So I broke down today....

[FireIceTalon]

And actually made a purchase on the RMAH. Well, I made a bid on an item there, but only time will tell if I win it or not. I've come to the conclusion that to get a really nice, high DPS weapon (high meaning 800+), you will have no choice to but to use the RMAH - unless you get EXTREMELY lucky with a drop, or you do countless hours of farming gold and trash to sell so you can buy one for a few million on the Gold house.

I really hate contributing to Blizz's profit scheme, but such an item is the only way I can have any expectation to progress, while I hold out hope that Blizz fixes the sorely broken end game - probably naive on my part though. I've told myself I will make all other upgrades on the gold AH, but nice weapons are just so expensive there that the RMAH is pretty much forced unless you want to farm yourself to death. My Wiz is starting to come along nicely - I have over 40k HP, with 75% damage reduction, 700+ resists all, and almost 9k armor (this is all with Prismatic Armor activated of course). Only thing I reallllly need now is the DPS, 12K is just horribly low for Inferno Act 2 onward.

[Elric of Grans]

There is not really any reason you have to use it. I have not and it does not worry me. My money says that the Lounge is full of people playing Inferno who have not even looked at it, and many of them are doing better than me. You made the choice, end of story. At the end of the day, the game was always meant to end at IV/Hell for 99% of players anyway, so Inferno is only there for people who do like a grindfest.

[MMAgCh]

I'm avoiding this issue entirely by primarily playing on a server outside of my home region.

Even if I weren't, there's absolute lots of things I'd spend real money on before ever considering a piece of virtual equipment. Partly out of principle and partly because money can buy things that are so much nicer.

[Chesspiece_face]

Umm. If you are only doing 12k damage with a Wizard in Act 2 inferno you not only must have a low end weapon but you must also not have any +damage on any of your jewelry as well as extremely low Int.

Any piece of gear that would rectify that issue would easily be found on the gold AH and it wouldn't be a couple million for them. Or you could just farm Act 1 for a while and upgrade that way.

The only items that are inflated to extreme prices are those that not only have high damage but also have high secondary stats. If all you need to progress is more damage it should be easy and cheap to find something that will fill that gap. I've tried selling 800+ dps weapons with little/no extra stats on the gold AH this last week. I can't give them away.

[ErickTheRed]

I don't understand. I just went on the AH, selected wizard and 1H weapon and put a buyout limit of 20K, and I see something with 814 dps.

[Archon_Wing]

>.> My only use of RMAH is to sell to people. And there's plenty of 800 dps weapons with primary stat in the 2-3 mil range-- a few million gold isn't hard to farm if you are frugal. Just break down l60 blue items and sell essences like a madman. Mine is a 740ish socketed weapon that I got for 300k... You don't need LOH for a ranged class, and some AH browsing could have gotten it.

But honestly, you could have asked for help here first rather than go to the RMAH, which is filled with people that are trying to rip you off with overpriced items. I would know, because I am a seller. :S

Wow... the RMAH really really sucks. The selection isn't any better than the GAH. :O

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff247...ahfail.png

[FireIceTalon]

Umm. If you are only doing 12k damage with a Wizard in Act 2 inferno you not only must have a low end weapon but you must also not have any +damage on any of your jewelry as well as extremely low Int.

Any piece of gear that would rectify that issue would easily be found on the gold AH and it wouldn't be a couple million for them. Or you could just farm Act 1 for a while and upgrade that way.

The only items that are inflated to extreme prices are those that not only have high damage but also have high secondary stats. If all you need to progress is more damage it should be easy and cheap to find something that will fill that gap. I've tried selling 800+ dps weapons with little/no extra stats on the gold AH this last week. I can't give them away.

My rings have 8-16 dmg and 13-16 dmg on them, no critical hit bonus or attack speed bonus on them but still, and my Int is over 1200 which should be solid yes? My weapon has bonus 265 minimum damage and 320 max damage with 105 Int, but DPS on it is only 742.

And yes, I am looking at weapons with other stats in addition to DPS. I figure if I'm going to upgrade to beat the highest difficulty, why not not kill MULTIPLE birds wtih one stone? I'm going to need those extra stats later on anyway, so I figure I may as well try to be geared ahead of time to get through it. When I can play the later acts "comfortably", then I will probably ok with farming since the risk of death and thus the outrageous repair costs would be lower. At that point of course, i'd be farming no longer to get through Inferno, but to make a perfect char that can steamroll anything and use for PvP.

