Season 1 in Diablo III is officially over and done with. Players who participated will find their Seasonal character in the same place that their non-season characters are located. I recommend that players who had a Seasonal character take a moment to retrieve all of that character’s loot from their mail before the time limit on that runs out and it all disappears.
I wanted to do a “wrap up” about Season 1, in part because it seemed like a nice way to end the series of blogs that I’d been writing about it. One of my goals was to finish blogging about Season 1 at around the same time that the Season ended. The other reason I wanted to do a “wrap up” was to have a place for the loose ends that are floating around in my head about Season 1. As such, this post might be a bit more scattered than usual as I cover all the “leftovers”.
I started Season 1 by rolling a “soft core” Barbarian named Gurr. My first goal was to get him all the way through the content in Story Mode. My hope was that he would hit Level 70 (my second goal) at around the same time. That didn’t work out as I’d hoped, but he did hit Level 70.
My next goal was have my Seasonal character hit Paragon 100. I wanted this for two reasons. One, I’d never gotten a character from Level 1 to Level 70 and then all the way to Paragon 100 before. The other reason was because I learned that there was a Seasonal Paragon Leveling Achievement for hitting Paragon 100.
To my surprise, I had time left over in Season 1 to continue to obtain more Paragon levels. I ended up at Paragon 123.
When Gurr the Barbarian was sent over to where my non-seasonal soft core characters are, I learned that his contributions caused my “Share-a-gon” points to hit 129. Previously, that number was at 35 – so I consider this a big improvement!
Another goal I had for Season 1 was to see how many Achievements I could earn before the Season ended. The screenshot below was taken in the last few minutes of Season 1. Overall, considering that I stuck with one character for the whole season (and didn’t venture into hard core), I think I did pretty well: 3530 Achievement Points.
Two Achievements that I had the most fun doing ended up counting for both my Seasonal Achievement Points and my Career Achievement Points. They were called “Pink’D” and “I Just Blue Myself”. I’d never done them before (even though both of these Achievements have been around for a while).
Pink’d: Kill the following enemies while wearing head, shoulder, feet, leg, hand, and torso equipment colored with Lovely Dye.
Skeleton King, Queen Araneae, The Butcher, Maghda, Zoltun Kulle, Belial, Ghom, Cydaea, Azmodan, Siegebreaker Assault Beast, Diablo
I Just Blue Myself: Kill the following enemies while wearing head, shoulder, feet, leg, hand, and torso equipment colored with Mariner’s Dye.
Skeleton King, Queen Araneae, The Butcher, Maghda, Zoltun Kulle, Belial, Ghom, Siegebreaker Assault Beast, Cydaea, Azomdan, Iskatu, Rakanoth, Izual, Diablo, Urzael, Adria, Malthael
Next, I’m going to take a moment to highlight my favorite loot from Season 1. This is the stuff that was the most fun to play with.
I got a Puzzle Ring! I’d never had one before. This ring dropped from somewhere when Gurr the Barbarian was Level 53. I found it amusing to have my own little Treasure Goblin that followed me around and picked up the Common items that I was just going to sell anyway. I don’t recall the Treasure Goblin giving me anything exceptional after picking up enough Common items, but that didn’t really matter to me.
It’s a Treasure Goblin “pet”!
I managed to pick up both Bul-Kathos’s Warrior Blood, and Bul-Kathos’s Solemn Vow in Season 1. Together, they complete a set. A Barbarian can duel wield these 1-handed weapons. Having both of them gives you something special: Chance on attack to Whirlwind furiously for 325% weapon damage as Physical every second for 6 seconds. You don’t actually have to use the Whirlwind skill to make that happen. Instead, a mini Whirlwind appears around you for a while, causing harm to all enemies in your path. So Much Fun!
“Bul-Kathos guides my hand!”
The text on Bul-Kathos’s Warrior Blood says: A barbarian knows that Bul-Kathos’s blood runs through his veins. It is what gives him his power and binds him to his people.
The text on Bul-Kathos’s Solemn Vow says: Bul-Kathos strode as a giant among the ancients, and was the forefather to the barbarian tribes. This sword represents the sacred vow he made to protect Mount Arreat and the Worldstone.
