Getting rid of both AH's completely

[Ron Burgundy]

Blizzard said they would do this if they could. My question is why can't they? I say they cut their losses now and scrap the AH for the greater good of the game despite the backlash that would happen if they did that.


thoughts? opinions?

[Skorpionss]

Pls no I like and use them both Just make drops better overall like they promised with itemization patch that's the real problem not the AH.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

If they did that and redesigned the loot system I would probably play again. After that fiasco that created an absurd amount of gold (is that gold still floating around anyways?) I pretty much lost what little interest I had in the game.

[devilminion]

yeah sucks for ppl who just came back. i have 8 mil gold which was significant the first month of d3. and now, any good item sells for 20 mil plus.. its just a rich get richer economy. sucks for returning or new players.

[Drunkenfinn]

yeah sucks for ppl who just came back. i have 8 mil gold which was significant the first month of d3. and now, any good item sells for 20 mil plus.. its just a rich get richer economy. sucks for returning or new players.

But then again you can get gear good enough for MP5-7 farming with that 8m :P And MP10 with less than 100m. Hardly hard for returners to get moderately geared.

I dont really mind the AHs, though. Maybe RMAH could be removed but the GAH makes trading a lot easier at least on HC where the economy is not totally in ruins.
RMAH makes buying gold easy but I'd say around 50% of the people who buy stuff from the RMAH would have bought that same stuff off 3rd party sites anyways.

[devilminion]

upgrading my gem costs me that much money. dont rly have money to upgrade my gear.. got some gear from my friend that flips Ah (with only 10 m disposable money so he isnt like most flippers).. so i can do mp5-7 just fine.. but thats not what i am getting at. this game should be more about finding decent gear yourself. it isn't. all my gear except for my hellfire ring and account bound bracers are from my friend (aka he bought them from AH). All new players will have difficulty with such heavy priced items. not only that but i personally think, for new players, the joy is in finding good items themselves.. which isnt the case partly due to artificial lower drop rate due to availability of AH.

i guess i just want a "self-made mode" where drop rates are decent.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

All new players will have difficulty with such heavy priced items

However, you can get half decent duo-fecta items for hardly any money at all on the AH. I picked up a 1400 dps socketed Skorn with 450 int and crit damage for my enchantress for less than a million (and there were at least two dozen similar ones on the AH).

For example, I just found some gloves with

77 VIT
60 ArR
52 RA
30 CD
8.5 CC
286 thorns

For 75k

While not brilliant, they will make do for pretty much any newbie. +3500 life, +52 resist all and 112 total arcane resist and a decent chunk of crit damage and crit chance. If I wasn't so picky about how much crit chance or resist they had, the price went all the way down to 5000g.

[devilminion]

i agree that getting half decent items on AH is cheap which is kinda my point. u buy the items u go hunting and anything u find is worth less than 100k. idk how ppl find the 2b items or get the money to buy such items. i am paragon lvl 27 and i have sold 3 items all for less than 150k each. and anything i want now are more than 5m per item slot. It's more fun if you find your own upgrades no? =P.

[Deleted]

i agree that getting half decent items on AH is cheap which is kinda my point. u buy the items u go hunting and anything u find is worth less than 100k. idk how ppl find the 2b items or get the money to buy such items. i am paragon lvl 27 and i have sold 3 items all for less than 150k each. and anything i want now are more than 5m per item slot. It's more fun if you find your own upgrades no? =P.

The items you find are worth what the vendor states if you do not used the AH.

The AH is decent, its a lazy mans way to stop zoning in and out of trade games like in d2, til you find someone with your Zods.

If you find that looking for your own upgrades is fun, and you dislike the AH, then just do that, Blizzard getting rid of the AH will definately stop the mass grinders from continuously playing.. cause nobody wants to continuously enter a hundred games to sell their gloves, or battle against 1000 people in trade chat :P

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

idk how ppl find the 2b items or get the money to buy such items.

You get lucky.

[Coldkil]

The AH itself isn't the problem, the bad itemization system is.

It all started bad and the damage is already done - even removing the AH you will end with people fully decked spamming in general chat for god items at insane prices. it won't change a thing apart the fact you have to stay online and spam your deals instead of having an automated system that does that for you.

Only way to remove AH? Change itemization system, reset all characters, remove AH, forced fresh start for everyone, only bind on account items. But i don't think it would be a good solution and will cause a massive rage even if we remove the other steps.

[Difuid]

The AH itself isn't the problem, the bad itemization system is.

It all started bad and the damage is already done - even removing the AH you will end with people fully decked spamming in general chat for god items at insane prices. it won't change a thing apart the fact you have to stay online and spam your deals instead of having an automated system that does that for you.

