(AfroGamers.com) So, Diablo IV season three—“Season of the Construct”—has been out for a few weeks now and my brother and I have had quite a bit of time with it. At the time of this posting, I’m past level 85 and yes, I’m running a rogue again.
I don’t know what it is but I really enjoy melee-focused classes in games—especially the heavy-damage dealing ones like rogues, thieves, monks, and archers. However, my second long run character in season two was the barbarian and let me tell you, dual wielding is a blast.
We’ll get into my view on builds in another post but let’s dive a bit into season three.
Season 3: Season of the Construct
The Cliff Notes version of the season is that the demon Malphas has managed to get his hands on an artifact known as the Loom. As with demons wielding any forgotten artifact it allows the wielded access to either incredible power or some great advantage. It’s the same in any game where you have to race against the bad guys to unlock something, collect a bunch of items, or find some mystery.
With the help of friend of the Loom’s creator, the player gains a construct companion and sets about ending Malphas’ plans. As you can expect—and as shown in the main story and season two—the main villain has a legion of fiends and foes to stand in your way.
Not only are the enemies—who come in all species and faction—great in number, you also have hostile forces not corrupted by the demons directly. All of them are aggressive as hell in World Tier IV, so this is a very slash ‘em, bash ‘em, blast ‘em party.
Thematically, it reminds me of dungeon delving in Dwarven ruins in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or the Ayleid ruins in ESIV: Oblivion—and I’ve always enjoyed that. We even have traps to evade and wards that allow you access chest with high-quality loot.
Well…occasionally high-quality loot. As I’m writing this, I’m still on my first character of the season and the loot hasn’t been that hot at level 85. I’ve been getting a lot of stuff fit only for salvage, folks.
The Construct Companion
That isn’t to say there’s no strategy to Diablo IV’s seasons. The game allows you to play it however you wish. While it isn’t particularly heavy on the PvP side, there is an area for that kind of action with its own risk, rewards, and adventures.
For everyone else, there’s plenty of side quests, aspects (or buffs that can be applied to gear) to gain for all classes that season, valuable loot to gain, crafting options, challenging dungeons, brisk cellars, light adventures called World Events, major dungeon bosses, and the World Boss for all players of certain Tiers to tackle.
There’s a lot.
And to be truly effective at clearing these quests and just survive. Three things that contribute heavily to both is your build, your play style with certain classes or archetypes, and how you utilize that season’s theme mechanic.
Last season, players got vampiric powers as they went about disrupting the great vampire Lord Zir’s machinations. While my brother and I came in midway through the season, it was a blast to see how the powers boost your character’s offensive power and defensive abilities.
In the third season, we have a fresh character—because these constant world threats that strike the world of Sanctuary after the Lilith situation was solved. It’s something that I’ve thought about. As players, we know that the character goes to the Eternal Realm after the season ends but I wouldn’t be against playing as a character who experiences all the threats that befall Sanctuary.
It’ll give me that same attachment to a character that you get from playing a full MMORPG character that you’ve invested in for seasons. Just an aside.
This season the vampiric powers are replaced with a construct—a spider-like robot—that can be given two different offensive, defensive, or supportive capabilities. Split into two side, each feature one main slot for a Governing Stone that determines the construct’s behavior in combat. Under those governing Stones, we have three slots for different support options that impact what the robot does within those behavior approaches.
Meaning, you can have a healing construct, an attack construct that draws enemy aggression, or a construct that fires magic projectiles. There’s a lot that can be done here and it took a bit before Blizzard actually made the construct useful while tackling Malphas-controlled constructs and vault mazes.
Before, I found it a bit annoying because it wasn’t doing much. I figured it would end up like season two where I didn’t fully utilize the vampiric powers for my play style until my third character at the end of the season. However, this time it became fun enough to play with that I’ve actually invested time in doing the vaults and customizing my construct.
Actually, it kind of took me back to how you could customize your companions in Diablo III.
Diablo IV Season 2 vs. Season 3
So, how does season three compare to season two? Well, both seasons pick up more after you finish the seasonal story and clap Lord Zir or Malphas. After that, you’re left to run about Sanctuary unbound by anything to really do with the vampire dungeons or vaults. I find more fun in the field fighting the constructs, fighting the Herald or Malphas, and going into the Helltide in Diablo IV.
However, just as we found out in season two, doing seasonal dungeons and the nightmare dungeons is how you really make progress with your Paragon board and gear. If you enjoy crafting, numbers, and really shaping up your gear for your overall play style, you’ll hit those a few times unless you aim to farm the World Events and Whispers until the World Boss hits.
Again, Diablo IV allows you to find your own fun while getting to your own ideal build. As for which season was better: I find the companion mechanic more interesting than the vampiric powers—which were fun. Story-wise, neither of the two season stories were that interesting.
If anything, they were vehicles to explain how you got this season’s mechanic and why you have it—and that’s fine. I really prefer the enemy density and aggression in season three although they can be a bit daunting in vaults along with the traps. If I could have season three enemy density with season two enemies, that would be great. I loved fighting the Blood Seekers and the Ancients at altars.
The braziers serve the same purpose in season three but ehh. If you’re clapping demons in Diablo IV, let us know how you’re feeling about season three so far!
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.