The lasting joy and magic of Diablo springs from the work-reward structure of finding powerful but rare items (or skills) to ultimately suit up a character to an incredible degree of killing efficiency, whether in the service of PvE or PvP. This is the core conceit of the franchise, and other franchises like it. In the short run, the tasks of completing quests, unlocking skills, discovering new bosses and defeating them, and following the storyline to its conclusion are reward enough. But this psychological satisfaction cannot endure more than a few weeks or months at best. It is in the searching and finding of the most desirable items -- uniques, magicals, rares, high runes to make runewords (a fantastically fun arpg innovation, imo, and one that should be included in Diablo 3) -- that the replayability and the legacy of Diablo 2 is measured not in weeks or months, but years. Blizzard's devotion to this concept, and their superb implementation of it, can be seen in the fact that tens of thousands of players still play a graphically dated game over ten years old. What greater testament to Blizzard's mastery of the craft does one need?

With this in mind, it is imperative that those who benefit from Blizzard's love of the game remind them when they stray from the guiding principles that brought them to the height of their field, and captured the hearts of millions of players worldwide. The six month ladder reset is one such betrayal of Blizzard's principles.

It is, to put not too fine a point on it, and practically speaking, impossible for the typical player to find, on his own, the ladder-only high end uniques and high runes to make ladder-only runewords during a six month ladder, with the current drop rates in effect. Unless the average player beats astronomical odds, he will not find a Griffon's Eye within six months of ladder play. Nor will he find two Bers to make an Infinity within six months, before his painstakingly built characters are relegated to the purgatory of non-ladder, where all hope of making any ladder-only runewords or finding any ladder-only items is lost.

And what do I mean by the "typical player"? I count myself among their ranks, so I think it is not so much of a stretch to claim that I speak for the majority of long-term Diablo 2 players, whose voice is muffled by a feeling of uselessness in the face of intransigent and inattentive Blizzard developers.

I rock climb, work a full-time job, compete in bike races, travel sporadically, adore a loving girlfriend, occasionally cook meals with ingredients, strum guitar and abide traffic laws, among other things. In other words, I'm not so much different than millions of other people living in a prosperous nation. I also play a few hours of Diablo 2 every few days. Diablo isn't an escape, nor is it a lifestyle. It is for me what it was intended to be for the vast majority of players: another hobby within a constellation of hobbies that adds to the sum total joy of living. By this eminently reasonable standard, I consider the typical player a paragon of normalcy in his Diablo aspirations, neither excessively addicted nor demeaningly "casual". We are your biggest targeted demographic, Blizzard. Our opinion matters.

And so, the insipid bleatings of the botters and minority faction 15 hour-a-day addicts to the contrary notwithstanding, the typical player, like myself, will not, and cannot, put in the (legal!) massive time investment required to collect (or trade for, again legally!) the coveted ladder-only elite uniques and high runes to make ladder-only runewords before the six month clock ticks down to zero. It is an unrealistic, and even somewhat cruel, expectation to place upon your biggest fan base, and reeks of elitist prerogative. As way of demonstrating Blizzard's cruelty, I offer up my account from last ladder as example. Today, and ever since the previous ladder reset, those characters, all in advanced stages of development, sit unused, my playwork wasted, their dates of expiry fast approaching. A 5os phase blade for a Grief runeword rots ignominiously, missing the Lo that I couldn't acquire before the ladder ended.

Since I entered the last ladder halfway through its life cycle, (after a long lay-off from gaming), I decided optimism was the order of the day, and so I made a new account and prepared once again to build up a slew of characters in this current ladder season. My optimism was misplaced. With six weeks to go before the putative reset, all I have amassed are some decent mid-level uniques, along with a Vex and a Sur rune. I have not had the chance to make those wonderful high end ladder-only runewords I wanted, nor to find any of those high end ladder-only uniques that are the talk of the town. The truth is, I never had the chance, playing honorably by the EULA. The EULA you wrote, Blizzard.

With six weeks remaining, I am tempted to do the formerly unthinkable: to buy the items and (most probably duped) runes I need from a third party site before time's up, and in the process destroying the integrity of the game and ruining its founding purpose -- the psychological satisfaction of finding and legitimately trading for prized possessions, and then showing them off to my online buddies. But this temptation will likely be overridden by a greater urge: to give up on Blizzard altogether, including its forthcoming Diablo 3.

