Tomorrow (June 25th) at 10PM EST I'll be attempting the 3rd edition of the Million Gold Challenge. In this challenge, I will put away all of my current gear and shop on the auction house for a completely new set, with a budget of only 1 million gold. Using this new gear, I will attempt a full act farm of Act 3. I will try to have as much DPS as possible, even though it is an expensive stat to maximize.
I've done this challenge twice before, before the 1.0.3 patch. In the first one I had the assistance of pre-nerf Tyrael, and the second edition was a group challenge with 2 barbarians and 2 wizards. I believe it is finally possible to do it solo as a dps barb and hopefully I can make it happen tomorrow
I've done these challenges for several reasons. I think it's useful to prove that you don't need 20+ million gold in order to do inferno, and also my auction house strategies should be quite helpful for those players that need upgrades but don't have very much gold. Finally, I think my playstyle and tactics may be of help to those players that have similar or even better gear but still struggle with the content.
Patch 1.0.3 has drastically changed the game, to the point that most strategies that have been developed for barbarian are no longer optimal. The focus now is on DPS and clearing speed, not survivability.
First, I'll talk about the optimal farming strategy, and then the builds you can use to complete them. The Nephalem Valor Buff change means that bosses will drop less loot, while elite packs after the 5th will drop a lot more. This rewards a farming strategy that kills as many elite packs as possible in a single run. Therefore I recommend that your farming run consist of entire act farms, maximizing the proportion of elites that are killed with 5 stacks of valor.
Act 4 farming is bad because it is so short. There are only about 10 elite packs in the entire act so only a few will be killed after the 5th stack. Whimsyshire is also inefficient, first because it only has a few elite packs and also because of the magic find change; it does not affect clouds anymore (didn't get a single blue when I tried it.)
Therefore the best farming routes are full clears of acts 1, 2, or 3. Since a full clear involves killing about 30 elite packs and several bosses, it could take up to 2 hours to complete. In the interest of efficiency I recommend you farm the highest act you can while using a dps strategy. The drop rate change means that farming act 1 in 90 minutes using a dps strategy will be more rewarding than clearing act 2 in 3 hours using a tanking strategy. The most efficient farm in the game will be the fastest completion of act 3.
Survivability requirements have dropped drastically. I was able to drop my EHP in half while tripling my dps and still clear act 3 without too many issues. Currently I clear act 3 in about 2 hours, killing 30 or so elite packs and all 4 bosses, which translates to about 4 full backpacks of loot and 50-60 rares. My stats are 7k armor, 700 all resists, 60k hp, and 40k dps, further boosted by brawler and berserker rage.
I was able to get such a high DPS by stacking as much Crit hit chance and crit hit damage as I could. Currently at 46% and 289%, respectively!
Arcane enchanted seems to be the most deadly affix right now, especially when paired with affixes that constrain your movement.
I'll also share the build I use but first I want to talk about build diversity. It is no longer necessary to use a cookie cutter tank build, but you'll probably want Wrath of the Berserker with the Insanity rune and Revenge with Provocation, as they are our most powerful skills. You can satisfy the meager defensive requirements in any number of ways, whether using passives, high EHP gear, War Cry, Ignore Pain, or even using a shield. Yes, sword and board is no longer necessary, 2h and DW are just as viable!
I currently use:
Wrath of the Berserker(Insanity): Once you are over 30k dps you can kill act 3 packs within the 15s duration, which makes this skill amazing.
Revenge(Provocation): Very strong and reliable skill, gives you both sustain and strong aoe damage. Practically a requirement unless you are using a whirlwind or ranged build.
Ignore Pain(Ignorance is Bliss): I chose the lifesteal rune, even though it is nerfed in inferno, because my high dps gives good returns. When I pop Wrath of the berserker I do about 500k aoe dps, which means 4% lifesteal gives me back 20k hps! That's better than an extra 2 seconds duration.
Leap (Iron Impact): One mobility skill is a good idea, and leap doubles as a defensive cooldown. I also like that I can take shortcuts by leaping over gaps and walls.
Frenzy(Sidearm): Still the best single target dps skill for this build. Also provides some bonus aoe damage! Excellent for small packs and boss fights.
War Cry(Impunity): Still a great defensive option, I chose to keep it and replace my defensive passives because war cry is just so good
Passives:
Berserker Rage: I don't have any fury spenders so this is an easy 25% more damage.
Ruthlessness: Ties in well with the crit hit chance/damage build.
Brawler: Being surrounded by enemies is where I want to be. Massive 30% increase, but stops working as you kill a lot of stuff.
