I didn't hit the AH until I completed Act 1 and before then I was simply relying on my magic find and the blacksmith to get good gear. I think I stopped upgrading the blacksmith around 8k and I just upgraded the jeweler once to see how that system worked. I'm currently lv 25 and almost finished with Act 2 and I can't figure out the point of those two money dumps. Are there amazing things down the training tree that I wouldn't be able to buy in the AH for a fraction of the price it took to get there?

I myself kinda got addicted to the AH once I figured out what sells, how to appropriately price my items, and how to flip stuff. I started off selling stuff for 2,000 to 3,000, but now I'm in the range of 5,000-8,000 on my items that sell in less than 10 minutes. I have yet to buy anything more expensive than 3,000 since there are always people who are simply trying to get rid of something amazingly good for Demon Hunters.

At this rate I can't see myself going back unless I want to get achievements for using the blacksmith and jeweler. Can someone set me straight and tell me if I'm doing this wrong.

Not at the moment, but between the online economy naturally balancing itself out over time and Blizzard making balance changes through patches they should find a good balance.

I would say the blacksmith and jeweller aren't worth investing in until the end game... so lvl 60, hell and inferno difficulty. Drops at those levels are so much better than anything you can craft so early on saving money for the auction house is a good idea.

You don't need to level the blacksmith and jeweler while you're leveling. Mid level gems are ridiculously underpriced on the AH and you can buy gear with the stats you want. At level 60, it's more valuable, because high end gems must be crafted, and the blacksmith makes decent end-game stuff.

You'll easily earn enough to upgrade them both and still buy all you want on the AH.
The Jeweler has the most use though.

The patch hitting today will make it cheaper to craft those items.... so yeah it will probably be worth it now.

@ArcadeHero said:

You don't need to level the blacksmith and jeweler while you're leveling. Mid level gems are ridiculously underpriced on the AH and you can buy gear with the stats you want. At level 60, it's more valuable, because high end gems must be crafted, and the blacksmith makes decent end-game stuff.

So that's the reason for the huge jump in gem prices from one range to the next that I saw while shopping around. Are you saying the blacksmith when fully trained produces items that are more economic considering the amount of money it took to get him crafting at that level? If those people would sell those items in the AH (if not the RMAH) the price they set would be so overpriced that you're better off crafting your own stuff?

@golguin said:

@ArcadeHero said:

You don't need to level the blacksmith and jeweler while you're leveling. Mid level gems are ridiculously underpriced on the AH and you can buy gear with the stats you want. At level 60, it's more valuable, because high end gems must be crafted, and the blacksmith makes decent end-game stuff.

So that's the reason for the huge jump in gem prices from one range to the next that I saw while shopping around. Are you saying the blacksmith when fully trained produces items that are more economic considering the amount of money it took to get him crafting at that level? If those people would sell those items in the AH (if not the RMAH) the price they set would be so overpriced that you're better off crafting your own stuff?

Well, the high level blacksmithing gear revolves around teaching plans that are rare drops from inferno, so not everyone can make the same stuff. Also, like everything else, the stats are completely random when you craft it. You could get lucky with perfect stats and get an item worth millions of gold, or a bunch of trash.

Personally, I'm in Act 2 inferno and i've never really used the jeweler or blacksmith.

@Marz said:

The patch hitting today will make it cheaper to craft those items.... so yeah it will probably be worth it now.

Isn't that only for the jeweller, though? The patch notes didn't mention the blacksmith.

Anyway, I'm in Act II Nightmare and I still level up my blacksmith. I got to the point where I need Nightmare resources to level up the jeweller and I stopped for now, waiting for the patch to reduce the cost in crafting gems. I wish the the crafting system was more like the on in World of Warcraft, though.

@valrog said:

@Marz said:

The patch hitting today will make it cheaper to craft those items.... so yeah it will probably be worth it now.

Isn't that only for the jeweller, though? The patch notes didn't mention the blacksmith.

Anyway, I'm in Act II Nightmare and I still level up my blacksmith. I got to the point where I need Nightmare resources to level up the jeweller and I stopped for now, waiting for the patch to reduce the cost in crafting gems. I wish the the crafting system was more like the on in World of Warcraft, though.

they should both be cheaper in the patch, jewelcrafting got revamped a whole lot more as in it requires only 2 gems instead of 3 and whatnot... Blacksmithing will just have a reduced price to craft but they did not give specifics on how much cheaper like they did for jewelcrafting.