Wasn't sure where to post this but I figured the general area would be fair. I wanted to ask everyone what the most effective gold making strategy is. The reason I ask is obvious, but I'd feel better if I could explain that I've been playing the game relatively often since it was released. Nothing over the top, maybe 3-5 hours a night 3-4 times a week. But I am to the point where I feel like there is something I'm missing out on as I see people with less and/or similar playtime/levels with gear that you only find selling for 10s and 100s of millions of gold. I'm literally scraping maybe 400k a night which is barely enough for the gear needed to get into the later levels of inferno, at least from what I can see. I am pretty experienced and I've put in the same, if not more, time into the game than most of the people I'm comparing myself to and they are decked out in gear I'd only hope to afford one piece of after 2 weeks of saving. Are people buying most of their gear on the RMAH? Are people getting lucky drops and selling them for millions, or is everyone in the same boat I am, just saving forever? Just curious what the key to getting over this rut I'm in. Thanks in advance.
I was thinking of making a topic like this but couldn't really come up with anything worth posting.
I'd be most interested in asking people with ~100+ million gold how they did it.
I got hosed with the MF nerf last patch. My DH's ~200 million MF suit became worth ~50 million, which I sold and used to gear up my WD. The WD is nice but not uber, so I'm always looking for upgrades for him... and worse yet, I'm becoming a ww barb addict, which isn't a cheap habit to support x_x
(ps. People tell me I should have played the MF demon hunter to get legendaries, but I hated that character. I was waiting for the 1.04 witch doctor pet buff to make my WD my new main.)
My largest chunk of cash came in one item, two transactions. I had been playing for a while (more than 2 60s...) and had never had more than 1 million banked. I was looking at monk weapons and saw one fist weapon with > 60 life healed per point of spirit spent and > 2 spirit / second regen that was only at 500,000 gold buyout, every other one around it was 3.5-5 million. I bought it and immediately put it up for 3.5 mil and sold it in 10 minutes.
Since then I've easily bought and sold a few million gold worth. Once you have gold, it's a LOT easier to make more, but getting that first few million was a pain in the ass for me. I was VERY unlucky with drops pre 1.04 and since have gotten much better drops, but that's just as much the patch as anything.
I was thinking of making a topic like this but couldn't really come up with anything worth posting.
I'd be most interested in asking people with ~100+ million gold how they did it.
I got hosed with the MF nerf last patch. My DH's ~200 million MF suit became worth ~50 million, which I sold and used to gear up my WD. The WD is nice but not uber, so I'm always looking for upgrades for him... and worse yet, I'm becoming a ww barb addict, which isn't a cheap habit to support x_x
(ps. People tell me I should have played the MF demon hunter to get legendaries, but I hated that character. I was waiting for the 1.04 witch doctor pet buff to make my WD my new main.)
So you had a good amount of gold at one point? Well, what I would consider as such anyway. How did you get all that to begin with? That's kind of my main question along with what people are doing to fund their expensive gear. I literally cannot get any more than maybe 100k on AH sales and haven't been able to for about a month. Before this rut I'm in, I didn't need too much gold to get my gear, but inferno's reality is hitting me pretty hard. I'm in mid Act 3, just after Ghom and I'm to the point where my repair bill is nullifying my profit, so I've just been farming act 1 but still can't find this epic gear I see people selling for an arm and a leg.
My largest chunk of cash came in one item, two transactions. I had been playing for a while (more than 2 60s...) and had never had more than 1 million banked. I was looking at monk weapons and saw one fist weapon with > 60 life healed per point of spirit spent and > 2 spirit / second regen that was only at 500,000 gold buyout, every other one around it was 3.5-5 million. I bought it and immediately put it up for 3.5 mil and sold it in 10 minutes.
Since then I've easily bought and sold a few million gold worth. Once you have gold, it's a LOT easier to make more, but getting that first few million was a pain in the ass for me. I was VERY unlucky with drops pre 1.04 and since have gotten much better drops, but that's just as much the patch as anything.
