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"Good luck, nephalem! May the loot gods treat you kindly and your deeds of valor always be remembered."

- Season blurb(src)

Seasons-scroll

A season's introductory scroll

Seasons are a feature of Diablo III, the equivalent of Ladders from Diablo II. They were added in Patch 2.1. New Seasons are a major event and are typically released in tandem with patches, premiering original content, but a patch is never applied mid-Season.

Seasons are not present in the console version of Diablo III, as they are online exclusive.[1] As of July 2016, Blizzard has no plans to implement Seasons on console.[2]

Overview

Seasonal-hero-selection-sml2

Seasonal Hero checkbox

Seasons are only available to freshly created characters who must be leveled all the way from level 1 after the season begins. Seasonal characters have a separate stash, gold and other currencies, artisans, Paragon experience etc., starting fresh and completely clear when the season begins. These are also separate for Softcore and Hardcore Seasonal characters, making a total of four types per account.[3] Seasonal characters take up one of the regular 12 or 15 character slots and will remain in this slot after the end of a Season, simply having their Season status removed.[4]

Season participation benefits include exclusive rewards and unique Legendary Items, which are only available to Seasonal characters. It also awards special banner and transmogrification options.

The goal and key feature of Seasons is the ability to climb Leaderboards by completing achievements, earning Conquests, or running Greater Rifts.[3] Each type of Leaderboard is divided by goal, by class and by solo/group mode rather than a "by account" one[5]. There is a fierce competition within the Leaderboard of the same type, but it has no effect on other boards.

After the season ends, all of the player's progress (Paragon experience, crafting recipes, items, gold, etc.) will be rolled into the main roster, and the season-exclusive items are added to the normal loot tables. In other words, all seasonal characters become normal, and with the start of the next season, new characters must fresh-start all over again, competing for the clear Leaderboards[6]. Each new season adds new rewards.

Seasonal Journey

Seasonal Journey is an interface that was added in Season 4, as a means of tracking player progress. This feature is divided into chapters, which include major milestones that are achievable by most players, and tiers, which are designed for advanced players. Completing tiers unlocks new portrait frame rewards, and the highest tier includes challenges which will take effort to achieve for even the most powerful characters.[7] Tiers are unlocked after the completion of all chapters. Chapter goals are designed to be immediately accessible.[8]

Each chapter is progressively more difficult, featuring tasks from no-brainers such as leveling artisans, socketing items, and reaching certain character level, to challenges such as beating a Nephalem Rift on Torment IX difficulty in 4 minutes, beating solo Greater Rift rank 60, killing Greed on T10, or extracting 100 legendary powers via Kanai's Cube. There is a total of 9 chapters (S5), each giving progressively better rewards, including non-combat pet, full class set, and an additional stash tab (for Chapter 8).

Conquests

Main article: Conquests

Conquests are special feats within Season, not related to Seasonal Journey (however, chapters 7, 8 and 9 require 1, 2 and 3 conquests to be completed respectively). These are among the hardest of goals to accomplish. They change with every Season. Examples include:

    • Kill 16 Bosses in 30 minutes
    • Gain 50 million Gold streak without venturing into The Vault
    • Complete Torment X Rift in 2 minutes
    • Beat a Greater Rift rank 45 without any Set Items
    • Complete all five Acts in 1 hour
    • Beat a Greater Rift rank 55 with all 24 6+ piece Class Sets
    • Complete 8 Set Dungeons with Mastery rating

Either of the Conquests will be credited separately for Hardcore mode.

Season Rebirth

Blizzcon2015diablopanel-2015-nov-7-128

Season Rebirth option menu

Season Rebirth is a feature that added in Season 5. This takes a non-Seasonal hero, reduces them to level 1, and strips all their gear. Any gear removed from a hero in this way is automatically mailed to the player in the non-Season, giving a player thirty days to reclaim the items at a later time. Paragon level, completed achievements, and other accomplishments all remain behind with non-Seasonal heroes. This feature serves as prevention of necessity to delete Seasonal characters when they transfer to normal character list.[9]

Season Lengths

Season Start Date End Date Duration
1 29 Aug 2014 03 Feb 2015[10] 5 months
2 13 Feb 2015 05 Apr 2015[11] 2 months
3 10 Apr 2015 23 Aug 2015[12] 4 months
4 28 Aug 2015 30 Dec 2015[13] 4 months
5 15 Jan 2016 15 Apr 2016[14] 3 months
6 29 Apr 2016 22 Jul 2016[15] 3 months
7 5 Aug 2016 13 Oct 2016[16] 2 months

List of Seasons

Season 1

Season1

Season 1 exclusive rewards

Season 1 launched on Friday, August 29th, 2014, following Patch 2.1.

Limited-time rewards

  • Conqueror's Shako & Conqueror's Pauldrons transmogrifications (returned in Season 4)
  • Exclusive banner: Shape, Pattern, Accent, Sigil

Items introduced

Season 2

Season2

Season 2 exclusive rewards

Season 2 launched on Friday, February 13, 2015, a month after Patch 2.1.2.

The season offered new legendaries, conquests, and banner rewards.[17]

Limited-time rewards

  • Conqueror's Legguards & Sabatons transmogrifications (returned in Season 5)
  • Exclusive banner: Shape, Pattern, Accent, Sigil

Items introduced

Season 3

Season3

Season 3 exclusive rewards

Season 3 launched on Friday, April 10, 2015, following Patch 2.2.

