Posts like these only appeal to those who are already inclined to hate the game. I could write 100 pages on how the font they chose has ruined the game irreversibly, and it'd get parroted around by the gilted ex-lovers of Diablo.
The Tias (who made a far better post) and Droth have made the following points:
1. Drop rates are too low.
2. Enemy damage too high.
3. Enemies have too many HP.
4. CC effects need to be nerfed.
5. Rifts need to be more rewarding.
Hardly game breaking when read in a format that doesn't evoke mass hysteria.
And taken as whole, all this says is, "You'll have to play the game for a while before you find all the best items and faceroll content." Oh no!!! And if it's really really upsetting you that you might have to play the game longer than 20 hours before you have everything, then perhaps the ARPG genre just isn't for you. Because no matter which of these games you play, whether it's Torchlight, PoE, or even Diablo 2, if you want to have the best of the best items, you're going to have to play the game for a little while.
I really don't know how to feel about this, which is why I didn't reply (although reading the original thread and this one multiple times). Droth's post is very nice and long and elaborated, but its TL;DR version is just "increase drop rates". That's it.TheTias's post is a very nice read, too, and I kept nodding while reading the first few items on his list, but at some point I was like "nah, c'mon". I don't agree to all of the issues he mentioned, I feel at some point he's drifting into complaining about things that are just beta-typical.
What I don't get, though, is why Nubtro doesn't get the attention he deserves. His post (#41) deserves more credit. He gives actionable, constructive feedback, without all the small talk. Droth said himself he didn't want to get attention and provide troll food/arguments for the haters, nor did he want a CM to "blue-tag" his post. But what's the purpose then? If you stop reading the thread after TheTias's post, you might as well just jump off a bridge.
I don't think any of the issues are beyond fixing, which is why I really don't get why people are considering of cancelling pre-order. They are fair concerns, but I'm very confident that most of them will be fixed. My #1 concern, actually, is just that the time is not enough to fix them until RoS release. I don't think the RoS release will be a catastrophe as D3V release, but it also won't be a release without bugs and balancing issues. Since there's no ladder, no PvP, and no competition otherwise, those who are concerned might as well just wait until patch 2.1. I'm aware that for many people that's too long of a wait, and many people will be disappointed on March 25. At this point, unless a miracle happens, RoS will not be a success story as it could've been; a significant part of the playerbase will probably quit and might never come back, so D3 will take a hit. But some people are also overreacting... and again, Nubtro is the one who's trying hardest to bring the thread back to constructive ground, he deserves as much credit as Droth and TheTias.
So I guess the question is, what drives Blizzard, who isn't going to get anything after the sales, to really polish this game up the way we hope it will be? Cookies?
They've (likely, since I don't work for Blizzard, but have done game projects) already budgeted out how much money/time they are going to spend on every system and feature. Rolled into that budget is time for testing and polish (aka beta, balancing, feedback, etc). That total amount of money spent to make and polish the game ensures that they will make money when the game is released.
Also, a polished game that is popular brings attention to blizzard and it's other titles, Community is the #1 way to generate game revenue.
I am so glad I am not a poor soul that pre-ordered. Lost interest in this game a long time ago. There is so much more to life then being at the mercy of a gaming company.
Quote from IgnatiusReilly»
And taken as whole, all this says is, "You'll have to play the game for a while before you find all the best items and faceroll content." Oh no!!! And if it's really really upsetting you that you might have to play the game longer than 20 hours before you have everything, then perhaps the ARPG genre just isn't for you. Because no matter which of these games you play, whether it's Torchlight, PoE, or even Diablo 2, if you want to have the best of the best items, you're going to have to play the game for a little while.
To be fair, I don't think the current concern is about "more than 20 hours." I think, for most people who have played the beta, they're starting to realize that even after 1000 hours you may very well never see that set of items to make the build work that you had your heart set on.
People have started to realize that without trading these drop rates are wholly unacceptable... and there's just not much trust with Blizzard when it comes to balance at this point. It's the fact that they've had, literally, almost a year to get this stuff right, and the PTR doesn't feel "right" at all in terms of delivering a fun, rewarding, experience. The "item hunt" on the PTR isn't significantly better than it is on live, and that's with almost a year of development. That's alarming.
