Basic Math - The Failure of Diablo Melee

[Roland]

How much gold would I expect to invest in the blacksmith? I only have him up to level 5 atm, since I got distracted with other things and the escalating prices were a bit much. But on the other hand I have a growing stack of inferno essences.

Eh... it gets pricey pretty quick from about level 6 or 7 onwards. It quickly ramps up to about 10k a tier (so 40k), plus another 15k for the final tier at one point (I forget which level) - so that's 55k. Before long it hits up to 80k (4x 15k, plus 20k), and then it hits the realm of 100k IIRC. Plus all the Pages / Tomes of Blacksmithing / Tomes of Secrets required to increase the level. The Jewelcrafter is far cheaper to max out.

Personally, I waited until I was already in Act I Inferno before maxing out my Blacksmith, and even then I'm fairly comfortably farming the Butcher but have yet to craft a single level 60 piece of gear. Crafting materials, specifically the Iridescent Tear, are probably going to be your biggest bottleneck. Gold may not be plentiful, but it's easy to farm enough gold for a single craft in one half-hour Warden / Butcher run. Hit upon a good enough craft, and you can sell it on the AH for much more than you paid to create it. Of course, that really only helps you buy more off the AH currently, because again crafting materials are the biggest limiter, and there are no commodities for sale on the AH currently.

I knew certainly that when I rolled a monk, I would get the short end of the stick. But I'm not complaining about melee being a failure yet.

Try a Demon Hunter before you talk to me about "the short end of the stick." Invulnerability? On-Demand heals? Armor buff? Resistance buff? The Monk is the closest thing to God mode you're going to find in D3.