I want to replace Brawler with Weapons Master (Axe/Mace) because of the crit strategy and also because Brawler is useless against ranged elites. Just gotta find the right weapon!
Check out my stream for a demonstration or to ask questions
Hey guys, you might remember me from the original million gold challenge, where I took my barb with just 1 million worth of gear through my farming routes for acts 1, 2, and 3. However, Tyrael was nerfed shortly thereafter, so I wanted to redo the act 3 video. This time, we'll be doing it in a group of 2 barbarians and 2 wizards, each spending only 1 million on the auction house.
I wanted to redo act 3, mostly because of the Tyrael nerf, but also because:
1) The availability of items has changed on the ah so the best items to buy right now are a little different.
2) We'll be using a cool group build, which may be quite useful for undergeared players.
3) I've discovered a lot of other tips and tricks I wanted to share
If you're interested in watching the stream live, tune in at 4:30 PM EST on 16/06/12
Hey guys. A few people have contacted me saying that their are stuck on Rakanoth Inferno and asked for a guide. This boss can be quite the gear check, but after messing around with it for an hour I came up with a strategy that I felt was quite effective.
To emulate a lower gear level, and forestall comments that I was only able to do this because of my legendaries, I removed my helm of command, justice lantern, and string of ears and did the fight with empty slots instead.
Here is the build used and full fight with commentary:
Some of you may have seen my farming videos on youtube, but wondered how much of that was enabled by my gear (stormshield, string of ears, etc). Someone proposed and several people endorsed that I put all of my gear away, take 1 million gold and use that as a budget at the auction house to buy a completely new equipment set. The original challenge was for me to use this gear to complete the route of my first farming video: 5 stacks of valor then warden+butcher. I decided to accept, because I felt that I could show people what to buy and how to go about finding it, and also prove once and for all that you don't need millions in gear to be successful as a barbarian.
When I was done shopping, I felt so good about my set that with it I also completed my act 2 route (5 stacks then Belial), and then my Act 3 route (5 stacks then siegebreaker).
Also if anyone this this is impossible and wants to triple check that I didn't cheat, the unedited footage is available at www.twitch.tv/zrave (Also streaming Diablo 3 occasionally
I used my tank barbarian build, which I wrote a guide for here:
I've been making a lot of videos on how to farm as a barbarian and people often ask me how I can afford all the gear that I use. I would often reply that I just farm pretty often, but after some time I realized that some of the people having trouble don't have a good grasp on how to sell the items that they get.
I make over 1 million per hour of farming, and sometimes hit the jackpot and get a really expensive piece. So the first part of this guide is the farming itself. The most profitable farming route, at least for me, is the Siegebreaker run. It takes me about 30 minutes and I get around 8 rares and several blues per run. The best loot in the game can drop from Siegebreaker, you don't need to move up to act 4. I have a video guide on where to start and which route to take, which you can check out here:
Next you'll want to sell your stuff on the auction house. This may seem like an obvious step but a lot of people do it inefficiently and end up losing gold. For example they can vendor items that they should auction, or salvage things that they should vendor. Sometimes they'll put an item up and it doesn't sell, costing them an auction slot for 36 hours. I go through my entire process in this video, which will show you what sells, and how to price it.
I hope this helps the people that are struggling to make gold. If you can't do the siegebreaker run just yet, check out my youtube channel for other farming routes you can take, but realize they are just stepping stones. Another option is to gold find and break pots in act 1, or farm resplendent chests in act 3. I have not included those in my videos since there are several others videos out there covering this and I didn't come up with the strategy on my own, so I won't take credit for it
Dude, what the hell.
I have 38k hp, 8k damage, and 450 resist all and mobs hit me for TWICE THAT MUCH. The hammer ones, which you actually STOOD AND TANKED instead of moving away, basically one shot me if I don't move from they're special attack.
Either my Barb is bugged, or that is Hell, and not Inferno.
Because my stats are better then what you've shown, Almost the same build (Berserker instead of Charge), and I can never dream of taking so much damage.
You likely have different passives than I do, or perhaps a different rune on War Cry. I'm sorry about the mixup with my build listing, it's fixed now.
I can assure you this is inferno, and you can check by looking at the hp of the mobs. The defensive passives make a huge difference!
A lot of people are having difficulty farming solo as a barbarian, and this is partly because the barbarian class is more gear dependent than other classes. But it's also because the game currently favors a narrow range of builds for barbarian that may not be intuitive to a lot of people. I've been quite successful farming on my own so I've made this series of videos to show you how I do it. The videos are quite long and detailed so look elsewhere if that bothers you.
