In Season 21 of Diablo 3, groups are currently using the season theme with an unusual method to become particularly strong. Players thought it was an exploit. Now Blizzard says that it’s intended – some can’t believe it.
What is happening in Season 21? The new season of Diablo 3 started on July 3 with issues. Shortly after the launch, some players noticed that the season theme was incredibly annoying. Complaints about this persisted for weeks – also that some group players were exploiting the new buff for enormous strength. There was a suspicion that it was an exploit that players were taking advantage of.
Now there is a statement from the Diablo team. However, it did not turn out the way some players in the community imagined. Blizzard has endorsed the method.
Blizzard says: “It works as intended”
What did Blizzard do? In a forum post on Diablo, Blizzard addressed the season theme of Season 21 on July 15. They announced that there was a hotfix and explained in the patch notes for the hotfix what this changed.
Among other things, they removed this annoying honking that was driving players crazy. They also took away players’ ability to collect stacks for the season buff outside of Greater Nephalem Rifts and then bring them into the rift. This apparently fell under the “exploit” category.
This group exploit is not an exploit: Essentially, the season buff works by building up stacks for the buff through killing monsters. The more stacks, the more powerful the effect, which occurs after 90 seconds. This effect manifests in-game as a large area damage ability that damages enemies and even rift bosses. Once the effect is triggered after 90 seconds of collecting, the stack collection starts all over again.
For solo players, this mechanic is simple and easy to handle. For group play, there is a mechanic to share these stacks among each other.
Players discovered that the system can be manipulated in a group to extend the time to collect stacks indefinitely instead of just 90 seconds. The great advantage of this is that with this method, thousands of stacks can be collected. When these then trigger the effect on the rift boss, it gets “oneshotted” – it simply drops dead.
This is Blizzard’s response: In the forum post that Blizzard published regarding the hotfix, players ask:
- “Too bad that it doesn’t help against the people exploiting the stacks and completing GR150s”
- “And the exploit continues, right? If that’s the case, I’m done with the season […]”
- “So when will you fix the exploit of stacked buff stacks that has allowed many 4-man groups to run GR150s, thus earning them many gems at rank 150, 750 Caldesanns [through Kanai’s Cube] and a ridiculous number of Paragon levels?”
In response to all these questions about group play, Community Manager PezRadar replies in the forum:
“According to the design team’s intent, sharing the seasonal buff in groups works as intended.”
Players respond sometimes with surprise, anger, or make fun of it.
- “Lol. Ridiculous. It’s not a bug, but a feature. GG.”
- “Wait, you’re telling me that building and sharing stacks to finish GR150s is your ‘intended design’? Instead of my character killing mobs? LOL GG 150 for everyone. […]”
- “I can’t find words. I literally can’t imagine how passing the buff is ‘intended’. This is ridiculous.”
- “LOL. So the whole ‘exploit’ thing simply works as intended? I was wondering why I didn’t see anything about it in the patch notes. At least we know now. Some players were worried they might get banned for this.”
Others refuse to accept the statement. They suspect that Blizzard currently doesn’t know how to fix the problem. Therefore, they would declare it as “intended”.
How do you feel about this method of passing around stacks? Do you use it yourself or does it not bring you joy? And what do you think of Blizzard’s statement? How Season 21 shows me why it’s finally time for Diablo 4.