Blizzard, you have the power to easily rectify this wholly avoidable sad turn of events and make good by the long-term gaming community that pumps the lifeblood through your franchise. I understand why you instituted the ladder season -- to cleanse the economy -- but your cure has proven worse than the disease. The six month ladder season, and its attendant restrictions, is an injustice to the majority of players who play by your rules, and play in the spirit of the game you created. It is no less than a slap in their faces.

Here are the three fixes you have at your disposal to redeem this game in the players' eyes:

1. End ladder seasons, or make them long enough (2+ years) so that most typical players have a reasonable shot at finding and crafting those high end ladder-only items.

This, I imagine, is the least viable option, given the reasons for its creation in the first place, and the work needed to scrap it. But it is something you could think about.

2. Make ladder-only content available on non-ladder.

This is a much more viable option, given that changing the relevant code is undoubtedly a trivial matter for your programmers. Content expansion would leave ladder in place for those who prefer a virgin economy to play new characters and who actually enjoy the grind of being the hundredth player to get to level 99 amidst a sea of botters, while allowing those who put in hours and hours of play to earn cherished items the opportunity to continue working toward the collection of better items and runewords without having to start over in a new, doomed ladder season on a fruitless quest.

3. Drastically increase the drop rates.

Also easy to implement, I am in favor of this option almost as much as the second option above. Diablo 2 has been out long enough that rewarding long term players with the ability to make a small armory of high end runewords would not undermine the game's purpose or playability. It is a justifiable reward, and would at a stroke squeeze the coffers of (might I remind you, illicit!) third party item-selling sites and reduce the incentive to bot, dupe or hack. If you, Blizzard, insist on keeping the six month ladder with its ladder-only content, at least make it so that the typical player has an excellent chance to find, for example, two Ber runes to make an Infinity runeword.

Thank you for listening, Blizzard, and I trust you shall take this plea... into consideration.

Sincerely,
a silent majority fan,
disheartened, but (hopefully) not forgotten.

PS: Re: Diablo 3 and its development direction, in particular the RMAH and skill system, I withhold judgment. I have read good arguments, pro and con. But I believe you are making a mistake by crippling PvP.

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Q u o t e:
1. End ladder seasons, or make them long enough (2+ years) so that most typical players have a reasonable shot at finding and crafting those high end ladder-only items.

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Playing ladder is about competition, not finding or crafting gear.

There once was a 2-year-ladder. That was the worst time ever in D2/LoD history. The economy was virtually dead, everybody had about anything. Most people even thought Blizzard had forgotten and buried the game. Fortunatly they did not!

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Q u o t e:
2. Make ladder-only content available on non-ladder.

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This is the core of our whiners post: it's all about ladder-only gear not ladder play.

Ladder-only gear is a bonus reward for most active ladder players. If you want to have it work for it. Playing "now and then" may make you a casual player but to earn the high-end stuff you have to do a lot better than that.

Removing ladder-only gear altogether may be a point of discussion but doing so won't change the drop situtation for the "now and then" players.

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Q u o t e:
3. Drastically increase the drop rates.

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This has already been done.

Pre-1.12 pretty much any high rune was a dupe because the drop rates were extremely low. You could play a whole ladder season without finding a single high rune. Patch 1.13 changed this dramatically. Finding several high-runes per month is not too uncommon now.


PS: This is a D2 forum. Whining about D3 stuff here is futile.

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Q u o t e:

Playing ladder is about competition, not finding or crafting gear.

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That may have been its original intent, but the road to hell and all that. There is no competition in ladder unless you bot. Normal players... i.e., those who have to work for a living and can't devote 20 hours per day to Diablo, and who actually enjoy playing as a human being behind the character for a few hours every couple of days... have no chance at winning any sort of ladder competition. Blizzard knows this, and you do too.

And finding and crafting gear is a big part of Diablo, the biggest really, on ladder and off. It's not like the majority of ladder players are satisfied running around in cracked sashes through hell.

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Q u o t e:
There once was a 2-year-ladder. That was the worst time ever in D2/LoD history. The economy was virtually dead, everybody had about anything.

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Really. So everyone had multiple Los, Bers, Zods, CoAs, Andys, Tyrael's?

