Did you buy your loot, or farm it?

That loot on Trade is found/made by players.

Yes loot is RNG and Trade can be (Is for me most times) tedious but this game can be and is played in a SSF mode without trade. If you are playing a build that requires very specific items it may hinder your progress/exp/expectations of the build.

Similarly if you look at a build with end game items/stats and you struggle to get through the campaign or low maps, dont expect to be some god gamer speed runner. Priorities outside the game? Prioritise them. Its what I do with any game instead of expecting it to revolve around me and I would suggest the same to anyone else in any game.

There is loot 2.0/reworks etc in the pipelines and I look forward to it. But I suspect this is what you really wanted to say/discuss/get across?:

"

VirtuouseFreques wrote:

I guess it isn't a huge deal unless loot gets nerfed so bad it makes players want to buy it with money. Then it turns into pay to win right?

Anyways TC.

"

Eskeev wrote:

You know that question is double-sided, right?

Exactly what I thought when I read the OP.

Bought every single piece and I don't have any problems with it because this game is advertised as a trading ARPG. Thus the horrendous droprates with very low chances to actually get something decent yourself - to force you into trading. And I'm OK with it.

Both trade and SSF have their own charm. I believe that in SSF you of course get bigger satisfaction from finding something valuable. In trade it's mostly work for the currency to achieve your dream build.

Yesterday I dropped the first Awakened gem from a conqueror in my life even though a kill conquerors at least 16 times every league. Increased damage with elemental attacks. It was actually a gem I needed for my build, but I've already bought same gem one day before.

My brother also dropped Headhunter at the start of the league and House of Mirrors yesterday.

Got this yesterday (T6 map)

best ones so far :P though the es body was from rog still counts as a drop or?

These 2 pieces of gear are the only parts that are purely self found this league. The amethyst ring is from extremely lucky rog, and the vermillion is from a random one I harvest chaos spammed.

Everything else involved other people in more ways than one. For instance, these are item bases I had to buy. Doesn't include the currency needed to craft them.


I had to buy currencies to finish/form these:


And as many people would crap on TFT, it's the ONLY place where you can feasibly find an augment craft since GGG gutted harvest:


Make no mistake. GGG's insistence on trade balance ruins the game because I can without shame say I no-lifed the start of this league to see how much time it takes to feasibly make a character as close to "end state" as possible. There's a solid 150 hours of gameplay on this character, and that was with the CHEAP values of currency at league start. It's only harder for casuals as the people that play this game for the economy monopolize everything as time goes on.

Even if you're smart, you can still get screwed. The helm I linked, I got lucky. The shield and sceptre, lucky rolls on the start before I could finish.

This is not the game for you because it's inherently built on trade. If you're not the one making profitable deals on your own behalf, you're ultimately getting used by somebody else unless you really don't care. If you're like me and start selling things for cheap you'll find out that your name gets saved by some snipe-buyer somewhere and you'll routinely have PM's from the same people buying your underpriced things to sell to richer people. Even though the entire reason you listed the items for cheap is for newer players to have an easier leg up in this econ simulator that calls itself a game.

This game will force 3 options upon you.
1) Be accepting of mediocrity in your gear and struggle
2) Play the economy game, take advantage of people's weaknesses, and thrive
3) Be extremely lucky

If you want my honest advice, never play leagues. In fact, best use of your time is to play a different game. If you actually strive for the "aspirational content" of this game, you'll find yourself grinding currency to gamble on an upgrade so you can grind more currency to gamble on an upgrade ad nauseam. Nevermind the fact that your true fun of this game can be just tweaking and making builds, but like the stark reality outside of video games, it's going to become jaded and corrupted by dealing with people who value currency accumulation over just having fun.

Best post I've read in a while. Spot on!

I'd quit playing within a week or to of conducting my first trade. I know it. I'd lose all respect for myself and hate playing the game knowing the gear I had was a cheat.

Never used trade, never will. The whole process is so unappealing, I simply don't want to get involved. If I can't do something because of gear, I don't do it or wait until I can.

If you buy 100ex in gear off of the trade sites you still had to farm 100 exalts..