The new Season 22 has started in Diablo 3 and MeinMMO editor Patrick Freese says: Leveling is finally exciting again. Find out here what the new factor of the season is that creates the excitement.
What’s going on in Diablo 3? Last night, on November 20, at 5:00 PM the kickoff for the new season in Diablo 3 started.
To celebrate the start, I made plans with friends to start the season together and chat in Teamspeak. This is something of a tradition for us – at the start of a season in Diablo 3, everyone gets together and plays intensely for a weekend. Afterwards, it gradually decreases over the next few days until only a few play now and then.
What we definitely wanted to try out is the new theme of Season 22.
- When you activate a Pylon or Shrine in the game, a Shadow Clone spawns. This is a clone of your class that plays one of three class-specific builds and helps with taking down enemies.
- There are now 4 slots available in Kanai’s Cube.
We were really curious about the Shadow Clones. Because they are already used early in the leveling process.
And they lived up to our high expectations. These things are amazing!
Shadow Clones while Leveling – If you’re lucky, it gets really great
How does it work with the clones? Blizzard explains in the blog that the clones are created as soon as you activate a Pylon or Shrine. I tried this with my buddy in a Nephalem Portal and indeed: Immediately after activation, the Shadow Friends stand next to you and start bashing the enemies. They last for a full minute unless you change the level before then. Awesome!
This is how leveling went for me: My friends and I quickly realized that the clones not only help a little. These things are incredibly strong. In a group of 3-4 players, where everyone has at least one clone, the damage output is immense. The Rift bosses simply burst even at leveling on torment levels. We hadn’t assessed these things to be this powerful.
This created an interesting suspense while leveling. The time between the pylons was quite slow, as you know from leveling in Diablo 3. But everyone in our group was eager to see if there might be a Shrine hiding around the next corner that could grant us the delicious Shadow Clones.
The level stage was hardly at the forefront for us. It was about: Where is the next point that spawns the Shadow Clones for us? That uncertainty contributes a significant part to the tension that was a constant companion during our leveling phase.
Because when we had them, we just marched through every mob group. No enemy could harm us while leveling because every one was grilled by the clones beforehand. As soon as we had clones in tow, we were in God Mode for a minute. And that was a lot of fun while leveling.
Without the clones, leveling is really tedious. Although Blizzard managed to make the boring leveling fun again with Season 19.
What Blizzard can improve
What bothers? Although the clones make leveling and rifting really exciting, there are also points that annoy.
If you change a level in a Nephalem Portal, the clones do not follow you. So if you discover a Shrine or Pylon just before entering the next level and have already cleaned out the current level, the clones quickly vanish and do not help you in the new section. This significantly dampened the experience for me and my friends.
It would also be cool to see a timer in the game. It could be displayed in the buff bar above the skills. Because currently, you know from the patch notes that the clones last for a minute. But when those 60 seconds are up, it is not shown in the game. Here, Blizzard could easily help with a simple buff timer.
How do you like the new Season 22 with the Shadow Clones? Is this a change to your liking?
If you are still unsure which class to play now or next in Diablo 3, you can ask our Wheel of Destiny for Season 22.