Only way to remove AH? Change itemization system, reset all characters, remove AH, forced fresh start for everyone, only bind on account items. But i don't think it would be a good solution and will cause a massive rage even if we remove the other steps.

Due to the RMAH bought items they can't really do that unfortunately. There are a few options to salvage the situation, the question is will the devs shift their absurd paradigm concerning the item progression options or not.

My opinion about the AH removal is that if they remove those then all other methods of player trading should be prohibited as well.

[Shinzai]

AH removal would result in nothing but another boom in bots and even more gold selling sites popping up and dodgy chat/message/forum trading.

It's a meaningless task and not the aim, which as others have stated, is improving the actual drop rates/itemization on offer.

[Deleted]

i agree that getting half decent items on AH is cheap which is kinda my point. u buy the items u go hunting and anything u find is worth less than 100k. idk how ppl find the 2b items or get the money to buy such items. i am paragon lvl 27 and i have sold 3 items all for less than 150k each. and anything i want now are more than 5m per item slot. It's more fun if you find your own upgrades no? =P.

The problem is Softcore, nothing else. Nothing disappears from SC. Nothing. Every day more and more items and gold come available. More and more good/decent items = all prices of those items drop as everyone gets those not so brilliant rolls. At the same time more money drops, VERY good items are scarce as most people will need them still after years since those are so sought after. Prices go higher on those items.

This is a no-brainer and I honestly have NO IDEA what Blizzard will do about this, they are so screwed with this game at least on SC side. I am the lucky one I guess to play HC side after first 2 weeks or so after clearing inferno on softcore once. I encourage everyone to do so if you want to hunt items and get at least somewhat rewarded.

[BenBos]

The problem is Softcore, nothing else. Nothing disappears from SC. Nothing. Every day more and more items and gold come available. More and more good/decent items = all prices of those items drop as everyone gets those not so brilliant rolls. At the same time more money drops, VERY good items are scarce as most people will need them still after years since those are so sought after. Prices go higher on those items.

This is a no-brainer and I honestly have NO IDEA what Blizzard will do about this, they are so screwed with this game at least on SC side. I am the lucky one I guess to play HC side after first 2 weeks or so after clearing inferno on softcore once. I encourage everyone to do so if you want to hunt items and get at least somewhat rewarded.

this so much.

HC proves that an AH within a dungeon crawler works perfectly. The end game economy in HC is simply one of the best on line trading I have ever seen.

Besides some ridiculous 5% priced goods (clearly a result of bought gold on illegal websites), the overall market is healthy and works perfectly.

The reason is simple: avatars die along with their gear and so there is a constant reset of gear AND the demand stays high !

The disadvantage is that you progress much more slowly, since the offer is limited, but actually this is a good thing, as you take part in an economy where everything counts (crafting is worthwhile !) and progresss is not simply a click on the AH.

IF the SC AH could introduce a mechanic where gear would be taken out once traded (bind after purchase ?), you would see a far better gaming system.

so tldr: an AH can be a success in a dungeon crawler IF implemented correctly.

[Coldkil]

The problem is Softcore, nothing else. Nothing disappears from SC. Nothing. Every day more and more items and gold come available. More and more good/decent items = all prices of those items drop as everyone gets those not so brilliant rolls. At the same time more money drops, VERY good items are scarce as most people will need them still after years since those are so sought after. Prices go higher on those items.

This is a no-brainer and I honestly have NO IDEA what Blizzard will do about this, they are so screwed with this game at least on SC side. I am the lucky one I guess to play HC side after first 2 weeks or so after clearing inferno on softcore once. I encourage everyone to do so if you want to hunt items and get at least somewhat rewarded.

I agree only on some points. SC has for sure the economy problem, but people makes the AH a way bigger deal than it is actually.

HC has a functional AH because of people dying and gear getting removed from the game. SC has a crap economy, but you can farm you way through it since dying isn't an issue at all - you can deathzerg elites, and continue no matter wht. You have bad gear, you farm low MP until you get something and so on.

HC is a test of your reflexes and paying ultrasafe, not many try and play a higher MPs because the risk of death and losing everything is just too high.

I encourage everyone, both HC and SC, to just try playing self-found chars. It changes the game a lot.

EDIT: AH, no matter the way you see it, is only a way to avoid the grind and get good items without farming. Imho the best option they can have is to add new items to the game (maybe specific to various elite/bosses, dropping only with 5NV??) that are better than the usual yeallow/legendaries and are binded on account.

You can use the AH to get good gear fast, but the best gear needs you to play the game. The hellfire ring is actually a great idea - if just it wasn't so random lol.

[traen]

The AH itself isn't the problem, the bad itemization system is.

The itemization is pretty ordinary. Most of the modern rpg use something similar.