Quote from Bagstone»
I don't think any of the issues are beyond fixing, which is why I really don't get why people are considering of cancelling pre-order. They are fair concerns, but I'm very confident that most of them will be fixed. My #1 concern, actually, is just that the time is not enough to fix them until RoS release.
People are considering cancelling pre-order because they expect this shit to be functional when it goes live. This is how the free market works. They've been working on "itemization" for almost a year now that we know. To have it be in this sorry state where we're still boggled over drop rates and an experience that isn't significantly better than live.... why are people going to sink more money into it? Continuing with a pre-order is basically giving Blizzard your stamp of approval that RoS is A-OK, and it's not.
Maybe if their RoS sales tank they'll get the message that this shit is unacceptable. They *won't* get a pre-order from me simply on principle. It's the only way they'll understand that delivering another half-done product is just not OK. We get that there will be patches, but we don't expect them to continue putting out products that don't deliver compared to the promises made and then just wait for the patches to fix it all. They got a pass from me with vanilla, but they won't get a pass from me with RoS. If they're unwilling to learn then it's going to cost them, even if it's just my $40.
I have other games I can play. Diablo is not the be-all and end-all of gaming for me, especially if Blizzard isn't going to take it seriously enough to deliver a nicely-polished product that lives up to the expectations they've created.
I agree with all of the MVPs concerns. They've put a really nice feedback on these matters. It is becoming really obvious that Blizzard are working on means to make Vanilla obsolete, so that people buy the expansion. They have really few new features to offer and that's the only way to justify the price of RoS. The first thing that got my attention since they've announced F&F Beta and Vanilla 2.0.1 features was that Adventure mode, bounties and rifts were expansion exclusive. Why? They've said it numerous times in the past that these features were inspired by community feedback, and will come in as a free patch. The post is still on tweeter if I am not wrong. So why make them exclusive? Because they want Vanilla to get obsolete, so that they get more money. This was enough for me to be pessimistic of how RoS will turn out, it really gave out that they didn't have enough features to justify the price of the expansion.
I am so glad I am not a poor soul that pre-ordered. Lost interest in this game a long time ago. There is so much more to life then being at the mercy of a gaming company.
If I lost half the interest in a game that most people have (i.e., viewing those who stick with it "poor souls"), I would divest myself of all ties and move on. The fact that you're still here lamenting means you're either lying about losing interest, or are crying out for help for someone to convince you to stay. Given the hard-headedness of most people on ANY forum...I'm not bothering to do either.
Also, I won't tell you to leave or stop posting (as I've already seen that anyone telling anyone else what to do or how to play gets verbally attacked), though I will encourage you to seek more positive uses for your time than hanging around a forum for a game you've allegedly lost interest in.
Have a good day and keep the faith.
Damn lol you are really butt hurt aren't you? I lurk Diablo fans when I'm bored. Trust me I have moved on lol.
Uh huh...'kay...couple quick notes...
1) Use of terms like "butt hurt" is typically reserved for people without a convincing argument. So...congrats?
2) You've moved on...gotcha...say, ya ever hear of those people who drive by their ex's work after a breakup? Yeah, I think you've "moved on" about that much. Which incidentally...not that much.
Have fun "lurking". :-)
What is going on here... Shaggy and Bleu not going all fan mode activated?... I'm impressed.
We're talking about the game. We are all in fan mode
The non-fans (or at least less dedicated ones) have either left, or just come around to troll the other users.We can be fans and still criticize aspects of the game, as long as it's done reasonably and objectively.
It's good for the person (to take out that negativity that makes him/her rage because of a game), for the community (who doesn't have to deal with that kind of crap all day everyday) and for the developers (who have an easier time sorting the useful feedback and focusing on the real issues). Win win situation.
Well, strictly speaking, a fanatic lacks of any type of objective criticism about the subject, we "fans" are just players who like the game, well, at least most of us.
What is going on here... Shaggy and Bleu not going all fan mode activated?... I'm impressed.
It boils down to the fact that I was very wiling to give a "pass" on vanilla. Different people, a fucked-up development process, blah blah blah.
But, somehow, with RoS, they've managed to make a game that I don't want to pre-order. Hell, they've actually made a game where, after playing the PTR, my thoughts are "Let's see how RoS is in five or six months after a patch or two" and not "Damn, I've gotta have that." The fact of the matter remains that if I never play RoS I won't feel like I missed out on anything. In fact, lately, I've had this sobering thought that RoS may actually be holding me back from experiencing other games that I might enjoy.
