by Whitney "Neinball" Fairchild - 10 years ago     show comments

Have you tried out the new Season yet? Still on the fence or haven’t even considered it? Well maybe Homebrew can change your mind with some of his thoughts on the wondrous opportunity that the fresh start of a new Season can offer.

by David “Homebrewed” Roshinski

New Season, New Opportunity

While many Diablo 3 players are off at the races, rushing to push as high as they can on the seasonal leaders. I took this new 2.1 feature as an opportunity to do something I usually wouldn’t do. I started a new character, yes, but even a new class.

For many, many months I have been playing and perfectly my Witch Doctor Nazeebo (A reference to the named Witch Doctor character in Heroes of the Storm) and I have had an immense amount of fun with him. But, I think what seasons may provide a more casual player is the chance to try out some of the classes they may not be comfortable with yet.

So here are some tips and advice on starting a new class for seasons.

Streamers as mentors

For me when I started playing my Witch Doctor, I had no idea what I was doing in terms of gear I needed and skill sets that were popular at the time. I started sifting through Twitch and finally found a streamer named, Debo.

Now the thing I liked about his Witch Doctor stream was not only the fact it was very entertaining, but he is very informative. Just counting the ones listed on his Twitch info panes, he has fourteen highly detailed video tutorials for builds he has produced over his Diablo career.

I am trying to find that currently for my new class, crusader, and that is the type of streamer you want to try to find.

Seek out a clan

Got a clan? Great, ask for help. In my old clan there were a few people that played a crusader character exclusively, so use them for advice. Be polite and there should be no reason why they would be willing to help you out.

If you don’t have a clan, considering joining one, it can only benefit you in the long run.

Read up on Reddit

The Diablo 3 Reddit is amazing! The team and community that work tirelessly on it have made it one of my go-to sources of information and discussion.

On the side is a Diablo 3 Reddit mumble where I found my first clan, they have a large list of abbreviations the community uses, and each class has its own subsection. I utilized Reddit to research everything from builds, to action bar setup, and the best items and sets for my class at the time. Lastly, they also have a blue tracker on there, which you should take a look at every once and a while if you are not reading the forums and social media already for upcoming changes or explanations about everything Diablo.

The information is out there, you just have to use it.

Join the class communities

Within the game there are communities and chat channels set up by people for different topics. Sometimes even just having the chat up you can pick up little nuggets of class related information and advice. You can also usually find loot sharing groups and people that will give suggestions on rerolling enchants on gear.

I just recently join the crusader community and can’t wait until start digging into it.

Have fun!

Why did I choose a new class for seasons, you might ask? Well, since I started Diablo 3 I have played my Witch Doctor and only my Witch Doctor. With my new job and other games I am invested in, I don’t have the time I wanted into going ham on the ladders.

Instead, I took this time to play a class I first tried at PAX East 2013. The PS4 demo that was set up had a prefabricated crusader starting on act 5. The thing I loved was the visceral feeling of swinging the flail and the whoosh of the holy damage breaking skeletons and demon bones, leaving them in piles on the ground.

The crusader also has some really sick looking armor and transmogrification options I wanted to explore.

For those reasons I choose to start a new class in seasons have fun with something different for a set amount of time based on my past experience and the time I have available to play the game.