I've said this pretty much every Season we've added a new mechanic, but whenever I see this feedback (and we have for nearly every Themed Season), it means we've probably done a good job with the Season Theme. :) We want them to be compelling, different, and change the way you play. It should be exciting!

But, and I think this is very easy to take for granted, making something crazy and powerful permanent tends to have an ultimately negative net effect in the long-term. A change like this could make currently fun play styles obsolete, and one too-good combination could actually narrow the build diversity we're trying to expand with our other efforts. We're actively still working on balance (slowly, admittedly, but surely). There will probably be more than one ridiculous combo, some of which we probably won't even see until during the Season; people are endlessly creative, and there's a lot more of you than there are of us.

Playing around with extreme shifts in power is alright when it's temporary, but committing the change to the greater game is a lot harder to back down from even if it ultimately causes harm. People generally don't like being nerfed, regardless of how good it might actually be for the game. It's why we're pretty selective about those kinds of changes when they become necessary, and supply them with as thorough an explanation as we can.

While not impossible, unless it ends up not being anywhere near as bananas as we anticipate, it's a pretty huge risk and I don't think it's likely we'd permanently add this particular change.

They're different teams at this point, but that's not to say learnings and data don't get shared cross team. All kinds of teams at Blizzard are always learning from one another. :)

We have made a Seasonal buff permanent - with the addition of the Legacy of Dreams Legendary Gem. That was a direct response to the positive impact we saw from the Season of Nightmares.

We're not totally averse to the idea as a whole, but it has to actually be a net positive with low risk to make it worth the investment of resources. If something is high risk to add and would require significant changes to "course correct" if it goes wrong or is overshot, that makes it a pretty bad use of our development time that could be spent on other, more clearly positive additions to the game.

Some risk is good, and it's why we're willing to experiment more freely in Seasons. So, we'll definitely need to see how it plays out before we could make that consideration.

I just want to set expectations appropriately (and let's be honest - lower is always better, as being pleasantly surprised is preferable over being generally disappointed), and this Season 20 is definitely one of the more risky ones.

Actually, isn't that the opposite of the key lessons learned when Reaper of Souls launched? Don't be afraid to break the game?

There's a balance between the two. You can't be afraid to take risks, but you must also be particular about the risks you choose to take. If you never worry about the consequences, it tends to lead to things like endless power creep, something we've definitely run into and acknowledged.

Game Design, like many things in life, isn't about black or white decision making. Sure, sometimes one side is the answer, and sometimes it's the other... but more often than not, the real truth lies somewhere in between.

I'm trying to think of how many things that would break and does not compute.

I'll toss it into the list (more of a digital pin board really) of ideas we have for the future. I don't know if we could pull all the same levers at once, haha.