So after you made that 3.5 mil, did you invest similarly? Buying low and selling high? Or did you gear better and get lucky again? This is the rut I'm really in. I see no consistency besides getting lucky drops OR using the RMAH which is not something I'm interested in at the moment. Maybe I should make it a two part question. How do get out of the rut and then how to not get back in the rut after spending my first gold mine. Or better yet, HOW to spend my first large amount of gold in a way that yields more gold.
I'm sure someone is typing but I'll pass my time presenting what I see as the only hypothetical aside from RMAH purchases. A guy gets that "lucky drop" he's been waiting for. Sells it for a couple mil. Gears himself effectively. Now he's waiting for the next "lucky drop" again. I don't see any other progression than that. That's where my problem comes in. I've not found that "lucky drop" since the game came out. Unless maybe the trick is to overprice and wait for someone who doesn't know what they are doing to buy it. I've tried it mind you.
I was thinking of making a topic like this but couldn't really come up with anything worth posting.
I'd be most interested in asking people with ~100+ million gold how they did it.
I got hosed with the MF nerf last patch. My DH's ~200 million MF suit became worth ~50 million, which I sold and used to gear up my WD. The WD is nice but not uber, so I'm always looking for upgrades for him... and worse yet, I'm becoming a ww barb addict, which isn't a cheap habit to support x_x
(ps. People tell me I should have played the MF demon hunter to get legendaries, but I hated that character. I was waiting for the 1.04 witch doctor pet buff to make my WD my new main.)
So you had a good amount of gold at one point? Well, what I would consider as such anyway. How did you get all that to begin with? That's kind of my main question along with what people are doing to fund their expensive gear. I literally cannot get any more than maybe 100k on AH sales and haven't been able to for about a month. Before this rut I'm in, I didn't need too much gold to get my gear, but inferno's reality is hitting me pretty hard. I'm in mid Act 3, just after Ghom and I'm to the point where my repair bill is nullifying my profit, so I've just been farming act 1 but still can't find this epic gear I see people selling for an arm and a leg.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't have 200 million at once, my demon hunter's magic-find gear was worth ~200 million in total. I never had more than about 40 million at a time.
Most of my gear was worth around 10-15 million a slot. I got it by having high magic-find and by recognizing most good rares when I saw them.
I used the gold to fund the purchase of even better magic find gear, thus increasing profits.
Ironically, I very rarely found high MF gear. It almost seemed to me as if having high MF prevented me from finding MF gear. Regardless, the AH allowed me to trade what I did find for gold to purchase high MF gear. The neverending cycle... Diablo =)
I am in a similar situation. My highest gold balance was 3.2mill which is just small change for some of the gold rich players. I am not into 'playing the AH' like buying low /selling high (it is just not something I like spending time on while playing this game) nor have I ever used the RMAH and I think your assessment that you need some 'lucky drops' to start getting the initial working capital does apply to me as well. This is just how D3 is: you need some luck or you need to spend time working the AH to your advantage.
I assume that most of the people that are extremely well geared are people that have played consistently and put in 600+ hours since launch. I've heard that it was super easy to make a lot of gold at the start because no one really had a sense of what items were worth on the AH.
That being said, I've been up and down myself. My gear is decent, nothing amazing, but not "bad". I've had some luck with drops, a few legendaries and rares selling for a few million, with a few breaking into the 25-50mil range. I usually sit around 1mil, as I have a hard time keeping my gold once I get it.
My advice is, "keep on keepin' on." You're bound to find that one item that will net you a decent sum, which you can then spend on a few pieces of gear to get you to the point you can farm faster at higher acts, and that cycle will continue.
But really, who's in such a rush? I'm not. If it takes me longer to be godlike and have hundreds of millions banked then that just means I'm getting more of my moneys worth out of this game, and when I do find a good upgrade or something of good value that it's just that much more exciting and something more to look forward to.
