One of the topics that keeps popping up is the subject of stash space. Myself, I have to say that I’m one of those who is guilty of having a tendency with using up all available stash space. For hardcore, it’s a given in terms of stashing away leveling gear (pre-expansion). In late 2012 when ToysRUs had copies of the game for $10, I picked up a few boxes and created at least two accounts only for hardcore (one of them is all mules with all stash slots and all 10 character slots filled while the other is one I’ve played that has a few high level characters on them).
For softcore though, it often times turns into a matter of collecting interesting stuff. I have a 2nd original account which I muled stuff on before patch 1.0.4 that I never ended up touching until sometime earlier this year; it was like a museum and reminder of just how bad items were back near release. I ended up clearing out most of all that stuff and used it for storing legendary items that I began collecting (I stopped selling stuff on the auction house).
Obviously, with the switch to soul bound items in patch 2.0.1, muling off most items to another account is basically going to be a thing of the past. Inventory management is therefore going to have to be within the constraints of ones account, which is why the subject of stash space keeps cropping up. The game currently provides us with 3 stash tabs to unlock (the interface itself actually has room for 3 more; though back during development, the initial plans were to offer up to 5 stash tabs). The auction house completed tab has also been providing some folks with 50 more additional item slots (and that is also going away).
With soul binding plus one more new character class (for those upgrading to the expansion), we’re basically going to have to deal with the same amount of inventory space (for some folks, even less if they were using all 50 completed slots in the auction house). Myself, I have mixed thoughts about this. Like right now as I’m doing this leveling test, I’ve basically been making decisions on the fly. Most times, I’m immediately salvaging stuff that I’m not going to use. While I’ve been play testing primarily on my softcore characters, I don’t see this changing much over on hardcore due to the way gear drops now; i.e. I don’t see the huge need like how it is now to stash past leveling gear because getting upgrades while leveling, isn’t a big problem.
On the flipside where once I hit level cap, I may find higher level items that I may want to keep, but isn’t currently a good fit with the rest of my gear. For those who play multiple classes near equally, stash space could end up being a major problem. Myself, while I have all classes at max level, the two classes I have the most play time on are wizard and monk. When the systems patch goes live pre-expansion, my plan is to at least re-level those two classes first to take advantage of the loot system. I have (yet another) account which has level 60 softcores on them which I plan on transferring all my legacy gear to (and basically turn that account into a pre-2.0 patch museum) since I don’t have any plans on putting anymore play time on those characters.
Basically, I’m looking at my main account, and trying to come up with a play strategy. Soul binding makes me want to primarily concentrate on playing my main account (as opposed to periodically leveling alts on my other accounts; something I did to break up the monotony). I’ll have an additional 5 more character slots (since it will be upgraded to a Reaper of Souls Collector’s Edition). Since the class that I have the most play time on is the wizard, I plan on keeping my 2nd high level softcore one as it will serve as a mule to wear items that might be interesting, but I can’t use on my main. I’m naturally also going to create a Crusader which leaves me 4 more slots (actually 5 as I still haven’t archived my dead hardcore level 60).
I’m still undecided about hardcore play at the moment. The main reason is that a lot of the things that made hardcore interesting, is being changed with account wide Paragon. The way you level now has changed. Basically, the tedium that was involved before, was also a part of what gave hardcore play its distinct flavor (at least for me). I didn’t do power leveling for example and just went through the whole questing process to level up. Hardcore leveling gear (having backups just in case) made that process easier, but still doesn’t come anywhere near what drops with loot 2.0; the system works decently enough at low levels to where I no longer feel I need to do stash a lot of those items. And when you do lose your character, there no longer is the total loss of that characters Paragon experience. The main loss is always, the gear it had. True, while the gear itself has more synergies now beyond just main stat, vitality, and trifecta; I also don’t see the loss of a particular build as that big of a deal compared to the entire package that is currently lost when a hardcore character dies. tl;dr – a lot of the allure from the permanent death angle of hardcore play has been diminished for me with the new system (which is why I’m currently undecided about how much time I plan on investing in hardcore).
With that said, I can probably see myself using some of those character slots for muling level 70 soul bound items. It’s not something I want to do, but I know that I’m not going to want to immediately trash any legendary/set item (and 3 stash tabs is going to fill up relatively quickly). Would 2 more stash tabs be nice? Of course. But at the moment, the developers are saying “no extra stash for you”.
