I've uploaded a new video demonstrating my new build that I use for these AC2 runs. I've found the new build to be slightly faster. After a few runs getting the hang of it, I also feel that the build is also easier to play as well:
Basically it kills packs faster AND gets to packs faster than the original build I used.
Results in higher exp/hour, like 170m+ exp/hour in the video.
Edit (3/26/2013):
The new "easy" method to do AC2 runs, even in not as good gear.
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Original Post:
Quick video of my Monk farming at rates over 150m exp/hour by killing Stygian Crawlers on MP10. Most individual runs range from 130m to 170m exp/hour (depending on the number of grouped up Stygian Crawlers), resulting in an average of around 150m exp/hour in my gear.
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The build is different from my [Demonic Essence] farming build/video, because the Stygian Crawlers are not always in the 20 yard radius of [Mantra on Conviction]. So instead of [MoC] I take [MoH] for additional spirit regeneration, and compensate the damage loss by using [Wall of Light]. Problem with [WoL - Empowered Eave] is the knock back flings scorpions all over the place (if you can't 1-shot them), then you waste time chasing them down.
In addition, [FoT - Thunderclap] was more useful then [FoT - Quickening] because positioning to drop [WoL] was more important then extra spirit. When running between packs there is already enough time to regenerate spirit from passive spirit regeneration.
I do have a Lifesteal Skorn, I just take a ton of damage because of my relatively low (376) AR and I'm running around dragging mobs with me. If anything I need more AR, though I'm already able to solo MP10 ubers with my gear (different gloves), so I probably won't upgrade anything else for a while.
I decided to try my method in 4.5m of gear (including gems), with no hellfire or BoA gear, and can still do 75m exp/hour on MP6.
The trick as using a Life After Kill Skorn. I'm fairly certain a monk in like 20m of gear and a hellfire ring should be able to hit like 90-100m exp/hour doing it.
My real gear is 160-176k DPS, and with a LS skorn. If I'm wearing something else, it's probably gear for experimental/testing purposes.
Here is mine : http://eu.battle.net...0/hero/25626592
My gear isnt as good as yours, and im having an hard time doing it without LS, since I propably would sacrifice too much dps for a LS Skorn, these prices are INSANE.
Dont even know what to upgrade next since everythings so horribly expensive.
After some testing with gearing I made this video showing how you can actually use Life After Kill, which costs practically nothing, instead of Life Steal for some higher MP farming.
I did a MP7 VotA DE run in this video, though when I tested it I was able to do MP10 scorpion runs as well (though not quite at my 150m exp/hour mark). Depending on what's available on the AH, doing a method like this may be worth a shot for you:
i only have ~105k dps, 250 AR and 30k life ... i run mp0 and got about 55mil ep/hr ...
i run
1.) Core of Arreat
2.) The Keeps Depths 3
3.) The Keeps Depths 2
4.) Arreat lvl 1
5.) the following tower lvl 1
6.) arreat lvl 2
7.) the following tower lvl 1
8.) relog and start anew ..
i've tried optimizing my route with that d3 exp calc tool, and i don't seem to get any more out of it ... what can i do?
tianzi, I've been trying to copy your techniques with not too much success, i wonder if you could kindly have a look at my character and have any suggestions:
eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Macey-2203/hero/14223603
Many thanks for your time and help.
Macey
Your eHP is quite low to do these Arreat Crater Runs. If you can get your Vit up to about 35-40k you should be able to do this type of run that kills only white mobs at around MP5-7. I don't know how things are on the European Server (I'm on America Region), so it's difficult to know how items are priced there. You should eventually switch your boots to Zunimasa boots, as that gives a big DPS boost for players using Skorn, though your current eHP is already pretty low.
With lower eHP like how you are currently geared, you may be better of running the usual low MP TR farming routes. There is a really good post explaing pretty much everything about TR on Blizzard's forum:
I noticed you opted for using a marquise ruby instead of an emerald in your weapon. Any particular reasoning behind that? I have almost simmilair gear to yours and on paper an emerald would give more dps.
After testing enough runs with both Radiant Star Emerald and Ruby, my average run time (was doing MP5 VotA back then) was better when using a Ruby. And the last step from Radiant star to marquise is bigger on the ruby as well. I actually do lose DPS on my character screen from using it as well, but decided to stick with it anyways.
Mathematically speaking, emerald *should* be better for nearly all Skorn users. Myself and some other monks just seem to do better with the ruby.
TianZi, have you tried the same run using a Life on Kill Skorn? With bell almost insta-killing everything, I'd suspect it would heal for about as much at a far less price for those with a lower budget.
I just wanted to say your new version of the build is amazing. Definitely a very optimized build. What are your thought on if you ever manage to break 200-220k ish DPS and can drop overawe? Circular breathing? Way of the Falling Star? I'm sure some of my ubergeared TR friends are going to ask me this.
BTW do you mind if I post a link to you video on Reddit. I really think its something that should be shared.
