1.10 possibly wrong assumptions

[swirly]

Looking at the new horadric cube recipes and how people are reacting to them made me notice an assumption that is being made. So I am wondering if anyone else has noticed other assumptions that people seem to be making about recent 1.10 information. It could be interesting to discuss these assumptions and see where it leads.

So the assumption that I have noticed with the cube recipes is that they are available to all battle.net characters. My point is just that it is entirely possible that they could be ladder-only. We don't know if Blizzard will do those kinds of things or not yet, but I think it might be something to consider. Think about it for a moment. Who do the recipes benefit the most? In my mind its the players starting out with nothing because the recipes allow them to upgrade items they find so as to have a better chance later in the game. Players still have to find items worth upgrading and the runes to do so, but the runes involved that we know of aren't too insanely hard to find if playing through the whole game. Also it seems like something Blizzard would do to me. Release the basic information about the recipes without all the specifics so that people start collecting runes and items to upgrade. Then when the patch is released they find that all those runes and items are useless. I think it would be quite funny and fitting with Blizzard's sense of humor as well as their anti-muling stance that I think they have (isn't it meantioned somewhere on the arreat summit? like in a faq? I could be wrong on that though.).

So what do you all think are the odds of it being ladder-only and are there any other assumptions like that that are being made?

[WarBlade]

So the assumption that I have noticed with the cube recipes is that they are available to all battle.net characters. My point is just that it is entirely possible that they could be ladder-only. We don't know if Blizzard will do those kinds of things or not yet, but I think it might be something to consider. Think about it for a moment. Who do the recipes benefit the most?

I'd say the single player character who can get Sol Runes easily enough, but without trading or muling can't expect anything better than Exceptional items.

Release the basic information about the recipes without all the specifics so that people start collecting runes and items to upgrade. Then when the patch is released they find that all those runes and items are useless.

I don't really see the items as being something to collect this close to the patch. So far I've collected a solitary Bonesnap, knowing that character has the other ingrediants to turn it into exceptional and that's all. Sol, Pul, and Lum all have other uses outside of the tempering recipe and Emeralds are common enough not to worry about them. Long story, short, even if it was ladder-only you don't really lose. You just fail to gain.

So what do you all think are the odds of it being ladder-only and are there any other assumptions like that that are being made?

Considering such a move would only serve to aid purists? Unlikely.

[swirly]

I'd say the single player character who can get Sol Runes easily enough, but without trading or muling can't expect anything better than Exceptional items.

Well this is true. I would point out though that it has been said that ladder-only items will also be available in single player. I don't remember where this was said, but I'm fairly certain it was (maybe on one of the leaked item pages, by isolde, or something like that). If this is the case then I think it is safe to assume (hmm assuming in a thread about assumptions? hehe) that ladder-only recipes would work in single player as well. Thus it would be helpful for single player characters as well since, as you say, they can't expect better than exceptional. Single player and ladder should actually be very similiar at least in the beginning of a ladder session.

I don't really see the items as being something to collect this close to the patch.

Well I am inclined to agree that its not worth collecting items at the moment. I only know a few people who play diablo though and at least one of them has started holding onto the runes he finds as well as items. This makes me think that if one person I know is doing it, then others probably are as well. Also in browsing places like the diabloii.net forums (which may be a mistake to start with hehe) it is easily observable that there are people trying to get a hold of perfect versions of uniques that they want to upgrade. So some people at least do seem to be going a little bit out of their way for items.

Long story, short, even if it was ladder-only you don't really lose. You just fail to gain.

I would argue that you lose whatever space the items you are holding take up as well as whatever play time you put into finding the items. Now for you just holding onto a bonesnap the lose of 8 spots may be unimportant because you could have plenty of free space. For some space is less free. Also, as I said before, some people seem to be looking for perfect versions of items so they will have them ready for the patch. This would imply a time loss on their part.

Considering such a move would only serve to aid purists? Unlikely.

and from a faq on the arreat summit

What is Blizzard's policy on transferring items between characters or "muling"?
The transferring of items between Diablo II characters is not supported by Blizzard. Users should be warned that attempts to transfer items between characters online are risky and Blizzard is not responsible for lost items. Storage space is limited in Diablo II both for performance and storage space issues and because the designers wanted players to make decisions as to which items to keep and which items must be thrown away or sold.

That would seem to say that Blizzard does in fact support the idea of "purists", though it may be that some of their actions seem to show otherwise.

Anyway, it doesn't really effect me (since I am waiting till the patch to play) and probably not most other members here, but I think it will be interesting to see what happens. If it will go like most people seem to think and be available for all to use, or if it will go how I think it might and be ladder-only.