So I would be really interested to see your idea of "not bad" itemization system. I spent considerable amount of time thinking about one and came to conclusion that itemization in d3 is surprisingly balanced. At any step of your character development you can get a significant increase in your performance by upgrading your gear. And every step is exponentially more expensive - thus requiring more effort to get there. Even when you got to 600k dps there is still room for improvement.
So what's your itemization system?


AH is THE major problem of d3.
You farm gold, not gear. The chance of finding yourself an upgrade is negligible. You work for AH. You are a chinese farmer, selling what he found on the market for cheap, competing with a million of other people who play chinese farmers just like you.
The hour of your work is worth nothing. Items that you find (regardless of itemization) is junk because a million of other players find hundreds of the same items every second.

Removing AH won't happen, ever. They spent too much time and money developing it.
But there are several simple solutions to keep it in game while allowing people to farm gear instead of working on AH.
For example:
- Items that you find got 50% more stats, for you only. You'll have to farm your items yourself, which is amazing gameplay improvement.
- "New" blacksmith feature: "Reforge". You can try to reforge one stat on an item to another random stat. This will make item soulbound. A really nice item sink, btw. Millions of items will be reforged and thrown away daily.
- Put better(50-100% better) loot into bosses, make it soulbound, force people to start acts from the beginning to get loot from bosses. Increase the difficulty of the bosses on higher MPs, make fights more epic.
- Return crafting to the game. Buff crafted items by 150-200%, make them soulbound. Reagents will be worth a fortune and no one would sell cheap items on AH - what's the point of selling an item for 250k if you can disenchant it and craft an item for yourself worth 250m? Don't forget to reduce the item drop.

etc..etc.

[BenBos]

I agree only on some points. SC has for sure the economy problem, but people makes the AH a way bigger deal than it is actually.

HC has a functional AH because of people dying and gear getting removed from the game. SC has a crap economy, but you can farm you way through it since dying isn't an issue at all - you can deathzerg elites, and continue no matter wht. You have bad gear, you farm low MP until you get something and so on.

HC is a test of your reflexes and paying ultrasafe, not many try and play a higher MPs because the risk of death and losing everything is just too high.

I encourage everyone, both HC and SC, to just try playing self-found chars. It changes the game a lot.

EDIT: AH, no matter the way you see it, is only a way to avoid the grind and get good items without farming. Imho the best option they can have is to add new items to the game (maybe specific to various elite/bosses, dropping only with 5NV??) that are better than the usual yeallow/legendaries and are binded on account.

You can use the AH to get good gear fast, but the best gear needs you to play the game. The hellfire ring is actually a great idea - if just it wasn't so random lol.

You make pretty good points, and of course that is the reason I play HC. It has a very good economy where it actually promotes crafting and grinding because EVEN mediocre gear sells a lot due to these gear resets...

So what about my very simple idea of making gear/gems bind on account when traded in the SC AH ?

This would be a tremendous boost to the game AND its economy:

1. limited offer, which will result in mediocre gear to be sold (crafted goods are valid again) too.
2. elimination of flipping.
3. hunt for the basic mats/gems will be worthwhile as everything can be traded only once and then leaves the AH.
4. Gold inflation will be stopped as goods dissapear but offer will be worthwhile again even in the lower regions of gear advancement.

and ... no need to change more mechanics as the game will motivate the crafting/hunting for the goods - even mediocre ones - that WILL sell.

now ... this is NOT a theory because I see this in practice in hardcore EVERY DAY.

That's why I think Diablo 3 hardcore is a fabulous game. BUT people never tried HC because they are afraid of losing everything so they don't even know the HC economy works so well

a shame really...

Last point: even the RMAH would be boosted again as goods can only be traded once. Nice profits for Blizzard too.

[devilminion]

make items BoE (bind on equip) you can still sell drops on AH but once u equip something you can no longer sell it. This results in items being removed form the game constantly too. This ofcourse has to be coupled with better itemization or better loot drops to account for it..

[traen]

make items BoE (bind on equip) you can still sell drops on AH but once u equip something you can no longer sell it. This results in items being removed form the game constantly too. This ofcourse has to be coupled with better itemization or better loot drops to account for it..

You won't notice the difference.
People farm millions of items daily.
Take your own upgrade routine - for every one item you buy on AH you sell 10-20 items you find. So you (as well as other players) will delete just 5-10% of the items they farm. This number is too low to see the difference.

Also don't forget that it is absolutely the same as reducing the drop by 10%. The average number of items on the market will be ~10% smaller.

And in the end of your post you said that you want to increase the drop. What's the point in decreasing the number of items on the market by forcing people to delete 10% of their items, just to increase the drop by the same 10% which will fill the market again?
Your idea does not make any sense tbh.