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Lots of Info on Seasons

The first Season on the PTR has come to an end, and with it Season 2 has started. There was a post with updates of the Season status throughout the day, and lots of information, on the duration of Seasons, on normal character slots being used by Seasonal heroes, among many others. Note that since the posts are considerably long, they were compacted, with some line breaks removed and the "updates" put on quotes - for ease of reading. Check the unformatted posts here.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

UPDATE 7:00 p.m. PDT: 
Leaderboards have been reset and Seasonal heroes can be created. If you didn't have the chance to participate in PTR Season 1, click here to learn how to create a Seasonal character for PTR Season 2:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13508320809
Please note that we've discovered a known issue with Seasonal Leaderboard data. More information can be found here:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13733483374?page=6#117
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UPDATE 6:15 p.m. PDT:
PTR Season 1 has successfully closed and maintenance has concluded. PTR Season 2 is now live. A server-wide message will appear once new Seasonal heroes can be created (so keep your eyes peeled). 
In addition, we will be wiping all Leaderboards and Personal Best Records in approximately 30 minutes. 

Hello everyone, 
At approximately 2:00 p.m. PT today, we will be closing "Season 1" on the PTR. Leading up to the end of the Season, all PTR participants who are in a Seasonal game will receive a 30 minute countdown. When the countdown ends, all Seasonal games will be immediately closed and the current Season will be over. 

PTR Season 1 Roll-Over:

After PTR Season 1 has ended, the Season roll-over will begin. During the roll-over, your Seasonal heroes, inventory, shared stash, and Paragon experience will be transferred to your non-Seasonal profile. 

Normal heroes, inventory, shared stash, and Paragon experience will transfer to your Normal non-Seasonal profile. Similarly, Hardcore heroes, inventory, shared stash, and Paragon experience will transfer to your Hardcore non-Seasonal profile. 

• Heroes: At the end of a Season, your Seasonal heroes will become non-Seasonal heroes. They will appear in your normal roster. Any items, equipped or in the hero’s inventory, will roll-over with the hero itself.
• Shared Stash: Items in your Seasonal heroes’ shared stash will be mailed to your Normal/Hardcore non-Seasonal profile. These items can be retrieved by entering a game on any non-Seasonal hero and clicking on the mail icon located in the lower left of your screen.
• Currency: Gold will be automatically transferred from your Seasonal profile to your non-Seasonal profile. Ditto forhttp://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13733483374?page=3#42" class="bml-link-url2">Blood Shards</a>.
• Paragon Experience: Paragon experience earned during a Season will transfer over directly without any additional involvement required from players. All Paragon experience will transfer, with experience gained by Normal Seasonal heroes going to the account’s Normal non-Seasonal profile, and experience gained by Hardcore Seasonal characters going to the account’s Hardcore non-Seasonal profile. (Note: Non-Paragon experience will not transfer.)
• Artisans and Crafting Plans: If your Seasonal Artisans are a higher level than your non-Seasonal Artisans, their level will transfer at the end of the season to your non-Seasonal profile. Any recipes you have on your Seasonal Artisans that are not available to your non-Seasonal Artisans will be transferred as well.

If you experience any issues with the roll-over, please let us know in this thread, and provide as many details as possible. The more information we have, the better we’ll be able to identify and address the core problem. 

PTR Season 2 Pre-Season:

Approximately 2 hours after PTR Season 1 concludes (around 4:00 p.m. PT), we'll take the PTR down for a short maintenance. This maintenance is anticipated to last for roughly 1 to 2 hours. 
Once maintenance ends and the PTR is brought back online, PTR Season 2 will be in what’s called "pre-season." During this pre-season phase:

• Heroes: You will not be able to create Seasonal heroes or play Seasonal games.
• Achievements: All PTR Season 1 achievements will be wiped. However, you will still be able to view your Seasonal achievement point total and completed Conquests in your hero Profile.
• Leaderboards: All Leaderboard and Personal Best records from PTR Season 1 will still be viewable in both the Profile and Leaderboard screens.

PTR Season 2 Begins:

Sometime after 5:30 p.m. PT, PTR Season 2 will begin and all PTR participants will receive an in-game notification. At this time, Seasonal heroes and Seasonal games can be created. In addition, the Seasonal shared stash, Paragon experience, currency, artisans, achievements, leaderboards, and Personal Best records will all be reset. 

