This article is NOT for hardcore players, kids nor people who don’t have real money. This article is aimed at casual game players who have hit a wall in Diablo 3 and are having a hard time progressing because of lack of skill, patience, time, etc.
The thing I want to discuss is why investing in the Realm Money Auction House can be a good thing. The real aim is for people who have spare money, lack time to farm and/or are frustrated by some wall they cannot move across.
Diablo 3 is all about gear. To do blaze through the game without significant frustration, you pretty much are going to be using the Auction House at some point. This includes any act at any difficulty level. This pretty much is a given and so you’ll have to accept that you will depend on the Auction House no matter what (unless you’re someone like Athene who has gear handed to him).
However, if you lack a great deal of gold, you will be relegated to having poor gear most of the time. So how can you move past that barrier? Easy: The Real Money Auction House.
I hate to admit that Blizzard’s master plan is true, but unfortunately the way the game is designed, you pretty much will end up using it as a casual player at some point. But this article is not going to be a put down on the unethical design of the game. Instead, I want to convince people who are hesitant about using the Realm Money Auction House that it’s not such a bad thing in general.
The first argument most people will say before plunking a cent down into the Real Money Auction House is, “Well, I don’t want to spend money for virtual items!” The fact that you bought a game for around $60 that is hosted on a server means you’ve already lost the first argument. Second, if you’ve only beaten normal mode but gave up once you hit Nightmare, you have not really spent that $60 all that well in the first place. If you really want to get the most of this game, you really have to hit 60, play Inferno mode to see the full range of content.
Also, what about trying other classes? Sure, the game has an “ending” where you kill Diablo. But that’s not the “end game”. The “end game” is about pushing what you can do, maximizing your character, your progress and possibly trying other classes and builds and exploring the mechanics of the game a little more in depth.
However, you’ll more than likely hit a wall still. I would even argue that you might run into problems on Inferno mode Monster Power 0 if you’re not that great of a player nor have enough gold saved up for competitive items. The thing is that if you hit this wall, but lack time or patience to farm more gold, you’ll need a quicker, more convenient way to get those items to progress.
Next, you can find fairly affordable items in the Real Money Auction House. Yes, there are ridiculously overpriced items that can sell up to $250 (from what I’ve seen). However, unless you’re an exceptionally wealthy executive that plays once every few weeks, you really are not the target for that type of item. You can find items that cost anywhere between $2-10, which I find reasonable, especially when you get into Inferno difficulty.
Now, here’s where the investment “strategy” comes into literal play. I believe that you can plunk down between $30-70 and have a really well geared character once you hit 60. This character can topple Monster Power 0 Inferno without any trouble. It’ll feel like normal mode again, minus some kiting at times. Now, that you can blaze through Inferno mode, you can start racking up the gold and items. You can even farm lower level difficulties with high monster power and sell lower items for a premium on the Auction House.
So the basic idea is that you invest into your first character another $30-60 on top of the basic game so that the game plays smoother in the long run. You might say, “Well, $90-120 for a game is quite a lot!” That depends again on what you want to get out of it. I don’t see Diablo 3 as a game you play and finish in a single weekend. There’s plenty of stuff to do to really extend it. But I’ve already made that point and want to go more into how the $30-60 extra works out.
So let’s say you put $60 into your character. Now, you have top gear, something that can make you a bit more competitive. If you want to try other classes, what you do is invest in some of the leveling items. The two main leveling items you want to pick up are the Horadric Hamburger and Spectrum. Go for Spectrum at the very least as it’ll carry you up until Hell mode. Definitely, for Barbarians and Monks, having both the Spectrum and Horadric Hamburger will make them very overpowered until Hell mode. These items will cost quite a bit of gold, but are well worth the money since you can continuously pass these items between characters once they hit level 30.
The next item that I’ve found as a good investment is Echoing Fury. I purchased one with a level reduction fact of 13. So for my guys, they can begin using it at level 47. It does quite a bit of damage. Combine that with other level reduction equipment and you’ll find Hell mode a breeze.
What makes this all an “investment strategy?” Time. The idea here is to put more into one character, then have that character feed the rest of your characters. In other words, you’ll be able to avoid having to farm as much and in a frustrating manner by having that one outstanding character do most of the grunt work initially. But it won’t be as bad as grinding every little bit themselves by giving him/her an initial boost. As you’ll see, the time requirement for farming and earning gold/items will be drastically reduced and you’ll be able to play more of the higher end of the game sooner than if you avoided the Real Money Auction House altogether.
If you’re still one of these types that think, “Well, I want to play the game honestly and honorably!” then you really are smoking crack. If you want to minimize that though and not have as much of a guilt trip, just create five more characters after your initial character that you’ve invested into and play them from the start. You’ll more than likely still require the normal Auction House, but by then you should have enough money that you’ve “earned” on your own that it won’t matter anymore. At any rate, you’ll be able to move faster than you would’ve before.