A few ideas of how to save D3

[MongoJerry]

Too bad it has very little to do with how good a player is, and much more to do with how much PUNISHMENT they can endure.

Yes and no. As I stated above, my conjecture is that Blizzard held back items purposely so that they can slowly release them in patches after fixing skill, item, and farming exploits that are found by the player community.

However, and this is a big HOWEVER, you are not as good of a player now as you will be in two more months of playing D2. I can say this confidently, because I notice that every day, I get better at playing this game. Just when I think that all I need is some extra gear to progress, I get smacked by a hardcore close call or a hardcore death screen. I then think about it and most often realize that I could have gotten out of that situation or could have avoided the death or near death had I done something differently. I then learn to play better when that situation arises.

I also know that there are different levels of individual player skill, because I have been playing with Frag in hardcore, and I see and hear over Mumble how he breaks down situations, his skills, and his equipment at a level I had never experienced before. He has unfortunately been sometimes too nice to tell me when I screw up, and I have to outright ask him what I should have done better sometimes. But playing with him, I've learned a lot.

Finally, I can tell that there are people with better skills, because there are people who are playing in hardcore Inferno. I don't know how far someone has progressed in hardcore Inferno, but I know that they are there. To help you play better, consider playing as if you were on hardcore. Play at an earlier act of Inferno and see if you can beat all of the boss and champion packs without dying. If/when you do die, think about what you could have done better and try again.

I realize that this post could be considered an "l2p" post, but really what it's saying is that with only 2 weeks since release, we all have to "l2p."