Is crafting very important in Diablo 3?

One of the big changes in Diablo 3 over the previous editions it the big emphasis on crafting. There are basically three options – crafting/smithing, enchanting, and socketing. The crafting system is very elaborate and makes the Diablo 3 experience exceptional.

Once you complete the beginning quest, you would have access to the Nephalem Cube. The Nephalem Cube breaks down items to their basic components. The fun part is that regular or standard items only give you junk components but magical ones give you magical essence, rare items give you rare ingredients, etc. After you have several items of the kind you want, you can have the smith create weapons according to your individual needs.

Crafting has taken on a similar framework like leveling in the game. A very interesting method is the collection of Pages of Training. You have to find five of these Pages when you crawl through the dungeons. These five pages form the Tomes of Training which are given to the crafting NPC. You have to also pay some gold with the Pages and then unlock new items.

You can begin with only the very basic Apprentice-level itemswhich would include random magical modifiers. But as you go on training your Artisan, you can get better weapons. It all depends upon the crafting recipes you manage to unlock. There are recipes to get rare items all the time.

Another aspect of the crafting system is that gear that has been crafted based on individual requirement is always better than the regular items. Breaking down junk items is always more profitable than selling them off. You could get three or four great items crafted out of a full inventory of junk items. If you look at the investment involved then this is a much more profitable deal. Crafted items are also better than items you find in the dungeons.

Apart from this kind of crafting, class-specific items work almost as they did in the second edition of the game. The new system of Diablo 3 does not seem to work very well with class-specific items. Overall, Diablo 3 is way more about strategy than ever before. You might have to unlearn and re-learn new concepts to get to dominator status in this edition.