The Diablo Formula and how Diablo 3 falls short

[the Langolier]

But throw in some randomly spawning desecrators or arcane beams and it's just "cheap bullshit" that you need items to solve rather than walking a few feet to the safe ground between whatever modifiers.

I'm not trying to say they aren't fun; it's only "cheap bullshit" if you aren't geared properly and they practically one-shot you.

There's probably around 100 different types of enemies in the game, each with interesting and carefully crafted mechanics that encourage players to adapt just as much as elite encounters. There's all kinds of different enemies - big hit enemies that "charge up" powerful attacks, swarming enemies that pin players down, ranged enemies with powerful projectiles that kite around, leapers that burrow and attack from all angles. They also spawn all over the screen in a dozen interesting ways, such as popping up from the ground, flying in from the ceiling, etc.

When a player is geared such that elite enemies are managable, however, all other content at that level is trivial. You trade the challenge that 100 different mechanics of normal enemies could provide for the half dozen mechanics that elite enemies do provide. That's not a fair trade IMO. Sure, a desecration appearing underneath your character forces you to move, but so does an enemy "charging up" a big hit... so does a Morlu caster calling down a meteor... so does a fallen lunatic charging you... and so on.

But no. I'll just tank it all because they are "trash" mobs - all I really concerned about are the two elite groups per area that might use arcane sentry or desecrate to really challenge me. (Unless they also have invulnerable minions, jailer+vortex or any number of cheesy combinations that will just outright kill me).

When you are geared at a level where normal enemies are challenging, the game is actually really fun. The different abilities of all the enemy types are really interesting, especially when you must engage a few different types at once. You have to pick targets intelligently, position yourself well, and most of the skills can really be useful. If that's the case however, elite enemies are just too powerful and aren't fun to enounter at all.