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Q u o t e:
This is the core of our whiners post:

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Ad hominem. Was Patrick Henry a whiner?

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Q u o t e:
it's all about ladder-only gear not ladder play.

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You are living in a fantasy world if you think gear doesn't play a huge role for most players on ladder as well as off.

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Q u o t e:
Ladder-only gear is a bonus reward for most active ladder players.

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Fine. But as ti stands now, six months cuts off most legit players from ever finding any of that ladder-only gear. The drop rates combined with the short time frame ensure that.

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Q u o t e:
If you want to have it work for it.

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No problem, just give me a level playing field.

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Q u o t e:
Playing "now and then" may make you a casual player but to earn the high-end stuff you have to do a lot better than that.

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Sorry, this argument isn't gonna fly. "Now and then" is how most legit players play, your derogatory slander to the contrary notwithstanding. To qualify by your standards for earning high end stuff, the typical player would have to either bot or give up his job, social life, sustenance and sleep to put in the necessary 20 hours per day to earn that ladder-only stuff before the clock runs out.

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Q u o t e:
Removing ladder-only gear altogether may be a point of discussion but doing so won't change the drop situtation for the "now and then" players.

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Changing the drop rate was only one suggestion. The unfairness of short ladder seasons to the typical Diablo player would be rectified by expanding ladder-only content to non-ladder, where legit players would be happy to grind for those rare finds *knowing that their high level characters won't be de facto erased by the ending of the ladder season and the availability of its concomitant ladder-only gear*.

This isn't whining. This is a simple question of fairness. Blizzard, do the right thing by your fans.

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Q u o t e:
However, take a good long look at the list of Ladder-Only runewords that statistically have a very low chance of being cubed unless a player turns to the fail-infested economy driven by botting, dupes, and forum gold.

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Since patch 1.13 this is no longer an issue. During the first two months of the first 1.13 ladder i found 4 high runes all by myself and i was definatly not pushing it. Given that a ladder now lasts 6 months my personal playing style and schedule which does not include mfing or Baal-running could net me up to a dozen high runes per season.

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:
Playing "now and then" may make you a casual player but to earn the high-end stuff you have to do a lot better than that.

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Sorry, this argument isn't gonna fly. "Now and then" is how most legit players play, your derogatory slander to the contrary notwithstanding. To qualify by your standards for earning high end stuff, the typical player would have to either bot or give up his job, social life, sustenance and sleep to put in the necessary 20 hours per day to earn that ladder-only stuff before the clock runs out.

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Not gonna fly? It's a fact that the real high-end stuff can only be found in hell difficulty and even there things do not grow on trees. How long does it take a player to reach hell diff with that little playtime you describe? Weeks? How long does the same player need for a few games in hell diff to have a chance to find some high-end stuff? Months?

Play 1-2 hours per day and you'll find the gear you're so desperate for right now.

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Q u o t e:
This isn't whining. This is a simple question of fairness. Blizzard, do the right thing by your fans.

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Actually it is whining since you don't think things thru. Raising the item drop rate to such a level that even "now and then" players are able to find the best stuff in a few months would cause a massive flood on the item market BECAUSE those players are not the only ones on b.net! A lot of players play on a daily basis. With your requested drop rate those players would be back in full gear after just a few days into a new ladder. This would completely nullify the point about ladder play or resets. The only good thing would then be that such high drop rates will render bots to farm gear obsolete.

And even then you would still keep whining because other - more regular - players will again have all the good stuff long before you get hands on it.

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Q u o t e:

Playing ladder is about competition, not finding or crafting gear.

There once was a 2-year-ladder. That was the worst time ever in D2/LoD history. The economy was virtually dead, everybody had about anything. Most people even thought Blizzard had forgotten and buried the game. Fortunatly they did not!


This is the core of our whiners post: it's all about ladder-only gear not ladder play.

Ladder-only gear is a bonus reward for most active ladder players. If you want to have it work for it. Playing "now and then" may make you a casual player but to earn the high-end stuff you have to do a lot better than that.

Removing ladder-only gear altogether may be a point of discussion but doing so won't change the drop situtation for the "now and then" players.


This has already been done.

Pre-1.12 pretty much any high rune was a dupe because the drop rates were extremely low. You could play a whole ladder season without finding a single high rune. Patch 1.13 changed this dramatically. Finding several high-runes per month is not too uncommon now.