I can trace this back to one, singular, point of contention, though. And, unfortunately, I don't think it will change. That is Blizzard's inexplicable stance that killing monsters is the only possible way to enjoy an ARPG. While I don't disagree that killing monsters is the heart of an ARPG, I think it shortchanges the entire genre to build a game that assumes it's the only source of enjoyment. Ultimately there has to be a purpose beyond "get more perfect gear" for that farming since "get more perfect gear" isn't a motivator for everyone (and it wasn't in D2 either). There has to be some kind of ladder, some kind of PvP, or some kind of trading to provide some kind of purpose to that gear.
Simply put "get gear just to kill monsters more efficiently" is only part of the fun for most people and attempting to make that the ONLY fun in the game is a massive mistake. All it does is artificially shorten the shelf-life of the game by purposely alienating portions of the playerbase in the name of providing a game that caters only to people who want to play 100% self-found 100% of the time with no exceptions ever and whose only goal is to get a new pair of boots.
It's such a poor decision and that's why they won't get my $40. They've been very clear by their actions that they don't want me as a customer. Perhaps if Bobby Kotick can't purchase a golden toilet this year they'll get the message. In the course of 12 months they lost me as a WoW subscriber and now as a Diablo player. That may not mean much, but I'm someone who has pumped over $2,500 into the company since D1 and WC2 came out. I was a loyal customer whose money they could almost guarantee. It's a real shame for them to throw that money to the wind because a segment of the D3 playerbase gets butthurt if someone makes a trade and gets "ahead" of them.
Well, killing monsters as the only game mode has worked for me in about 15 years of Diablo 1+2. Never interested in ladder, PvP, or trading. But of course, I can only speak for myself...
expacted at least 2 new runes for each ability and reworking of underpowerd/boring skills. More dynamic gameplay, fights, instead of "" spaming your main skills and dodge dodge dodge"". Mulitple direction Items, and not just ""this ability deals 100% more damage...."" .
There have been quite a bit of reworks to the point where there is more build viability now then ever. Wizard is perfect example of that, before it was just Archon build. On PTR/beta Jaytech is doing some ice builds, I've been working on lightening builds, I've seen fire builds. THis is all awesome stuff. Monks are similar, there is more than just tailwind specs.
I've posted a few times in this thread, dispite my caution on D3 and wondering on time left. I still have my physical CE on order, I have two days off organizied, and I still have plans to start over from level 1 once beta launches. The question I have is, for how long. That's my concern.
Posts like these only appeal to those who are already inclined to hate the game. I could write 100 pages on how the font they chose has ruined the game irreversibly, and it'd get parroted around by the gilted ex-lovers of Diablo.
The Tias (who made a far better post) and Droth have made the following points:
1. Drop rates are too low.
2. Enemy damage too high.
3. Enemies have too many HP.
4. CC effects need to be nerfed.
5. Rifts need to be more rewarding.
Hardly game breaking when read in a format that doesn't evoke mass hysteria.
And taken as whole, all this says is, "You'll have to play the game for a while before you find all the best items and faceroll content." Oh no!!! And if it's really really upsetting you that you might have to play the game longer than 20 hours before you have everything, then perhaps the ARPG genre just isn't for you. Because no matter which of these games you play, whether it's Torchlight, PoE, or even Diablo 2, if you want to have the best of the best items, you're going to have to play the game for a little while.
This really sums up my thoughts on that thread. Especially reading TheTias' post, it really seemed like he was aggravated that he couldn't cut it on Torment VI after a couple of days play time. The monsters have to many HP? Turn down the Torment level. They do too much damage? Turn down the Torment level. Who cares if there's a difficulty that even the theoretical perfect character can't handle? As long as there's some level that suits you, put it on and go along your merry way.
There seems to be this really weird circular argument that players want hard content so that they can put all their awesome gear to use as the character gets stronger, but then get all angry when they can't hack it on the hardest difficulty levels right away.
