I caved in and bought a way better wand for my wizard than the one I've been using, for only 8000 gold. It's great but it feels cheap compared to finding your own gear. I've personally vowed to not use it again at least to when it's much more of a necessity like Inferno. How about you guys? Do you shun it and do everything clean? Or do you just buy up the hottest shit on the AH and sell for higher too buy more hot shit off the AH? lol

it's part of the game, why avoid it?

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

I only just completed Nightmare and I feel that would've been significantly harder without buying weapons/gear from the AH. Can't imagine Hell or Inferno without buying stuff unless you're gonna spend 100 hours farming. But what's the difference? It just removes much of the need for that silly timesink. People do that enough in MMO's, they shouldn't have to do it in a (potentially, mostly) single player game.

I figure is I have stuff I'm not going to sell, I may as well put on auction and see what suckers will pay for it. My only problem right now is figuring out just how high I can push the prices.

I like the way it's set out though, it's a simple interface that can help you find exactly what you want, even if prices seem insane at times. I probably will never buy anything from there myself, but it's a cool little feature.

@Turambar said:

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

Also hot tip: Don't bother upgrading the jeweler because, unless she gets some special late game ability, all of the high level gems are in the auction house for literally a fraction of the cost from making it with her.

Also as a Demon Hunter the game gets really difficult after Nightmare. I need the auction house to look for Dex and Vit equipment, as a demon hunter's only way of surviving is Vitality.

I bought some blue dye to finish off my Monk's theme. It was probably a waste of gold as each cost about 1500 gold on the AH and all of the dyes I've seen in game so far are 350. In the end I don't really car because seeing my monk next to his banner makes me chuckle, and that is well worth the price.

Yea I'm not even done with Normal though so I'm kinda clueless. But it just seems weird, i would've rather had better loot drops more frequently than having to buy items from people farming the higher difficulties. Oh well.

@GDYoder: That's surprising to me because so far most people I have seen have been not only reasonably pricing their items, but practically giving some of them away.

@MasturbatingestBear: I don't think most people are putting dyes on the AH though, and you can price them pretty much however you want because the people buying them, much like myself, don't have access to certain colors (I'm a good ways into act II on normal). They pricing sucks, and the AH timed out the first time I purchased the dye, so I ended up buying four instead of two. Made the money back within 30 minutes and the extra dyes were used because I found new gear right afterwards.

I'm wondering what will happen to the Gold AH when the real money one opens.

@GDYoder said:

I'm wondering what will happen to the Gold AH when the real money one opens.

Yeah I have been wondering that too. I have been trying to think of the possible outcomes but from what I can guess the gold AH will be the victim of huge inflation due to people trying to milk the dollar to gold ratio. So I am doing as much trading here as I can. Enjoy this next week of proper pricing while you can.

Naw man, AH is awesome. I got a crossbow that tripled my dps for like 6000 gold. But if you want to do everything "clean" then be my guest.

I know @snide is.

The AH is the new BJ everyone does it but no one wants to admit it... Except the whores they advertise it.

I browsed through it a little & will occasionally throw up a stack of 10 rares to try to sell for 5-10k gold but as I'm playing through using a variety of classes to see which ones I like, I tend to get enough alternate gear that way then wasting time going through the AH (would rather be playing D3 than browsing that). Hopefully soon though they fix the search for it, rather tough to find things at times due to how they limit the search options.

I have a hard time selling things in the AH. I put decent items with no buy now price and very low starting prices. And they always get returned to me. I put up a belt that had +41 str and +41 vit and +11 experience after kill. Starting price 150 gold. Sat for two days, and was returned. I think I am giving up on it at this point.

@oulzac said:

I have a hard time selling things in the AH. I put decent items with no buy now price and very low starting prices. And they always get returned to me. I put up a belt that had +41 str and +41 vit and +11 experience after kill. Starting price 150 gold. Sat for two days, and was returned. I think I am giving up on it at this point.

to be honest, no one wants to bid and wait two days for it. i've sold tons of shitty yellows with pretty low buy now prices (3000-5000 range ) and made a decent profit.

I am now, but I'm only on Normal at the moment. I do enjoy the thrill of finding good loot, but I always seem to have horrendous luck with drops (if my time with D2, Borderlands and Torchlight is any indcation), so I'll probably turn to it when things get tough.

I've been selling some stuff to keep enough cash for in game and buying to fill in a slot where I haven't found a good item in 10+ levels, but largely think it takes out half the excitement of the game to buy better gear. Isn't the whole point of the game taking down some named monster and having a rare awesome item drop for you?

I imagine I'll cave and start hunting through it more if I get the point where I need to grind for hours for better gear to get any further in a difficulty. Though at that point I'm likely out of the game anyway. Grind with that little forward progress gets depressing.

It's necessary. Sell your stuff, get gold, buy stuff. It's part of the game. Trading was HUGE in D2, this is more or less the same thing without general chat spam. I got a new wand for my wizard that gave me a 500 damage increase at level 45. It was much needed.

