Nice post, Hayte.

I definitely agree that it was a missed opportunity making the skills so available to thievery. How much more psyched would you be if you actually found or earned that skill through glorious combat? At which point, when you move forward to the next act, THOSE vendors would stock all the skills from the previous act so you can double up or get those that you missed.

I think a huge part of the problem is the scaling. By having such aggressive scaling, the items become worthless almost immediately. Damage and armor are by far the most crucial stats and they're the ones that scale obscenely.

That Braccus set had the potential to be a Carsomyr. It gave a unique ability, some pretty decent stats and some nice lore from the first game. But as soon as you can finally wear it you go through a bunch of story missions with a glut of xp and outlevel it nearly instantly. Such a shame. I'd be surprised if anyone actually spent as much time wearing it as they did hunting for the pieces. It totally subverts the whole idea of going on an epic quest for an appropriately epic reward.

It's not game ruining or anything, but it's definitely a big weak spot.