There's a weird gap between what Season 12 promised and what it actually feels like when you log in. The pitch was strong: play as the Butcher, chase killstreak-style power, grab Doom-themed gear, and warm up for the Lord of Hatred expansion. In practice, you hit the same old ramp first. New character, same climb, same early-game chores. A lot of players I know aren't even mad about the ideas—they're tired of the runway. By the time you're ready to properly test the season, you've already spent hours doing "setup" stuff, and it's hard not to wonder who this is really for. Some folks just end up browsing Diablo 4 Items and calling it a night instead.
The seasonal reset problem
ARPG seasons aren't new, sure. But the reset only works when the fresh start feels like a shortcut to something fun, not a toll booth. Right now, the loop pushes you to rebuild basics you've already proven you can do. Again. It's not "challenge," it's repetition, and you feel it in the first few sessions. People keep asking for a cleaner skip: let us get to the seasonal hook faster, or let account progress matter more. Because when the headline features are locked behind a long leveling stretch, it doesn't feel like a new season—it feels like replaying the tutorial with better gear waiting at the end.
Doom cosmetics and the price shock
The Doom crossover should've been an easy win. Everyone loves a good crossover when it feels like a celebration. Then players saw the bundles. That's where the mood flipped. When "the cool stuff" sits behind premium pricing that can creep past the $100 mark, it stops being a fun nod and starts looking like a checkout screen in costume. And it's not just about being cheap. It's the feeling that the season's loudest marketing beat is also the most aggressively monetised part of it. You can't really blame players for side-eyeing the whole event after that.
Bloodied encounters and uneven difficulty
Bloodied encounters were meant to add grit and pressure. Sometimes they do. Other times, they just spike. You'll be cruising through a lower tier, then—bang—something deletes you before you've even clocked what happened. Min-maxers shrug and tell you to optimise harder. Casual players bounce off. That split is all over the community right now. Good difficulty makes you learn. Bad difficulty makes you feel unlucky. Season 12 leans too often toward the second one, and it turns what could've been a satisfying loop into a stop-start grind of repairs and re-tries.
Waiting for the expansion
Scroll any forum thread and you'll see the same takeaway: this season feels like a bridge, not a destination. That's the real sting. Players can sense when the best systems and the biggest shifts are being saved for the paid expansion, while the season gets the leftovers. Blizzard still knows how to sell hype, no question. But hype doesn't survive long when the day-to-day play feels padded, pricey, and oddly tuned. If the goal is long-term engagement, they'll need to make the seasonal ride smoother—and give people a reason to log in beyond waiting for the next trailer, even if they're tempted by Diablo 4 Items for sale to skip the hassle.