[Elric of Grans]

Wierd. My Demon Hunter has a 750 DPS Hand Crossbow and about 1.1K Dex, but has almost 16K DPS. Does not feel enough for Act II, however; I feel I need around 20K.

Without huge gobs of cash, I currently have roughly 57% Damage Reduction, 60% Resist All and 40K Life. Considering I do not have access to something like Energy Armour, I would imagine that is fairly high (it certainly feels plenty for Act II).

[FireIceTalon]

What does 60% resist all equate to in actual numbers? My Wiz gets 700+ resists when Prismatic Armor is on, but I have no clue percentage that is, maybe someone here knows the formula on that.

Does your 16K include either Sharp Shooter or Archery? If so that may explain why your DPS is a little higher than mine. DH's do get the highest DPS in general it seems. I guess they kind of have to since they have little else to mitigate incoming damage in terms of their skills. At any rate, my Wiz can kill white mobs at Act 2 (though even vs them, I have to play carefully, regular laccuni's and sand wasps can kill me in about 4 hits if I get careless), but almost any elite pack will be too much - they simply outlast me because of my low DPS.

[Archon_Wing]

My Monk has 14.8k dps which seems fine for act 2 solo(though lately it's been 13.5 when I wear some mf), and I've only spent more than 1mil on 3 pieces of gear. My lovely shield (2 mil), helm (2.8 mil), and armor (1.2 mil). I never felt like I HAD to buy these items even pre-patch and bought these all on a whim after I made a big sale.

Stacking primary stats is key, me thinks.

As for Redradical, you have sacrificed way too much dps for defense. My monk has 6000~ base armor/800 resists and caster classes shouldn't have to have that much.

[DeeBye]

This is my WD's weapon. I haven't even looked at the RMAH, nor do I have millions of in-game gold. I just hung around the Trade channel and some guy was offering to sell this for 25k. I talked him down to 15k. Yeah, it's not a Rare with multiple awesome mods but it gets the job done.

[FoxBat]

RMAH could be seen as an investment. Buy decent act 4 gear, start farming act 4, sell off your finds. Dunno how long it would take to recoup your investment, but it could be worth skipping the time you aren't making as much money in the earlier acts.

[FireIceTalon]

My Monk has 14.8k dps which seems fine for act 2 solo(though lately it's been 13.5 when I wear some mf), and I've only spent more than 1mil on 3 pieces of gear. My lovely shield (2 mil), helm (2.8 mil), and armor (1.2 mil). I never felt like I HAD to buy these items even pre-patch and bought these all on a whim after I made a big sale.

Stacking primary stats is key, me thinks.

As for Redradical, you have sacrificed way too much dps for defense. My monk has 6000~ base armor/800 resists and caster classes shouldn't have to have that much.

Maybe so, but when I do get that nice DPS weapon, I think I'm going to be sitting quite pretty. A couple more upgrades on jewelry (currently using level 57 and level 60 rings, I'd like to get ilvl 62 at least), and maybe a better helm, and I think my char is going to be quite a force to reckon with. Right now I want just enough to help me get through Inferno "comfortably". Once I do that, I will focus on making my char as close to perfect as possible, so I can FACEROLL Inferno with no problem and use her to farm for my other chars. I'm not even sure if such a thing is possible, but I guess with the absolute best possible gear or close to it, it would be.

Gearing for defense is what helped me beat Act 1 though. Now I guess it's time for me to get my offense back up, which will be my primary focus after I level my Monk to 60 tonight (58 now)

[MongoJerry]

RMAH could be seen as an investment. Buy decent act 4 gear, start farming act 4, sell off your finds. Dunno how long it would take to recoup your investment, but it could be worth skipping the time you aren't making as much money in the earlier acts.

I agree with this. I remember buying a couple of key D2 items I needed off Ebay back in the day for a total of about $15 plus or minus. I then sold a few items there to recoup the money I spent on my purchases and never looked at any real money trading site again.

[Archon_Wing]

My Monk has 14.8k dps which seems fine for act 2 solo(though lately it's been 13.5 when I wear some mf), and I've only spent more than 1mil on 3 pieces of gear. My lovely shield (2 mil), helm (2.8 mil), and armor (1.2 mil). I never felt like I HAD to buy these items even pre-patch and bought these all on a whim after I made a big sale.

Stacking primary stats is key, me thinks.

