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

[Archon_Wing]

Hmm, blues are quite good in d3. The damage can be on par with the best rares; but the mods will be lacking, which is about right.

I liked the D2 concept of having affixes available to blues that weren't on rares, so you'd need to roll a _really_ good rare to beat a top-end cruel with 300% ed. Right now, once you get to inferno, it feels like blues go right out the window.

I wouldn't say that. A 900-1000 plain blue dps one hander can carry you far; I got to act 3 of inferno before 1.03 on a plain 700 dps/dex weapon. A one with a socket is still a really good weapon.

Also, rare weapons in D2 were mostly unreliable, simply because blue items outclassed most of them! It was really hard to roll a 300% ed yellow, and even if it would, it needed to be an elite rare and even that would struggle against l uniques and certain runewords that are actually easier to find than that well rolled rare! A cruel magical weapon was much more beloved since you can actually vendor it, and it's one of the few things that you really would.

The itemization in D2 sucked in its own way, too. Let's not forget certain elite set items were insanely rare for no real reason. They were harder to find than certain overpowered uniques. :S I'll just summarize it in 2 words-- Taebaek's Glory-- is the epitome of badly thought out item design

True, but my concern is the slightly less than elite stuff. The mid-range runewords, the high-end magics, the blood crafts--stuff you could (with some effort) find for yourself and be assured of a decent baseline of power. You don't need an ethereal BoTD on every character, after all.

Yea, I'm guessing most people are more annoyed that this type of item isn't dropping much.

Crafts in D3 are supposed to fill this gap, but they're just so inefficient compared to the AH. I'd be willing to spend the current prices if there were ilvl 63 recipes, but blowing millions of gold to get one potentially good piece that isn't even max level...no. Gambling in D2 was way better.

Crafting for 60s is a terrible joke, unless you're crafting gloves and maybe pants, and even that requires you spend much time gathering materials. The biggest slap in the face is that you must find the recipes, of which are insanely rare anyways. Oh and did I tell you early Inferno only drops those garbage 4 mod plans that nobody sane would work with? I found a pretty neat 6 property plan in act 4 and had to sell it on the AH, because there was no way I was going to have the gold to ever take advantage of it.

I pretty much regret every gold piece I've ever sunk into the blacksmith, and this is including when I didn't AH. I've found much better stuff on the floor at much less cost... and that's saying a lot. :p But really, if people didn't waste their gold on buying my crafting mats, I wouldn't miss it if it vanished from the game completely.

I mostly like the paragon system because I don't have to spend money on an alternate gear set so I can farm boring areas, like Act I. Farming Act III or IV where there's an actual chance of dying and the fights are exciting is way more fun. I guess that's a good sign, because I actually enjoy killing things in this game. Like, a lot. Inferno is lots of fun now after 1.04. And the upcoming mechanics changes to CC open up even more build possibilities, which will keep me playing.

Yea, it was a bit annoying to repeatedly farm areas that you massively overgear. It just seemed kinda strange. You'd only play in an area that you massively overgear or be punished badly for it. Then again, besides too much CC, I didn't think 1.03 was that awful either in terms of difficulty.