Later, I found a shield that I’d never seen before. It looked like a octopus! The name of the shield is Vo’Toyias Spiker. A Barbarian can use it, but it has something special on it that only applies to Crusaders. In other words, it’s a Crusader shield. I just couldn’t resist using it though because of how it looked. Very unique!
The text on the Vo’Toyias Spiker says: The demon smith Vo’Toyias designed this shield to inflict great injury upon those daring to attack its bearer. The wicked brass spikes that bristle along the shield’s surface make it a formidable weapon in its own right, however, allowing its wielder to make deadly counterattacks.
Towards the end of Season 1, I was using a “build” that I like to call “The Barbarian Army”. It was useful up through Torment 3. I’m not sure what it would do beyond that point because I didn’t try it during Season 1. Here’s what I was using:
You need three pieces of the Immortal King’s set. I’m not sure if it really matters which three. I was using the Immortal King’s Stride, the Immortal King’s Eternal Reign, and the Immortal King’s Triumph.
Next, you need a Ring of Royal Grandeur. It reduces the number of items needed for set bonuses by 1 (to a minimum of 2). Equip any Ring of Royal Grandeur, with three set pieces from Immortal Kings, and you unlock the bonus for having four set pieces. That bonus is: Call of the Ancients last until they die. You now have three Ancients that join your Barbarian.
In my experience, the Ancients last a really long time before they die. Health globes will heal the Ancients. If they die, you can call them back (unless your Call of the Ancients spell is in a cool down. If so, wait a bit and bring them back). Don’t have a Ring of Royal Grandeur? You can get the same bonus by using four pieces of the Immortal King’s set (instead of three and the ring).
You now have a 4 Barbarian army. You can “draft” another recruit by using Maximus (one of my favorite weapons). The text on Maximus says: Chance on hit to summon a Demonic Slave. You get a bright, red, Demon on a chain! He periodically appears and evaporates. To me, it seemed like he was there quite a bit of the time. This brings the Barbarian Army up to 5.
You can add another recruit if you are lucky enough to find a Enchanting Favor Templar Relic. The special thing about this item is: Equip on Follower: Your follower cannot die. It makes your Templar immortal – and available to periodically heal. The text on this item says: A diaphanous scarf given as a token of affection from a lady fair. This brings the Barbarian Army up to 6 members.
You could probably fill in the rest of the build with whatever you happen to like. I found three items to be very useful: Spaulders of Zakara, Countess Julia’s Cameo, and St. Archew’s Gage.
The best thing about the Spaulders of Zakara is that: Your items become indestructible. Equip these shoulders, and you won’t have to spend any gold on repair costs. The text on this item says: A dying crusader emerged from the Aranoch wastes bearing these spaulders. She claimed to have been visited by the angel Yaerius in the desert depths and charged with delivering these artifacts into the hands of men so the crusade might triumph. Whatever the truth of her claims, there is little doubt that the spaulders are the product of Heaven’s forges – Abd al-Hazir.
The best thing about Countess Julia’s Cameo is: Prevent all Arcane damage taken and heal yourself for 21% of the amount prevented. Suddenly, all those annoying “lasers” become absolutely harmless. Well, to you, that is. The rest of your Barbarian Army is still going to be affected by Arcane damage. I recommend you dash over and grab the health globes that pop up while you are fighting to keep your Ancients nice and healthy.
The text on this item says: “Countess Julia attempted to put down the Cartolus Insurrection with her own personal guard, in an attempt to impress Justinian III. The effort failed miserably, as her guard was slaughtered and the uprising spread. Only the countess’s enchanted cameo enabled her to survive this folly. It did not save her life, however, as King Justinian was so displeased, he had her tortured and then executed. ” – The History of Westmarch.
I was using St. Archew’s Gage for most of Season 1. Towards the end, I got an Ancient Legendary version of it – so I started using that one instead. The cool thing about this item is: When there are 5 or more enemies within 12 yards, you gain an absorb shield equal to 21% of your maximum life for 6 seconds. This effect may occur once every 30 seconds.
These items give you the basic components of “The Barbarian Army” build. I might play around with some of the other stuff to see if I can make any improvements on it. For example, I obtained a Boon of the Hoarder gem shortly before Season 1 ended, and I’d like to see what it does with this build.
Gurr’s Barbarian Army!
