Gearing and drop rates, AH use almost required to progress.

[Athenau]

I wish they would not have removed the ability to add sockets to items. It would also be nice if they had gems to add resists, weapon speed and movement speed. So many pieces I look at and get a little warm fuzzy until I think "Oh, but I can't do without ??? on my equipped gear."

Yes being able to add a socket would be great. I'd also like to see recipes with gems as a component which give you a guaranteed stat on the result (ala blood/safety crafts in D2). For example on a weapon you could do something like ruby (+% damage), amethyst (life steal), emerald (+IAS), topaz (+magic find/gold find).