am not sure on how they will handle patches in D4 for the Eternal Server and the Live Season Servers. I hope they make a departure from the “Live Season Servers” only get the new stuff and the Eternal servers have to wait. 
It’s also a new Ladder/Achievement reset which allows the folks who exploit or genuinely try to attempt the fastest climb to level 100.
I’m not a huge fan of them, I’ll be honest… in D3 I never played my characters again that were on the “Eternal server”. I think for many people, they would play the first month or two of a new season to try the new seasonal gimmick and “changes”. Then like our house, we just let the characters die off in Eternal slumber.
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