The truth is that even the best players have gold problems at times. Gold on hand is different from your gear's worth. You deduct your current gear's worth (-15%) from the cost of your replacement item. It's better to save and buy a valuable piece as it's literally an investment (savings) towards future earnings. This game is a streamlined, digitally created labor/market matrix, I am interested in seeing the studies released on this game's economy (as Blizzard has hired to help). Some may say it is a free market, but that begins the argument of RNG.
I assume that most of the people that are extremely well geared are people that have played consistently and put in 600+ hours since launch. I've heard that it was super easy to make a lot of gold at the start because no one really had a sense of what items were worth on the AH.
That being said, I've been up and down myself. My gear is decent, nothing amazing, but not "bad". I've had some luck with drops, a few legendaries and rares selling for a few million, with a few breaking into the 25-50mil range. I usually sit around 1mil, as I have a hard time keeping my gold once I get it.
My advice is, "keep on keepin' on." You're bound to find that one item that will net you a decent sum, which you can then spend on a few pieces of gear to get you to the point you can farm faster at higher acts, and that cycle will continue.
But really, who's in such a rush? I'm not. If it takes me longer to be godlike and have hundreds of millions banked then that just means I'm getting more of my moneys worth out of this game, and when I do find a good upgrade or something of good value that it's just that much more exciting and something more to look forward to.
I agree man. I don't mean to sound spoiled when it comes to video games. But it is definitely safe to say that this is the most amount of effort I've had to put into a game for what seems like such little returns, however, my luck with video games is legendary among my peers locally. Worst luck ever. But I AM noticing progression. I just wanted to validate that my theory on this "cycle' is plausible, and what you said definitely comforts me. Getting my moneys worth is important to me although, honestly, I kind of bought this game for PvP and here I am banging my head against the wall in PvM for the past few months. I'm just too much of a Diablo fan AND I'm too stubborn when it comes to games to give up. I'll rage and take a break for a day or so but I'm so magnetized to that possibility of a good find and then get to say I'm one of the people who beat inferno. In any case, I will take your advice and stay strong and will just have to start farming for that "find" in order to sell to buy gear to farm for the next "find" haha.
It's part massive time-sink and part massive luck. In the first few months you could sell just about anything for something but selling lots of cheap items doesn't even come close to getting 1 big score. Since 1.04 I've had a steady stream of 5-10 million items and even though I spent half my fortune on a few big upgrades, I quickly made it back. I just recently sold over 100 mill for cash but have made 15 mill in the past couple days and have a few >10 mill items and one >100 mill item (trying to get much more because it is insanely good and rare) on the AH.
If you can farm fast (ie. you're a blender barb) and have some decent MF then you can rake in the legendaries. Even though a lot of them will be low ilvl crap, and some of the high ilvl ones will still be crap, there's still much better odds that you will get a decent legendary than there are that you'll get a decent rare. If you manage to get any set item then it's a guaranteed >10 million item.
Thanks all who posted. I definitely learned a few things that will help me and probably keep my will a little stronger in the future when I hit another rut. The only thing left that would stop me from selling a decent item would be my pricing knowledge so I'm going to run something by everyone to see if I'm not in a good ballpark. Legendary items, I'm in the dark about, so if you wanna talk about that, feel free. On the topic of rares though. I tend to look for these few things. Main stat, Vit, Res all, Crit chance/damage for armor and then for weapons I usually look for Main stat, crit chance/damage, socket kind of in that order. Does that sound about right? Anything I should change? And these I'm usually selling for 35-200k depending on the numbers. I usually never sell armor if it doesn't have at LEAST Main stat, Vit and Res all. For weapons I just look for around 800 dps or higher with at least a decent crit damage and main stat.
You can cancel auctions, so I tend to find about what I think something is worth, do a run, drop prices, do a run, drop prices until it sells.
If it goes to 50 k and doesn't sell I vendor it.
