Hi everyone! The last week I have been playing Diablo 3 quite intensively. At the moment I am level 60 and progressing through Act I Inferno with relative ease. My character is a Witch Doctor. As I was approaching level 60 and the later Acts of Hell I asked myself how I could ensure that I got the best gear possible so as to ensure speedy progress. I would like to share my conclusions with you all.
My initial plan for Diablo 3 was to do the same thing that I did in Diablo 2: namely get gear with high stats and Magic Find. But two things have, in my opinion, altered the game in a significant way: The AH and the Nephalem Valor buff.
To take the AH first: The amount of items on the AH is staggering, and the prices are really not that high. With some cash in your pocket, you can get really good items that would otherwise take you days, or even weeks, of farming to find. This means that it is your bank account that determines how good gear you get (until you reach the later Acts of Inferno yourself.) But what is the best way to make enough money to buy late game items on the AH? One option would be to stack MF to find good items and selling them on the AH, but I'm not so sure that is the most efficient way to play. Instead I have been doing something different: I've started stacking Gold Find.
Now, with the Nephalem Valor buff and +Gold Find equipment I can easily reach +150% Gold Find. If I sacrifice some stats, 200+ should also be possible. The result is that a Hell Asmodeus run (all the way from Arreat Crater level 1), which takes a bit more than 1 hour for me, gives me 100,000 gold. This includes the 50 blue and 15 yellow items that I get on average, and sell to the vendor. In Act 1 Inferno it is not uncommon for regular mobs to drop over 1,000 gold, so I expect that I will make even more gold per hour there.
After seeing these numbers I am starting to be convinced that stacking Gold Find is the superior way to play from level 60 and to the very final Acts of Inferno (if your goal is to get the best gear and progress at a quick pace.) I do keep some Magic Find gear in my backpack as well, and switch to it just before finishing off a boss, but 99% of the time I am wearing Gold Find. Has anyone experimented with similar builds?
My initial plan for Diablo 3 was to do the same thing that I did in Diablo 2: namely get gear with high stats and Magic Find. But two things have, in my opinion, altered the game in a significant way: The AH and the Nephalem Valor buff.
To take the AH first: The amount of items on the AH is staggering, and the prices are really not that high. With some cash in your pocket, you can get really good items that would otherwise take you days, or even weeks, of farming to find. This means that it is your bank account that determines how good gear you get (until you reach the later Acts of Inferno yourself.) But what is the best way to make enough money to buy late game items on the AH? One option would be to stack MF to find good items and selling them on the AH, but I'm not so sure that is the most efficient way to play. Instead I have been doing something different: I've started stacking Gold Find.
Now, with the Nephalem Valor buff and +Gold Find equipment I can easily reach +150% Gold Find. If I sacrifice some stats, 200+ should also be possible. The result is that a Hell Asmodeus run (all the way from Arreat Crater level 1), which takes a bit more than 1 hour for me, gives me 100,000 gold. This includes the 50 blue and 15 yellow items that I get on average, and sell to the vendor. In Act 1 Inferno it is not uncommon for regular mobs to drop over 1,000 gold, so I expect that I will make even more gold per hour there.
After seeing these numbers I am starting to be convinced that stacking Gold Find is the superior way to play from level 60 and to the very final Acts of Inferno (if your goal is to get the best gear and progress at a quick pace.) I do keep some Magic Find gear in my backpack as well, and switch to it just before finishing off a boss, but 99% of the time I am wearing Gold Find. Has anyone experimented with similar builds?
