The Auction House III: Evil is Back

[Quark]

Is that bad? Buyout seems to be the most efficient, and the more competitive the market, the more it also reflects the true market price of the item.

-Jester

Not bad, just something to be aware of. Going for bids will most likely end in misery, though sometimes you can find the people that were too lazy to list a price and snipe something.

The expansion will also include the fifth difficulty, "Impossible." Everything there hits for at least 25K damage. Good luck, folks!

Too late, Act 3 base damage is 56.5k as I posted above.

“Internally, we had this super hardcore test group – we’ve got a lot of hardcore players at Blizzard – that tested Inferno, and we got it to the point where they thought it was challenging enough,” Blizzard’s Jay Wilson told IGN.

“Then we doubled it. Because we knew, no matter how good we are, our players are gonna be better. We focussed on making that as difficult as we could make it.”

[Trevan]

I will also throw in that Blizzard have stated time and again that Legendaries are not supposed to be compared to Uniques. They used a different name for that very reason. You found a Legendary that was only so-so? Well, it sucks, but that was how the game was designed. It is no secret, Blizzard seems to state this every 30 seconds. Diablo 3 Legendary != Diablo 2 Unique.

I find that interesting, because I distinctly remember release diablo 2 uniques being absolutely worthless except in a few niche variant builds. Also their absolute lack of level requirements.

Of course...THAT totally changed.

[ViralSpiral]

I seem to recall 80% of the D1 uniques being crap as well barring...what? Naj's Light Plate, Arkaine's Valour (on your first time through Normal), Thinking Cap (and that only after some heavy shrine abuse), Windforce, and (of course) Torn Flesh of Souls. Grandfather was okay for awhile but didn't cut it in H/H.

[BellaStrega]

In the post today about patch 1.0.3 they said something like:

As previously mentioned, we’re going to be reviewing Legendary items in a future patch. Legendaries won’t change in 1.0.3, but it’s still something we’re actively working on. When we’re done, high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items, they’ll carry a good amount of power with them, and they should also be distinctive or memorable in the benefits they provide. We’ll be able to share more information on the specific changes we’re making after 1.0.3 launches.

[LavCat]

I find that interesting, because I distinctly remember release diablo 2 uniques being absolutely worthless except in a few niche variant builds. Also their absolute lack of level requirements.

Of course...THAT totally changed.

I have a level 1 decked out in uniques.

[FireIceTalon]

I seem to recall 80% of the D1 uniques being crap as well barring...what? Naj's Light Plate, Arkaine's Valour (on your first time through Normal), Thinking Cap (and that only after some heavy shrine abuse), Windforce, and (of course) Torn Flesh of Souls. Grandfather was okay for awhile but didn't cut it in H/H.

Dont forget Royal Circlet, probably the best unique item in the game overall.

And Windforce was a terrible bow in D1 really, at least for a higher level rogue. There were numerous magical bows that were vastly superior.

[Roland]

In the post today about patch 1.0.3 they said something like:

As previously mentioned, we’re going to be reviewing Legendary items in a future patch. Legendaries won’t change in 1.0.3, but it’s still something we’re actively working on. When we’re done, high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items, they’ll carry a good amount of power with them, and they should also be distinctive or memorable in the benefits they provide. We’ll be able to share more information on the specific changes we’re making after 1.0.3 launches.

That's not saying anything, though. Legendaries by their very nature are better than Blues. Magic items cap at 2 affixes, which can mean at most 3 stats (2x +main stat, and another stat like Socketed). Legendaries have a set of fixed stats, and an additional 2-3 (4?) random stats affixed to them. In essence, they're there to add flavor, and be a bridge between Magic and Rare items. Granted, I'm not arguing they don't need a little boost here and there, but it's rather silly to say "They should be better than blues" when that's already the case, strictly speaking.

It's worth noting that there are some worthwhile Legendaries (String of Ears, Stormshield), but frankly I don't look forward to everyone being decked out in all the same gear (whether it's Sets or Legendaries), anymore than I do people using all the same skills.

[Quark]

That's not saying anything, though. Legendaries by their very nature are better than Blues. Magic items cap at 2 affixes, which can mean at most 3 stats (2x +main stat, and another stat like Socketed). Legendaries have a set of fixed stats, and an additional 2-3 (4?) random stats affixed to them. In essence, they're there to add flavor, and be a bridge between Magic and Rare items.

Many Legendaries have set affixes that are bad, and some only get 1 random stat added to them. More important: the highest ilvl legendary is 62. Magic can go 63. Since DPS scaling is nuts in the later ilvls, Magic Weapon > Legendary Weapon, period.

[FireIceTalon]

^^Yup. Most of the Legendaries in D3 are not that great. Yellow items is where its at, but I think I am stating the obvious here.

[Roland]

Many Legendaries have set affixes that are bad, and some only get 1 random stat added to them. More important: the highest ilvl legendary is 62. Magic can go 63. Since DPS scaling is nuts in the later ilvls, Magic Weapon > Legendary Weapon, period.

Learn something new everyday. Thanks!

[Trevan]

I find that interesting, because I distinctly remember release diablo 2 uniques being absolutely worthless except in a few niche variant builds. Also their absolute lack of level requirements.

Of course...THAT totally changed.

I have a level 1 decked out in uniques.

I meant that in the d2 of today, uniques are amazing.

[ViralSpiral]

Ah, yes. I think I forgot Royal Circlet because of how few legitimate ones I ever saw. But yeah, it was pretty awesome. Windforce was pretty good right up to Hell/Caves. The KB was really nice when you weren't getting swamped with ranged attackers/stuff had few enough HP to die before overwhelming your KB ability. But yeah, also not endgame gear. But the point is overall the same - release D1/D2 uniques were mostly crap. Expansion D2 uniques were buffed up beyond belief, but I think we've seen that didn't really work out too well. Too many cookie-cutter characters with not just identical skills, but nearly identical equipment (even without duping.)

So basically I think we want to see Legendaries that are cool, do unique stuff, and are interesting and useful...until you find something better, of which there should be a decent chance of, at which point you can shelve/sell the Legendary after having gotten 2-3 weeks of use out of it. Sort of like how Arkaine's Valour was - it was a good enough set of armour to get anyone through Normal, in case the RNG hated you and nothing better dropped. But it's not like (ethereal, if you like) Titan's Revenge where once you had it, you had no chance of ever getting anything better for the build intended to use it, because it literally had every mod you could reasonably want and then tossed on a couple of extra ones for funsies.

[Roland]

In case anyone missed it during the AMA:

Q: Would you consider a Hardcore RMAH if it were for gold only? Won't third-party sites prosper if you don't address this?
(JayPWilson) A: Once the RMAH has gone live and we can monitor it for a bit we'll consider whether we want to add it to Hardcore.

So much for insisting pre-launch that there is no, and would never be, any RMAH for HC characters.

[Mavfin]

In case anyone missed it during the AMA:

Q: Would you consider a Hardcore RMAH if it were for gold only? Won't third-party sites prosper if you don't address this?
(JayPWilson) A: Once the RMAH has gone live and we can monitor it for a bit we'll consider whether we want to add it to Hardcore.

So much for insisting pre-launch that there is no, and would never be, any RMAH for HC characters.

That's old news, and was said before launch, not just in the AMA thing. Maybe you need a new horse to beat? This one's in pretty bad shape.

(In March, when asked about RMAH for Hardcore, Jay Wilson tweeted "If there is a demand for it we’ll consider it.")

From http://www.diablofans.com/topic/36812-bl...ntry790430

Orig source: http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comment...r-hardcore