You can tell the game was built around the auction house.
I remember going to The Arreat Summit (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/) very very frequently and drooling over the items I wanted (Uniques/Sets). I knew exactly what I wanted, and there was no AH, and I rarely participated in random player-to-player trades.
I did find stuff like Frostburn Gauntlets (very useful with the +40% mana), Nagelrings, Tal Rasha's set stuff, Immortal King set stuff, etc., that was all immediately useful/desirable for my character, and all I had to do to acquire it was play the game. I didn't have to engage in some ebay-esque side game, or even trade at all if I didn't want to, and I'd still find, albeit rarely (and that's what made it fun/exciting!), some really rare/nice pieces of gear.
Things weren't so micro-incremental too. You'd get really huge upgrades in some of your slots, and these upgrades were pieces that were immediately useful, and that you could keep and be satisfied with for a LONG time. Nobody gets excited about going from a +150 str item to a +175 str item. Sure, your power has taken a very minor increase, but when there is no discernible difference in your power when you're actually fighting stuff, how is that worth getting excited over?
Also, the low-level stuff! There were GREAT low-level sets, whether you had just a couple specific pieces to get a nice partial bonus, or the whole set for an even better bonus. There were great low level Uniques as well (various boots, Tarnhelm, etc.).
I think the set and legendary items in D3 can be quite a bit better than the better D2 sets/uniques.
It's just that D3 set/legendary items are too random for most items. You now have to get lucky to get the item to drop and then get lucky on a decent stat roll for all the random properties for the item to be good. With that much random luck involved, most people are stuck with bad roll items.
And don't have the time nor the desire to keep grinding for that holy grail. At this point, I have pretty much grown bored with the game. Playing through the same story 4 times and then grinding on it as an end game was a poor design choice. I will still hop on from time to time but I doubt I will ever get into this game as much as I could, or wanted to.
I am starting to really dislike my HF ring. =(
+33-56 Damage
183 Strength
5% Life
50% Crit Damage...
I just can't find a ring with crit chance that is anywhere close to those other stats. =(
Have you done uber bosses yet and crafted at least 1 HF ring?
If not, I would say at least experience the ubers and get one crafted ring.
That's pretty much what I do now. I jump on for a little bit, do some keywarden runs, collect infernal machines, and then fight ubers w/ my friends here and there. While doing all that, I slowly gain PLs and find legs/items to sell on AH.
But it is also getting somewhat boring. Hope they come out w/ 1.07 sooner rather than later.
WTF, I now have 7 vengeful eyes, 6 fangs, 0 spines.
This is all on MP7+. Something is jacked up.
Sounds like you are only opening 1 portal at a time. You need to open all three at once, preferably in a group where everyone brings 1 machine so you are guaranteed 1 of each part needed to forge a ring.
i have the exact opposite... 13 spines, 12 fangs and 0 eyes.
I think someone who posted a couple weeks ago about the player-pool drying up, as evidenced by the lack of action on the AH may be on to something. I finally started getting better drops as I started playing higher MP levels about 2 months ago. For the first month I was selling things fine on the AH...then for the last 2 weeks I haven't been able to sell anything. No bids, nothing. I'm thinking this game's time may already have passed
I used to not get any level reducing affixes on items. Now all of a sudden, like starting a week or two ago, I'm getting so many minus level requirement items. So strange.
Damn. Isn't it so f'ed up?