2
Tomorrow (June 25th) at 10PM EST I'll be attempting the 3rd edition of the Million Gold Challenge. In this challenge, I will put away all of my current gear and shop on the auction house for a completely new set, with a budget of only 1 million gold. Using this new gear, I will attempt a full act farm of Act 3. I will try to have as much DPS as possible, even though it is an expensive stat to maximize.
I've done this challenge twice before, before the 1.0.3 patch. In the first one I had the assistance of pre-nerf Tyrael, and the second edition was a group challenge with 2 barbarians and 2 wizards. I believe it is finally possible to do it solo as a dps barb and hopefully I can make it happen tomorrow
I've done these challenges for several reasons. I think it's useful to prove that you don't need 20+ million gold in order to do inferno, and also my auction house strategies should be quite helpful for those players that need upgrades but don't have very much gold. Finally, I think my playstyle and tactics may be of help to those players that have similar or even better gear but still struggle with the content.
Come check it out live on my stream!
http://www.twitch.tv/zrave
Also, look for the videos to be uploaded later to youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/zravex
5
First, I'll talk about the optimal farming strategy, and then the builds you can use to complete them. The Nephalem Valor Buff change means that bosses will drop less loot, while elite packs after the 5th will drop a lot more. This rewards a farming strategy that kills as many elite packs as possible in a single run. Therefore I recommend that your farming run consist of entire act farms, maximizing the proportion of elites that are killed with 5 stacks of valor.
Act 4 farming is bad because it is so short. There are only about 10 elite packs in the entire act so only a few will be killed after the 5th stack. Whimsyshire is also inefficient, first because it only has a few elite packs and also because of the magic find change; it does not affect clouds anymore (didn't get a single blue when I tried it.)
Therefore the best farming routes are full clears of acts 1, 2, or 3. Since a full clear involves killing about 30 elite packs and several bosses, it could take up to 2 hours to complete. In the interest of efficiency I recommend you farm the highest act you can while using a dps strategy. The drop rate change means that farming act 1 in 90 minutes using a dps strategy will be more rewarding than clearing act 2 in 3 hours using a tanking strategy. The most efficient farm in the game will be the fastest completion of act 3.
Survivability requirements have dropped drastically. I was able to drop my EHP in half while tripling my dps and still clear act 3 without too many issues. Currently I clear act 3 in about 2 hours, killing 30 or so elite packs and all 4 bosses, which translates to about 4 full backpacks of loot and 50-60 rares. My stats are 7k armor, 700 all resists, 60k hp, and 40k dps, further boosted by brawler and berserker rage.
I was able to get such a high DPS by stacking as much Crit hit chance and crit hit damage as I could. Currently at 46% and 289%, respectively!
Arcane enchanted seems to be the most deadly affix right now, especially when paired with affixes that constrain your movement.
I'll also share the build I use but first I want to talk about build diversity. It is no longer necessary to use a cookie cutter tank build, but you'll probably want Wrath of the Berserker with the Insanity rune and Revenge with Provocation, as they are our most powerful skills. You can satisfy the meager defensive requirements in any number of ways, whether using passives, high EHP gear, War Cry, Ignore Pain, or even using a shield. Yes, sword and board is no longer necessary, 2h and DW are just as viable!
I currently use:
Wrath of the Berserker(Insanity): Once you are over 30k dps you can kill act 3 packs within the 15s duration, which makes this skill amazing.
Revenge(Provocation): Very strong and reliable skill, gives you both sustain and strong aoe damage. Practically a requirement unless you are using a whirlwind or ranged build.
Ignore Pain(Ignorance is Bliss): I chose the lifesteal rune, even though it is nerfed in inferno, because my high dps gives good returns. When I pop Wrath of the berserker I do about 500k aoe dps, which means 4% lifesteal gives me back 20k hps! That's better than an extra 2 seconds duration.
Leap (Iron Impact): One mobility skill is a good idea, and leap doubles as a defensive cooldown. I also like that I can take shortcuts by leaping over gaps and walls.
Frenzy(Sidearm): Still the best single target dps skill for this build. Also provides some bonus aoe damage! Excellent for small packs and boss fights.
War Cry(Impunity): Still a great defensive option, I chose to keep it and replace my defensive passives because war cry is just so good
Passives:
Berserker Rage: I don't have any fury spenders so this is an easy 25% more damage.
Ruthlessness: Ties in well with the crit hit chance/damage build.
Brawler: Being surrounded by enemies is where I want to be. Massive 30% increase, but stops working as you kill a lot of stuff.