I was also baffled by the section of TheTias' post that dealt with "splitfarming." If you haven't read it, he basically cries about how his DH couldn't hack it in a splitfarming group unless he used a specific build. It highlights this amazing contradiction within the community where people want to be free from Blizzard's restraints to play however they want, but then will turn around and blame Blizzard for a play-style that becomes popular but is completely unintended and made up by the players. To me, it sounds no different than Baal runs in D2 - they were the most efficient way to level up, but they were no fun and when you just started you contributed absolutely nothing to the group. And the solution is simple - find like-minded players and play with them instead doing something other than splitfarming. To read his post, you'd think splitfarming was the only way to play the game.
Well, killing monsters as the only game mode has worked for me in about 15 years of Diablo 1+2. Never interested in ladder, PvP, or trading. But of course, I can only speak for myself...
Right there with you man!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
Well, technically in order to get shards (tons of them, to even have a chance at getting A legendary) you most certainly need to kill a shitload of monsters.
That said, I understand that you mean "dropping FROM" monsters. We will still find legendaries when killing monsters, and useful rares at first. Hopefully killing Act/Rift bosses will be quite rewarding.
Either way, it's hard to draw a conclusion without being able to try out the final version of it, specially when we don't know if they do "internal tweaking" of drop ratios (without having to patch).
I don't mean to throw on my rose tinted glasses, but what was so wrong with the gambling in D2? I'm not saying it should be identical to that, but why should we be able to purchase our legendaries at all? Why not just make the blood shards be used for gambling for rare items? Why not just keep the legendaries obtainable only through monster killing?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
I'm deeply ambivalent about that. On one hand, I really like the idea of shards as insurance against bad luck and a way to focus gameplay. I like my loot acquisition like my character advancement... grindy. On the other hand (as others have already stated elsewhere) I also really like the idea of getting a really cool legendary from a dead monster frequently enough for that to a motivation in itself... I'm not at all keen on it being an event so rare it doesn't even factor into my 'reasons to keep playing'.
Perhaps tone down the blood-shard rewards from events and give elites a chance to drop them as well? Who knows.
I don't mean to throw on my rose tinted glasses, but what was so wrong with the gambling in D2? I'm not saying it should be identical to that, but why should we be able to purchase our legendaries at all? Why not just make the blood shards be used for gambling for rare items? Why not just keep the legendaries obtainable only through monster killing?
This. I loved gambling in D2. For exactly the reason Travis stated - it gives you a bit of control about acquiring a legendary for a slot that really needs improvement. And it's not like in D2 where you get shit ton of money and can gamble like crazy - you have to do bounties/rifts in order to get the blood shards. In the end they'll scale it such that you will get more legendaries along the way of farming the blood shards than from gambling. "Everyone will end up getting all legendaries just from gambling" is just impossible to happen because blood shards are BoA and actually require you to play the game.
And about the drop rates - the beta is only 1 month old. Imagine everyone would be fully geared right now. No one would be playing RoS in May anymore. Let's just wait and see... they can always buff drop rates, but if legendaries are raining from the sky and everyone is fully equipped and has it all, there's nothing to un-do the damage done.
Posts like these only appeal to those who are already inclined to hate the game. I could write 100 pages on how the font they chose has ruined the game irreversibly, and it'd get parroted around by the gilted ex-lovers of Diablo.
The Tias (who made a far better post) and Droth have made the following points:
1. Drop rates are too low.
2. Enemy damage too high.
3. Enemies have too many HP.
4. CC effects need to be nerfed.
5. Rifts need to be more rewarding.
Hardly game breaking when read in a format that doesn't evoke mass hysteria.
And taken as whole, all this says is, "You'll have to play the game for a while before you find all the best items and faceroll content." Oh no!!! And if it's really really upsetting you that you might have to play the game longer than 20 hours before you have everything, then perhaps the ARPG genre just isn't for you. Because no matter which of these games you play, whether it's Torchlight, PoE, or even Diablo 2, if you want to have the best of the best items, you're going to have to play the game for a little while.
I really don't know how to feel about this, which is why I didn't reply (although reading the original thread and this one multiple times). Droth's post is very nice and long and elaborated, but its TL;DR version is just "increase drop rates". That's it.TheTias's post is a very nice read, too, and I kept nodding while reading the first few items on his list, but at some point I was like "nah, c'mon". I don't agree to all of the issues he mentioned, I feel at some point he's drifting into complaining about things that are just beta-typical.
