New season lacking imo..... what are your thoughts?

[daldora]

to open with i have 190+ hours play time. i have played since early access and have played every season. all characters maxed out and still sitting on max essence

Season 1: adds in 3 whole skill ascension trees for 3 new abilities that you can choose from.

season 2: adds in 3 new abilities again each of which have numerous 'cores' that modify how each ability works, some practically making a whole new ability. while essentialy the same as season 1 in that 3 new abilities with each a unique skill tree the abilities are VASTLY different from S1

season 3: FREAKIN POKEMON?!? with a fusion system to help you make the ultimate monster to fight with you. (my favorite so far) a truly new mechanic added in that made collecting and using the monsters you get a joy.

and now here we are....season 4
it added nothing new it only altered 2 existing mechanics within the game already.
firstly it made everyone like the owl character Zi Xiao being able to reroll scrolls at the new vendor. the other major side of this season is the link abilities....which if you ran nightmare in any season prior to this you would know this was already a base game mechanic you could use!
it's literally the spiritual link modifier from nightmare renamed as star link. heck even most of the links themselves are the same as before the only diff is now you can play it from elite mode instead of nightmare...
the only 'unique' side of the season is turning blank scrolls into new scrolls which is just a power scale it doesn't add new wow just makes your runs more consistent

Seasons 1-3 felt so inspired and unique while season 4 feels like its all reused mechanics already existent in the game.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

I was not expecting anything to begin with, so nothing to lose.

I like the new seasonal UI. Much better than the last one.

For me among 1,2,3, only season 3 mechanism is interesting.

[daldora]

Originally posted by Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉:

I was not expecting anything to begin with, so nothing to lose.

I like the new seasonal UI. Much better than the last one.

For me among 1,2,3, only season 3 mechanism is interesting.

season 3 was a truly unexpected delight. i had expected it to be another set of 3 abilities with a gimmick of some kind but they out did themselves.

[Goti Sán [ESP]]

I completely agree with you, and I loved your post, season 3 is the best of all

[Me<#yct>lan<size=Tropie>]

pre season level 30 is gating. get to the level 30 to unlock custom links function that suits your play style. sense of...grinding?
those links you build yourself are powerful, let alone that immortal link - glaze body. i think season 4 is all about that link. it goes very well with every hero build (with exclusive blessings mostly). like perfect defense.

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Originally posted by <size=Melan>Tropie:

glaze body. i think season 4 is all about that link. it goes very well with every hero build (with exclusive blessings mostly). like perfect defense.

I can't get rich with a body like that.

[tv]

i think i need an entire class to understand the season mechanic, i've just been clicking things at random.

[Goti Sán [ESP]]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422167613

Can anyone think of a better setup?

[Me<#yct>lan<size=Tropie>]

of all what said above....
replace Reinforcement Power with Glaze Body when in play rush for the Glaze Body first and don't play life power dog.
but your setup is weapon and skill damage then I only think of launchers with the dog AND forced crit. the monkey will do with launchers.
this is so off topic.

[Avohaj]

As soon as I "got" Season 3, there was exactly one demon build I went with everytime because it was easy to get and gave the early survivability you need in high Reincarnation and good power through scaling crit in lategame.

At least this season I'm experimenting with different Star Link templates per character/playstyle. My biggest issue is that it doesn't scale as good into Boundless Dream. Not that that's necessary, but it's never any less fun to be more overpowered. Yeah Spiritual Links existed before, but the Star Link system is a serious improvement especially through the addition of blank scrolls/envoy npc adding flexibility.

I hope the reworked interdependend fortunes will stick around after the season and maybe also some of the new links

[Foxassassin]

Originally posted by tv:

i think i need an entire class to understand the season mechanic, i've just been clicking things at random.

It's really not that complex. I'd say the lengthy awkward translations aren't helping;

If you played before season four and used the scroll set bonuses, the season should be familiar. It's just a glorified, reworked reincarnation bonus.

Get scrolls of a matching set, hit set number, set activates.

One star envoy (The owl) lets you sacrifice scrolls to permanently remove a scroll requirement from a set of your choosing (You need one less to activate that set).

The other you can sacrifice a scroll to re-roll it.

[Action Gooseman]

I don't mind that it's just a revamped spiritual link+interdependent fortunes with some additional quirks. I didn't really do much with the pet system of the last one tbh since a lot of it was just grinding out/hatching demons. Plus it had that arsenal problem where if you wanted to use one you saved you have to get those abilities through other demons again so I just ended up making do with the ones I found.
It feels more reasonably-balanced than some of the recent seasons which is fine really.

I think the only flaw I can nag this season for is the amount of stuff you have to do on r9+extended runs which encourages solo pass-leveling more. Mysterious link takes way too long/too much luck to get reasonably in a typical multiplayer game for instance. The other seasons gave incentive goals (example: revive players quest) to play multiplayer much better. I like actually playing with people but many of the goals were only feasible via endless/boundless dreams which peter off in multiplayer really quickly since people get tired of it, plus multiplayer lobbies can't save progress if they have to leave so it encourages solo games where you can checkpoint at the campfires and come back another time.

[Falcone]

I prefer it being closer to normal gameplay like this personally. Never liked constantly stopping to mess around with the spirit/mechanisms the last 2 seasons

[Rainy days.]

Originally posted by Action Gooseman:

Mysterious link takes way too long/too much luck to get reasonably in a typical multiplayer game for instance.

If you don't mind me asking, and I know this is a bit off-topic, but how does one activate Mysterious Link?

[Losk Osmanthus 路渐秋凉]

Originally posted by Rainy days.:

Originally posted by Action Gooseman:

Mysterious link takes way too long/too much luck to get reasonably in a typical multiplayer game for instance.

If you don't mind me asking, and I know this is a bit off-topic, but how does one activate Mysterious Link?

What is mysterious link? Oh the one need three mysterious scrolls. Does it matter?

Still, in a game with more than one player, but no one share scrolls. Is it really a multiplayer game or just a few solo players happened to be together. Maybe one of them is french too.

[Nodoka]

Glaze body + zoom zoom = win game.
The season is pretty bad for high endless due to RNG with scrolls that you select from on each act that enemies have on them.