The fluctuating pace and quality of Diablo 4's seasonal updates have sparked ongoing controversy within the community, with the upcoming Season of Death Awakening pushing this divergence to new heights.
The notion that odd-numbered seasons are better and even-numbered seasons are worse has gained traction. The success of Season 13 and the positive feedback from the new expansion, Lord of Hatred, have further reinforced this cyclical curse.
However, the performance of Diablo 4 Season 14 on PTR has many players worried about whether it can maintain the momentum of the previous season. Many players have indicated that they will skip Season 14 altogether. So, what are the reasons for this stark contrast in reception between the two seasons?
Reasons for Divergence
Frankly, the upcoming Season of Death Awakening may represent a new low for Diablo 4. The development team seems at a loss as to the future direction of Diablo 4. They occasionally release a highly praised season, then rely on its popularity to sustain the game until a new expansion is released, generating another wave of buzz.
Rumors suggest that Diablo 4 had two teams rotating over different seasons, but in reality, there were more than two teams. The official Campfire Chat confirmed this. They previously stated that Diablo 4 had multiple teams responsible for different seasons, somewhat like a rotation system.
Previously, community analysis concluded that all the great content in Diablo series came from the same team. The real reason Season 13 was so great was that Diablo 3 development team was involved in the design, and I think that's true. I really liked the ancient gear and more crafting options added in Diablo 3; it was a great direction for development.
One team might do an excellent job, bringing the game back to its peak. Another team might create a season completely different from the first.
I believe this is because of a lack of communication and consensus among Diablo 4 teams, resulting in the design mechanics of the next new season completely ignoring feedback from the current season. Content that players disliked wouldn't be improved until two seasons later. Conversely, mechanics that players loved were weakened by the alternating season rules, making the overall experience fragmented and unstable.
Season Mechanics
Season of Death Awakening feels rather lacking in content, offering almost nothing truly new and lacking any new gameplay elements to support long-term exploration. Players had expected more War Plan nodes, new Diablo 4 Items, new skills, and improvements to the crafting system.
However, these key changes have largely failed to materialize. Instead, Season of Death Awakening focuses more on nerfing stats and buffing random affixes. From PTR combat experience, this new S14 Pandemonium Ruptures also suggests that Diablo 4 developers don't really understand their own game.
Players meticulously craft their characters to accelerate the game's pace. However, the newly introduced Season 14 mechanics force us to prolong the game, confining us to a small environment.
Looking back at Diablo 4 Season 13, its early-game leveling experience was significantly improved, which boosted player retention. However, because of the excessive focus on material gathering in the later stages, coupled with unpatched bugs, the overall player experience declined noticeably in the mid-to-late game.
Diablo 4 Season 14 not only failed to correct this trend but actually exacerbated the problem to some extent, especially with the changes to new Mythic items.
Randomness
The enhanced random affixes in Diablo 4 Season 14 completely changed the game. We all thought that after the widespread dislike of random unique affixes in Season 13, Diablo 4 developers would never continue using them, but they persisted even more aggressively.
Unique and Mythic items with random affixes essentially rendered them meaningless. The crafting system in Season of Death Awakening upgraded unique items to random Mythic items, and crafting a random Mythic item at the jeweler cost the same as crafting a specific Mythic item.
The addition of Horadric Cube was certainly welcome, but random affixes are like gambling. Even upgrading a rare item to Mythic quality with Horadric Cube resulted in a random outcome. The final transmogrification step was also random. Layer upon layer of random affixes - it's all just gambling.
The reason Diablo 4 developers did this in Season of Death Awakening is simple: once you have the top-tier gear you want, you quickly lose interest in the game. If it's harder to obtain, it psychologically drives you to constantly grind. Players might not like this, but it works for Diablo 4 developers because it retains players.
Finding the perfect balance is difficult because everyone's desires are different. Based on Diablo 4 PTR servers, you need to constantly refresh currency, wait for unique item drops, upgrade to Mythic rarity, and finally pray to the god of the random number generator. This is the worst design I've ever seen in any ARPG; this is not the direction a game should be heading.
I really hope they retract these changes. I hope Season of Death Awakening will do the opposite, making unique items rarer, but giving them truly unique affixes in Diablo 4.
Now, Diablo 4 developers must urgently propose changes in the next few weeks, or they will face vehement opposition from most of the community. I think Diablo 4 team needs to communicate better to ensure that the updates they bring to players maintain quality.
