The new Season 3 in Diablo 4 is currently receiving a lot of criticism: Too boring, too slow, the big new feature is simply not good. The discussion has been ongoing since the release on January 23. Now the Diablo expert and Twitch streamer Raxxanterax weighs in and tears everything apart in detail. Exciting, because almost everything the general public criticizes, he finds quite cool.
Who is the expert?
- Raxxanterax is one of the most renowned ARPG players worldwide, a prominent figure on Twitch, and has been active in Diablo for years.
- His expertise is currently helping thousands of players in Diablo 4. The guides on his YouTube channel are mainly aimed at the “regular” people, and his opinion is significantly important for the assessment of the best builds in the tier list of Diablo 4.
- The expert is also happy to be critical, because he values fun in gaming. Now he talks about Season 3.
Here you can find all features from Season 3 in overview. You can watch the trailer here:
This is what Raxxanterax praises: In his latest video, Raxxanterax talks about what Blizzard has done well from his perspective. Recently, there have been huge discussions about the season theme and especially the new mechanics.
The criticism of Season 3 is: The new dungeons and the companion are too boring. They offer nothing new, are just more of the same, and somehow don’t fit into the game. However, Raxxanterax praises:
- The seasonal quests were extraordinarily well done, especially the trickier parts with the new traps.
- Unlike all previous seasons, the space issues were addressed this time. Instead of cluttering the inventory with hearts or blessings, most things have been moved to the resources or a dedicated tab. Only the nightmare keys remain, but that is negligible.
- The new pet, the Seneschall, can at least tank annoying projectiles and enemies.
- Scrolls of escape, which are only available in hardcore mode, are now legendary. That’s a blessing for hardcore players because they are no longer so easy to overlook.
- The class balance is better than ever in Diablo 4. There have been some nerfs for the best builds, but overall the balance is excellent.
- Despite a few annoying bugs at release, Season 3 has so far had hardly any notable bugs, has started on time, and without issues. There is a noticeable improvement here.
- The new uniques and legendaries and that the hell floods are now permanent are great changes.
- Several of the small quality updates are also mentioned, such as: the new tab for the loot chest, the long-desired WASD movement, the timers on the map, the new “town,” or the reskill mode in talents.
Raxxanterax even praises the vaults, which are currently under significant criticism. Compared to the endgame, the loot explosion at the end of the dungeon and the experience gained is “well calculated.” Blizzard tried something new with the traps, and he appreciates that. Nevertheless, Raxxanterax sees a core issue that weighs all negatives.
The half-hour video can be found here:
“And now to the negative …”
The larger part of the video revolves around the negative aspects of the season. He notes that some problems keep recurring. For example, you still have to farm all the Uber uniques back at Duriel in a laborious manner. The biggest criticism Raxxanterax mentions, however, is the speed. Everything that happens in Season 3 is simply too slow and sluggish or comes too late.
The “one big thing” that many are looking forward to is the gauntlet and the leaderboards. However, they are only coming later in Season 3. This takes a lot of the anticipation and joy out of trying to compete in the leaderboards before everyone has the best gear and can play top builds.
Even if people might not have played themselves due to a lack of time: The races to the top have always been a highlight. Others would certainly have at least liked to watch on Twitch or something.
Even the actual season theme, the Seneschall construct, is too slow – and useless. Not only does it do nothing, but it also takes too long to level up. While the vampire powers from Season 2 provided a huge boost immediately and were easy to enhance, one has to grind endlessly for the Seneschall and gets nothing in return.
Moreover, the pet is simply never seen. While engaging with enemies, the mechanical spider is somewhere else doing its thing. If it’s not doing that, it just stands around passively, staring vacantly.
Even the idea of the season, that the new dungeons now slow everything down with traps, falls in here. However, that is not even necessarily the problem: Traps are designed to stop you and make you think. That is well implemented.
But there is a bit of a lack of focus on that. Aside from a few annoying passages that would have been better simply inserted into a nightmare dungeon, there is nothing. A vault made up only of traps, without enemies and without skills, would have been somewhat more fitting here.
Raxxanterax emphasizes that he does not want to incite hate with the video or throw Blizzard in the dirt. The goal is to help, provide feedback, and constructive criticism. But he simply doesn’t feel like it right now: “I’m trying to find the motivation, but I don’t know where it should come from.” An additional problem for the season could be that soon the 1.0 release of Last Epoch is approaching, to which Raxxanterax has already devoted himself.
