Playing these games for story
Everything I've read makes me think that they're moving towards creating "Ironborn" AH less characters, where you can play with other people who want to play the same way in public games if you can't find friends who will stick to that sort of thing of their own volition. Which is cool.
One of the main reasons that I'm picking up the console version of the game is because it *IS* an AH-less version of the game, and they've redone how items drop- rares drop less frequently and will be "better" supposedly, and more likely to benefit your specific class. I want to see how that works.
You people wanting them to "fix" the core gameplay are in for never-ending disappointment- that ship has sailed, the toothpaste is out of the tube, whatever cliche you want to use. Diablo 3 is and always will be a game where you focus on stacking your main stat and vitality, and most likely also attack speed, crit chance and crit damage as well as resists at higher levels of play. If you want something else, play something else and please stop bitching about what D3 is. You're never going to be satisfied, and for those of us who do enjoy this sort of thing, it gets tiresome hearing you say the same shit over and over again. You're Sisyphus rolling his boulder up a hill for all eternity. STAHP.
What they CAN do, and what I'd like to see more of, are items like this:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-three-hundredth-spear#bestThis is a "build around me" item that, when combined with skills and passives, results in an alternate viable build to the cookie cutter Whirlwind Barbarian that most people play. It's not as OP, but it's totally viable and a completely different play experience. There needs to be more of that.
Other things I hope/think we'll see:
-More customization with items. They're gonna add the Mystic, not sure what all she's gonna be able to do with items though. They're probably going to make items that you severely alter (add sockets to, etc) Bind on Account so that the AH doesn't get even more fucked up, which I think will be fine with most people.
-Defined drops from bosses/mini-bosses, etc. Even if it's just crafting mats like with hellfire rings, this gives people in the endgame something to strive towards and do that isn't just endlessly collecting gold and hoping to hit the legendary item lottery.
-If the itemization changes they've made in the console version work, then I'd really like to see them implemented for an Ironborn mode, where there's no option of ever introducing items from those characters into an AH environment.
-Clearly, new environments are needed to play through.
-With most games like this, when an expansion comes out they just up the level cap. I'm not sure how they're going to handle that, as Paragon levels are basically extra levels on top of the 60 cap. It will be interesting to find out how they handle this.
