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About Demonic essence: I have plenty, what I lack usually are tomes.
I play SP and no AH, mostly MP 0 or MP 1 since that's the most I can currently handle.

Hope this post will lead to real improvements and I am really curious to know what they plan to do with AH, which has been, is and will be a pain to deal with when you plan to fix this game.

Hope they find a way to make it work but I don't envy them.

Itemization and new monster types will be appreciated as well as some randomness in monsters mix.

I like the idea of facing a boss not knowing exactly what to expect.

Some work may be needed as well as balancing and tuning both affixes and drops (be it special crafting materials or soulbound legendaries), but the idea is intriguing.

Also, currently boss fight are not much fun nor challenging: killing Diablo for the 1st time was deflating since it was easier than reaching Diablo, which, for me, is not the optimum for a game.

RMAH it's not as bad as goldAH, it provides a safer environment for those players that are willing to spend real money on items which in D2 used to trade on 3rd party or worse..

Problem is (IMO) both AH's greatly influence:
1. the drop perception by players ( "I cannot find anything good!", "Loot is crap in this game", etc ) AND devs (crappy legendaries)
2. Game difficulty perception by players ("This game is too easy!" or "To beat this game without AH is impossible, Blizz made it so you have to use AH" which led to decreasing overall difficulty)
3. possible changes to the game mechanics (increase drop ratio will flood tha AH, removing/changing stats on gear will make some items overpowered or obsolete thus causing great criticism from the players who have spent real money to buy stuff, etc)
4. give some players the false impression that playing this game is a way to make money while it should be to have fun, alone or with friends.

That's why back then I choose to play "self found": the game last longer, it's more challenging, you find upgrades more often and once in a while you get a big happy surprise.

Guess I went a little off topic, this topic is not about AH but I'm trying to explain myself and my choice.

I'm playing no-AH since release so just give me no-AH servers and I'd be happy.
Unfortunately I don't think Blizz will do this any sooner than expansion, if ever.

I've contrasting feelings about the game.

I like the game, I've been playing it with no breaks till I got my hands on it, about a week after release.
I play almost 99,99% alone, I've tried to play with friends at times, but I just love to play solo.
I have 10 characters, all of them levelled at the same time, 2 out of 10 killed Diablo in Inferno

The game has improved.
A lot, I dare say.

But.....this game has some built-in flaws that you cannot fix, at least not without a complete change of some core mechanics.
Some of the decisions they took while developing the game didn't feel like a good choice to me at the time (arrogant of me, I know)

Since before beta I thought they were starting from false premises (example: Blizzard seems to think that solo playing is some sort of weird behaviour they should help you to get rid of....why?) when planning this game, I still think so.


At least I've seen a some steps in what I think is the right direction.

But I'm just a Diablo addicted who still play the game almost each day, so what I know?

Self found to me is using gear found or crafted by any of my characters.
I levelled all 10 of them at the same time, in SP mode.
No gear from friends, not even for free.
No item from the AH, obviously.

This way suits me the best.

And that's why I think there should have been three types of characters: SC, HC and "no AH" (edit: "self found" may be a better definition) .

Since game release I played withouth buying stuff from AH and in SP-mode.
I've 10 lvl 60 characters and upgrading all the gems I need take a while, both in terms of time, money and materials.

Currently I'm out of amethysts but the main issue are tomes since they are used both for gems AND crafting, which I do once in a while.

As for gold I just did a 1 hr long run with my main WD (Paragon lvl 15, Leoric manor WP and outside area, Cemetery cripts and Act 1 keywarden) and I collected 95k gold, mostly from drops since all lvl 60 items got salvaged.
MP 1 since that's the most I can handle at the moment.


A while ago there was a topic of a guy asking for "cheats" because he/she couldn't handle an act boss in Normal or Nightmare (cannot remember, sorry), the correct answer to that post should have been:

"There is no need for cheats since you can just use the AH, but be aware that AH may end up ruining your game experience in many ways".

In short, it's a long road to play without AH in a game designed around the AH but I NEVER regretted it, not once.

Quote from MrMonstrosity

And then I woke up from my dream and came to the realization that we were still only in Patch 1.0.7...

Basically, that's the only thing I don't like in your post.
Your ideas deserve a lot of attention, hope they will enlighten "someone".
Great job :Thumbs Up:

Quote from MarshBoxer

Also there is the option for you to play D3 however you want - with or without AH

true...to a point.

I play the game without buying stuff from AH or even getting stuff for free from friends.
Yet drop rates are influenced by AH, since increasing drop rates would lead to flooding the AH with overpowered gear (which already happens)...and that affects my gameplay too.

Crafting too is affected by AH, since people can buy essences and recipes they otherwise would have to find by actually playing Blizz had to try to tune its efficiency, which affects also my gameplay.

That's why I think a "no AH" type of character would help, since it will reduce balancing issues and help game longevity.
I'd play that way and you could play your way, both me and you will be happy.

Do I (and many others here and elsewhere) get a prize for knowing this way before game release? no? oh well....

I decided to play without buying items from AH (gold or real) and never regretted it.

Hope they find a solution since AH influence on items and drop rates unfortunately affect also my gaming experience.

Maybe they should add a different category: normal, hardcore and "no AH" characters.

Or offline SP, but that's a dream....

Me too am experiencing FPS drops since 1.07 hit the servers.
I have a desktop pc with an Nvidia gtx 460 as video card.
All drivers are up to date (video card, mainboard, audio etc).
I got them mostly in act 3, drops from 59 FPS to 10 FPS.
Sewers have some problem since way before 1.07, at some crossing FPS drops from 59 to 30 with no apparent reason.
Unfortunately I cannot advice you about solving this problem, I'm still trying to find some clue.

Well, at least they keep working on the game.
The game has improved and, hopefully, will improve again in the future.

Dyes on Legendaries could be a nice addition but it will take some time, which is understandable.
Also 1.07 has some nice things in it, I think it will be a good patch.

The game has improved, maybe at a slower pace than we would have liked, but it's a slow process.
I find this game fun to play, in D3 I enjoy all the classes while in D2 I didn't like much some of them.

Unfortunately some of the choices they made in the beginning is going to limit how much they can meddle with the game.
Like stats on items: "players will just read the internet and follow guides" or "be upset for making mistakes in allocating points" were two of the preferred arguments against points allocation; now all you need is to read the internet and to buy items....VERY different;

Or GoldAH (which developer said "we didn't figure how much AH would affect how fast players get powerful items" or something like that?)....many players did figure and spoke about the problem, but Blizzard didn't take notice.

I bet it's going to be difficult to handle those two.

About Mr.Wilson...what am I to say...he may be a great game designer but he could do with a "PR managing" intensive course, really.
He has a talent for upsetting players, I'd say.

And I'd like to know who was the person, Jay or else, who uberfailed Legendaries (in an item hunting game where stats on items make most of the difference, no less!!!) on release.
Come on, don't be shy, we won't eat you....maybe.

Some good news, some unsolved problems...but I think this patch is one more step in the right direction.