Build 2.1.99.25658
Some quick observations. Adventure Mode and Torment difficulty are unlocked even with a new seasonal character. I’m presuming that they are doing this in order to gather data on how players are leveling (cross referencing it with the leaderboard) and seeing what content would need to be addressed. Like they are probably seeing a high degree of game flipping right now (see below).
I don’t believe it will actually ship this way once the patch goes live since it’s my belief that Seasons is meant to be like starting fresh again (which means having to also fulfill the games base requirements including playing through the campaign at least once to unlock Adventure Mode, getting one character to at least level 60 to unlock Torment difficulty).
With Adventure Mode already available from the get go, I have immediate access to all artisans as well as bounties and rifts (both of which I’ve been using to level – rifts unsurprisingly have been far more rewarding though).
Also, creating a seasonal character takes up an actual character slot. I’ve posted before that I thought they would handle this differently since seasonal characters exist on a completely separate realm and are likely going to be transitory (i.e. only the data will be logged in the seasonal profile while actual items rolled over to non-seasonal – the actual character won’t transfer over to non-seasonal). Thus I thought that space wise, seasonal characters would not count towards a character slot. Guess I could be wrong.
And if I am wrong and they handle it this way once the patch goes live, it’s a total asinine decision because it means that this will force some players to have to delete at least one of their non-seasonal characters.
Also as I predicted, players are already making clever use of game mechanics to gain an edge. There are some bounties for example that are still far more lucrative when it comes to required effort and the rewards they offer; like the way some players are leveling to 70 very quickly is by doing an Act V bounty over and over again on T6 (all it requires is popping a resplendent chest to complete the quest). Thus they are probably logging a large amount of short game creations as players flip games to get these specific bounties.
Thus these sort of bounties will get nerfed hard (or be removed completely from the bounty list) which again affects the general base game play. What blows my mind is what seems to be a haphazard way with how experience and gold are handled when it comes to individual quests and bounties where such disparities existed that compelled players towards this kind of game play.
Again, broken record mode; this wouldn’t be a problem if they had designed the entire game to offer experience and rewards that are generally balanced throughout. By doing this on-rail design with a forced form of game play via bounties -> rifts (which is far more rewarding) -> greater rifts (different rewards in the form of legendary gems), the rest of adventure mode (let alone the campaign), would not be a complete waste. Generally speaking, the sorts of degenerative style of game play the devs don’t want, are a result of their design decisions.
I also peaked in on some twitch streams; it’s funny to see players doing Seasons, leveling and playing in groups. Seasonal ladders are majority wise, geared towards mostly individual achievements. Total achievement points are one key leaderboard. Obviously, players who do not care about the leaderboard, and are playing Seasons primarily for the seasonal exclusive items, will play the mode in this manner. Most of the hardcore competitive players will be focusing on mostly solo playing achieving the top leaderboard slots for conquests though.
Thus the key no-lifer objectives are 1) reaching level 70 as fast as possible 2) be able to do Torment VI as quickly as possible (fulfills gaining Paragon levels quickly to get Paragon points, to get the first Malthael kill, as well as having a character that can then speed run Act I-V on Normal difficulty to get the 1 hour achievement).
