This ain't a whine post, it's a pure discussion thread and I give ample reasons as to why I think the way I do so if you have something meaningful to add, please feel free to do so.

Well, after creating the thread about "Reactions to Jay Wilson's post." where I raged quite a bit over his news post, I have now calmed down quite a bit and had a chance to look at the issue with a serene mind.

First off, I'll do a brief recap of Jay's post and my thoughts about it. Then end with a general discussion about it all.

1. Scrolls of Identification are no longer in the game
Thoughts: Well, I don't really care tbh, since items are still unid and you still have to inspect it for about X amount of seconds . All they did was cut out an item that does the same thing. All in all, I like it. Nothing is lost and you gain more inventory space.

2. Moving the fifth quick slot button, which is becoming a dedicated potion button
Thoughts: Well, I disagree quite a bit with this one. Maybe I was using the fifth slot for potions, but problem is that it's now mandatory. If im in a party as a wizard, I'm unlikely to use potions as much as melee players in that party, so maybe I wanna use the nice buff item (scrolls/potions) in that slot or keep it for an escape mechanic such as teleport for instance. On the other hand, I can see the upside of it, but more for casual gamers who wants the game more simplified. Suggestion would be that you can by choice in interface options use it for something else. If that won't happen, I hope in the future we get some experienced modders to make a UI pack for D3.

3. The Mystic is gone.
Thoughts: Personally I would like to have enhancement system over the gem system, since they can do so much more with it than they can with the gem system. I was amazed the first time we got to see the introduction video and the barbs weapons was glowing with lightning and frost. The gem system as it stands now only has a small amount of gems of different strengths and I feel that it limits us over the enhancement system. This is the problem that I have with Blizzard though, in every game they've done they go nuts with fueling the hype such as "We're gonna put this in it and we're gonna put that in it", but in the end they keep deciding to remove all the cool stuff we were looking forward to, giving us a skeleton version of what we initially were hyped about. Maybe she'll be back though, we'll see.

4. Removed the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube.
Thoughts: This is something I really disagree with, because they're basically saying "Stop your enjoyment of slaughtering beasts and various monsters and go back to town to talk to people". The biggest problem I had with D2 was that my inventory filled so fast, that I had to stop what I was doing and go back to town to sell or I would choose to just not pick up stuff. I think that removing these is doing a complete 180 to what drawn me to D3, that we would stay in the fight and kept going. This feels like a huge step backwards to me, don't show me something new and exciting and then take it away from me.

5. Changing core character attributes to Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality.
Thoughts: This on the other hand, I can get behind. Mostly because by changing the stat system so that the different stats apply to different classes, it actually increases cooperation within the game because now you're more likely to pick up gear that might not be good for you, but might be good for your friend. It also benefits the auction houses, by having item that are easily displayed and seen and so you aren't spending hours looking, you're spending hours buying. With stats now having secondary effects, I do feel that the wizard and witch doctor are getting the short end of the stick, I mean "More health from health globes"? There's gotta be something better than this, like +resistances, magic damage reduction or more resource regen. I think more health from health globes should be moved to vitality.

6. Now displaying character stats directly on the inventory UI
Thoughts: Love it, love everything about it. This was something you couldn't see in D2 and so you had to do your own calculations for magic find or such. Only thing I hope they add is that you can collapse the individual sections when pressing "Details", so you don't have to scroll up and down when looking for a specific stat, not a big issue I know, it's just a suggestion.

22/01/2012 09:18Posted by Megaflare

3. The Mystic is gone.

We removed the mystic because she was not really adding anything spectacular to the game as she was. In her current form she was simply the gemming and sockets system named differently, as such we hope to revisit her at a later point to improve on the system. So the Mystic might not be gone for good, we will be looking at her again in the future.

22/01/2012 09:18Posted by Megaflare

4. Removed the Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube.

The designers actually feel there is a need to break up the action in Diablo III and that there are many benefits to doing this. With how the game was in patch 9, you were in the action all the time killing enemies and you would get burnt out quite quickly from the near constant cycle of slaughtering demons.

We removed these particular items so that players would have a natural resting point to break that combat cycle, a time where little action occurs such as going back to town or even a story sequence occurring, you are then re-invigorated once again when you return back to combat the legion of hell!

22/01/2012 09:20Posted by Megaflare

Overall thoughts:

We understand that you are not pleased by the fact that we are removing some of the things you were looking forward to, however this does not stop us from revisiting such concepts in the future such as the Mystic after the release of the game. Our goal is as it always has been, to create the best possible game for everyone to enjoy as much as possible 

We hope that you all look forward to the game as much as you did before and hope to get Diablo III in your hands “Soon™”.

24/01/2012 14:19Posted by Rebound

Do Player 1 and Player 2 see the same loot drop, or the drop is individual for each player and only visible by each player...so Player 1 sees a legendary item on the ground while Player 2 sees some very useful crafting bones?

Loot drops are independent to the player viewing them. So player one might see the drop [Legendary Bow of Epic Awesomeness that Kills Things] and a few random white items, and player two sees a load of white items and a [Not so Legendary Axe with a Blunt Edge].

There is also currently no loot management in place in Diablo III. If you were player two and you wanted that legendary bow, you would need to talk with that player one and hope that they are willing to trade it to you for either a price or even for free if you are lucky :)

24/01/2012 14:35Posted by Phex

If these item names are not in the game ill cry :)

Somehow I have my doubts that they will be included >.<

24/01/2012 15:59Posted by Nasseorava

Would it be ok to ask what kind of "timer" do you have for these now mandatory breaks and how those breaks scale with player level?

These breaks are not really mandatory, if you so wish you could actually continue on without going back to town to sell or salvage the items you have found by removing lesser items and replacing them with better ones.

You could be someone who likes to grab every item that drops which means your inventory will fill up fast, or someone who only picks up very particular items meaning it will take a long time for your inventory to fill. It can also vary depending on your luck and chance of finding particular items. So unfortunately I cannot give you an exact or even approximate time for this as it is really depends on you. But these breaks in combat are something that the developers feel was needed and that is why the items were removed to allow for this.