Season 3 of Diablo 4 is under criticism. What bothers players the most are the new vaults. The new dungeon type is supposedly not worth it, boring and sluggish. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus sees it completely differently: For him, the vaults are really cool content.
Since Season 3 started on January 23rd, I have played more Diablo 4 than I have in weeks. That surprises me a bit, because the new features of the season don’t really turn me on:
The players’ criticism was correct enough shortly after the release: Season 3 was boring and the new content was unusable. Especially if you compare all of this with Season 2, where you could just rush through the content.
Now I’m a little further and farming the endgame content at world level 4 and at level 85 and higher. I regularly go to the new vaults that are getting the most hate and I have to say: I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.
Diablo 4: The announcement trailer for Season 3
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Finally without a boss killer build thanks to good content
What I love most about the dungeons is that I don’t HAVE to build a build that can somehow kill bosses. Let’s take the meteor build for wizards: It’s great against groups of enemies and absolutely useless against bosses.
While in nightmare dungeons I almost always end up with a big boss that I wouldn’t be able to kill as a meteor sorcerer, in vaults I only have groups of enemies. And there are actually a lot of them and in dense packs. This is how chopping up opponents puts you in a good mood.
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Diablo 4: Tier List for Season 3 – Best classes and builds in the endgame
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In general, a purely OP build only helps me to a limited extent if I want good loot. It is more important to avoid the traps. Sure, it can get monotonous because at some point you have your strategies to avoid getting hit. But depending on the opponents, I always have to be careful that no demon pulls me into a trap with its hook.
Only the new boss, who can appear randomly, throws a spanner in the works every now and then. Particularly annoying when the Son of Malphas AND the Butcher appear in the dungeon together. Yes, it happened to me too…
I just missed these loot explosions
The last room in the instance receives the greatest criticism of the vaults. There are tons of traps here, the whole room is on fire, frozen or poisonous. There are also waves of enemies who push me around, freeze me or otherwise harass me.
It can quickly happen that too many protection stacks run out for me to be able to open all the boxes at the end. With a little practice, this is possible. But what bothers players more is the lack of loot and XP. Neither exists, or did not exist, for the graduation room.
With the latest patch there is at least one box. But in general I can’t understand the criticism at all. For one thing, there are tons of XP throughout the vault. I haven’t leveled this well in a long time. And the big loot explosion with the boxes at the end feels great:
The last time I had something like this was in the Goblin Rift in Diablo 3. When I was able to open all 4 boxes for the first time, my eyes widened and I sent the picture straight to colleagues. Absolute dopamine rush. Even the expert Raxxanterax says: The vaults are in a good position when it comes to XP and loot.
Now I have the feeling that someone on Reddit started complaining. And then everyone else joins in. Because they are dissatisfied and can’t say exactly why. Because they were so powerful at the end of Season 2, Season 3 now feels sluggish. And yes, she does. But that’s not because of the vaults. They’re really great.
The only thing I’m missing right now is a more useful seneschal. Leveling it is annoying. But well, as long as I get stronger somehow, I’ll keep grinding. And the season is actually not quite complete yet. The players’ criticism is certainly justified, just not in all places. Even Blizzard sees that Season 3 needs to be improved and already has plans.