What I don't get, though, is why Nubtro doesn't get the attention he deserves. His post (#41) deserves more credit. He gives actionable, constructive feedback, without all the small talk. Droth said himself he didn't want to get attention and provide troll food/arguments for the haters, nor did he want a CM to "blue-tag" his post. But what's the purpose then? If you stop reading the thread after TheTias's post, you might as well just jump off a bridge.
I don't think any of the issues are beyond fixing, which is why I really don't get why people are considering of cancelling pre-order. They are fair concerns, but I'm very confident that most of them will be fixed. My #1 concern, actually, is just that the time is not enough to fix them until RoS release. I don't think the RoS release will be a catastrophe as D3V release, but it also won't be a release without bugs and balancing issues. Since there's no ladder, no PvP, and no competition otherwise, those who are concerned might as well just wait until patch 2.1. I'm aware that for many people that's too long of a wait, and many people will be disappointed on March 25. At this point, unless a miracle happens, RoS will not be a success story as it could've been; a significant part of the playerbase will probably quit and might never come back, so D3 will take a hit. But some people are also overreacting... and again, Nubtro is the one who's trying hardest to bring the thread back to constructive ground, he deserves as much credit as Droth and TheTias.
I like what Droth, Tias, and Nubtro have to say and it's a lot of feedback the devs need, one can only hope that it does come to their attention.
This is the way to psot feedback:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11307900907?page=3#41
They've (likely, since I don't work for Blizzard, but have done game projects) already budgeted out how much money/time they are going to spend on every system and feature. Rolled into that budget is time for testing and polish (aka beta, balancing, feedback, etc). That total amount of money spent to make and polish the game ensures that they will make money when the game is released.
Also, a polished game that is popular brings attention to blizzard and it's other titles, Community is the #1 way to generate game revenue.
Interesting...wait what?
double post
People are considering cancelling pre-order because they expect this shit to be functional when it goes live. This is how the free market works. They've been working on "itemization" for almost a year now that we know. To have it be in this sorry state where we're still boggled over drop rates and an experience that isn't significantly better than live.... why are people going to sink more money into it? Continuing with a pre-order is basically giving Blizzard your stamp of approval that RoS is A-OK, and it's not. Maybe if their RoS sales tank they'll get the message that this shit is unacceptable. They *won't* get a pre-order from me simply on principle. It's the only way they'll understand that delivering another half-done product is just not OK. We get that there will be patches, but we don't expect them to continue putting out products that don't deliver compared to the promises made and then just wait for the patches to fix it all. They got a pass from me with vanilla, but they won't get a pass from me with RoS. If they're unwilling to learn then it's going to cost them, even if it's just my $40. I have other games I can play. Diablo is not the be-all and end-all of gaming for me, especially if Blizzard isn't going to take it seriously enough to deliver a nicely-polished product that lives up to the expectations they've created.
I agree with all of the MVPs concerns. They've put a really nice feedback on these matters. It is becoming really obvious that Blizzard are working on means to make Vanilla obsolete, so that people buy the expansion. They have really few new features to offer and that's the only way to justify the price of RoS. The first thing that got my attention since they've announced F&F Beta and Vanilla 2.0.1 features was that Adventure mode, bounties and rifts were expansion exclusive. Why? They've said it numerous times in the past that these features were inspired by community feedback, and will come in as a free patch. The post is still on tweeter if I am not wrong. So why make them exclusive? Because they want Vanilla to get obsolete, so that they get more money. This was enough for me to be pessimistic of how RoS will turn out, it really gave out that they didn't have enough features to justify the price of the expansion.
We're talking about the game. We are all in fan mode
The non-fans (or at least less dedicated ones) have either left, or just come around to troll the other users.We can be fans and still criticize aspects of the game, as long as it's done reasonably and objectively.
It's good for the person (to take out that negativity that makes him/her rage because of a game), for the community (who doesn't have to deal with that kind of crap all day everyday) and for the developers (who have an easier time sorting the useful feedback and focusing on the real issues). Win win situation.
Well, strictly speaking, a fanatic lacks of any type of objective criticism about the subject, we "fans" are just players who like the game, well, at least most of us.
It boils down to the fact that I was very wiling to give a "pass" on vanilla. Different people, a fucked-up development process, blah blah blah.