PS: This is a D2 forum. Whining about D3 stuff here is futile.

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agree



to the OP
wall of text for nothing, thanks for damaging my red eyes even more

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Q u o t e:
PS: This is a D2 forum. Whining about D3 stuff here is futile.

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rules? no rules here.
and why not? D2 neglected, abandoned to bugs, bots, buck$. sequel (oh sorry. forgot. not the same game, just the same name... with a 3) showing very little in common with orginal D1/2/lod other than title.

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Q u o t e:
wall of text for nothing, thanks for damaging my red eyes even more

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"brevity is the soul of wit."

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Q u o t e:
Since patch 1.13 this is no longer an issue. During the first two months of the first 1.13 ladder i found 4 high runes all by myself and i was definatly not pushing it. Given that a ladder now lasts 6 months my personal playing style and schedule which does not include mfing or Baal-running could net me up to a dozen high runes per season.

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One of the posters above ran the numbers and they confirmed what I've been saying about the excruciatingly low drop rate and short ladder resets: You'd have to play every hour of every day for six months straight to have a chance at one Zod dropping. This is unrealistic for anyone who isn't a bot, and maybe even for the bots.

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Q u o t e:
Not gonna fly? It's a fact that the real high-end stuff can only be found in hell difficulty and even there things do not grow on trees. How long does it take a player to reach hell diff with that little playtime you describe? Weeks? How long does the same player need for a few games in hell diff to have a chance to find some high-end stuff? Months?

Play 1-2 hours per day and you'll find the gear you're so desperate for right now.

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You're missing the point. The 6 month ladder reset gives the typical player NEAR ZERO chance to find any of the ladder-only high end stuff or high runes. And by typical, I mean human. No human being who works for a living and has a social life can put in the sort of hours required within a six month time frame to find, for example, two Ber runes to make a ladder-only infinity.

AS SUCH, it is totally unfair to loyal Diablo players to keep runewords like Infinity on ladder-only, if that ladder season is to be set at an impossibly short time frame for collecting such items.

In point of fact, I do play, on average, 1-2 hours per day. And I can tell you with certainty that there's no chance I have to make any high end ladder-only runewords that don't include Spirit or Insight. There is simply no chance. End of discussion. Given that incredibly obvious fact to anyone who is a regular and *legit* player of Diablo, it is unfair of Blizzard to treat their human fans with rewards that will never materialize, and then to pull the rug out from under them by resetting ladder too soon, ultimately rendering hard-fought high level characters used to farm for these items OBSOLETE.

Now if you run a bot, then maybe you don't have anything to complain about. But that doesn't delegitimize the complaint.

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Q u o t e:
Actually it is whining since you don't think things thru.

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Project much? So let me get this straight. It's whining when you disagree with the complaint and it's legitimate when you agree with the complaint.

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Q u o t e:
Raising the item drop rate to such a level that even "now and then" players are able to find the best stuff in a few months would cause a massive flood on the item market BECAUSE those players are not the only ones on b.net!

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Nice strawman. I didn't say anything about raising drop rates so high that exceedingly casual players could find Zods all the day long. Instead, what I actually said was that Blizzard has three options to rectify this unfairness against the regular Diablo player:

1. Raise drop rates so that the good stuff has a fighting chance to be found within the shortened 6 month ladder season period.

2. Lengthen the ladder season so that the vast majority of committed players -- the ones who play 1-2 hours per day -- have enough time to make some decent ladder-only runewords and to find ladder-only items.

OR

3. Expand ladder-only content to non-ladder so that our developed high level characters aren't obsoleted.

What is so difficult about this to understand?

A poster above added another suggestion. Blizzard devs could do right by the players and expand ladder-only content at the end of each ladder season while adding new ladder content for the new season. This is a reasonable compromise that I would support.

Blizzard devs, listen to your LEGIT fans and your regular players. Expand ladder-only content to non-ladder, or move the ladder reset back another six months. It's the right thing to do. And it's the fair thing to do. Thank you.

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:
Raising the item drop rate to such a level that even "now and then" players are able to find the best stuff in a few months would cause a massive flood on the item market BECAUSE those players are not the only ones on b.net!

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Nice strawman. I didn't say anything about raising drop rates so high that exceedingly casual players could find Zods all the day long.

