Quotes from the D3 Dev AMA

[Concillian]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

How are hardcore people playing in Act 2 then? Yeah, they're using the AH, but they aren't using the AH like softcore people are (buying items from people in Act III/IV to prepare themselves for Act II).

How many people are even in hardcore Act I? There can't be a whole lot of items out there.

And yet, the people progressing furthest, fastest in hardcore are melee...

Hardcore continues to exhibit that the arguments about softcore issues are largely fallacies. Melee is more reliable when death has any real penalty, and you don't NEED items from further acts to progress into Act II and III. It demonstrates that people arguing that the AH is a necessity are merely impatient. It was months of me playing D2 (with way more playtime per day than I can play D3 now) before I got any truly good items, but people are complianing that great items aren't raining from the sky in D3, that you MUST use the AH to get anything decent. Whatever. Selective memory of D2, or used to the post synergy patch era of dupes and stupidly OP player classes.