Patch 10 has been available for about 48 hours or so now. In that time I’ve worked 2 shifts at my job, I’ve levelled 3 classes to 8 or beyond, investigated the new Diablo 3 UI and – although I’ve not had much time to focus on the RMAH just yet – I’ve made $20 on the Diablo 3 RMAH already! The almost casual way you can earn (beta bucks) in this game at such an early stage really does send chills up my spine. Good chills. Like chilled beer.
Anyway, here’s some interesting information and updates focused around the Real Money Auction House from beta patch 10!
- Common Scraps are gone
It wasn’t 100% clear in the system changes that Blizzard posted just before this patch but I had it in my head that white items would give nothing but magic items would continue to provide scraps and essences.
What the design team at Blizz HQ have done instead is remove scraps entirely. You don’t get them any more, you don’t need them any more. I’m in two minds about this: On one hand it makes things simpler for buyers and what’s simple for buyers can make things harder for sellers; On the other hand it changes very little. Subtle essences become the crafting tool of choice for new players. Techniques such as the Diablo 3 RMAH Merchant Shuffle are still valid but you put essences in place of scraps.
If anything essences are now more desirable. A split requirement for crafting (essences and scraps) and a tendency to ask for more scraps drove the demand for scraps up and essences down (in comparison).
- Scroll of Companion
This little item is also gone. I’m saddened by this. It was very handy. It may in fact be a bug. HOWEVER if it’s removed it will mean gold find as a stat will be more in demand (the more stats in demand the better – a diverse market is a healthy market) and those who rush past gold to level faster will only drive the price of gold up (I’m going to be doing more Diablo 3 Gold Guide article work including a little piece I’m calling the ‘Gold Standard’. Gold is going to be key to making money in the Diablo 3 economy).
- Commodity stack size
You might have read my recent articles on commodity stack size (if you haven’t I recommend checking out Diablo 3 Gold Guide – Stack Sizes Matter & Diablo 3 Gold Guide – Stack Sizes Matter II) and perhaps been pondering what Blizzard’s secret is. Well so far in my continued subtle essence stack experiments I’ve lost ~50 items. That’s around 20 small stacks (1 – 3) of subtle essence that appear to have vanished.
It seems that when I list multiple stacks at one time – say 5×1, 2×2, 2×3 then a larger 1×6 – that only the stack of 6 (or whatever my greatest sized stack was) will remain. The others are gone – not listed in ‘completed’ auctions, not listed as existing auctions in my ‘current auction’ window. Now there have been a few UI changes so maybe my smaller stacks are invisible and will be returned as beta bucks when they sell or as items when their duration is up (we’ll know in ~ 48 hours) but maybe something else is going on.
It’s possible that Blizzard is still iterating on the design of commodity sales. What if the final design = every player selling can only have 1 stack of each commodity at one time? You list 10 small stacks like I have and they all get added together into one big stack. To minimise UI display you see 1 stack of 146 Subtle Essence for sale. What the Diablo 3 RMAH sees however is 146 stacks of 1.
Yet again I’m left wondering how the sales will be decided at a single price point. If there’s 1,415 of 1 item all at $1 on the RMAH, how does the system decide that when Johnny wants 40 YOURS are sold instead of Joe’s?
I’ve sent a support ticket to Blizzard (Diablo 3 issues can now be selected as a category) asking for clarification on this ‘bug’ or ‘design change’ and expressed my interest in knowing how the system will decide. I’ll keep you all posted.
- Choosing where your money goes to when you post your auction
You were always going to be able to choose where funds from each sale went but details were a little hazy. Now it appears that the final goal is to make this decision before potential sale not after successful sale. This has implications that I’ll go into in another article. It’s not live yet nor is it final (because ‘beta’) but I’m still curious about how Blizzard are going to test the Diablo 3 cash out processes properly.
Now I think I need to catch up on some shut-eye so that I can fuel work on my next Diablo 3 Video, more Diablo III Gold Guide writing and my next shifts at work (ugh)!
Ray