Season 17 (The Season of Nightmares)

Season 17 of Diablo III is called “The Season of the Nightmares” because Seasonal players will benefit from the Set bonus provided by the Legacy of Nightmares. Blizzard describes it as the “no Set” set. Any Ancient Legendary that players find will be much more valuable this Season.

I decided to start Season 17 as a Hardcore Barbarian. This blog is about my progress so far. My main goal for this season is: Don’t die!

One of the “quality of life” changes that was implemented in Season 17 allows players to click through the entire Season Journey. This means, for the first time, players could skim it to see what they’ve already completed before they unlocked the next part.

For me, this change slightly altered how I worked through the Season Journey. In the past, I focused on Chapter I and ignored the Achievement Toast for objectives that belonged to a different part of the Season Journey.

This Season, I started looking ahead and trying to figure out what I might be able to complete right now. I no longer feel “stuck” in specific part of the Season Journey.

Here is what I completed up through when my Barbarian hit Level 50:

I started off on Normal difficulty because this is Hardcore.

A New Start: Complete 5 Bounties. Open up the Waypoint Map in Adventure Mode to see what Bounties are available.

Tristram’s Most Wanted: Obtain an Act I bounty cache.

This bounty cache included three Blacksmith recipes.

Begin Again: Complete a Nephalem Rift. Use the Nephalem Obelisk in town while in Adventure Mode to start a Nephalem Rift.

The rewards for completing this Nephalem Rift include one Blacksmith recipe. I now had a total of four.

Fly to New Tristram: Kill the Skeleton King.

Automatic: Kill Maghda.

Caldeum’s Most Wanted: Obtain an Act II bounty cache.

This bounty cache included three Blacksmith recipes – for a total of seven.

Let’s Get Started: Learn 5 Blacksmith Recipes.

Kanai’s Excellent Adventure: Find Kanai’s Cube. Kanai’s Cube can be found in Act III in The Ruins of Sescheron. Kanai’s Cube can be used for very powerful things such as extracting Legendary Powers and upgrading Rare items into Legendary items.

Athena the Hardcore Barbarian was now at Level 23.

Seasonal Socketing: Socket 5 gems into your gear.

Friends With Benefits: Fully equip one of your followers.

No, You Can’t Have It Back: Obtain a Legendary item by spending Blood Shards with Kadala.

Sometime earlier, I must have earned the other Kadala Achievement. For some reason, I didn’t get a screenshot of the “Achievement Toast” for that one.

Hey There Kadala: Spend Blood Shards at Kadala. Kadala has a 10% chance to give you a Legendary.

A Life With Meaning: Raise the Blacksmith to level 10. Leveling up the Blacksmith unlocks access to higher level weapon and armor recipes.

Watch Yourself: Raise the Mystic to level 10. Leveling up the Mystic enables her to enchant more items types and unlocks new Transmogrify looks.

Just A Hobby: Raise the Jeweler to level 10. Leveling up the Jeweler unlocks access to higher level gem recipes.

Athena the Hardcore Barbarian was now at Level 39.

Arreat’s Most Wanted: Obtain an Act III bounty cache.

Heaven’s Most Wanted: Obtain a Act IV bounty cache.

Athena the Hardcore Barbarian was now at Level 45.

Westmarch’s Most Wanted: Obtain an Act V bounty cache.

Change Clothes: Transmogrify an item at the Mystic.

Penchant for Enchants: Replace a property on an item with Enchanting at the Mystic. Enchanting is very useful for replacing an unwanted primary affix on a near-perfect item.