Artisan lvl

[Srikandi]

True, you do get one fresh start with your first hardcore character. That's something

[snowieken]

True, you do get one fresh start with your first hardcore character. That's something

Since my first hardcore character will be born after reaching level 10 with my first softcore character (and that softcore character will be deleted afterwards) it will be a very meager fresh start for me. :-)

[Njeroe]

Another thing to keep in mind, if you only spent 2k gold, you weren't really "level 2" with Blacksmith. There's 5 stages (i think it was 5) for each "level". Hitting level 2 I think ends up costing you 12k gold. I got my smith to lvl 4 (for the achievement) during the beta and was crafting items in the lvl 25 range.

To level your Blacksmith from Apprentice to Exalted here is what it will require:

Apprentice -> Journeyman (10,000 gold)
Journeyman -> Adept (20,000 gold)

Adept -> Master (30,000 gold)

Master -> Grandmaster (35,000 gold and 5 Pages of Blacksmithing)

Grandmaster -> Illustrious (75,000 gold and 25 Pages of Blacksmithing)

Illustrious -> Magnificent (75,000 gold, 20 Pages of Blacksmithing and 5 Tomes of Blacksmithing)

Magnificent -> Resplendent (100,000 gold, 25 Tomes of Blacksmithing)

Resplendent -> Glorious (100,000 gold, 20 Tomes of Blacksmithing and 5 Tomes of Secrets)

Glorious -> Exalted (200,000 gold and 40 Tomes of Secrets)

Source: http://www.diablo3artisans.com/blacksmithing/

[Siege Valgore]

To level your Blacksmith from Apprentice to Exalted here is what it will require:

Apprentice -> Journeyman (10,000 gold)
Journeyman -> Adept (20,000 gold)

Adept -> Master (30,000 gold)

Master -> Grandmaster (35,000 gold and 5 Pages of Blacksmithing)

Grandmaster -> Illustrious (75,000 gold and 25 Pages of Blacksmithing)

Illustrious -> Magnificent (75,000 gold, 20 Pages of Blacksmithing and 5 Tomes of Blacksmithing)

Magnificent -> Resplendent (100,000 gold, 25 Tomes of Blacksmithing)

Resplendent -> Glorious (100,000 gold, 20 Tomes of Blacksmithing and 5 Tomes of Secrets)

Glorious -> Exalted (200,000 gold and 40 Tomes of Secrets)

Source: http://www.diablo3artisans.com/blacksmithing/

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10characters

[MaStAViC]

People keep using this as a complaint. But if you go back to the first 2-3 zones of D2-Act1-Normal difficulty you will be hard-pressed to find any sort of challenge whatsoever. The monsters just wander around and ignore you 90% of the time. D3's starting difficulty is just fine.

I agree. My girlfriend and I played Diablo 2 fully untwinked - we did not trade with others and did not get items from anyone, including our other characters - and neither of us died a single time until later on in Nightmare difficulty. I think a lot of players forget how easy Normal difficulty was even in Diablo 2.