DG wrote on May 28, 2012, 17:26:
Hmm, I'm not even done on Act II of Normal yet but I was getting a very strong impression that the blacksmith is a total waste of gold. I blew quite a bit on training, plus lost sales salvaging blues plus the gold to craft random items.

I also initially went heavy on increased magic find, and thought I was doing okay with that.

Then I hit the AH. It makes everything in-game look like a bit of a joke. In any given number of playing hours, it's vastly better and cheaper to just buy on the AH.

Merchants are superfluous to the AH, though I keep looking as occasionally they'll be offering decent stats for cheaper.

The only thing I'm not sure about at this stage is whether to go for high gold find attributes or high magic find - in order to sell the items on the AH. I probably made about 1/3 of my gold income from selling items over the past few days, though this is with something like +50% magic find but +0 gold find. It's also a nuisance to sell on the AH as it times out a lot. Also I check prices and sell at a discount since it's a buyer's market and anyway limited to 10 items. I guess with high gold find I should make about the same but with much less hassle.

The second thing is, does this still work on the higher levels, or does crafting and drops become much more valid?