And as soon as the ban is final, all those streamers and botters will have new d3 accounts, with the newly redone bots and THUD running. And they will still top over people who have played legit. This is boring news =P
In what way is it optional? Assuming I haven't played PTR prior to S5 starting, all I know is that you get these set pieces for doing stuff, so why wouldn't I go and get them? How am I to know that it was going to eliminate most of the games content apart from a few rifts to get keys and then GRs.
Haedrig's Gift was advertised as being one of two new things to the Season. . . . the Gift and Set Dungeons are the only new things. . . so when those two things are thrown at you it's only natural you would want to get them no? So i wouldn't consider them optional when it is one of the few new things the season has to offer.
You did know what they were ... they were free set pieces, as advertised ... and if you wanted to have to grind in t1-5 for them and knew you wanted to grind for them, you shouldn't have ID'd them. This thread is really ridiculous. This season is the best to date. You are complaining about missing content. Diablo is an endless loot grind. The thing you will in the end be doing is farming TX and GR pushing. Getting you there faster is a good stepping stone for people who have already done seasons 4 times. People who are brand new to the game, even with free gear, will not know exactly how to build or what stats to look for, and will still be stuck in T2 or lower.
EDIT - There are, imo, 3 types of people who play season. Figure out which you are and plan accordingly. If all you want is the game to feel new, do not open those gifts.
1 - Leaderboard pushers
2 - Season Journey completionists
3 - People who just want the game to feel new again
Ok, so those milion crits flying around from the Defender passive and this burst of dmg I get every time i met Electrify, DMG reflection or Fire Chains elites (when blocking with 50% block chance every tick doing 45% fire dmg (add over 50% fire ele dmg)) is nothing. I get it.
It's fun how I actualy don't need to hit anything to clear the trash. They just die from the Defender of Westmarch as i run through them (yes i don';t need to stand or wait for them, wolfs from Defender are autoaimed into creeps and pass through them exploding everyone that stands on their way).
But i clearly see you are more experienced player with better database and knowledge and I have no choice as agree with you. Otherwise I will be called stupid, retarded or just "newbish".
Making it harder and making it impossible are 2 different things.
- There are working map hacks on bnet
- There are working bots on bnet, which pick up items and snipe the AH, and the only reason pickit was used in d2 was because drops were for everyone, in d3 its only yours so that really does not apply
- I am not sure if there is a dupe yet or not but it would not surprise me
- As an additional edit there are even hacks which will cause you to drop all your items and trade your gold to another player in your game, but they require you to be an idiot.
There is no reason for there not to be an offline mode at this time, they made good sales, the people who will pirate the game when they give us offline, would not pay for the game anyway, if they have not already.
Also how would an offline mode have any affect on any of the hacks you mentioned, all of the data needed to create those hacks for the servers has to be done while connected in the first place. An offline mode would not help this, it would only make it easier to hack the offline side, which would have no effect on bnet toons as they would be seperate. Don't believe everything a company tells you, there is a very simple reason to online only, and that is the RMAH and the fact that they tuned drops to be discovered by millions of players, not a solo player.
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The AH isn't frustrating because it is there, it is frustrating because it is required. Play the game without using the AH once at all ever on a toon, let me know how that goes. Beating inferno is the easy part (post 1.0.3, I'd love to see you do it in 1.0 without using the cheesy builds) of that scenario, finding upgrades to get you above 50k dps will be the fun part.
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How many hours of gameplay did it take for you to find enough gear to sell for say, 500 mill, not buy and resell.
1 - theres a reason the good items cost so much, very few exist with the stats people want
2 - If you found a good set item before 1.0.4, you were very lucky
__________________________________
For the last time, this is Diablo 3, not World Trade Center 2012. You should be able to find good gear on a regular basis without touching the AH.
I have no problem with the drop chance changes on the PTR. I never said that. What i do have a problem with, is people complaining about an AH. An auction house they dont have to use. AH is not needed to complete inferno. If people have fun playing without the AH, nobody prevents them from doing so. But people who have fun playing the game with an auction house. Others want to interfere with that and have the AH removed. If you enjoy a game where you find your items yourself, the AH doesnt change that. Dont like it, dont use it. Dont try to press things you dont like, over others who do like having an AH.
