Farming Guide

So I promised at the end of yesterdays post to elaborate on farming strategies I have been using since the comodities AH is down and I lost that income, my characer is kind of stuck at the start of Act 2, even getting to Magda I take a beating and have to skip elites and make clever use of doorways to grab closer resurection points etc. just making it not worth the effort.

So I'm looking right now to make some gold to stockpile or invest in RMAH items and gold selling.

Basic principles:

1) There are no loot tables, any mob can drop any piece of gear upto the mLvl (monster Level) of that mob/or area in the case of barels, weapon racks and the like. You won't be searching for Fallen Lunatics becuase they are the only mob to drop a legendary weapon of a certain type. Everything has the same drop chance from every mob, be that a barrel all the way up to Diablo in Inferno. This means any area can be your farming spot of choice.

2) Magic Find will increase the chances to drop blue/yellow/orange gear. If you pick up everything on the floor bags will be full in under a minuet. With only 10 Auction House slots and salvaged components going for vendor sale value it's just not fun or efficient spending half your farming time in town, casting teleport, or standing at the vendor/blacksmith/stash to sell/salvage/store items from Hell or lower difficulty.

3) Gold Find and Gold pick up radius will have Nightmare mobs dropping Hell amounts of Gold pe either bygold r kill, and hell mobs dropping Inferno amounts of Gold, the difference being you are AoEing the mobs down in record time and with some gold pick up radius it is in your bags before it hits the floor! This leads me to sway since level 60 towards Gold Find. It's not about gold/loot per kill. It's about maximising gold/loot PER HOUR!

4) Liberal use of ALT and CTRL. The ALT key turns on or off the visibility of drops on the floor text. In options this can be set to always on for farming, and most people are aware of this. CTRL allows you to mouse over the item to see the full tooltip. If you know your items and affixes which you need to by this point you can quickly tell if the item is worth a bag slot and potental early return to town either from stats for an Auction Sale or gold vendor value.

5) Nephalem Valor stacks should ideally be up prior to hitting the highest density mobs of the level. This is straightforward in Act 1 where starting at Leorics Crown will get you to the Old Ruins Cellar for +1 to stacks, the Cemetary for another +1 stack, and a quick backwards check outside the gates for possible rare packs before entering the first crypt where you will find alot of mobs, and normally 1 or 2 rare packs per run. So most of the defiled crypts are run starting at 3 stacks, and quickly up to 5 stacks. After killing the Chancellor grab the couple rares, go back to clear out remaining unexplored crypts and then proceed to the Cathedral for the highest density of Mobs. These tricks can help massively in both gold and in shortening boss farming runs!

6) High Density Areas I farm:

Act 1

Start quest Chamber of Suffering, then visit 3 Defiled Crypts, Cathedral levels, Halls of Agony, Cursed Hold, and finish with Butcher.

Act 2

Start quest to kill Magda, work backwards to get stacks to 5, then forwards through to the boss. There is alot of desert and this isn't the greatest if you end up back tracking trying to find exits, but also some good caves, but I tend to avoid Act 2.

Act 3

This is where it is at inmy opinion, just start from the begining and clear to Azmodan, start closer to the end depending on how much time you have, but mob density, stack building and completon time are ideal for me.

Act 4
You kill bosses right of the bat with no stacks and then spend alot of time running around killing corruptions until getting across the great span and heading for Diablo where you will have rares and mobs to kill but it took me some searching just to get 5 stacks before Diablo unless I started at the begining, which just entails alot of running.

7) Always hug the LEFT or RIGHT of a map!

Your biggest lost in time is walking past the turn off you needed to get to the exit and having to turn around to retrace steps over areas already uncovered! Always taking LEFT or RIGHT turns enables you to clear the whole area and never have to back track. On finding the exit to the next area it's a judgement call as to wether it's worth back tracking to uncovered areas. In an open field hugging the edge revels the edge, then you can zig zag through the middle to clear the area.