The game is only not ok for those who care about what's "most optimal" and what's the "best way to play the game", which is a very negative way to view games nowadays, imho.
I'm not saying they're wrong (either in how they play or their expectations).
I'm saying these people in particular willalways feel that the game is unfair, not deep enough, not fun enough - no matter the changes made. For these people in particular, perfect balance is the most important aspect of the game (balance between item affixes, balance between specific skills/runes, balance between classes/builds, balance between acts/bosses/elites/farming areas). And that won't happen in an ARPG, ever!
The sooner they realize this and start just enjoying things instead of caring about something that affects 0,000001% of the playerbase, the sooner they're gonna move out of the hatewagon and start actually enjoying the game for what it is: a solid action rpg experience with very fast paced and fun (or challenging, depending on your build and MP) combat and coop.
I'll take some time to explain my point of view further (considering what you said), because I honestly think these 2 topics have been discussed to death but never appropriately. Sorry in advance for the wall of text
On skills:
The simple fact that you say there are 4 skill builds (either for all classes or for each of them) is saddening to me, because that's how most players see D3 nowadays.
Just for my Archon MP1 farming build I can think of 5-7 variants of it, some with Storm Armor for better movement speed (Scramble) or AoE (Shocking Aspect or Reactive Armor), some with Teleport Wormhole for faster movement when I'm out of Archon form, some with Blizzard and Hydra so that I can throw AoE and leave monsters be (if I don't care about gold/items). Passives can include Evocation, Critical Mass or Galvanizing Ward - again that depends on other skills and whether you mind dropping out of Archon to recast armor spells. I can think of dozens of variants that I've tried for the popular builds that fared better for my gear/MP than what is considered to be the best.
If I go for Critical Mass, I might consider Force Armor with +5% crit chance, and I might drop my Hellfire Ring for a crit chance rare ring, and then I might be able to up MP a bit with the added armor, and the cooldown reduction from Critical Mass will keep me in Archon form. This is theorycrafting, and this is the one of the "role playing" aspects of Diablo 3 that people claim isn't there.
That's ONE thematic build. People say Wizards only have Archon or CM builds, and I heavily disagree with that. I've been recently using The Oculus, a Wizard off-hand that greatly decreases Teleport cooldown and increases Blizzard duration, and I'm able to do a crapload more damage with Blizzard + Hydra than I can with CMWW.
And I don't EVER have to care about Fire Chains, Desecrator, Plagued, Molten, Frozen, Nightmarish + Arcane with it. I can sacrifice a ton of EHP for damage. But then I have to be really careful with Jailer/Waller (to not blow my Teleport cooldown too early), I have to be really careful with really fast and resilient minions (hordes) since I can't burst them to death.
"Oh, but that's because your gear sucks!!!", YES IT DOES! Awesome isn't it? My gear sucks, I change my weapon and off-hand and a couple skills and suddenly the way I play changes completely. But I can still play on MP 4-7. With Teleport + Evocation + Fracture I got decent repositioning skills + ranged firepower (which is invaluable versus goblins and ranged elites/monsters).
And that's the beauty of it: I don't give a SHIT if my "build of the day" is 5-10% less effective than John_Doe's. All I care is that in every session I'm playing my ARPG and enjoying its combat in a completelly different manner.
Could give dozens of examples on other classes, but this is long enough as is.
On items/itemization:
Another urban legend right here: there's no choice in items/affixes.
That's pure, utter, absolute bullshit. "Oh but it's SO obvious which stats you want on items, and the BiS IS SO OBVIOUS too!!!"
Oh really? Please, enlighten me which are those. "Well, you want mainstat, vitality, all res on most defensive gear, and then you want like average damage, mainstat, attackspeed, crit chance, crit dmg on rings/amulets, and then mainstat/crit dmg/crit chance on gloves..."
If you can describe 3-4 desired stats on a given slot (can go up to 6-7 on rings/amulets), there is a goddamn choice. "But I want them all, otherwise the item is useless" (people love this word, don't they?). No, it's not useless - it's just no the absolute best item.