TianZi, have you tried the same run using a Life on Kill Skorn? With bell almost insta-killing everything, I'd suspect it would heal for about as much at a far less price for those with a lower budget.
I haven't tried yet, but can give it a shot later tonight. I've actually only tried the LifeAfterKill Skorn for DE farming. Didn't try it for AC2 or CotA runs yet.
I just wanted to say your new version of the build is amazing. Definitely a very optimized build. What are your thought on if you ever manage to break 200-220k ish DPS and can drop overawe? Circular breathing? Way of the Falling Star? I'm sure some of my ubergeared TR friends are going to ask me this.
BTW do you mind if I post a link to you video on Reddit. I really think its something that should be shared.
That'd be awesome if you can post it on Reddit.
I actually feel like there would be more of an advantage for higher eHP rather than higher DPS for the build. EP damage doesn't depend on player DPS, but overawe DOES effect EPs damage. So higher base DPS with Circ breathing wouldn't give the same effects as overawe.
As for why it'd benefit from eHP is because you generally want 2 EPs before detonating everything with wave of light. However, even in my video I go with one many times because my HP is dipping and i need the heals from Lifesteal. That results in cases where not all the scorpions die.
If eHP and DPS were both high enough, I could actually see Dashing Strike replacing Serinity for even higher mobility.
One of the things with the spec is you need DPS high enough to Kill the mob with the EP on it, but don't want your DPS so high that WoL kills all the mobs before EP triggers. I tried the spec using Wall of light, and many times I didn't get enough spirit back from EP because too many scoripions died from WoL before EP triggered.
What all do I need to upgrade to get this build to work? I know my Resist all is really low but I only have a budget of 33 Mil gold atm.
I can sell off my Barbarian Gear since he is paragon 100 and don't play him any more that might get me 100 million more gear. With a paragon 100 I have never been lucky and got the massive gold or even RLAH item drop. Most money I have ever gotten for a sell of something I found was about 55 million gold after the 15% auction fee.
Ok, I've actually tested out the Life After Kill Skorn, and it worked fine. HOWEVER, I did need to drop Fleet Footed and replace it with STI for it to run smoothly. Normally when playing with LS, you have at least a little sustained healing before you literally 1-shot the mobs. But with life after kill it's possible that you spike from full HP to dead in the time that you're placing 1-2 EP's and the Wave of Light.
What all do I need to upgrade to get this build to work? I know my Resist all is really low but I only have a budget of 33 Mil gold atm.
I can sell off my Barbarian Gear since he is paragon 100 and don't play him any more that might get me 100 million more gear. With a paragon 100 I have never been lucky and got the massive gold or even RLAH item drop. Most money I have ever gotten for a sell of something I found was about 55 million gold after the 15% auction fee.
You can technically run it at any MP, so you should probably just try it on MP8 or 9 to see if you like it before selling off your barb gear.
As for MP10, the numbers i'm getting is you need roughly 450 AR and 40k HP to survive properly in MP10. You need about 160k DPS (at low, 1.08 IAS) to properly kill the scorpions right after the 1-2 EP's land. However, if you can get your eHP higher, your DPS can be lower as well, since you can just wait an extra second or 2 for EP damage ticks before landing the WoL.
For me i got 700k exp per 20 sec which means 2.1 million exp per min for the total of 126 mill exp per hour and all i do is like 6 clicks and all is dead
note : this exp i just said is without any bonus exp items/gem
but with 2 rings and head gem i got 1.3m exp per 20sec
also the time 20 sec ( is for hard mobs ) but if its easy i kill the mob in less than 8 sec
Will try and upload the easy (though a little slower) version sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. Should help people that had issues with spirit regen or have much lower DPS.
Currently not planing to upload a [Life After Kill] version, unless someone still needs it. If you do, send me a message. If a few people still want it, I can add it to the to-do list.
I've uploaded a new video demonstrating my new build that I use for these AC2 runs. I've found the new build to be slightly faster. After a few runs getting the hang of it, I also feel that the build is also easier to play as well:
Basically it kills packs faster AND gets to packs faster than the original build I used.
Results in higher exp/hour, like 170m+ exp/hour in the video.
Edit (3/26/2013):
The new "easy" method to do AC2 runs, even in not as good gear.
-----
Original Post:
Quick video of my Monk farming at rates over 150m exp/hour by killing Stygian Crawlers on MP10. Most individual runs range from 130m to 170m exp/hour (depending on the number of grouped up Stygian Crawlers), resulting in an average of around 150m exp/hour in my gear.
-----
The build is different from my [Demonic Essence] farming build/video, because the Stygian Crawlers are not always in the 20 yard radius of [Mantra on Conviction]. So instead of [MoC] I take [MoH] for additional spirit regeneration, and compensate the damage loss by using [Wall of Light]. Problem with [WoL - Empowered Eave] is the knock back flings scorpions all over the place (if you can't 1-shot them), then you waste time chasing them down.
In addition, [FoT - Thunderclap] was more useful then [FoT - Quickening] because positioning to drop [WoL] was more important then extra spirit. When running between packs there is already enough time to regenerate spirit from passive spirit regeneration.
