Endgame difficulty curve.

[LordManhammer]

I joined the server about 3 months before the ladder reset. Like any new player that joins now, I noticed that everyone was already geared to the hilt and wanted ridiculous amounts of hrs in exchange for the items I needed to trade for. I then decided to go it alone and find a way to progress without trading. Its definitely doable. I was playing a Zealadin at the time and was able to farm gear starting in the normal difficulty level inferno portals of act 5. When my gear permitted, I went to nightmare infernos. Eventually I was able to farm hell difficulty. It takes time but there is a path laid out for new players to gear their toons without trading. In my opinion the act 5 inferno portals have been nerfed in terms of difficulty and can be easily farmed now with minimal gear levels. Anyone remember the corpse explosion mobs? That shit sucked

There are plenty of build guides and content guides available for anyone who is willing to try a different approach to what they feel has been futile for them. Let me finish by saying that if you feel that an anni charm or a torche is going to put you over the top gear wise and suddenly make endgame content accessible that wasn't before, you are in for a huge let down

[vaudeville]

I never said I expected the torches and annihilus charms to be the end all be all. I'm pretty sure I mentioned getting those as just one step closer to buffing your characters.

I would add as a side note that the latter (the annihilus) charm is even more annoying to obtain when you consider that there are enchantment scrolls that require you to sacrifice one in order to get a skill point added. So guess what, that's more key farming. Terrific. And I also have to make or rely on a friend that will bring up to 24 people to have enough standards to get just one annihilus charm. Better hope that no character drops out in the meantime which there is a good chance of happening.