Season 11 started on Thursday rather than the usual Friday around 5pm. Since then I haven’t done anything to participate in the season thus far. Usually, a new season is when I feel most excited for Diablo 3 as there commonly is new content, especially this season with the Necromancer DLC. So what happened?
Right now, I’ve just been utterly exhausted from work. I’ve been carpooling with my coworker and getting up quite early every day (without an alarm!). I try to leave work around 5-6pm, but the traffic has been so awful that it takes me at least an hour to make it home. On top of that I had been tasked with some stressful assignments that leave me mentally drained in addition to spending a great deal of time either interviewing new candidates or training recent hires.
The net result has been that my overall interest in gaming has dwindled. The DLC was a nice change but beyond doing some initial gearing to experiment with the Necromancer and checking out the new zones via Rifts, I honestly have not been all that excited for the current season.
Part of it is that the game has become somewhat mundane for me. It’s the same meta for the past several seasons and the set dungeons really aren’t my thing. The only exciting reason for me to do seasons anymore is just to feel that initial rush and accumulating some new gear.
But because my time has become so limited lately, I really didn’t want to put forth the same effort as I had done in the past into this season. Instead, with Game of Thrones Season 7 recently premiering, I’ve been utterly obsessed along those lines. My Sunday nights practically are me watching Game of Thrones at least three times with a good few hours writing up a review.
After work on Friday, I did absolutely nothing outside of returning home and just knocking out for the rest of the night. My Saturday was spent sleeping and a little shopping. So Sunday most likely will be spent doing a few chores before Game of Thrones as well as more writing.
Unfortunately, that means my game time is pretty much gone. Yes, I do play Boom Beach but the time/effort isn’t a lot compared to Diablo 3. I was playing Baldur’s Gate 2 again but I’m close to finishing up Shadows of Amn and have slowed down considerably. Instead, my interest isn’t gaming but more on my writing with some random hobby mixed in here and there.
I kind of feel that my other friends who would play Diablo 3 with me have long lost interest in the game. The game is still fun to a degree but it’s in a very repetitive cycle. Yes, the Necromancer DLC did manage to freshen things up slightly but the core mechanics and goals of the game remain the same.
I think if I want to become engaged again to the game another feature like Kanai’s Cube must be introduced. Sets, legendary powers and Kanai’s Cube had re-established the meta for Diablo 3 but over time all the main avenues for paths to power have settled down. It’s unlikely in the near future that we’ll see new sets added to the game, unless they’re dedicated to a new DLC type of class. And while I think the idea of Challenge Rifts can spice things up, that particular style of gaming doesn’t really appeal to me that much.
The one announcement from Blizzcon that enticed me was hearing how there might be a forthcoming Kanai’s Cube power that allowed one to extract a legendary power from one item into another. Now, that type of feature is game changing. While it may throw the notion of balance off, the game is in a situation where that needs to occur. My issue is that the main game is somewhat static in feeling where the core rules are too established and that there’s no room for creativity as a player.
For instance, I still think Unhallowed Essence/Multishot Demon Hunter is a lot of fun. But I know what to expect and eventually hit a wall in terms of what I can do. The rest all depends on what type of gear I acquire, the stats, paragons and pushing my gem levels. But the increase in power in the latter stages of the game feel marginal compared to the initial ramp up time in getting the core pieces.
I’ve mentioned that new ways to customize your character like the aforementioned legendary power extraction and my previous blog on making followers far more significant are what’s required to bring a new life into the game. I think the basic game is still very good but for those of us who are very familiar with the game, we need new mechanics beyond a new monster or power here and there to increase the manner in which one plays the game.
In the end, I might play this season at some point. The main motivation will be for the portrait and pet. But outside of that, I feel once I get to a certain point of power, my motivation will drop since Set Dungeons end up killing my desire to play further than necessary.
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