Luke and I finished Hell over the weekend and ventured in to Inferno.
Hell eventually became manageable. I can go back in to Act III and IV now on my Monk by myself and I roll stuff (I also adjusted my spec). But I couldn't have done that without the Auction House.
I'm worried about the game at this point. I'm almost reconsidering my stance on the Auction House. Here's why:
When doing the item hunt in Diablo II (didn't do this in Diablo I), I would find items I could use frequently. Even if the item wasn't the greatest, it was typically an upgrade, although minor, and something I was able to use. Even though Baal runs were annoying as shit, I still felt like I was accomplishing something.
Something feels different in Diablo III. I feel like I'm wasting my time dying repeatedly to champion packs and then, when I finally succeed in killing a pack with a couple stacks of Nephalem Valor, I get really shitty gear. Not even something I can sell on the Auction House. I'm vendorstriking nearly everything.
The major difference I've felt between Diablo II's end-game item hunt and Diablo III's end-game item hunt is that, at this point in Diablo III, I'm wearing very few pieces that actually dropped for me. Maybe 1-3 pieces were actual drops.
Maybe because of the Auction House, and with how easy it is to acquire items from it, I am getting impatient and didn't want to farm various difficulties to progress to the next one. But I don't recall doing that in Diablo II. I remember leveling up through each difficulty and then eventually getting to Hell and doing Baal runs. That didn't take very long. (This is obviously post LoD expansion, I don't want to think about pre-LoD).
To further reiterate the problem, this is my situation. While progressing through Hell, I used maybe five to six items that dropped throughout the four acts. That's about fourteen hours of game play, considering that we explore every map in every area in each act. So after fourteen hours of gameplay, I've managed to find five or six upgrades that may or may not have the secondary, tertiary or quaternary stat bonuses I require as Monk. The Monk is heavily gear dependent. The annoying part about this is that I have comparable gear to Luke's Wizard (similar attack speed, similar amount of increased attack speed, similar primary stat value), and yet he has 30k DPS at this time and I have 11k. Apparently, Wizard's get more damage out of Intelligence than Monks get out of Dexterity.
So I'm confused about that. And because Monks are melee, they need a decent bit of Vitality. Not as much as some people tout, but enough to survive. With that, comes a balance of resistances to the elements (fire, frost, poison, arcane, etc.) and damage reduction through Armor.
Let's count the stats that Monks need:
1.) Dextiery (damage, dodge)
2.) Vitalty (HP)
3.) Resistances (elemental damage reduction)
4.) Armor (melee damage reduction)
5.) Attack Speed (the faster you hit, the more damage you do)
6. ) Life on Hit (every time you hit, you get HP in return).
Life on hit is a recently discovered stat that Monks are stacking like crazy. That, combined with a high attack speed, prevents a Monk from getting wtfpwnt in Inferno at the moment. It allows them to actually farm gear from rare and champion packs.
The problem is, Life on Hit is far exceeding the importance of the other stats. It is so important that, without it, you don't survive. It's absolutely necessary that you have some, if not a decent bit (1k).
What do Wizards need:
1.) Intellect
2.) Maybe attack speed?
I might be exaggerating here, because I'm not totally positive what it is that a Wizard really needs to survive Inferno, but I can't imagine it's much outside of Intellect, Attack Speed and Resistances. I don't even know if they actually need resistances because they're typically not getting hit by that stuff (if they play a ranged character properly).
That's just a minor gripe about playing a Monk at this point and can all be solved with good gear. The problem with that, though, is I think I'm getting too impatient. I feel like I should be getting more gear I can use more frequently, that may not necessarily be HUGEMAJORUPGRADEZZOMG, but more so linear moves that provide a bump in Armor or a bump in resistances, and possibly take a hit in another stat (vitality, dps, something).
So when I don't get that gear, I immediately jump to the Auction House and find upgrades. But the upgrades I'm starting to really need now are getting ridiculously expensive. And I don't have a lot of free time to scour the AH. So I try not to do that too often and actually play the fucking game.
On top of not getting any type of gear that I can actually wear, I'm also not getting gear I can sell either. I'm not getting gear that is even worth posting on the AH and taking up one of my 10 available auctions. I do sell some stuff. But it's not much.
To me, it feels as though the gear I need to use to successfully kill rare and champion packs without getting my ass kicked isn't dropping. And even if I do manage to kill the pack (dying six or seven times in the process), the shit they drop sucks. Ass.
I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything. At all. I'm not even making enough money to warrant dying several times to each pack I come across. At least in WoW, when I do a raid, I get some currency with which to buy gear eventually.
There is no goal at this point. It's just, survive and hope you make enough money that you're willing to drop a million gold on ONE item. To further the issue, only certain items contain increased attack speed. Others are the only ones that contain Life on Hit. And others yet are the only ones that have a resistance stat on them. So now I have to determine where I get one stat and where I can get another and itemize from there.
I don't want to use the AH. I really don't. I'd like to just sell stuff on it. I'd rather hunt for my gear but at this point it seems fruitless. Very little of my efforts in this game have been rewarding (outside of completing each difficulty prior to Inferno and getting a character to level 60).
I'm hoping that things will balance out eventually, seeing that the game has been out for 3 weeks. Still feels like Blizzard has a lot of work to do yet to get this game to where the community wants it. It almost doesn't feel like Diablo. Leveling to 60 wasn't too long, that was nice, but I'm worried about the itemization at this point. Seems like something is fucked up.
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