I have never used a trifecta gloves with decent stats (vit or int or whatever). I am completely aware that I will never use a perfect pair of trifecta gloves. That's something reserved for the top-end players. And if you can't have everything (all 5 stats on your gloves) AGAIN, you have a freaking choice right there.
It does not affect me in any way whatsoever (nor the majority of the complainers), because I still need to choose between crit dmg, crit chance and attackspeed, and I still need to decide whether I want some EHP in there as well (all resist, armor, vitality). There's a choice when you look at 2 items and see that one has pickup radius and the other has physical resistance (secondary affixes) and you can't be 100% sure which would be better for you at the MP you play and with the build you use.
I certainly don't mind that some affixes are primary (more important than others for the core of my character) and some are secondary (refer to specialization, like specific resistances). People want "+ bonus to health globes/pots" to be as important as +Intelligence and that (again) just won't happen.
"But BUT how about the Best in Slot items? Skorn for instance?"You got me there. That is obviously the strongest 2-handed weapon when perfectly rolled, but hey, what's the chance of you getting a perfectly rolled Skorn if you try reaaaally hard? 5%? 10%? I know mine is 0%. If I dropped something like that, I'd sell it for 2 billion and buy mid-tier gear for all slots on all my characters.
Most people complaining have "pretty damn good gear", but FAR from perfect or best in slot. And some of these guys have 2k+ hours played (sometimes 3k+), and they're not REMOTELY close to having BiS items. AND THEN D3 HAS NO END-GAME - brain: exploded!!!
The price on these BiS legendaries is also way higher than something like an IK's Boulder Breaker or an Inna's Reach which can fulfill the same needs. A BB can work wonders with a HotA build and it can give you a full IK's set bonus, which is pretty awesome for a HotA build as well. An Inna's Reach can reduce the cost of Lashing Tail Kick or increase the crit chance of WoL as well as give you the free SW bonus. Skorn can do neither of those.
The same can be said for the oh-so-mighty Witching Hour. Is it the best DPS belt in the game? Yes. Is it the ONLY belt worth using? Hell no. Rares can still add a crapload of EHP (my Wiz's belt gives me 150 vit, 60 allres and armor). I will never be able to afford a WH with those stats.
The fundamental game design that says that DPS is more important than EHP (hence why mainstat is almost always more valuable than vit/allres/armor) is the same that dictates Diablo has no defined roles - everyone is a DPS machine. You can NEVER have too much dps, but you can (and most preach that you SHOULD) have the minimum defensive stats to survive long enough to kill your enemies.
That's WHY mainstat, crit-chance, crit-dmg and average dmg (weapon dmg) will ALWAYS be more important than defensive stats. That doesn't mean you can't have 150k HP + 4 million EHP + 3k LoH, but there's simply no point to it when we know the enemies capabilities.
Again, the whole idea of efficiency comes to mind. People don't do that because it's not "efficient". We could have a huge change of paradigm when (and if) PvP arena comes. Suddenly EHP might become a huge deal.
The sheer ignorance regarding these themes shown on D3 forums blows my mind. Sometimes I think the biggest deal is that people didn't get what they personally wanted from the game. But then again everyone (fans) got what they wanted from Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 and nobody is playing those games anymore - go figure.
Let me make myself very clear here. I, too, have a buttload of suggestions and feedback to the developers. I do have a very long list of criticisms. I do think there's a ton of things they can and should improve, both in items, skills and overall game-design.
But I simply refuse to become a tunnel-visioned hater who just repeats what the others are saying. I've had a very strong critic sense my whole life, and almost never believe on what's presented to me without putting a lot of thought and research into it.
And that won't change with D3 or whatever gaming community I'm part of.
I feel that if you pay RM for the BIS gear you may miss the opportunity to experience the special feeling and longevity. But if your set on it you might might want to look to diablo progress for a double check.. http://www.diabloprogress.com/
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well said +1
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agreed.... much fun