07-05-2012, 10:00 PM
(07-05-2012, 02:30 PM)FoxBat Wrote: It should also be noted that to my knowledge, Blizzard has never defended crappy drops with "use the AH", the official line is that it should be optional. (regardless of the truth of the matter)
When Diablo III was released, it was not optional. Period. Of course, the only reason the AH worked in the first place was due to exploitation and abuse of bugs and/or game mechanics. With the latest patches (1.0.3, and the 06/28 hotfix) the AH is now entirely optional to advance. It's 100% possible to farm adequate gear in Act I Inferno - it just takes awhile, but "months" is far too high an estimate. With steady playing (10+ hours a week), I'd say a couple weeks tops. I'm lucky if I play one or two nights a week, for an hour or two, and already I've found... 2 or 3 upgrades - and I was at a point where I couldn't buy a single upgrade off the AH for less than a million, and oftentimes costing several million per piece.
Honestly, despite my current inability to progress through the Oasis in Act II, I think the gear rates in Inferno are finally where they need to be to allow people to progress at a reasonable pace (albeit much slower than normal). While I had been about ready to give up on D3 until at least 1.1, with the latest drop rate changes I'm finally finding farming Act I Inferno to be enjoyable. My biggest complaint, ironically, is how long it takes to find elite packs, especially in the open areas - but that's only because I'm over-geared for Act I (while still being under-geared for Act II).
Roland *The Gunslinger*