Diablo – Should I rescue caged prisoners or leave them to rot

Weapons have become accessories in Diablo 3. Since the game is designed to prefer magic skill attacks over melee, the weapons work like your pants or hat—they add to your stats and attributes, though you may never swing your weapon as a melee attack. You can set melee to a hotkey if you want, though. In your example, yes, the bow and dagger are equivalent. Elemental damage modifiers are added to normal damage. It's all about raising DPS unless you desire an attribute modifier.

Watch the auction house.

Right now, crafting materials are selling for substantially less gold than all but the worst low level blue items. You'll get far better results selling your blue items and buying Essences from the AH.

For example, current market value for normal mode mats is 20g for Subtle Essence and 45g for Fallen Teeth. So any item worth more than 25g, I sell. If its worth less than 25, I gamble for a shot at a tooth.