Season 3 of Diablo 4 is under criticism. What bothers players the most are the new vaults. The new dungeon type is said to be unworthy, boring, and sluggish. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus sees it quite differently: for him, the vaults are really cool content.
Since Season 3 started on January 23, I have played more Diablo 4 than I have in weeks. I find this a bit surprising because the new features of the season don’t particularly excite me:
- arcane constructs are a motif I find rather lame in other universes
- visually, the Battle Pass does not excite me at all; the vampires from Season 2 were just cooler
- I don’t like pet builds, and now the big season feature is a mechanical companion for players
However, the players’ criticism came in quickly after the release: Season 3 is boring, and the new content is useless. Especially when comparing everything with Season 2, where you could just breeze through the content.
Now, however, I am a bit further along and farming the endgame content at World Tier 4 and at level 85 and higher. I regularly go into the new vaults, which are currently receiving the most hate, and I have to say: I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.
Finally go through good content without a boss killer build
What excites me the most about the vaults is that I DO NOT have to build a setup that can somehow kill bosses. Take the Meteor build for Sorcerers: It’s great against groups of enemies and absolutely useless against bosses.
While I almost always have a big boss at the end of Nightmare Dungeons, which I, as a Meteor Sorceress, wouldn’t be able to kill, I only face groups of enemies in vaults. And there are actually quite a lot of them in dense packs. This makes it fun to slice up enemies.
In general, a purely OP build only helps me to a limited extent when I want good loot. It’s more important to avoid traps. Sure, it can become monotonous since you eventually have your strategies to avoid getting hit. But depending on the enemies, I still have to watch out that no demon pulls me into a trap with its hook.
Only the new boss, who can appear randomly, occasionally throws a wrench in my plans. It’s particularly annoying when the Son of Malphas AND the Butcher appear together in the dungeon. Yes, it’s happened to me too…
I just missed these loot explosions
The biggest criticism of the vaults is mainly directed at the last room of the instance. Here, there are heaps of traps; the entire room is on fire, frozen, or poisonous. Waves of enemies come at me, shoving me around, freezing me, or otherwise harassing me.
It can quickly happen here that too many protection stacks run out, preventing me from opening all the chests at the end. With a bit of practice, though, that can be managed. However, what bothers players more is the lack of loot and XP. Both are absent or were absent in the final room.
With the latest patch, there is at least one chest. But in general, I cannot understand the criticism at all. On the one hand, there is a ton of XP throughout the entire vault. I haven’t leveled up this well in a long time. And the big loot explosion with the chests at the end feels great:
I last experienced something like this in the Goblin Rift in Diablo 3. The first time I could open all 4 chests, my eyes widened and I immediately sent the image to colleagues. Absolute dopamine rush. Even the expert Raxxanterax says: The vaults are in a good position concerning XP and loot.
By now, I have more the feeling that someone started complaining on Reddit, and everyone else just chimed in. Because they are dissatisfied and cannot really say why. Since they were so powerful at the end of Season 2, Season 3 now feels sluggish. And yes, it does. But it’s not due to the vaults. They are really top-notch.
The only thing I currently miss is a more useful seneschal. Leveling that is annoying. But as long as I somehow get stronger, I will continue grinding. And indeed, the season is still not quite on track. The criticism from players is undoubtedly justified, just not in all respects. Even Blizzard realizes that Season 3 needs improvement and already has plans.