Mk well, I don't agree with the more radical people, who think there should be no AH, or even no RMAH. Like I said I disagreed with blizzards initial implementation, which was to make super rare legendary / set drops, and make the stats on them and rares very rarely roll anything worth a shit. Again the only explination for this was to drive prices up so they could make bank, and it drove away a very large chunk of the player base. They realise this and know that they will lose money they want to be gaining on xpac's and more people on the AH, so they are fixing it to bring people back, and like I said, my testing, shows a great step in the right direction. The last thing I would change, since I like where the drop rates are at and the change to how affixs are rolled, is to completely eliminate white drops from inferno, as they serve absolutely no purpose. Blizzard said they want at least something dropping, but they can just allow blues to drop at there current (or honestly even a liyyle more frequently) as the majority of players dont even pick up blues at this point.
"I hope they can find another solution other than the two you suggest,
Maybe im wrong but i do think that the main issue for Non -AHers is the inability to progress without excessive grinding."
If you dont want grinding... You sir are playing the wrong game. Diablo is 1 big none needed gear grind. And sup with "the ah requirement to progress" its been shown and proven a gazillion times you can complete inferno in absolutely crapper items. Because you want the finest shinies in every slot, but without having to invest the hours to do so. In order for that to happen, imagine how the drop rates would be? everyone would be running around in BiS gear in a month. Its supose to take years of hard work to get the finest gear, either via 5 million act 3 runs or via trading.
I personally wouldnt be playing this game if they removed the RMAH, i enjoy having the chance to be rewarded with real money, for either my dedicated farming or clever moves trading. Its a genious move in my oppinion by blizzard introducing the rmah, it really makes the game more exiting.
I'm only paragon lvl 37, yet i enjoy doing runs. I love the game for its posibilities in economic matters. Im currently at 1.6b gold and 4380 made on rmah. Both numbers are increasing daily. I LOVE it. Blizzard managed to inside of a good game, create an awesome economic game. People who talk about the game is not rewarding. My paypal account says otherwise :=) And yes it can be about luck, finding that 250 euro item. But ive not been that lucky yet. I made my fortune by being clever on ah, doing my research - a little example: Who do you think grabed 40+ close to perfect SoJ's (28-30% elite dmg) with the good class affix for less than 2 mill each? Moi. They already increased to 50m and i reckon they will increase to over 100m each in 1.0.5 when people realise its going to be the BiS ring for farming ubbers and keyholders on mp10 for pretty much guaranteed drop rate. Yes now they "suck" because elites doesnt have much hp. But say hallo to 30% elite dmg when stuff got 150+Million hp. Ladies and gentlemen, we got a new BiS ring incoming and those of us who were clever already stockpiled our new Fortune. Did i mention how rewarding this game can be? You take the effort to learn the know how, you take the effort being on top of things and it gets rewarded with real money.
I think the issue we got in todays gaming world, is the average age of players have rocket dropped to new lows. And thats why we see in each and every game how the *QQ ruins everything over time. Just look at what happent to wow. Everything is being casualized and it make games worse. Before you flame me to death, its just a little personel theory ive had : p
If beating inferno was the end game your post would be relevent. But it isn't, the end game is being the biggest badass possible.
I am not saying that they should give us gear, and if you have played the PTR you would know, they aren't, the increased droprates are not crazy amazing UNLESS you are on MP10 para 100, in which case I bet you get a very nice increase in drop rates.
I can clear a1 on mp4, in about 3 hours, and I mean clear clear, I kill every white mob. It is not meant to be effecient, I just have fun doing so, I get to do this twice a week, once on sat and once on sun. I would say on average I see 1-2 legendaries per clear, most drop from white mobs. This is a very nice contrast to live servers, wher in a3 in my runs, I see a legendary once a week.
Now people are saying this will be giving free loot, but out of all the legendaries i have found, only 1 is worth anything, and even then it didnt roll super amazing stats, a nats ring, no cc or cd on it though, just 90 some dex and a socket, big deal but I dont have one on my monk so ill keep it incase i get the boots for the set bonus. I have found some very nice rares which i would sell on live, and even 3 that were upgrades. I havent found an upgrade on live for 3 weeks. I am part of the majority, the casual players who want this game to succeed, and I believe these changes are a step in the right direction.