But, somehow, with RoS, they've managed to make a game that I don't want to pre-order. Hell, they've actually made a game where, after playing the PTR, my thoughts are "Let's see how RoS is in five or six months after a patch or two" and not "Damn, I've gotta have that." The fact of the matter remains that if I never play RoS I won't feel like I missed out on anything. In fact, lately, I've had this sobering thought that RoS may actually be holding me back from experiencing other games that I might enjoy.
I can trace this back to one, singular, point of contention, though. And, unfortunately, I don't think it will change. That is Blizzard's inexplicable stance that killing monsters is the only possible way to enjoy an ARPG. While I don't disagree that killing monsters is the heart of an ARPG, I think it shortchanges the entire genre to build a game that assumes it's the only source of enjoyment. Ultimately there has to be a purpose beyond "get more perfect gear" for that farming since "get more perfect gear" isn't a motivator for everyone (and it wasn't in D2 either). There has to be some kind of ladder, some kind of PvP, or some kind of trading to provide some kind of purpose to that gear.
Simply put "get gear just to kill monsters more efficiently" is only part of the fun for most people and attempting to make that the ONLY fun in the game is a massive mistake. All it does is artificially shorten the shelf-life of the game by purposely alienating portions of the playerbase in the name of providing a game that caters only to people who want to play 100% self-found 100% of the time with no exceptions ever and whose only goal is to get a new pair of boots.
It's such a poor decision and that's why they won't get my $40. They've been very clear by their actions that they don't want me as a customer. Perhaps if Bobby Kotick can't purchase a golden toilet this year they'll get the message. In the course of 12 months they lost me as a WoW subscriber and now as a Diablo player. That may not mean much, but I'm someone who has pumped over $2,500 into the company since D1 and WC2 came out. I was a loyal customer whose money they could almost guarantee. It's a real shame for them to throw that money to the wind because a segment of the D3 playerbase gets butthurt if someone makes a trade and gets "ahead" of them.
Well, killing monsters as the only game mode has worked for me in about 15 years of Diablo 1+2. Never interested in ladder, PvP, or trading. But of course, I can only speak for myself...
well this is a thread asking for a lot of bad...
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11364006534
Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
Well, technically in order to get shards (tons of them, to even have a chance at getting A legendary) you most certainly need to kill a shitload of monsters.
That said, I understand that you mean "dropping FROM" monsters. We will still find legendaries when killing monsters, and useful rares at first. Hopefully killing Act/Rift bosses will be quite rewarding.
Either way, it's hard to draw a conclusion without being able to try out the final version of it, specially when we don't know if they do "internal tweaking" of drop ratios (without having to patch).
I don't mean to throw on my rose tinted glasses, but what was so wrong with the gambling in D2? I'm not saying it should be identical to that, but why should we be able to purchase our legendaries at all? Why not just make the blood shards be used for gambling for rare items? Why not just keep the legendaries obtainable only through monster killing?
Bashiok - Blizzard Representative - 08/01/2011 -"So how many skill combinations are there now? Well taking into account 6 active skills, all the rune combinations, and 3 passives we currently expect each class to have roughly 2,285,814,795,264 different build combinations."
"Hey, I thought you'd like the witty irony of grub-on-glowie violence!"
I'm deeply ambivalent about that. On one hand, I really like the idea of shards as insurance against bad luck and a way to focus gameplay. I like my loot acquisition like my character advancement... grindy. On the other hand (as others have already stated elsewhere) I also really like the idea of getting a really cool legendary from a dead monster frequently enough for that to a motivation in itself... I'm not at all keen on it being an event so rare it doesn't even factor into my 'reasons to keep playing'.
Perhaps tone down the blood-shard rewards from events and give elites a chance to drop them as well? Who knows.
This. I loved gambling in D2. For exactly the reason Travis stated - it gives you a bit of control about acquiring a legendary for a slot that really needs improvement. And it's not like in D2 where you get shit ton of money and can gamble like crazy - you have to do bounties/rifts in order to get the blood shards. In the end they'll scale it such that you will get more legendaries along the way of farming the blood shards than from gambling. "Everyone will end up getting all legendaries just from gambling" is just impossible to happen because blood shards are BoA and actually require you to play the game.
And about the drop rates - the beta is only 1 month old. Imagine everyone would be fully geared right now. No one would be playing RoS in May anymore. Let's just wait and see... they can always buff drop rates, but if legendaries are raining from the sky and everyone is fully equipped and has it all, there's nothing to un-do the damage done.