@Turambar said:

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

Also hot tip: Don't bother upgrading the jeweler because, unless she gets some special late game ability, all of the high level gems are in the auction house for literally a fraction of the cost from making it with her.

Also as a Demon Hunter the game gets really difficult after Nightmare. I need the auction house to look for Dex and Vit equipment, as a demon hunter's only way of surviving is Vitality.

I know @snide is.

Diablo 3 has attracted the stupidest gamers I have ever seen in my life.

I go to the auction house often, as well as sell on it often. If anything, this has become the new way for people to feel a bit more open-ended. It's funny how many times I've gone to the AH to NOT buy things and instead just look at gear getting posted up and say "OH SHIT, SOMEONE GOT (insert whatever) TO DROP!". There's an excitement there for other people getting shit...even if they ARE boosting the price up to 10m gold, which is pretty fucking ridiculous. However, it's still the first week of release. It'll take at least a solid month before the AH can settle down and become an actual free market like it needs to be.

Nonetheless, I WILL say this: upgrading your blacksmith is worth it in many ways, and it's honestly not that difficult. If you are wanting awesome gear but can't seem to get it from the AH, guess what? It's probably coming from someone else's blacksmith and not drops. You can make some pretty hefty stuff that will help cut down on so many issues in Hell and Inferno difficulty.

My friends and I just went into Inferno today for the first time, and we can EASILY tell that we are not completely ready for it. I really need to go through and reitemize my Barbarian. Looks like a few more runs of Act 4 Hell are in order. = D

I don't see what the big deal is. In D2 if you played with a multiplayer character you had to trade with other players if you wanted to gear up quicker. Farming to find a specific piece of loot took forever and more often than not you'd get class specific drops that were unusable for your character.

I've been using it to buy materials for the blacksmith. Sooooooo much easier than breaking down armor and weapons...well, for me anyway.

just bought a new bow off the auction house for 20k. doubled my DPS as a demon hunter.

was having a hard time with Belial on nightmare. feel kinda cheap doing it but he was driving me nuts.

keep getting cheap instant deaths. try to move from green but instead of clicking and moving i click attack because i accidentally hit his bounding box. or i try to run at end but there are areas you can't actually walk on. etc etc.

fought him so much i gained a level on his phase 1 and 2 mobs. eventually phase 2 mobs wouldn't appear because my DPS was too high on the boss. as well i eventually got to the point where i wouldn't have to move on phase 1 and 2 due to mobs dying so quickly.

with the new bow i beat belias easily as the time for mistakes became much shorter.

@ajamafalous said:

@MasturbatingestBear said:

@Turambar said:

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

Also hot tip: Don't bother upgrading the jeweler because, unless she gets some special late game ability, all of the high level gems are in the auction house for literally a fraction of the cost from making it with her.

Also as a Demon Hunter the game gets really difficult after Nightmare. I need the auction house to look for Dex and Vit equipment, as a demon hunter's only way of surviving is Vitality.

Jeweler's a dude, bro.

Totally not the first time I have made that mistake. I constantly forget if it's a guy or a girl. Does he wear a hood or something? I don't remember why I keep thinking he is a chick.

I Like the auction house. But its not really because I want better item right NOW, or that I want to sell for quick gold, though those are both a part of it. My favorite part is knowing all the items come from other players, abd that your selling to other players. I tried a few public games but like playing by myself mostly, but the AH gives me a way to be a part of the diablo community. So i get to play with people without having to play with them, if you know what I mean. Sounds wierd im sure but thats why I like the AH.

I caved in and bought a way better wand for my wizard than the one I've been using, for only 8000 gold. It's great but it feels cheap compared to finding your own gear. I've personally vowed to not use it again at least to when it's much more of a necessity like Inferno. How about you guys? Do you shun it and do everything clean? Or do you just buy up the hottest shit on the AH and sell for higher too buy more hot shit off the AH? lol

@ajamafalous said:

@MasturbatingestBear said:

@Turambar said:

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

Also hot tip: Don't bother upgrading the jeweler because, unless she gets some special late game ability, all of the high level gems are in the auction house for literally a fraction of the cost from making it with her.

Also as a Demon Hunter the game gets really difficult after Nightmare. I need the auction house to look for Dex and Vit equipment, as a demon hunter's only way of surviving is Vitality.

Jeweler's a dude, bro.

Totally not the first time I have made that mistake. I constantly forget if it's a guy or a girl. Does he wear a hood or something? I don't remember why I keep thinking he is a chick.

Better gear is better gear, yo.

i have sold a little and bid on a few things, but im mostly just trying to get my artisan up and find great items to sell on the currency auction house but im not big on it even though im on hell dif. i really just really dont care all that much about it even though i think its a fine idea

I just bought a really good staff for my monk for cheap. I don't think i will be doing it with other gear until I hit hell difficulty.

I'm selling stuff in the AH(or at least trying), but never bought anything. I never had enough money for it for one thing, but mostly because for a while i want to find my own stuff.

I'm sure i will use it eventually, just not yet.

