I recently came back to Diablo III after a LONG break (over 1 year). I haven't been following any of the updates or what is new within the game. The idea of season heroes is still new and a little vague to me and was wondering if some of the kind people out there could answer a few of my questions and highlight anything important I should know as I get into the swing of things.
1) What is the idea behind season heroes? Is any of the gear / loot transferrable to other chars or to other seasons? Or is it one season and done?
2) Is it still worth just leveling characters in regular play mode and gaining levels or are seasons the new way to go?
3) Any reason to play now or should I just wait until patch 2.5 hits on Jan 15 and start there?
Sorry if these are noob questions but seems like a lot has changed and I feel lost and want to maximize my game play.
The idea of a season is to provide a fresh start, so that people can play new things without feeling like they are behind, and so that competitive players can continuously be engaged and there is no staleness. There are two tags applied to characters: seasonal and hardcore. You can play both, either or, or neither. Any character with a different tag only has access to gear from other characters with the same tags (i.e. a hardcore seasonal character is only able to access the hardcore seasonal stash).
That said, at the end of a season, all seasonal characters lose their seasonal tag and become non-seasonal, merging with non-seasonal of the same tag between non-hardcore and hardcore. In a sense, this is a way in which seasonal gear gets transferred to non-seasonal characters.
Seasons have lasted a few months each, so it's moderately temporary.
Getting into your second question, it depends upon you. If you intend to spend the time to level all the way up and spend some time on the season, it can very much be worthwhile. Even if you don't care for the time restraint, if you're making a brand new character it is highly suggested that you at least make a seasonal character to start (the reward of a stash tab is the principal reasoning here). There are plenty of people who play non-seasonal constantly, and it's a very good option for people that are only going to play for a handful of hours every week.
To answer your third question then, there is no reason to play until January 15 if and only if you intend to play seasonal.
1) Seasons are a way for people to start fresh. This means that you'll start a character with no gear, paragon, or gold to rely on. However, everything that you accumulate in season will transfer over to your non-season profile when the season ends (including the character). A lot of the competitiveness in the end game right now is GRifting in seasons.You also get the benefit of gaining an additional stash tab if you get pretty far in the season and meet those requirements.
2) It really depends on if you want to start new or keep what you have. Personally, I will do a seasonal character until I get the stash tab and then go back to my non-seasonal characters (who I have woefully neglected as of late).
3) There are definitely reasons to play right now. You can level your gems in preparation for the new cube recipe, gain crafting mats, collect set items so you can get the immediate benefit of their affix changes in the next patch, cubing items you can use for the next builds...the list goes on and on!
Also, make sure that you spend some good time on the site and review some of the content that people have created to prepare yourself for the patch. There are a lot of changes and new things coming, so having that info in mind will help you get going once the patch lands.
I recently came back to Diablo III after a LONG break (over 1 year). I haven't been following any of the updates or what is new within the game. The idea of season heroes is still new and a little vague to me and was wondering if some of the kind people out there could answer a few of my questions and highlight anything important I should know as I get into the swing of things.
1) What is the idea behind season heroes? Is any of the gear / loot transferrable to other chars or to other seasons? Or is it one season and done?
2) Is it still worth just leveling characters in regular play mode and gaining levels or are seasons the new way to go?
3) Any reason to play now or should I just wait until patch 2.5 hits on Jan 15 and start there?
Sorry if these are noob questions but seems like a lot has changed and I feel lost and want to maximize my game play.
Thanks!
The idea of a season is to provide a fresh start, so that people can play new things without feeling like they are behind, and so that competitive players can continuously be engaged and there is no staleness. There are two tags applied to characters: seasonal and hardcore. You can play both, either or, or neither. Any character with a different tag only has access to gear from other characters with the same tags (i.e. a hardcore seasonal character is only able to access the hardcore seasonal stash).
That said, at the end of a season, all seasonal characters lose their seasonal tag and become non-seasonal, merging with non-seasonal of the same tag between non-hardcore and hardcore. In a sense, this is a way in which seasonal gear gets transferred to non-seasonal characters.
Seasons have lasted a few months each, so it's moderately temporary.
Getting into your second question, it depends upon you. If you intend to spend the time to level all the way up and spend some time on the season, it can very much be worthwhile. Even if you don't care for the time restraint, if you're making a brand new character it is highly suggested that you at least make a seasonal character to start (the reward of a stash tab is the principal reasoning here). There are plenty of people who play non-seasonal constantly, and it's a very good option for people that are only going to play for a handful of hours every week.
To answer your third question then, there is no reason to play until January 15 if and only if you intend to play seasonal.
Best of luck.
First off, welcome back! Next, your questions...
1) Seasons are a way for people to start fresh. This means that you'll start a character with no gear, paragon, or gold to rely on. However, everything that you accumulate in season will transfer over to your non-season profile when the season ends (including the character). A lot of the competitiveness in the end game right now is GRifting in seasons.You also get the benefit of gaining an additional stash tab if you get pretty far in the season and meet those requirements.
2) It really depends on if you want to start new or keep what you have. Personally, I will do a seasonal character until I get the stash tab and then go back to my non-seasonal characters (who I have woefully neglected as of late).
3) There are definitely reasons to play right now. You can level your gems in preparation for the new cube recipe, gain crafting mats, collect set items so you can get the immediate benefit of their affix changes in the next patch, cubing items you can use for the next builds...the list goes on and on!
Also, make sure that you spend some good time on the site and review some of the content that people have created to prepare yourself for the patch. There are a lot of changes and new things coming, so having that info in mind will help you get going once the patch lands.
Thanks for all the responses this was a great help!!!