Limited-time rewards

  • Conqueror's Cuirass & Gauntlets transmogrifications (returned in Season 6)
  • Seasonal pennant
  • Exclusive portrait frame
Demon Hunter-S3

Season 3 artwork

Items introduced

Season 4

Season4

Season 4 exclusive rewards

Season 4 launched on Friday, August 28, 2015, following Patch 2.3.

Limited-time rewards

  • Exclusive portrait frames
  • Frost hound pet
  • Repeat chance at Conqueror's Set transmogrifications from Season 1

This season introduced the Season Journey as an additional feature for measuring progression and obtaining rewards, in addition to the Season Achievements of previous seasons.[18]

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Season 4 portrait frames

Items introduced

Season 5

Season5

Season 5 exclusive rewards

Season 5 launched on Friday, January 15, 2016, following Patch 2.4.

Limited-time rewards

  • Bonus stash tab #1
  • Exclusive portrait frames
  • Wickerman pet
  • Repeat chance at Conqueror's Set transmogrifications from Season 2
Season 5 portrait frames

Season 5 portrait frames

Season 5 was the first season to not have temporarily exclusive legendary items, as the new legendaries in Patch 2.4 were made immediately available to both seasonal and non-seasonal characters. Instead, seasonal players would obtain a guaranteed free set for one class in the form of "Haedrig's Gift," a series of mail packages received upon completion of certain stages of the Season Journey up to the fourth chapter. The set obtained by each class is predetermined, and rotates with each new Season.[9]

New or redesigned legendaries at the time of the patch include: Blade of the Tribes, Heart of Iron, Elusive Ring, Kyoshiro's Blade, Wilken's Reach, The Twisted Sword. The Legacy of Nightmares ring set and some class sets also saw redesigns.

This season notably introduced the first additional stash tab as a limited time reward.

Season6

Season 6 exclusive rewards

Season 6

Season 6 launched on Friday, April 29, 2016, following Patch 2.4.1, and ended on July 22, 2016.

File:DSEM2UEJ0QBQ1461099831828.jpg

Season 6 portrait frame.

Limited-time rewards

  • Bonus stash tab #2
  • Seasonal pennant
  • Exclusive portrait frames
  • Repeat chance at Conqueror's Set transmogrifications from Season 3

This season and patch premiered with many cosmetic transmogrification items and pets which were not exclusive seasonal rewards, but instead obtained as rare drops in chests, from monsters, and from the new Menagerist goblin.

New legendaries were also released concurrently with the patch, and others given new powers: Frostburn, Magefist, Skull Grasp, Flail of the Ascended, Augustine's Panacea, Bakuli Jungle Wraps, Halo of Karini, Crystal Fist, Fleshrake, Swamp Land Waders. Class sets and legendary gems also saw redesigns.

Season 7

File:S7Portrait.png

A new season 7 portrait frame.

Season 7 launched on Friday, August 5, 2016, following Patch 2.4.2. It will end on October 14th, 2016.

Limited-time rewards

  • Bonus stash tab #3
  • New pet: Dream of Piers
  • Exclusive portrait frames
  • Repeat chance at Conqueror's Set transmogrifications from Season 1/4

Item updates in concurrent patch

The following changes were made to the season journey:

  • Haedrig's Gift is no longer awarded for specific Seasonal achievements; the bags are now rewarded for the completion of Chapters II, III, and IV.
  • Achievements requiring timed Nephalem Rift runs have been re-tuned.
  • Overall difficulty has been shifted around; easier, more tutorial-based achievements are in Chapters I-IV while more challenging tasks can be found in Slayer and beyond.
  • All Rift-related achievements have been updated to include the new Torment XI-XIII difficulties.[19]

Season 8

Season 8 is expected to launch on October 21, 2016. It does not come with a patch, therefore there are no balance changes compared to Season 7 (aside from different Conquests and set rewards). Cosmetic rewards include a portrait and wings akin to those of Andariel.

Development

Ladders were announced to be included in the first big content patch (2.1) after the release of Reaper of Souls.[20]

References

  1. 2014-11-27, BlizzCon 2014 – Diablo III: What’s Next Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2015-03-16
  2. First Look - Season 7 Journey
  3. 3.0 3.1 2014-06-17, PATCH 2.1.0 PTR PREVIEW. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2014-06-21
  4. 2014-08-26, Patch 2.1 Roundup - Seasons. Diablo Fans.com, accessed on 2014-08-27
  5. 2014-05-19, More Info From The Anniversary Dev Stream. Diablo Fans.com, accessed on 2014-05-20
  6. 2014-04-24, Chatty Q&A: Blizzard talks Reaper of Souls and the future of Diablo 3. Shack News, accessed on 2014-04-2014
  7. 2015-06-23, PATCH 2.3.0 PTR PREVIEW. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-06-29
  8. 2015-08-27, What’s New in Patch 2.3.0?. YouTube, accessed on 2015-08-27
  9. 9.0 9.1 2015-11-06, PATCH 2.4.0 PTR PREVIEW. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2015-11-15
  10. End of Season 1
  11. Season 2 Ending Soon
  12. Season 3 Ending Soon
  13. Season 4 Ending Soon
  14. [1]Season 5 Ending Soon
  15. Season 6 Ending Soon
  16. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20275888/season-7-ending-soon-9-30-2016
  17. 2014-11-07, FIRST LOOK: SEASON 2. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2014-29-11
  18. First Look - Season 4
  19. 2016-06-13, Patch 2.4.2 Focused Feedback - Season Journey. Blizzard Entertainment, accessed on 2016-07-03
  20. Blizzard Entertainment 2014-03-24. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Release Party. Diablo Somepage, accessed 2014-04-02.
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