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"Raising the drop rate" is exactly what you keep crying out for. Things are as simple as in real life: if you want to earn your living work for it. Little or no work means little or no pay.

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Q u o t e:
1. Raise drop rates so that the good stuff has a fighting chance to be found within the shortened 6 month ladder season period.

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See above.

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Q u o t e:
2. Lengthen the ladder season so that the vast majority of committed players -- the ones who play 1-2 hours per day -- have enough time to make some decent ladder-only runewords and to find ladder-only items.

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Players that devote 1-2 hours a day CAN and DO find the stuff you long for. In post #1 you stated "I also play a few hours of Diablo 2 every few days". That's less - prolly a lot less - then the "majority" and removes you from the group you try to argue for.

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Q u o t e:
3. Expand ladder-only content to non-ladder so that our developed high level characters aren't obsoleted.

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Chars going non-ladder don't become obsolete. They only get removed from ladder play.

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Q u o t e:
A poster above added another suggestion. Blizzard devs could do right by the players and expand ladder-only content at the end of each ladder season while adding new ladder content for the new season. This is a reasonable compromise that I would support.

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New ladder-only content for each and every ladder? Well that could work and would make playing ladder even more challenging. Yet this would require that Blizzard releases a new patch for each and every ladder reset. Hell freezes over before this happens.

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Q u o t e:
"Raising the drop rate" is exactly what you keep crying out for.

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I feel like I'm talking to a wall. Do you understand degrees of difference? One can suggest raising the drop rate a certain degree without suggesting raising it so high that people who play five minutes per day can find every high end item.

Anyhow, I'm not "crying out" for anything but a fair playing field for regular players. Raising the drop rate is just one option Blizzard has at their disposal to fix the broken ladder season, and one which I've explained to you now three times is not even my favorite option! Blizzard can also extend the ladder season so that players can have a *legitimate* shot at finding good stuff and making runewords that are specifically LADDER ONLY, or they can expand ladder content to non-ladder so that players who have been shafted by the short ladder season can CONTINUE THEIR HUNT for the good stuff in non-ladder with their developed characters.

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Q u o t e:
Things are as simple as in real life: if you want to earn your living work for it. Little or no work means little or no pay.

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Ok, thanks for your libertarian bootstrap pep talk, but in real life nobody works for nothing, which is what you are expecting ladder only players to do.

One more time for the nosebleeds: A six month ladder is TOO SHORT to realistically allow the typical 1-3 hour per day player -- that is, the vast majority of players -- any hope of LEGITIMATELY finding high end ladder-only items or of finding enough high runes to craft ANY of the higher quality runewords that are specific to the ladder.

By way of analogy, it's as if you offered a $100 to anyone who would run five miles in a potato sack race, but you set the clock to 1 minute, and any runner who didn't finish before that one minute was up was sh*t out of luck. Now how may of those runners are gonna win that money? Was the money ever an attainable reward, given the restrictions in place? Or was it just a marketing gimmick?

Of course, you'll claim they just need to run harder. Right. And defy known human physiological limits. Oh well, they can always cheat and hitch a ride in a taxi without anyone seeing.

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Q u o t e:
Players that devote 1-2 hours a day CAN and DO find the stuff you long for.

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The numbers disagree with your assertion. As the poster above demonstrated, drop rates are way too low on high runes for even an aggressive player to find enough high runes to make any high end ladder-only rws. No human being is going to devote 24 hours per day for six months straight to farming for one Zod (let alone two Bers) before he has to start all over again with a new character. This is why people run bots and dupe.

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Q u o t e:
In post #1 you stated "I also play a few hours of Diablo 2 every few days". That's less - prolly a lot less - then the "majority" and removes you from the group you try to argue for.

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You stated above that you consider full-time playing to be in the 1-2 hour per day range. And that that is what you play. Are you now contradicting yourself?

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Q u o t e:
Chars going non-ladder don't become obsolete. They only get removed from ladder play.

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They go de facto obsolete. A character removed from ladder play has NO CHANCE over any length of time to find any ladder only items, or craft ladder-only recipes, when he is in non-ladder. So for all practical purposes, he is rendered obsolete.

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Q u o t e:
New ladder-only content for each and every ladder? Well that could work and would make playing ladder even more challenging. Yet this would require that Blizzard releases a new patch for each and every ladder reset. Hell freezes over before this happens.