One thing I will say is the ww barb is a lot faster then any other class at the moment (in my opinion) I leveled one and while it is expensive to gear there is plenty of guides on how to gear and honestly most of my gear has been pretty cheap.
For making money at the moment it is all about the legendaries so mob dense area's are good.
I make the most money by selling good gear I've found but really, all you need to do is just play and you'll rake in the gold over time. I made over a million gold just from picking it up off the ground and vendoring junk after playing Act 3 all weekend.
It's always comes down to playing smart and having luck. Fastest elite farming routes, playing the AH well, and getting those drops that sell for alot. Like my brother, he's never found anything that has sold for more than a million, and he's not really hardcore enough to care about the drops, yet he found a necklace last night that can sell for 50+ million alone.
Wasn't sure where to post this but I figured the general area would be fair. I wanted to ask everyone what the most effective gold making strategy is. The reason I ask is obvious, but I'd feel better if I could explain that I've been playing the game relatively often since it was released. Nothing over the top, maybe 3-5 hours a night 3-4 times a week. But I am to the point where I feel like there is something I'm missing out on as I see people with less and/or similar playtime/levels with gear that you only find selling for 10s and 100s of millions of gold. I'm literally scraping maybe 400k a night which is barely enough for the gear needed to get into the later levels of inferno, at least from what I can see. I am pretty experienced and I've put in the same, if not more, time into the game than most of the people I'm comparing myself to and they are decked out in gear I'd only hope to afford one piece of after 2 weeks of saving. Are people buying most of their gear on the RMAH? Are people getting lucky drops and selling them for millions, or is everyone in the same boat I am, just saving forever? Just curious what the key to getting over this rut I'm in. Thanks in advance.
if you have 150-200 hours played you have def found good items that can sell for 1-5 million. i know this becuase i find them every other day i play, and i play probably less then you do. I didnt know what other classes found valuable until i did some research and played a barb to 60; you very well could be vendoring valubale items. You have to know what every class uses to know that it can actually sell on the AH. if my aboves statement isnt the case, you are very very very unlucky.
Whenever I see logic like "the only way these people got good gear is either luck or RMAH," I immediately read: I have no idea what I'm doing.
Now, I realize that's sort of the point of this thread, but starting it out by screaming cliche internet ignorance isn't helping attract useful commentary that's going to get you out of your rut.
The most glaring issue that I see is you're lacking knowledge on what's "good". That isn't to say you won't spot a really awesome item when it drops, but rather you're probably not valuing items in the 500k-2m range appropriately, and as such losing out on a ton of potential gold. It's purely anecdotal, but generally speaking, you should be finding at least a couple of decently valuable items (read: 250k+) per week in Act 1, and those numbers will only increase in later acts and/or with higher MF.
Someone has already mentioned it, but taking your time to appropriately value items for both selling and purchasing is well worth the time investment; put into perspective how much gold you're picking up and/or earning from vendoring true trash per run - generally somewhere in the 200k-500k range. For the sake of argument, let's say it's 500k per run. At an average of an hour per run (a quick average for later acts), you're making 500k/per hour, or approximately 8.3k/minute. With that number in mind, consider this: if you spend 5 minutes researching an item and its value, and sell it for 100k more than you would have otherwise, you've increased your profit by over 58k gold (100,000 - (5 * 8,333)). Consider the implications of that math on items you increase the sell value on by hundreds of thousands, or even millions, simply by spending a couple extra minutes looking around the AH.
The same is true for purchasing items. Don't be a "gotta have it now" person unless you A.) have a ton of gold (you don't), or B.) it's truly a steal of a deal and you know this for a fact. Bidding (even if you end up losing, and you will) is infinitely more profitable for a buyer than buyouts almost all of the time. A lot of people who don't understand it will bitch about "sniping" items at the end, but it's actually no different than placing a bid early and letting it sit (because unless you put in the highest number at the end, you're going to lose anyway). If you see an item you want, and have a price in mind for it, check back when it's near expiration, and put in your bid for what you think it's worth. You'll be surprised how many nice upgrades you can pick up for less than the outrageous buyouts that are listed simply by bidding at the right time, on the right stuff.
tl;dr - have more patience, spend some time researching items and stat valuation, and quit worrying about everyone else's gear.
