So as many others, I've reached level 60 on my Wizard, started to progress through Inferno, and run into a wall of super champions that pretty much one-shot you no matter the amount of health you muster.
This is the point where we all realize that our gear sucks, and we need all our gear bumped to level 60, and with highly aggressive stats. The hybrid style won't do no more. And this is where gold becomes a real issue.
To acquire my gear of choice, I'll be needing mass amounts of gold. If you wish to get directly to my guide, just jump down to the part with the pretty pictures. If you wish to know a bit more about my own humble thoughts related to stats and gear, read on! If you need help with leveling, builds or gearing, you might want to check out the ConquerD3 guide.
The union of three
In games like these, you only have three real factors to ever worry about; survival, damage, and control. And to be viable, you need at least two of those to be strong. This is a simple base strategy that works for any class in both Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft.
The Way of the Wizard
My choice is going to be control and damage. Survival comes as a natural third if the other two are done properly. But of course, this style requires a lot of movement, and might be "hard" for some to pull off in the long run. Constant running isn't for all.
I'm currently resting on 18000dps and 34000 health, give or take a few hundred. I don't however like my current stats. The health doesn't benefit me at all in Inferno, and the damage is still too low. My armor and resistances are also very low, as a result of my gear being sub-par. My goal will be to increase armor and resistances mostly by getting full level 60 rares, and I will also aim at 30000dps minimum all buffs included.
I will reach my goal by stacking up on Intelligence, Life %, and Life Regeneration. As well as big 2-handed weapons with heavy damage. Not everybody will agree with this choice, but it suits my current playstyle of choice. And that is the most important thing for me. We all need to define our own style, and create strategies that work with that chosen style.
And now comes the big problem.... GOLD! Can't get good gear without gold in this game. Everything is tradable, and all loot is randomly generated. You could farm for a million years alone without getting the gear you need. The Auction House is the only way.
Hey ho hey ho, it's off to work we go!
As I have been comparing farming spots in World of Warcraft, I will be comparing farming spots in Diablo 3. Farming spots are measured by a single value, and that is gold/hour. All values I report will be average, and they will always be subject to my own gear, class and tempo. You might get very different results yourself. It should be noted that this is a beginner's tutorial, with no Gold Find required on your gear.
After a little experimentation today, I found that the end bosses in each Act had the most loot, and by starting a game as close to them as possible would maximize the gold/hour output.
The one I had the best results with, turned out to be Azmodan in Nightmare difficulty. My character is at the time of writing a level 60 Wizard with 18000dps and 34000 health, and progressing through Inferno. Take that into consideration.
How to farm Azmodan (Nightmare)
First you need to leave your current game, and choose a new quest on the character selection screen. Choose Nightmare difficulty, and navigate to the quest "Heart of Sin" in Act III. Choose "Kill Azmodan" as the quest progress selection. Now you can join the new game.
Go to the waypoint in Bastion's Keep, and select "The Core of Arreat" at the very bottom as your destination. When you get there, just start moving towards where the arrow on the minimap tells you to. As you progress, ignore most of the drops. Just pick up gold, blue loot or higher, and pages for Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting, as they could fetch some nice extra gold at the Auction House, or be useful for your own crafting. You should run into at least two elite packs with good loot, and every 5-6 games you should be seeing a loot monster as well.
When you reach Azmodan, skip the cinematic. Do this for all the cinematics when farming, you have seen them before, and they just waste your time.
Nuke the Hell out of Azmodan. You should be able to kill him before he can even get your health down. Ignore all strategy and take him out! Pick up all the loot when you're done, and pick up his soul as well. That's a fast 450g extra for that little quest.
Now it is time to either relog to the character selection screen and restart from step one, or teleport to the keep if your bags are getting full, which they should be every 2-3 kills.
Sell everything except pages to the vendor. If you want materials for crafting, feel free to salvage, but you get far more gold from simply vendoring it. Even rares.
Remember to repair your gear as well. You shouldn't have taken much damage, but always better to be safe than sorry!
This little adventure should take you less than 5 minutes. Even with all the relogs and vendor visits counted in, you can average on one run every 5 minutes. And one run always give you at least 5000 gold, not even counting potential Auction House profits. Not bad considering the low amount of work and skill required. This is as braindead as farming can get.
Average gold earned by farming Azmodan (Nightmare): 60000g/hour
Labels:
Diablo
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Gold Farming
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Instance Farming
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Wizard
