It has been a long time since I played Diablo III, and for one reason or another I got the urge to play Season 39 with what have become my two favourite classes, Demon Hunter and Barbarian. The last time I played Diablo III was non-ladder back in February 2022. As for ladder, the last time was Season 23, back in June 2021.
Over the last five years or so, there have been a few new features added, which kind of surprised me. I did not think there would be any developments of any kind, even small ones, and that the game was basically in run mode, with nothing but the most minor tweaks from season to season to make them slightly different in some way. While I found the new features, namely the Altar of Rites and Visions of Enmity, welcome and fun, they have kind of made an already easy game even easier. The Altar of Rites allows you to sacrifice resources in order to gain permanent buffs, while Visions of Enmity are portals that spawn randomly, and quite frequently, taking you to an area where you can battle enemies and bosses with a very high drop rate of legendary items. At the end, there is also a fairly large amount of resources usually found in bounty caches, allowing players to do a lot more crafting without the usual hassle.
Another feature I found was that, when creating a new character, you can make it a ‘self-found’ character. This separates it from your other characters, allowing you to start over without access to a shared stash, shared artisans, resources or Paragon level. This is one feature that did not really appeal to me. I like the idea of starting over for the season, but for me, it is more fun to build on the season with as many characters as you want, sharing the resources you have gathered, Paragon levels, etc. Still, I can see why other people might enjoy it.
For me, there is only one way to play Diablo III, and that’s hardcore. This means that if my character dies, the death is permanent and I lose everything they were carrying. With my Demon Hunter, I managed to complete a tier 108 Greater Rift, with my previous personal best being tier 95. As for my Barbarian, I completed a tier 95 Greater Rift. Both characters are on the Solo Season 39 leaderboards, but strangely, it doesn’t feel like much of an achievement. There simply aren’t that many people playing anymore.
As well as this, I also reached Paragon level 950, which isn’t particularly impressive, but it is better than my Season 23 personal best of 841 which I am happy about. I found playing Diablo III relaxing, and I really enjoyed the progression curve. However, eventually it becomes a bit too repetitive, without any real sense that you are making much progress.
Season 39 was made even easier with the addition of Shades of the Nephalem, which are summoned each time a shrine or pylon is used. There is also an extra slot for an extracted legendary item ability in Kanai’s Cube. Both of these additions are fun, but they also make everything so much easier. Maybe it is too easy now? I am curious if season 40 with have something extra special, being a decennial season, but I doubt I will have the bug to play again anytime soon.
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