I want to replace Brawler with Weapons Master (Axe/Mace) because of the crit strategy and also because Brawler is useless against ranged elites. Just gotta find the right weapon!
Check out my stream for a demonstration or to ask questions
www.twitch.tv/zrave
Also, I'll be uploading new guides for 1.0.3 content to my youtube channel!
www.youtube.com/zraveX
TL;DR: Blow stuff up
1
I wanted to redo act 3, mostly because of the Tyrael nerf, but also because:
1) The availability of items has changed on the ah so the best items to buy right now are a little different.
2) We'll be using a cool group build, which may be quite useful for undergeared players.
3) I've discovered a lot of other tips and tricks I wanted to share
If you're interested in watching the stream live, tune in at 4:30 PM EST on 16/06/12
http://www.twitch.tv/zrave - barb pov and shopping for both barbs
http://www.twitch.tv/troqt - wiz pov and shopping for both wizards
videos will be uploaded later to http://www.youtube.com/zravex
1
To emulate a lower gear level, and forestall comments that I was only able to do this because of my legendaries, I removed my helm of command, justice lantern, and string of ears and did the fight with empty slots instead.
Here is the build used and full fight with commentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bif2dhcHBmE
If you haven't already, check out my barbarian guide:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5594211428
2
Some of you may have seen my farming videos on youtube, but wondered how much of that was enabled by my gear (stormshield, string of ears, etc). Someone proposed and several people endorsed that I put all of my gear away, take 1 million gold and use that as a budget at the auction house to buy a completely new equipment set. The original challenge was for me to use this gear to complete the route of my first farming video: 5 stacks of valor then warden+butcher. I decided to accept, because I felt that I could show people what to buy and how to go about finding it, and also prove once and for all that you don't need millions in gear to be successful as a barbarian.
When I was done shopping, I felt so good about my set that with it I also completed my act 2 route (5 stacks then Belial), and then my Act 3 route (5 stacks then siegebreaker).
Check it out here:
Intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb8syAXN9OQ
Shopping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORN9vp2wZ8Q
Act 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xq_S8UKS5U
Act 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzC4fPG-tEo
Act 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drPMZhNkg8w
Also if anyone this this is impossible and wants to triple check that I didn't cheat, the unedited footage is available at www.twitch.tv/zrave (Also streaming Diablo 3 occasionally
I used my tank barbarian build, which I wrote a guide for here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5594211428
Enjoy!
1
I've been making a lot of videos on how to farm as a barbarian and people often ask me how I can afford all the gear that I use. I would often reply that I just farm pretty often, but after some time I realized that some of the people having trouble don't have a good grasp on how to sell the items that they get.
I make over 1 million per hour of farming, and sometimes hit the jackpot and get a really expensive piece. So the first part of this guide is the farming itself. The most profitable farming route, at least for me, is the Siegebreaker run. It takes me about 30 minutes and I get around 8 rares and several blues per run. The best loot in the game can drop from Siegebreaker, you don't need to move up to act 4. I have a video guide on where to start and which route to take, which you can check out here:
Next you'll want to sell your stuff on the auction house. This may seem like an obvious step but a lot of people do it inefficiently and end up losing gold. For example they can vendor items that they should auction, or salvage things that they should vendor. Sometimes they'll put an item up and it doesn't sell, costing them an auction slot for 36 hours. I go through my entire process in this video, which will show you what sells, and how to price it.
I hope this helps the people that are struggling to make gold. If you can't do the siegebreaker run just yet, check out my youtube channel for other farming routes you can take, but realize they are just stepping stones. Another option is to gold find and break pots in act 1, or farm resplendent chests in act 3. I have not included those in my videos since there are several others videos out there covering this and I didn't come up with the strategy on my own, so I won't take credit for it
Good luck!
Edit: Salvage your level 60 blues!
1
You likely have different passives than I do, or perhaps a different rune on War Cry. I'm sorry about the mixup with my build listing, it's fixed now.
I can assure you this is inferno, and you can check by looking at the hp of the mobs. The defensive passives make a huge difference!
1
A lot of people are having difficulty farming solo as a barbarian, and this is partly because the barbarian class is more gear dependent than other classes. But it's also because the game currently favors a narrow range of builds for barbarian that may not be intuitive to a lot of people. I've been quite successful farming on my own so I've made this series of videos to show you how I do it. The videos are quite long and detailed so look elsewhere if that bothers you.
Written guide:
http://us.battle.net...opic/5594211428
Videos:
Act 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9U8YkFJLb0
Act 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ygb4NS4JXw
Act 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak6mhFXmDSc
Act 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSxwug0mkdg
More diablo 3 content on my youtube channel