Pretty necessary for me. The HC AH is a pretty vibrant economy since items are actually constantly being removed from the economy. It's one of the only consistently good ways to keep gear that has lots of fit on it up to date, and keeping your gear nice and up to date is absolutely a must for HC.

The only real downside is that if you are getting drops that don't have any +vit on them, you will probably never ever sell them and are best off vendoring them (even most rares).

If the gear you need simply isn't dropping, the game's difficulty will get out of hand quickly.  Participating in the Diablo economy is meant to be part of the fun.  There are plenty of bargains to be found for amazing loot.

@Turambar said:

@MasturbatingestBear said:

@ajamafalous said:

@MasturbatingestBear said:

@Turambar said:

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

Also hot tip: Don't bother upgrading the jeweler because, unless she gets some special late game ability, all of the high level gems are in the auction house for literally a fraction of the cost from making it with her.

Also as a Demon Hunter the game gets really difficult after Nightmare. I need the auction house to look for Dex and Vit equipment, as a demon hunter's only way of surviving is Vitality.

Jeweler's a dude, bro.

Totally not the first time I have made that mistake. I constantly forget if it's a guy or a girl. Does he wear a hood or something? I don't remember why I keep thinking he is a chick.

He's an old bald headed man.

Damn, then it's just inexplicable then.

Well it's easy to avoid it right now, because it's down again!

@Packfan104L4: I am kinda disappointed about that right now because I just got a helmet that lowers my level requirement by 6 levels and I am level 55. I could start equipping level sixty gear right now. That is of course if I could get some.

edit: just found out that the level reduction is only for that one item how disappointing

second edit: I checked out level sixty weapons for my demon hunter and there are some amazing level sixty gear with the level requirement stat on it for fairly cheap. I could easily equip a bow that would double or even triple my DPS You just have to know where to look for it. Obviously once you hit level cap the level requirement thing is obsolete but it might get me through hell a little more easily.

I don't mind the auction house in the sense that there's people that want the easier way out instead of taking chances with the random loot mechanic, but I feel I am cheating by trying it.

Also (and this is a mad subjective opinion here) I feel that if people are recommending that my only reasonable option to beat the hardest difficulty is not to grind for better weapons (the only thing going for this type of game to me), but to simply buy them to avoid the eventual pain of excessive unsuccessful loot grinding, then why the hell would I bother playing a loot game with no need to dedicate any more time to find loot? To simply play with friends or randoms 'just because'?

Seems like the Auction House makes the game more shallow to me instead of making it a deeper experience.

EDIT: I guess I have the reasoning here but forgot to put a straight up answer as well hehe. I am avoiding it simply because I personally do not like how it shallows the game by giving people an easy way out of grinding, which is the only thing you will ever do in that game aside from the eventual PvP portion that isn't up yet.

Not touching it. Just doesn't seem right. But then, I would rather have a challenge anyway. Spending time playing market just so I can stomp over everything? No thanks.

Absolutely using it. I've made way more money selling gear than I have by grinding in the game. Buying things off of the AH is no different than buying gear in WoW. Sometimes you need some help getting on the right foot, especially when the gear in this game is more random than WoW. I don't feel like it's cheating because you are trading the time you spent grinding the gold by paying for the item with that gold.

If your character seems undergeared for the current area and you haven't the time to go back and farm older areas for stuff you can use, I see the significance of the auction house.

To me however, the main draw of Diablo is the loot, and the process of collecting said loot. I don't have anything against the auction house, but I don't see the need for it either.

(I will say however, that the real money auction house is rather sleazy. I have no respect for someone who buys their high quality gear with real money. If people weren't buying and selling items in the real money auction house, they'd be doing it via Ebay or the like (much as folks did in D2), but I dislike the idea of it all the same.)

@MasturbatingestBear said:

@Turambar said:

Selling stuff on the AH is the only realistic way to earn enough gold to max out your blacksmith, stash, and jewler.

Also hot tip: Don't bother upgrading the jeweler because, unless she gets some special late game ability, all of the high level gems are in the auction house for literally a fraction of the cost from making it with her.

Also as a Demon Hunter the game gets really difficult after Nightmare. I need the auction house to look for Dex and Vit equipment, as a demon hunter's only way of surviving is Vitality.

Umm, last time i checked, Radiant square gems cost 237.000 gold at the AH, while making one costs 50.000 gold + 3 perfect square gems and you get those often at inferno and hell.

It depends on how you want to play the game. I don't use it because all the focus has been on the real money auction house and I totally forgot there was an in-game money one. Also, I think it's very rewarding (if crazy time-consuming) to find gear naturally.

I avoid it. I have a character of every class and have managed to amass a small fortune between them. As such, it is far to tempting to just go in and search for deals on ridiculous gear, taking a bit of the fun out of finding it myself.

I am starting to build quite the collection of rare shit I don't use anymore though. I may put some of those items up on the Auction House at some point.

I've stayed away mostly because I don't want to do the research into what I can sell and how much I can sell it for. Since I'm not selling items on the AH I'm typically too gold-starved to buy anything outside of Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Stash upgrades so I'm not buying anything either.

So I'm not avoiding it out of any sort of principal, just laziness.