Rares and Champions...

[FireIceTalon]

I am increasingly motivated to target the poster instead of the post.

Upset people post on the popular forums very often saying X system sucks. Non-upset people post on the popular forums very rarely saying X system is awesome. This was true for WoW, SC2, FFXIII, ME3, and any other recent game you can fathom.

This is also why metacritic is terrible (discussed in another thread, for ME3 no less).

It's called the "Vocal Minority" for a reason. They are Vocal, and they are the Minority...

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Either way, whether most agree with it or not, my point holds true in practice. You either use the AH to advance, or you wear yourself out with 20+ minute battles, dying multiple times, and rarely getting anything to show for it. And its not like this happens here, and there. These packs show up within yards of eachother all the time. Some of the traits they have make it so you have no control over your char at all, and a few combinations are even outright impossible to beat (like Immunity with Vortex, Jailer/waller and Molten). I dont mind dying if something is in my control, like letting myself get mobbed, drinking a pot too late, etc. But when you have a system that GUARANTEES death, no matter how sick your gear is, regardless of how well you kite or tank, no matter how much dps you do, and no matter how much life you have, it really makes for a tiring experience that can lead to boredom or frustration. This is NOT what Diablo is supposed to be about. Its about slaying hordes of demons, finding, loot, and building your char until it is perfect/near perfect or playing PvP in the end game. This Rare/Champion system combined with weak loot really compromises what is otherwise a brilliant game. Will I still play it? Sure, probably. But I think nevertheless fixing this flaw would really make the game all that much better, because outside of that this game is really awesome. I really didnt want to have to use the AH but it is forced, which means I now have to focus on gold farming when I would rather be ITEM farming. Cause finding items to self build your char is much more fun (for me anyway) than having to farm gold to purchase items that are necessary to have so you can survive (somewhat) in the higher difficulties. In other words, playing a "purist" is simply out of the question if you want to make it far. I wouldn't mind using the AH as a sort of "luxury" thing to make an improvement every now and then to my char after I am lvl 60 in slots where I need an upgrade, but to HAVE TO use it, as you currently do, just doesn't seem logical to me in terms of what this game has historically been about. And what makes it worse, is that you STILL have to face those rares/champions quite often while you are gold farming, so even that is no easy matter.

Where in the game rules does it say that you can't go back to easier content and farm up your gold/gear? If you don't have the gear to tackle a certain level of content don't bitch at the developers to change it. Go back and get better gear at easier levels.

You don't seem to get it. So let me spell it out for you in nice big capital letters:

THE-LOOT-SYSTEM-IS-BROKEN. THE-FREQUENCY-THAT-YOU-FIND-ITEMS, REGARDLESS-OF-WHERE-YOU-FARM, IS-INCREDIBLY-LOW. THUS, YOU-ARE-FORCED-TO-USE-THE AUCTION HOUSE.

And because the quality of gear that drops is dependent on difficulty, you HAVE to farm the highest possible difficulty in which you can play to get the possible gear that is available (an exception being Act 4 of hell difficulty, which is required to farm supposedly to stand a chance before taking on Inferno). This isnt D1, where I can just farm normal hell for items by doing Laz runs or dlvl 16 if I want to find a Dragon's Ring of the Zodiac or something. YOU HAVE to farm the difficulty you are in, as well as the particular act you are in if you want any chance to improve your gear - except that the chance is so slim it that it really makes fighting Champs/Elites much more effort than it is worth. The only solution is to go to an easier area within that act/difficulty and farm gold. But, those packs are there as well (they dont just go away), and besides, this is what I am detesting in the first place. I'm in Act II on hell mode right now, with a near lvl 57 DH, and have no choice really but to farm here (to get good exp also) and stock up on gold. Going back to Act I wouldnt make any sense, since I would get less exp in those quests and have virtually no chance at improving any slot. Blizz either needs to nerf the champ/elite packs, or make the drop rates much better (the difficulty of most of these mobs justifies at least a yellow item drop guarantee) - forcing me to rely on the AH really kills the spirit of Diablo is really about.

And as a person who purchased their product, I have every right to bitch about the content if I so desire, and I will do so. Dont be ridiculous. In fact, it is our DUTY as consumers, especially in this industry, to point to flaws or problems that should be addressed to make the product better. Your 'appeal to nature' argument almost made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.