TL:DR The end game is of course the grind, but on live the grind is not as rewarding for the casuals as it should be, this patch is a good step for everyone.
1) How does it tangibly affect you? I hear a lot of people say "it ruins the game" or somesuch, but I'd like to know how it does this in your opinion. Or do you have very bad internet, or a firewall at your university, or whatever, and have trouble connecting to battle.net?
2) In D2 we had to join trading games if we wanted to trade, limited to 8 players. The other players might be afk, might not have good stuff for trade, might not want what we had for trade, etc. We began to use SoJs (unique ring ) and perfect skulls (good gems) for currency.
But even this wasn't enough, and a site called d2jsp was born. Because it addressed a glaring need among d2 players by giving us a currency (forum gold), the site's founder got rich off it.
2) And so my second question is, how could Blizzard have addressed players' need to trade easily with a fluid currency *without* implementing an AH?
One answer will suffice for both of your questions
Blizzard created a shitty drop rate and the ability to roll shitty gear, so that the most sought after pieces would sky rocket in price so that they could make more money than they need to. The AH is fine, but the prices for everything is too high, and the droprates are crap for good rolls. What a lot of people don't seem to understand, is that the players playing 20+ hours a week, are the minority. If I could farm like that I am sure I would find nice drops each week too. As it is I play less than 10 hours a week, average maybe an hour a day, and I rarely find anything useful.
Fix this by giving us an AH according to region (east / central / west anyone?), and increasing the droprate. Increased drop means more items in the system and more chances for good rolls, since you cannot deny that 95% of the rolls on rare / legendaries pre 1.04 were crap, and still after a lot are not that amazing. More drops = more good loot for players. Making regional servers / AH will allow for a smaller pool of players to post, there by not flooding the AH.
TL:DR - The AH didn't ruin the game, blizzards droprates did. So the way the AH has been implemented has been a bad start but the moves they are making are good fixes.
Edit - I should not have to farm for 3 weeks to get 3 drops that I don;t need but can sell, to buy something on the AH I do need. I should be able to find upgrades on a semi regular basis, until I am such a badass I roll a new toon, or try a challenge mode (HC, no vit gear, no pots etc).
1
And as soon as the ban is final, all those streamers and botters will have new d3 accounts, with the newly redone bots and THUD running. And they will still top over people who have played legit. This is boring news =P
1
You did know what they were ... they were free set pieces, as advertised ... and if you wanted to have to grind in t1-5 for them and knew you wanted to grind for them, you shouldn't have ID'd them. This thread is really ridiculous. This season is the best to date. You are complaining about missing content. Diablo is an endless loot grind. The thing you will in the end be doing is farming TX and GR pushing. Getting you there faster is a good stepping stone for people who have already done seasons 4 times. People who are brand new to the game, even with free gear, will not know exactly how to build or what stats to look for, and will still be stuck in T2 or lower.
EDIT - There are, imo, 3 types of people who play season. Figure out which you are and plan accordingly. If all you want is the game to feel new, do not open those gifts.
1 - Leaderboard pushers
2 - Season Journey completionists
3 - People who just want the game to feel new again
2
TL;DR - Don't open the gift? I mean seriously, this season sucked because you did an optional part of it? Sheesh.
1
4
1
- There are working map hacks on bnet
- There are working bots on bnet, which pick up items and snipe the AH, and the only reason pickit was used in d2 was because drops were for everyone, in d3 its only yours so that really does not apply
- I am not sure if there is a dupe yet or not but it would not surprise me
- As an additional edit there are even hacks which will cause you to drop all your items and trade your gold to another player in your game, but they require you to be an idiot.
There is no reason for there not to be an offline mode at this time, they made good sales, the people who will pirate the game when they give us offline, would not pay for the game anyway, if they have not already.
Also how would an offline mode have any affect on any of the hacks you mentioned, all of the data needed to create those hacks for the servers has to be done while connected in the first place. An offline mode would not help this, it would only make it easier to hack the offline side, which would have no effect on bnet toons as they would be seperate. Don't believe everything a company tells you, there is a very simple reason to online only, and that is the RMAH and the fact that they tuned drops to be discovered by millions of players, not a solo player.
