The problem lies exactly in these seasonal activities…
Instead of fixing class balance and focusing on the power of each character (and here, of course, a key element is itemization—which I have a lot to say about), we get copy-paste “seasonal powers” every season. And with each season, the problems become obvious. The design of these powers is such that you either play one specific build that synergizes with the seasonal power, or the powers are so strong that your entire build (like in the current Season 8) revolves solely around that mechanic. To me, it feels like a circus…
Supposedly, we have a “designed” game where each class should have its own unique playstyle depending on the class spell and build, and the synergy of other spells/passives/gear. But the problem is—it’s like wrapping a pebble in candy paper and giving it to a child!
First: itemization!
The game was supposed to be designed (I’ve had it since early access with early launch access) so that a character’s power comes from the player’s skill and the proper synergy of abilities. But in reality, that’s not how it turned out. Items made up about 60% of a character’s power, 35% came from paragons and glyphs, and only 5% from well-chosen passives.
Why? Because the game has enemy power scaling with your level. And while you could feel the difficulty from level 1 to 45, by level 50 it completely disappeared. Why? Because enemy scaling stopped at level 50, but you still progressed with paragons.
Poor design and an unfinished system. The dev team gave up and started throwing in ridiculous numbers for items and paragons/glyphs—dressing Diablo 3 in a Diablo 4 costume. (I think this is because the D3 team joined D4’s development.)
Another thing—items.
Well, the itemization system was changed six times, all aiming to make sure players got the best gear as quickly as possible—as if walking across a bridge instead of carefully crossing a rope over a chasm with safety gear.
Why? Because there’s no satisfaction from walking across a dull bridge with boring scenery. But walking across a rope with safety harnesses over a chasm at least gives you some adrenaline. (The game lacks emotion—even when something good drops, you don’t feel anything because you know everyone else has it too.)
The game also lacks vision. In my opinion, it will share the same fate as D3, even though Blizzard “guarantees” long-term support. But what kind of guarantee is that? Just like promising yearly expansions. We can already see the budget cuts with Season 8—and it will only get worse in future seasons.
The game is slowly becoming just like D3, with similar seasons. They’ve completely given up on class balance, throwing in seasonal powers to compensate for weak class combinations. But this risks some classes becoming entirely unplayable in a future season.
And sure, sometimes they throw in a bit of balance with new uniques…
But good grief—how many uniques were added in Season 8?
It’s not looking good.
season activity aka incursions is the most lazy dumb boring thing they ever done.