I do have a Lifesteal Skorn, I just take a ton of damage because of my relatively low (376) AR and I'm running around dragging mobs with me. If anything I need more AR, though I'm already able to solo MP10 ubers with my gear (different gloves), so I probably won't upgrade anything else for a while.
The trick as using a Life After Kill Skorn. I'm fairly certain a monk in like 20m of gear and a hellfire ring should be able to hit like 90-100m exp/hour doing it.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/TianZi-1634/hero/5011796
My real gear is 160-176k DPS, and with a LS skorn. If I'm wearing something else, it's probably gear for experimental/testing purposes.
After some testing with gearing I made this video showing how you can actually use Life After Kill, which costs practically nothing, instead of Life Steal for some higher MP farming.
I did a MP7 VotA DE run in this video, though when I tested it I was able to do MP10 scorpion runs as well (though not quite at my 150m exp/hour mark). Depending on what's available on the AH, doing a method like this may be worth a shot for you:
http://us.battle.net...22/hero/3153312 (wiz)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/heavymetal-1322/hero/8654665 (monk)
my twitch feed (just messing around, no super player or anything)
http://www.justin.tv/heavymetalmak
i run
1.) Core of Arreat
2.) The Keeps Depths 3
3.) The Keeps Depths 2
4.) Arreat lvl 1
5.) the following tower lvl 1
6.) arreat lvl 2
7.) the following tower lvl 1
8.) relog and start anew ..
i've tried optimizing my route with that d3 exp calc tool, and i don't seem to get any more out of it ... what can i do?
Your eHP is quite low to do these Arreat Crater Runs. If you can get your Vit up to about 35-40k you should be able to do this type of run that kills only white mobs at around MP5-7. I don't know how things are on the European Server (I'm on America Region), so it's difficult to know how items are priced there. You should eventually switch your boots to Zunimasa boots, as that gives a big DPS boost for players using Skorn, though your current eHP is already pretty low.
With lower eHP like how you are currently geared, you may be better of running the usual low MP TR farming routes. There is a really good post explaing pretty much everything about TR on Blizzard's forum:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/7199912895#1
^It's a long read, but the author has a LOT of very useful information in there.
After testing enough runs with both Radiant Star Emerald and Ruby, my average run time (was doing MP5 VotA back then) was better when using a Ruby. And the last step from Radiant star to marquise is bigger on the ruby as well. I actually do lose DPS on my character screen from using it as well, but decided to stick with it anyways.
Mathematically speaking, emerald *should* be better for nearly all Skorn users. Myself and some other monks just seem to do better with the ruby.
BTW do you mind if I post a link to you video on Reddit. I really think its something that should be shared.
I haven't tried yet, but can give it a shot later tonight. I've actually only tried the LifeAfterKill Skorn for DE farming. Didn't try it for AC2 or CotA runs yet.
That'd be awesome if you can post it on Reddit.
I actually feel like there would be more of an advantage for higher eHP rather than higher DPS for the build. EP damage doesn't depend on player DPS, but overawe DOES effect EPs damage. So higher base DPS with Circ breathing wouldn't give the same effects as overawe.
As for why it'd benefit from eHP is because you generally want 2 EPs before detonating everything with wave of light. However, even in my video I go with one many times because my HP is dipping and i need the heals from Lifesteal. That results in cases where not all the scorpions die.
If eHP and DPS were both high enough, I could actually see Dashing Strike replacing Serinity for even higher mobility.
One of the things with the spec is you need DPS high enough to Kill the mob with the EP on it, but don't want your DPS so high that WoL kills all the mobs before EP triggers. I tried the spec using Wall of light, and many times I didn't get enough spirit back from EP because too many scoripions died from WoL before EP triggered.
I can sell off my Barbarian Gear since he is paragon 100 and don't play him any more that might get me 100 million more gear. With a paragon 100 I have never been lucky and got the massive gold or even RLAH item drop. Most money I have ever gotten for a sell of something I found was about 55 million gold after the 15% auction fee.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Here is my profile http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Hotiedethknt-1846/hero/27553646
So basically no LS = needs higher eHP.
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You can technically run it at any MP, so you should probably just try it on MP8 or 9 to see if you like it before selling off your barb gear.
As for MP10, the numbers i'm getting is you need roughly 450 AR and 40k HP to survive properly in MP10. You need about 160k DPS (at low, 1.08 IAS) to properly kill the scorpions right after the 1-2 EP's land. However, if you can get your eHP higher, your DPS can be lower as well, since you can just wait an extra second or 2 for EP damage ticks before landing the WoL.
note : this exp i just said is without any bonus exp items/gem
but with 2 rings and head gem i got 1.3m exp per 20sec
also the time 20 sec ( is for hard mobs ) but if its easy i kill the mob in less than 8 sec
Currently not planing to upload a [Life After Kill] version, unless someone still needs it. If you do, send me a message. If a few people still want it, I can add it to the to-do list.