As Diablo 4’s Season of the Witch approaches, the game needs to look to older seasonal mechanics to make sure the new Powers of Witchcraft reach their potential.
After a rather confusing and lackluster first season, Diablo 4 knocked it out of the park with Season 2 thanks to that event’s excellent theme: vampires and their blood-sucking abilities.
The season’s story saw the Wanderer infected with the vampire curse, but rather than joining the ranks of the undead, our hero just inherited some cool Vampire Powers and then went on a quest to rid Sanctuary of this new menace.
Those who played Season 2 not only got to play through some rather exciting new story quests and kill hordes of brand-new enemies, but they also got to be Sanctuary’s version of Blade and use the vamp’s own powers against them.
The gimmick was so popular that after Season 2 ended, Blizzard brought it back in Season 3 and even added it to the Eternal Realm. However, rather than keeping the mechanics as they were, they mostly turned the best Vampire Powers into Aspects to be added to gear.
Sucking out the fun
Vampire Powers still exist in this form in the game today, but if I’m being honest, the game could have done so much more with this opportunity. I’ve always been baffled by Diablo 4’s seasonal rules, particularly around the idea that fun mechanics only exist for a limited time before they’re taken away, only to maybe, and half-heartedly, return at a later date.
For starters, I don’t really like games dictating to me how I spend my time or when I play, but it’s also a question of why fix something that isn’t broken. I get it, every Diablo season needs a new theme, and the limited time is to motivate us to get involved, but after Vessel of Hatred, it may be time to do things differently.
Season 7’s Witch Powers resemble Vampire Powers in many ways, and after the PTR, I’m really looking forward to using them some more. Still, I worry that I’m going to enjoy something, only for it to be taken away and morphed into a lesser version of what came before – and that makes me want to not even bother.
I’m of the view that Diablo 4 needs to switch its scarcity mentality to one of abundance, and it can do this by taking advantage of the Eternal Realm. Blizzard prioritizes the Seasonal Realm to tempt us back and keep us playing, but what it doesn’t realize is some of us are already playing – on the Eternal Realm, we didn’t go anywhere.
Adding a fancy new gimmick to another mode and demanding I switch to it doesn’t make me want to play more; it makes me want to switch off Diablo 4 and play something like Diablo Immortal. A game that lets me engage with the content however and whenever I want.
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The good news is that Season 5 added its awesome new activity, Infernal Hordes, to the Eternal and Seasonal Realms and kept this after the season ended. So what I’m proposing is that Season 7 does the same thing with Witch Powers and with any future seasonal mechanics.
The Witching Hour is at hand
Now I know, that Witch Powers are different from Infernal Hordes in that one is a seasonal skillset and the other is an endgame mode. And I know that seasonal skillset gimmicks all take up that special tab on the inventory screen, so having more than one is troublesome.
There’s also the argument that a character using multiple seasonal skillsets at once could be ridiculously overpowered, especially if Diablo 4 does what I’m proposing and keeps them around. Imagine using Vampire Powers alongside the Seneschal Companion, for example.
But just turning them into Aspects is beyond boring. So, my solution is to let players in the Eternal Realm choose one former seasonal gimmick and incorporate it into their build.
Want to use Malignant Hearts from Season 1 once again? Cool. Want to use Vampire Powers in all their Season 2 glory? Me too. Do you miss your little robot spider buddy from Season 3? Here he is.
Just add Witch Powers to this and you get my drift. You could have access to them all, but it would be up to you to decide which one would suit your character and style best, with the option to respec your chosen power.
I know this is a big ask, but other games add new content and keep it around all the time, so why should Diablo 4 be any different? Also, this would actually boost my desire to try a new seasonal mechanic as it would make me wonder how I could incorporate it into my other existing characters after enjoying that season.
The inability to do that just makes each new seasonal idea feel disposable, and the fear of missing out is only going to be a motivator for so long. Diablo 4 needs to grow and evolve, not keep taking steps forward and then backward.
