I wonder how the trading meta will shake out in S4. Gold seems to have minimal trade value since nothing is really expensive and you can get 100s of millions in a day.
So if I find a perfect 3/3 greater affix item that I’m not interested in using, what should I expect to trade it for?
First thing that came to mind was a resplendent shard, but I don’t think those are tradeable since they are from Uber uniques and Uber uniques aren’t tradeable.
Maybe I’d trade the 3/3 GA legendary for boss mats? But mats are so plentiful, I’m not sure if they will be in mass high demand as there are in S3.
So is the answer some bartering item for item like “shako 4 tal ammy”? If so, it will be a very messy trade chat, assuming they aren’t fixing trade chat channels. Or back to discord trading and d2jsp like websites.
I think this season will be third party sites until blizzard implements a trade system
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Bottom line is that trading is going to be a nightmare until AH comes back. I hate to say it as I dont like AH but overall it seems we need it back.
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Answer is going to be gold, even though gold is a horrible currency because it has very very little inherit value to the player.
Boss materials would be the only other currency that could be used. But the problem with them is that it only has a finite value because uber uniques cannot be traded. So once the players have their ubers then boss materials have 0 inherit value. Although it would still have some market value as long as players will need uber as a whole.
Boss mats would for me be preferrable as the main currency over gold.
Some inspiration from PoE would be great here though. Chaos orb as the “cents” and divine orbs as the “dollars”.
- other items
- boss mats
- real $$
Gold has very little value right now.
For me it will just be trading amongst friends, so doesn’t really matter.
I’ll just salvage all the godly items I get that I will not use, SSF FTW 
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With open trade coming best builds will come via 3rd party websites just like D2
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Donate them to me instead.
Making a thorns necro isn’t gonna be easy.
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You won’t be able to trade Ubers
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Gold is going to have a high value in S4 and even Eternal from now on I’d expect. Highest levels of master working are not going to be cheap. I’ll be hording every bit of gold I get, and might actually target farm it for the first time ever.
So I will be trading for gold. Give me all your shekels.
An AH won’t work unless Blizzard nerfs drop rates. Other wise the value of items will be minimal. If they were to nerf drop rates then the back lash would be great and price gouging
would be rampant. This is a game with some time and effort most of all items can be had.
I see no reason why Blizzard should change the game to cater to the lazy and allowing profiterring from their IP by third party entities. I have heard every excuss under the sun, And none of it is really valid. Just play the game and enjoy.
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Drop rates in S4 have already been nerfed.
AH is already in the game its just massively slow and cumbersome by using third party sites. So many items are tradable now that this is no longer acceptable. AH needs to come back reasons → The Case in Favor of a S4 Auction House 🏠
AH would ruin the game unless they did it in a way like LE does, where you need to commit to trading as an upgrade path and the alternative is to gain higher drop chances. Otherwise, efficient trading ruins the drop curve by making it far more efficient to just farm gold and built gear with it than to actually find good drops yourself.
Trading is very easy to fix. Rather blizzard decided to implement it is a different question lol…
For example; implement a trading post (auction house) whatever you want to call it and allow people to list items for sell via bin or auction style.
Players can search for items they want by affix and ranges.
All listings are anonymous meaning you cannot target items from a specific seller (to prevent Real money transactions)
Disable the ability to trade directly between players which include gold and items with few exceptions;
- If you were in a party with the person that found the item it can be traded among those in the party.
- Clan members can trade with other clan members ONLY if the item was found while in the clan and the person receiving the item was in the clan at the time it was found. (again prevents RMT) and gives clan’s significant value and social building incentive. This approach can be further locked this down if needed by requiring 72 hour clan membership prior to clan trading being enabled. I recall reading about another game that took this approach.
None the less this approach would prevent RMT transactions and give players the ability to trade freely while maintaining the value of in game gold by preventing RMT inflation.
But it would still ruin the item chase by making gold the primary way to acquire items, just as the D3 auction house did.
The system you suggest could work if it was a physical location within the game, where you can go to post your “for trade” notices and browse what others have posted while you were there, but only if they are online and in your current instance. Prioritize filling an instance with others at the physical trading post, and create a refresh mechanism that jumps instances when not in a trade (rather than having to porting out / in).
This would have a lot of the convenience of the auction house (easy browsing and trade initiation), still allow locking down trades (can only trade with someone who posted a notice in your instance and is still online), and also keep your item curve from being completely flattened by having access to the second-best drops of millions of players.
Adding an AH will trivialize the loot hunt albeit make rmt less bad for whoever cares about that.
*Yes i tend to agree with you @Zolation-1897. What is there on a Chinese farmed weapons or armor that separate’s a dupe from actual tradeable items ? *
Please enlighten me. Is there a difference in you trading with me that says your item being sold to me is a legal sale opposed to the Chinese farmer selling you something that is difficult to find for a high out of market price cause your using RMT …I dunno . How does Blizzard know the difference from actuals they don’t see the transactions its all done on another website ? its hard to explain sorry guys …
Boss mats and triple greater affix items with value in ratios based on popularity of the class.
They did increase the gold cap keep that in mind. However, I feel it might just be a combination of the things really and not in the order below. Depends on trader and what they are in need or want.
- Gold
- Boss Mats
- Other GA items
Does that really matter? People use third party trading websites regardless. People want a means of trading and they will do what they need to do to trade.
I’m personally tired of using Discord for grouping and trade websites to make trades. It ultimately takes me completely out of the game and focuses my attention elsewhere.
Trading should not be used to manipulate the market, that is what balance is for. Too much gold? make a gold sink. Too many items? reduce item drop rate.