As for Redradical, you have sacrificed way too much dps for defense. My monk has 6000~ base armor/800 resists and caster classes shouldn't have to have that much.

Maybe so, but when I do get that nice DPS weapon, I think I'm going to be sitting quite pretty. A couple more upgrades on jewelry (currently using level 57 and level 60 rings, I'd like to get ilvl 62 at least), and maybe a better helm, and I think my char is going to be quite a force to reckon with. Right now I want just enough to help me get through Inferno "comfortably". Once I do that, I will focus on making my char as close to perfect as possible, so I can FACEROLL Inferno with no problem and use her to farm for my other chars. I'm not even sure if such a thing is possible, but I guess with the absolute best possible gear or close to it, it would be.

Gearing for defense is what helped me beat Act 1 though. Now I guess it's time for me to get my offense back up, which will be my primary focus after I level my Monk to 60 tonight (58 now)

lawl, in that case hope your ROI (selling back to the RMAH) will help. But it's just that the stuff on the AH is poop unless you want to empty out your wallet. I feel that it's just far inferior to the GAH. In fact, my RMAH sales were my gold auction house rejects! I'm just warning you, because like I said before, I realize that greed is a strong motivator for sellers.

Defense is nice. It really is. But since you're not playing hardcore, as soon as you can survive comfortably, you should sport more dps. I've actually reduced my health pool quite a bit to get more damage, since it's actaully that which is holding me back. It's about balance, and lopsided builds tend to result in frustration.

Each to their own.

[Elric of Grans]

No, I do not have Sharpshooter (which displays an unnaturally inflated DPS). I have Archery, but that is only +500 DPS for my Hand Crossbow (it is *much* better for Bows).

4K Armour; 450 Resist All. The class has nothing to boost these, like the Wizard does.

Ring ilvl matters far less than any other piece of equipment. You can VERY easily find an ilvl33 ring than it better than an ilvl63 one

[Chesspiece_face]

My rings have 8-16 dmg and 13-16 dmg on them, no critical hit bonus or attack speed bonus on them but still, and my Int is over 1200 which should be solid yes?

No. 1200ish Int is not solid.

When looking at how you can effectively manage the damage on your Wizard you have a few options. The first option is to get the biggest strongest 2-hander and then focus on supplementing that with Attack Speed and crit. The other option you have is to get a reasonable 1-hander and then supplement that with heavy +damage on jewelry and source. I am assuming that you are using a shield as opposed to a source. This is a perfectly suitable option but if your major issue is damage and not survival it may be time to switch up to a source for all the extra damage it will offer you.

Either way you decide you are going to need to raise your Int up to at least 16-1800 so that you can magnify the damage you inherantly have on your items. (My Wiz in A3 right now has 2k Int and upwards of 28k damage.) It sounds like your defenses are beyond the level they need to be so you may need to look at sacrificing some of that for damage potential.

[Nystul]

At the end of the day, the game was always meant to end at IV/Hell for 99% of players anyway, so Inferno is only there for people who do like a grindfest.

I can see by the reaction of so many players that this Inferno concept as a playground for pro gamers doesn't work. It's set up as another difficulty level just like the 3 before it. For most players who play through hell difficulty, the intention is to "beat the game". Expectation: this next one is going to be more challenging to me as a player, but I'm basically 3/4 of the way there. Blizzard expectation: nobody is actually supposed to beat this because then they have nothing left to do. OR Blizzard expectation: PAY2WIN MUAHAHA! Depending who you ask.

They could have put in an actual infinite dungeon for those who want continuing challenge. No quests or goals. Just lots of evil to purge. Go deep or go home.

[Elric of Grans]

Every 10 levels cleared grants a nephalim valour stack. Guaranteed Legendary drop every 50 levels. Achievement for reaching level 100. Nah, I have absolutely no idea how you could possibly make an infinite dungeon something that would appeal to the players!

[Nystul]

Every 10 levels cleared grants a nephalim valour stack. Guaranteed Legendary drop every 50 levels. Achievement for reaching level 100. Nah, I have absolutely no idea how you could possibly make an infinite dungeon something that would appeal to the players!

Full clear to unlock the next level. More champ packs as you go. How low can you go ladder rankings. Each level we take the last one and we doub... added like 8%. Ladder winner gets a pony mount. Legendary item Ear of Jay Wilson. Chance to trigger special events by clearing a level. The possibilities are literally endless!!!!1

Or we could all go back to Act I but make it like really hard.