Do Seasonal characters nerf the game?
I haven't played Diablo 3 in a while (maybe a year?) and I have recently created a Seasonal Barbarian Character. I have since beaten the game in ~4 hours and am halfway through my 2nd play through (ng+), and have yet to find any real challenge in the game - I beat Diablo in less than 2 minutes flat.
Additionally, I have gems, magic and rare items coming out of my nose, and I get a guaranteed unique drop on every boss, and occasionally on treasure goblins (of which there are many) and resplendent chests.
My character is:
- Level 50
- has ~400 hp/sec regen
- has never taken more than 3/4 of hp worth in damage (which is regenerated within 10 seconds anyway) - and only from attacks from "Molten" or "Arcane" monsters; bosses do next to nothing.
I specifically remember the game being far more challenging the last time I played, my other Barbarian character (also at the same point) has encountered far less unique items, has far more trouble with the bosses, and needs 2 hands to count the number of times he died.
So do seasonal Characters alter the difficulty of the game at all?
Note: I have played the game multiple times before, with all other characters, and I have played the entire series as well, so this is not an issue with unfamiliarity with the game (i.e. "learning the ropes").
Best Answer
A little bit.
There have been a lot of game changes since you last played, and Orc JMR's post goes into some of them. The itemization change and rebalancing of difficulty levels in particular made a huge difference, but these happened before seasons and affect non-seasonal characters too.
Where seasonal characters make the game "easier" is the bonus they added in season 5 to the Season Journey back in patch 2.4: Haedrig's Gift. Now, when you complete certain objectives in the season, you are rewarded with a full six-piece set of gear.
Prior to that patch, when you first hit 70 you had to spend a while farming level 70 rares and crafting some of the entry-level set pieces and legendaries so you could run on one of the Torment difficulties and farm your six-set and better legendaries. These days, you still have to do a little bit of that, but you can be handed your first set bonus as early as hitting level 70 on Expert. This greatly reduces the "early 70 gear-up" time. allowing you to jump to higher Torment levels faster than before.
Non-seasonal characters don't have this advantage and must gear up the old-fashioned way. Note that seasonal characters will convert over to regular characters at the end of the season and will retain all of their equipment and items. So in that sense, seasonal characters make the game a little bit easier.
That said, from the description in your question, the seasonal character part is probably not what's affecting your play experience. If you're finding the game too easy, I'd recommend cranking up the difficulty. If I remember right, Master unlocks when your first character hits level 60, and Torment I+ at 70, but you could still be running on Expert for now.
Also note the difficulty goes up a bit in the 50-70 range as the monsters keep scaling but you start out-leveling your easily available gear upgrades.
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