Diablo 3 Q&A Blue Posts Galore

  I'm not gonna copy and paste everything, a simple link will do, so check it out at WoW Insider beeotches.
 I will however comment on a few things.

1. Quote:

Would it also be possible to add an option to completely filter out whites? I've heard arguments that it would diminish the "whoa moment" when a lot of items drop, but simpler gameplay should take priority, imo.

Yea, we agree. We are looking at adding a way to enable players to turn on an option like this in the future.

   Hell yeah. I'm not as bad as a buddy of mine at this, but sometimes when clicking to move around I pick these white trash items up and it's enough. Even more so when a ton of them surround an item I want to pick up and I have to give it a second to make sure I click on the one item I want to pick up.

2. Quote:

What do you think of addings gems to the Blacksmithing process to ensure a stat? Put a slot for a gem into the UI. If you add a chipped ruby, you're guaranteed a small strength bonus (5-10). If you put in a flawless square, you're guaranteed a large strength bonus (~100). A perfect star ruby would result in a MASSIVE strength bonus. You could also diversify by having weapons get the weapon bonus, helms get the helm bonus, and other getting the other bonus. New reagents could be added for IAS, XP, Gold, MF... This, actually, sounds like what you should have done with the Mystic. Crumbled Treasure Maps drop and give small MF bonuses. The Mystic can combine 3 into a Faded Treasure Map that provides a little better MF bonus. Et Cetera... The Mystic could combine reagents to grant guaranteed stats from items made by the blacksmith.

I think its an interesting idea and something we would certainly consider adding in the future.
Philosophically, the blacksmithing is intended to serve as an outlet for all those items that you picked up when doing butcher runs, but found them to be not worth putting on the AH, equipping them, or storing in your stash for your alt. You can salvage those items, and give yourself a chance to roll a really good one, turning your evening of farming into something of potential value.

The randomness thats inherent in this system means that you may not get anything good, which we totally understand can feel pretty frustrating.

To mitigate this in the short term, 103 will see a reduction in costs for crafting items from the blacksmith. Im hoping this makes pressing that button a little less intimidating, and that Haedrig sees more business! He has some orphaned kids now to feed you know!!!

If youre currently just leaving all of those blue items on the ground and collecting a bunch of gold, why wouldnt you want to turn them into something of potential value rather than let the Treasure Goblins come and pick them up after youve run away?

Crafting isnt intended to be better than the drops you can get from killing monsters, or maybe even the items you can find on the AH. It is intended to provide you with another outlet for the gold youre collecting.

Definitely looking forward to this as there are a many items I have salvaged even though I know I am better off just vendoring for the gold. But even though the AH is a easier way to get the stats I want, I like the random chance, but have found the cost is too great. So until then I've been stocking up and saving materials for possible future Blacksmithing to be done. If anything maybe take half of what you vendor and salvage the other. That's pretty much what I do.

3. Quote:

Why don't bosses guarantee decent drops on your first kill in Nightmare or Hell? This leaves 30-60 feeing VERY dull and boring because you're not getting your loot fix. It's not a question of how do I gear up, but a statement in that beating a boss that drops two bad blues is very disheartening and is a very NEGATIVE reinforcement for continued play.

This was my decision, and I'll start by saying that Wyatt and Andrew have talked me out of it. In a future patch (not 1.0.3) we'll add this.

But so you know my reasoning I think this just moves the problem. Design intent is that at end-game we want you to stack NV and 'then' kill bosses to make farming loot more interesting. To facilitate this bosses have to stop dropping tons of rares 'at some point'.
My worry was that if it was at Inferno everyone would be like 'WTF why Inferno hardest difficulty with worst loot!?!??!' instead of the current complaint.

The reason I've decided my decision was wrong is the gap that exists between Normal first time drops and the NV farming of Inferno.

I admit, I have been feeling discouraged when it comes to bosses running through each new difficulty knowing that I can't really EXPECT a yellow. It's nice to have that expectation, at least on the first kill of that difficulty, and especially after having a long drought of no yellow rare drops. I am very much looking forward to this. Make it 1.0.3 please.

4. Quote:
Auction House functionality
Could you please add custom auction timers? say I only want a 2 hour auction? or you could allow us to cancel our auctions at any point but make them in an hour from that point so long as there are no bids? I think this would help alleive alot of auction frustration
tl;dr canceling auctions or ending early

Allowing the cancelling of auctions is in patch 1.0.3 (OK, I'm 99% sure of that). We don't currently have plans to let you change times.