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Then the easiest and best and most just thing for Blizzard to do would be to expand ladder content to non-ladder so that the work most players put in to outfitting and leveling their characters is not completely wasted on a phony fortune hunt rigged against them from the get-go.

Blizzard, do the right thing. You know what I'm saying is true. Expand ladder-only content to non-ladder.

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:
"Raising the drop rate" is exactly what you keep crying out for.

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I feel like I'm talking to a wall. Do you understand degrees of difference? One can suggest raising the drop rate a certain degree without suggesting raising it so high that people who play five minutes per day can find every high end item.

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It does not make a difference if you want drop rates raised a bit or a lot. It remains a "Raise the drop rate" whine.

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Q u o t e:
Anyhow, I'm not "crying out" for anything but a fair playing field for regular players.

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With random drops and players on b.net being able to play as long and as often as they want there will never be a "fair playing field" by your description. The only way to get every player the same chance to find everything in the game is that Blizzard sets a playtime limit for everyone i.e. by a WoW pay-2-play system and they change the drop system to WoW style with fixed drops on specific encounters. Both will never happen for D2.

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Q u o t e:
Blizzard can also extend the ladder season so that players can have a *legitimate* shot at finding good stuff and making runewords that are specifically LADDER ONLY, or they can expand ladder content to non-ladder so that players who have been shafted by the short ladder season can CONTINUE THEIR HUNT for the good stuff in non-ladder with their developed characters.

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You're riding a dead horse. Dismount and get over it.

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Q u o t e:
Of course, you'll claim they just need to run harder. Right. And defy known human physiological limits.

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D2 high end gear compares to a real life cash bonus on top of regular pay. You only get a bonus if you worked hard enough to earn it.

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Q u o t e:
The numbers disagree with your assertion. As the poster above demonstrated, drop rates are way too low on high runes for even an aggressive player to find enough high runes to make any high end ladder-only rws. No human being is going to devote 24 hours per day for six months straight to farming for one Zod (let alone two Bers) before he has to start all over again with a new character.

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Whine harder. Maybe we'll believe it some day.

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Q u o t e:
This is why people run bots and dupe.

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No, they run bots and use dupes because they behave like you and want all for nothing.

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Q u o t e:
You stated above that you consider full-time playing to be in the 1-2 hour per day range. And that that is what you play.

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I never stated any of this.

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:
Blizzard can also extend the ladder season so that players can have a *legitimate* shot at finding good stuff and making runewords that are specifically LADDER ONLY, or they can expand ladder content to non-ladder so that players who have been shafted by the short ladder season can CONTINUE THEIR HUNT for the good stuff in non-ladder with their developed characters.

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You're riding a dead horse. Dismount and get over it.

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Why is that a dead horse? Because you believe it to be so, and no one else should think otherwise? How rude.

The call to equalize content is a good one. Your vituperative sneers make it no less so.

My, it seems like we've all become trolls, here. I even saw Bobertith trolling over yonder. [sigh]

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Q u o t e:
My, it seems like we've all become trolls, here. I even saw Bobertith trolling over yonder. [sigh]

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What, no...where? :) (aren't I entitled to troll just a little bit?)

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:

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Q u o t e:
Blizzard can also extend the ladder season so that players can have a *legitimate* shot at finding good stuff and making runewords that are specifically LADDER ONLY, or they can expand ladder content to non-ladder so that players who have been shafted by the short ladder season can CONTINUE THEIR HUNT for the good stuff in non-ladder with their developed characters.

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You're riding a dead horse. Dismount and get over it.

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Why is that a dead horse? Because you believe it to be so, and no one else should think otherwise? How rude.

The call to equalize content is a good one. Your vituperative sneers make it no less so.

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During a ladder season all players on ladder have the same real chance to find good stuff. No one - i repeat - NO ONE is left out! To claim this is a big fat mean lie. Chances are fixed and the same for everyone. The only difference is the time invested to play.

Claiming a longer ladder would make things more "legitimate" is complete bull. What length of ladder would be needed to get this "legitimacy"? 1 year? 2 years? Even more? Ladder's prime competition to get on top of the ladder is strongest in the first 2-3 months. What's with all the ladder players who are only there for the ladder climb and not the gear? Play 2-3 months and then be bored for 9+ months? Is that fair? Not in my point of view.