__________________________________
The AH isn't frustrating because it is there, it is frustrating because it is required. Play the game without using the AH once at all ever on a toon, let me know how that goes. Beating inferno is the easy part (post 1.0.3, I'd love to see you do it in 1.0 without using the cheesy builds) of that scenario, finding upgrades to get you above 50k dps will be the fun part.
__________________________________
How many hours of gameplay did it take for you to find enough gear to sell for say, 500 mill, not buy and resell.
1 - theres a reason the good items cost so much, very few exist with the stats people want
2 - If you found a good set item before 1.0.4, you were very lucky
__________________________________
For the last time, this is Diablo 3, not World Trade Center 2012. You should be able to find good gear on a regular basis without touching the AH.
1
Mk well, I don't agree with the more radical people, who think there should be no AH, or even no RMAH. Like I said I disagreed with blizzards initial implementation, which was to make super rare legendary / set drops, and make the stats on them and rares very rarely roll anything worth a shit. Again the only explination for this was to drive prices up so they could make bank, and it drove away a very large chunk of the player base. They realise this and know that they will lose money they want to be gaining on xpac's and more people on the AH, so they are fixing it to bring people back, and like I said, my testing, shows a great step in the right direction. The last thing I would change, since I like where the drop rates are at and the change to how affixs are rolled, is to completely eliminate white drops from inferno, as they serve absolutely no purpose. Blizzard said they want at least something dropping, but they can just allow blues to drop at there current (or honestly even a liyyle more frequently) as the majority of players dont even pick up blues at this point.
1
If beating inferno was the end game your post would be relevent. But it isn't, the end game is being the biggest badass possible.
I am not saying that they should give us gear, and if you have played the PTR you would know, they aren't, the increased droprates are not crazy amazing UNLESS you are on MP10 para 100, in which case I bet you get a very nice increase in drop rates.
I can clear a1 on mp4, in about 3 hours, and I mean clear clear, I kill every white mob. It is not meant to be effecient, I just have fun doing so, I get to do this twice a week, once on sat and once on sun. I would say on average I see 1-2 legendaries per clear, most drop from white mobs. This is a very nice contrast to live servers, wher in a3 in my runs, I see a legendary once a week.
Now people are saying this will be giving free loot, but out of all the legendaries i have found, only 1 is worth anything, and even then it didnt roll super amazing stats, a nats ring, no cc or cd on it though, just 90 some dex and a socket, big deal but I dont have one on my monk so ill keep it incase i get the boots for the set bonus. I have found some very nice rares which i would sell on live, and even 3 that were upgrades. I havent found an upgrade on live for 3 weeks. I am part of the majority, the casual players who want this game to succeed, and I believe these changes are a step in the right direction.
TL:DR The end game is of course the grind, but on live the grind is not as rewarding for the casuals as it should be, this patch is a good step for everyone.
1
One answer will suffice for both of your questions
Blizzard created a shitty drop rate and the ability to roll shitty gear, so that the most sought after pieces would sky rocket in price so that they could make more money than they need to. The AH is fine, but the prices for everything is too high, and the droprates are crap for good rolls. What a lot of people don't seem to understand, is that the players playing 20+ hours a week, are the minority. If I could farm like that I am sure I would find nice drops each week too. As it is I play less than 10 hours a week, average maybe an hour a day, and I rarely find anything useful.
Fix this by giving us an AH according to region (east / central / west anyone?), and increasing the droprate. Increased drop means more items in the system and more chances for good rolls, since you cannot deny that 95% of the rolls on rare / legendaries pre 1.04 were crap, and still after a lot are not that amazing. More drops = more good loot for players. Making regional servers / AH will allow for a smaller pool of players to post, there by not flooding the AH.
TL:DR - The AH didn't ruin the game, blizzards droprates did. So the way the AH has been implemented has been a bad start but the moves they are making are good fixes.
Edit - I should not have to farm for 3 weeks to get 3 drops that I don;t need but can sell, to buy something on the AH I do need. I should be able to find upgrades on a semi regular basis, until I am such a badass I roll a new toon, or try a challenge mode (HC, no vit gear, no pots etc).