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

[LochnarITB]

I have not purchased a single item from the AH. Early on, I sold a junk piece for 420g, mostly just to see how awful the AH setup is. My wizard is halfway through H4. I die a lot, and am somewhat embarrassed to say I often stair kill something like invulnerable vortex fire chains, but I have not skipped a single pack or side dungeon/quest. The only repeated areas have been chunks lost to afk/sleepytime inactivity disconnects. It is doable, but requires patience, at least through Hell. I don't know if I will work on Inferno but I will at least dip my toes in to see how tough it is.

You also need to consider using pieces that don't fit the idea you have for your toon's equipment. For example, my wizard is running around with a 2 hand sword bigger than he is because of the massive damage boost it gave him.

Also, for crafting, you may have to toss many tries to get something that is an upgrade. If you compare the item level to your level and what you are already using, you will never see anything worth crafting. Using up your stacks of mats to try and try again, it is likely you will find stats that look much better and actually benefit your toon. It does no good to hang on to stacks of mats because they will become useless (unless you hold them to twink another toon). Of course, you have to level your artisans along the way to have any hope of them being useful. Remember that you are leveling your crafters for the account, not just the current toon.

b) gave you options to get guaranteed stats on items (runewords, crafts).

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."