DiabloFans

Well, yes you've proven there is a niche for hardcore games that only a tiny slice of gamers will play. Blizzard is very clearly NOT in the business of catering to a small niche.

Seconding this. Blizz doesn't want people relying on invincibility, so compensate by giving toughness in a way that scales with gear (basing it on damage done would be great). For purposes of the Jade build, they wouldn't even have to worry about a "mandatory" rune, since the 4 piece currently gives Soul Harvest all rune effects.

Because gold is a resource in the game, and typically game designers want those resources to mean something. Make it cost 10 billion, 100 billion, whatever, just have gold hold some value.

The thing about RG as "endgame gear" is that it's not really gear, it's a necessary partner to every weapon upgrade. Let people get legendaries/sets too easily, and people will use it to get hyper-optimized gear that makes even more of the game's drops irrelevant. Let people get RG easily, and...you'll have fewer people with Ancient drops rotting in their stash waiting for an RG drop? Your nightmare scenario of a "stash tab of gifts" doesn't really affect game balance.

Um, I've heard of it. Never used it because, as previously mentioned, gold is basically useless right now. That's why I'm asking the community what it would take to make an effective gold sink. When people ask you for the time, do you scream at them about watches?

My goal isn't to make RG easy to get - it's to offer a predictable route to obtaining one, so every weapon upgrade only hinges on one RNG drop rather than two. I was suggesting gold because it's currently useless AND they have a whole set of affixes, gear and a legendary gem devoted to this now-pointless section of the game. And it's not like one person's account having an excess of RG is going to imbalance the game and give them an advantage - I'm hoping to create a safety valve for people like Samyaza to get the dull but necessary item required for all weapon upgrades past approximately GR 30.

The big question I'm asking everyone here is what level of gold (and/or crafting mats) would make an (account-bound, should probably emphasize that) Ramaladni's gift attainable but not trivial?

Edited to add: Really like the increasing cost idea. Would probably want to tie it to the character rather than the account, though, and not sure there's any sort of code for that in the game as it stands.

Ooh, and another use for Death's Breath. I'm swimming in those damn things.

I'm not really concerned about the people who are currently swimming in RGs (GR40+ folks) having even more. But I hadn't considered the bots issue. Sadly, sounds like gold will probably remain useless because making it worth something invites abuse. Oh well.

Well, this is where my being ~25ish and not super concerned about pushing higher bites me. Still, say 1 billion - would that immediately get most players more RGs than they could ever use, or would it hit the sweet spot where folks might actually consider using gold find gear occaisionally?

Being personally overflowing with gold and in desperate need of a Ramaladni’s Gift (which I think is a common state), I’d like to float an idea: Ramaladni’s Gift purchaseable for some gigantic sum of gold.

I know that Blizz hates reducing the random in D3, but RG doesn’t provide a fun or interesting choice; it’s just an additional drop that is now mandatory to use any new weapon. And with the end of the AH and people having long since cranked out any top-tier gems they need, gold is just accumulating to no end.

I don’t want the cost to be trivial – ideally it should consume more gold than is earned in the time between weapon upgrades, so that RG drops remain useful. I’m offering an initial guess of 100 million – which would wipe me mostly out on the gold front but seems something that I could accumulate in a reasonable amount of time if I focused on it. Ultimately, I want people’s reaction upon getting an awesome Ancient weapon drop while lacking a Ramaladni’s to go from “Wonder how long I’ll have to wait to use this” to “Time to dust off my Boon of the Hoarder and move Paragon Points into gold find”.

Does this strike the community as a good idea? What should the cost be?

That's pretty much *exactly* what I'm running right now (same sets, different pieces - using Blackthorn's Amulet so I can have freeze immunity on boots).. Only have 3 pieces of Roland's, would happily trade Aughild's for the 6 piece bonus. And as others have pointed out, the coming Shield Bash bracers are worth leaving a slot open for.

And I heartily recommend tacking on Piro Mirela on for half-cost Shield Bash. As a crafted item you can keep trying for Ancient or high block (or both).