4th, in matters of equalizing content i'm not too far from your position. If Blizzard would decide to make ALL ladder-only gear find- and makeable in non-ladder: no problem. Yet you need to read Churlishlion's posts more closely. He's not voting for making ALL ladder-only gear available non-ladder. His focus is on high runes and high-end ladder-only runewords alone.

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Q u o t e:
During a ladder season all players on ladder have the same real chance to find good stuff. No one - i repeat - NO ONE is left out! To claim this is a big fat mean lie. Chances are fixed and the same for everyone. The only difference is the time invested to play.

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Well, theoretically idealized, yes, but realistically implemented, not really. The difference only comes within those who are genuinely troubled about the negative impact that bots and cheating have had upon the realms, and for that reason believe the chances of supporting destructive behaviors are high when trading for items.

Thus it is that in my own case, I am being forced to play truncated ladders (truncated in comparison to historical lengths) in order to hope to find that elusive Griffon's Eye, Seraph's Hymn and Shadow Dancer, or to make Faith, Infinity or Dream for the first time. No one can tell me I'm a casual player who doesn't play enough. I play way too much, really. The difference is that I am playing to find my own gear exclusively. You cannot assert that half a previous season's length is sufficient for this solo player, because with every reset comes an erased wish list - especially troublesome for attempting to construct runewords that have more than one HR in the recipe. Realistically speaking, your suggestion to play one ladder to gain one's desires and then retire to NL seems like a condescending call to just cheat (or not be bothered by it) like everyone else and get it over with.

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Q u o t e:
Claiming a longer ladder would make things more "legitimate" is complete bull. What length of ladder would be needed to get this "legitimacy"? 1 year? 2 years? Even more? Ladder's prime competition to get on top of the ladder is strongest in the first 2-3 months. What's with all the ladder players who are only there for the ladder climb and not the gear? Play 2-3 months and then be bored for 9+ months? Is that fair? Not in my point of view.

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Were ladder only about the competition, I would heartily agree with you. Unfortunately, because they've tied game content to it, that is only one aspect that must be considered in fairness to the players of this game. This perspective is in no way a dead horse, my friend.

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Q u o t e:
4th, in matters of equalizing content i'm not too far from your position. If Blizzard would decide to make ALL ladder-only gear find- and makeable in non-ladder: no problem. Yet you need to read Churlishlion's posts more closely. He's not voting for making ALL ladder-only gear available non-ladder. His focus is on high runes and high-end ladder-only runewords alone.

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So for want of eloquence the plaintiff is pilloried? Such is ever the case, sadly, and i am no less guilty of it. Perhaps by looking more to principles rather than particulars one may find the balance? The runewords pose the special problem I outlined above. Perhaps that was all the author was trying to say.

I do hope that this divisive content issue will be addressed coinciding with the next ladder reset. It really is the only truly fair solution. If ladder is supposed to be only about competition, then make it only so and remove content restrictions on realm players. Problem. Solved.

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Q u o t e:
I do hope that this divisive content issue will be addressed coinciding with the next ladder reset. It really is the only truly fair solution. If ladder is supposed to be only about competition, then make it only so and remove content restrictions on realm players. Problem. Solved.

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This. If it's all about racing to 99, then the content shouldn't matter. I just made my first Ladder-only Runeword this season. What a freaking shame that DClone won't walk before he gets his "Ladder only" tag removed. :(

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Q u o t e:
What a freaking shame that DClone won't walk before he gets his "Ladder only" tag removed. :(

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DClone walks everywhere on the realms, ladder and non-ladder, softcore and hardcore, LoD and Classic.

The only ladder-only unique charm is Gheed's Fortune.

This is a perk. Now I won't have to delete the character and start all over when ladder resets. Really, though, I couldn't care less about the charm. The last one I sold unidentified to Charsi. My fun now is killing him using a build with nothing but trash, mostly because I'm too lazy to do the same thing with Uber Tristram.

Your fix #1 = 2 years is too long, I already know that from 1.11b and 1.12a.

Your fix #2 = Making Ladder only content available on NL is retarded, your a gamer, everything should not be made so easy and handed to you on a plate just because you are an idiot.

Your Fix #3 = You don't deserve a response.