Pigeon wrote on Jul 1, 2012, 12:41:
RailWizard wrote on Jul 1, 2012, 11:46:
jdreyer wrote on Jul 1, 2012, 05:44:
Darks wrote on Jun 30, 2012, 23:04:
Personally I hope the RMAH goes away permanently. It has absolutely destroyed the game.
And I hope Blizzard gets their asses sued off.
How has it destroyed the game? I voted with my wallet and didn't buy this (will play TL2 instead), so I'm wondering. If you don't spend actual money will you be way underpowered?
1. It's pretty much a miracle if you find something that you can actually use.
2. At lvl 60, good items cost anywhere from 12million gold to 21 million. People ask this much to get you to either buy gold and/or buy items off the RMAH. Unless you game the ever loving shit out of the AH(10 whole items at a time...), or buy gold from the shitsucking farmers, good fucking luck amassing that much gold.
3. Items on the RMAH will be $100 USD and upwards. There is a 'recommended upgrades' section on the RMAH... For my lvl 60 wizard, it's page after page of stuff costing $100 to $250. Items...in a video game!
If this was Diablo 2, you could pretty easily ignore the AH(if it had one), but in D3, set items are insanely rare(I've never found one, and know nobody that has), more rare than legendary items....and you've probably read news about drop rates for rares being upped, but it still sucks, and inferno is still way harder than D2's highest difficulty. Harder + less reward so we get desperate and hit the AH or RMAH.
Prices were somewhat bearable before the RMAH came along, then they hit low orbit and beyond. To the moon! Plus we have heavy repair costs now. ~3000g per death, and you WILL die, lots. Crafting a lvl 60+ item is ~50,000g. You might craft 100 items and they will all be shit. Combining a gem above the ones that drop in inferno = 30,000g. I don't even want to know what the higher tier gems cost.
It's basically a gold farmers wet dream economy, and Blizzard is right there grinning and drooling along side them.
This
Also I think the game design really pushes reliance on the AH. Essentially the mechanics of bosses don't get harder, they just hit harder, have a lot more health, and many have enrage timers. So even if you're good avoiding attacks (skill) while you slowly shave off the boss's health you'll be screwed if you can't do it fast enough. Thus you need gear that's good for survivability and DPS, which is few and far between.
I've been farming act II for about 2 weeks now, a few hours a day, and have gotten 1 'sort of' upgrade. The rest I try to hock on the AH to cover my repair costs. I've been banging my head against Belial, and I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have the DPS atm, and AH upgrades that would make a perceptible difference are in the 6+ million range.
I did find a set item and managed to sell it for 3 million, but that's really not enough to get the good upgrades I'd need.
Also despite their pride in a flexible skill system, they punish players for changing skills by removing Neph Valor stacks. Which seems contrary to all of their 'stated' gameplay goals. /rant
Farm Act I. It is way easier, and much more profitable. In one night I geared out my Demon Hunter and got a few upgrades for my Barbarian, and sold a couple worthwhile items on the RMAH. I haven't touched the AH (gold or otherwise), and I'm progressing through Inferno just fine. The AH's are only there for people without the patience to farm, and in that regard they have not ruined the game. People forget that in Diablo 2 that unless you traded for gear (or if you were playing on open B.net and people were just handing out hacked/duped items like candy),
you had to farm for it. I can't even remember how many days weeks or months I spent doing Pindleskin, Mephisto, and Baal runs. Diablo 3 is no different. In the last Diablo 3 news piece here I posted three links to a Reddit discussion about farming routes, follow those links. Do that route 3-4 times a night, and I guarantee you will be able to gear out at least once of your characters within a couple days, without even thinking about the AH (except for things to sell).