I've been only gearing my characters since 1.0.5 with found drops. With the increased drops, the possibility of lower level items being viable, and the adjustable difficulty, i feel like its much more reasonable to be able to get half decent gear without using the auction house.
As is, my DH and my barb are both viable for MP5+ playing, and im slowly working on my other toons.
I'm even going so far as to refuse handouts from most of my friends, I want to feel like all of my progress is the result of my own efforts.
The best part about this, it makes many more drops give me that "Yay!" feeling. i know i could upgrade many of my pieces with less than 100k, but im having a lot more fun this way, and its giving the game quite a bit more longevity for me.
is anyone else trying this? or have given it a shot at least? How well is it working out for you?
Gearing without the AH... anyone doing it??Source
My Barbarian has no AH items and is geared with either crafted or found items from mostly solo play. He has been doing ok in Act I Inferno so far, but I'm guessing he will need to farm a little bit more before moving on to Act II. I just started a Wizard, too, and I think I’ll level the same way with at least 2 levels of Monster Power.
but..boy it would nice to see what you guys are wearing..
and how far in the content you are vs. the community as a whole.
My main character uses budget gear from the gold auction house and was in Act II Inferno when patch 1.0.4 came out. I think I killed Maghda the week before it released, but never got to Zoltun Kulle. In 1.0.4, I was able to farm Act III steadily with little deaths, but my DPS was only around 25k. I finished Act IV as soon as 1.0.5 hit, but I think I could have done it before the patch if I had been willing to throw more gold at repairs from dying…but that's not my personal play style.
I recently decided I want to have a 60 with each class, so right now my play time is devoted to that goal. Once I get there I will likely swap back to my main (my Witch Doctor) and try to farm my way to some nice gear and extra Paragon levels, but I have a long way to go still. If any of you are interested in hearing more about what I am up to in Diablo III, the best way to do that is find @Grimiku on Twitter.
