09-24-2013, 01:20 PM
(09-24-2013, 01:38 AM)Chesspiece_face Wrote: I have mixed feelings on whether removing the AH will end up having the effect that people think it will.
I agree with most everything in your post regarding D3. The drops really are the issue, and playing self-found puts it in stark relief. Due to a guildmate of mine returning to D3 after barely playing the first year, I have moved to mostly playing on the account I purchased solely for self-found. We just got to inferno, and while it's standard mode I've been gearing like it's HC. I've probably died 4-5 times at this point; not bad, but not great. I tackled some of the content when I was too low of a level, just so I could continue to group with my guildmate.
My gear is OK for starting inferno (1.08 inferno; not release inferno) with about 10k DPS and 32K life. But I'm still using 2 blue level 26 rings that I bought from the vendor in Nightmare Act 1. In a game where you're obviously supposed to turn over your gear every 5-10 levels, I found nothing better in 30 character levels. Not even 1 upgrade in the ring slot to switch out. Yeah...that's a problem.
Will Blizzard get things right with "Loot 2.0"? I'm skeptical. For one, they're adding some elemental damage effects which will likely increase the need to trade for specialized gear. It's going to be less convenient to do that without an in-game AH. For another, tuning the drop rates correctly so that you get good gear without getting godly gear all the time seems like a tall order. So far the console players seem happy, but it's still early. Will you still keep hunting for gear as it becomes really difficult to find upgrades and continually vendor good-not-great items instead of receiving useful AH gold for them? Time will tell.
I'll go ahead and give an SFHC update as well. My DH hit level 47 last night and is in NMA3 after surviving the Belial encounter. I've turned down the MP to 1 (it was zero for Belial) and will probably set it to zero going forward. I'm done with the keeps and not looking forward to running into a demonic tremor elite pack out in the fields. And after that, phasebeasts loom...