If you didn't have the chance to participate in PTR Season 1, click here to learn how to create a Seasonal character for PTR Season 2: <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13508320809

Please note that all times provided are estimate and subject to change.
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Character Slots and Seasonal Heroes

Please, can you explain what is going to happen if we already have all characters slots full in the normal roster? The seasonal character its going to be added in a new character slot?

In order to create a Seasonal hero, you'll need to have an empty character slot in your roster. If you do not have an empty character slot at the start of a Season, you will need to first delete one of your active heroes.

Will achievements earned in season mode also be rolled over to non-season and granted there (if you didnt previously have them in non-season)?

Under current design, if you unlock an achievement on a Seasonal hero that you haven't already unlocked on a non-Seasonal hero, you'll gain credit for both at the same time.
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Gold, Artisan Levels and Stash Space

1. Does gold count as "inventory" and will also be transferred?
2. Other progress such as artisan levels or crafting plans your artisans have learned will not be transferred/refunded in any way, right?
3. I second one of the questions above - what happens if your normal roster stash doesn't have enough space for all the items in your seasonal stash?

1. Gold will be automatically transferred from your Seasonal profile to your non-Seasonal profile. Ditto for Blood Shards. 
2. If your Seasonal Artisan is higher level, its level should transfer at the end of the season. Any recipes you have on your Seasonal Artisan that are not on your non-Seasonal Artisan are transferred as well.
3. All items within the Seasonal stash will be mailed to your non-Seasonal profile at the end of the season. These items aren't automatically placed in your non-Seasonal stash, so you can wait and make room first before claiming them (if needed). Under current design, mailed items from your Seasonal stash will remain available for 30 days after a Season has ended. 

Note: Seasonal heroes will be separated by mode, i.e. Normal and Hardcore. Normal Seasonal heroes will become Normal non-Seasonal heroes, and Hardcore Seasonal heroes will become Hardcore non-Seasonal heroes. Paragon experience, Artisan levels, items, gold, etc earned by Seasonal heroes will transfer to the appropriate non-Seasonal mode. 

I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that a seasonal character already takes up one of the slots and thus it will simply stay in that slot, but have its seasonal tag removed.

Correct.
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Blood Shards and Seasons
Quick note about Blood Shards and Season roll-overs:

When transferring over your Blood Shards from your Seasonal profile to your non-Seasonal profile, we will temporarily ignore the 500 cap. 

For example, let's say my Seasonal profile has 200 Blood Shards and my non-Seasonal profile has 400. At the end of a Season, the 200 shards from my Seasonal profile will combine with the stack of 400 from my non-Seasonal profile, giving me 600 shards total (not 500, the normal cap). This is deliberate.

The caveat here is that players will be unable to pick up any more Blood Shards until they drop below 500.
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Legendary Gems

What will happen to legendary gems? Will their levels add to those of the same non-seasonal legendary gems? Will you have two of such gems? Or will it simply end up being the higher level gem becomes the non-seasonal gem?

Under current design, you'll have two of such gems.

Double Rift Guardian Bug

There is currently a bug on the PTR where two Rift Guardians can spawn at the end of a Greater Rift. The developers are already aware and working on a solution.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Two Guardians spawned at the end of a Greater Rift

I was doing a level 30 Greater Rift. I failed to summon the boss before the time ran out, by about 2 seconds at most. (It was very close.) I was fighting an elite pack when The Binder spawned. While fighting the spider, I ran around to a better position. When I picked up the purple globes from the elite pack I'd been fighting, a second Guardian spawned, Saxtris.

Here is a screenshot of the two bosses: http://imgur.com/XbpDn3c

Thanks for the reports about this. We are indeed aware of the issue, and as other players have mentioned this is in our known issues list. I went ahead and edited the entry in known issues to indicate that this can also occur in single player games under certain circumstances.

Amazonian Parma Removed

The seasonal Crusader shield Amazonian Parma, which allowed your Phalanx to spawn twice as many avatars, has been currently removed. It is currently unknown if it will return to the game in a future build.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hey. Does any1 besides me have the problem with this shield? Ever since I've logged in today my shield does not have the x2 phalanx buff. Did they removed it permanently or it's just a minor bug that it could be solved in hours?

For now, this is intended. The legendary affix on the Amazonian Parma was removed intentionally, and the item itself will no longer drop on the PTR. I can't say for sure weather or not it will return with the same legendary affix, a new affix, or even weather it will return to the game at all, but for now, the missing affix and the fact that it does not drop are intentional.