*edit - stupid smiley!
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I'd be most interested in asking people with ~100+ million gold how they did it.
I got hosed with the MF nerf last patch. My DH's ~200 million MF suit became worth ~50 million, which I sold and used to gear up my WD. The WD is nice but not uber, so I'm always looking for upgrades for him... and worse yet, I'm becoming a ww barb addict, which isn't a cheap habit to support x_x
(ps. People tell me I should have played the MF demon hunter to get legendaries, but I hated that character. I was waiting for the 1.04 witch doctor pet buff to make my WD my new main.)
Since then I've easily bought and sold a few million gold worth. Once you have gold, it's a LOT easier to make more, but getting that first few million was a pain in the ass for me. I was VERY unlucky with drops pre 1.04 and since have gotten much better drops, but that's just as much the patch as anything.
So you had a good amount of gold at one point? Well, what I would consider as such anyway. How did you get all that to begin with? That's kind of my main question along with what people are doing to fund their expensive gear. I literally cannot get any more than maybe 100k on AH sales and haven't been able to for about a month. Before this rut I'm in, I didn't need too much gold to get my gear, but inferno's reality is hitting me pretty hard. I'm in mid Act 3, just after Ghom and I'm to the point where my repair bill is nullifying my profit, so I've just been farming act 1 but still can't find this epic gear I see people selling for an arm and a leg.
So after you made that 3.5 mil, did you invest similarly? Buying low and selling high? Or did you gear better and get lucky again? This is the rut I'm really in. I see no consistency besides getting lucky drops OR using the RMAH which is not something I'm interested in at the moment. Maybe I should make it a two part question. How do get out of the rut and then how to not get back in the rut after spending my first gold mine. Or better yet, HOW to spend my first large amount of gold in a way that yields more gold.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't have 200 million at once, my demon hunter's magic-find gear was worth ~200 million in total. I never had more than about 40 million at a time.
Most of my gear was worth around 10-15 million a slot. I got it by having high magic-find and by recognizing most good rares when I saw them.
I used the gold to fund the purchase of even better magic find gear, thus increasing profits.
Ironically, I very rarely found high MF gear. It almost seemed to me as if having high MF prevented me from finding MF gear. Regardless, the AH allowed me to trade what I did find for gold to purchase high MF gear. The neverending cycle... Diablo =)
That being said, I've been up and down myself. My gear is decent, nothing amazing, but not "bad". I've had some luck with drops, a few legendaries and rares selling for a few million, with a few breaking into the 25-50mil range. I usually sit around 1mil, as I have a hard time keeping my gold once I get it.
My advice is, "keep on keepin' on." You're bound to find that one item that will net you a decent sum, which you can then spend on a few pieces of gear to get you to the point you can farm faster at higher acts, and that cycle will continue.
But really, who's in such a rush? I'm not. If it takes me longer to be godlike and have hundreds of millions banked then that just means I'm getting more of my moneys worth out of this game, and when I do find a good upgrade or something of good value that it's just that much more exciting and something more to look forward to.
I agree man. I don't mean to sound spoiled when it comes to video games. But it is definitely safe to say that this is the most amount of effort I've had to put into a game for what seems like such little returns, however, my luck with video games is legendary among my peers locally. Worst luck ever. But I AM noticing progression. I just wanted to validate that my theory on this "cycle' is plausible, and what you said definitely comforts me. Getting my moneys worth is important to me although, honestly, I kind of bought this game for PvP and here I am banging my head against the wall in PvM for the past few months. I'm just too much of a Diablo fan AND I'm too stubborn when it comes to games to give up. I'll rage and take a break for a day or so but I'm so magnetized to that possibility of a good find and then get to say I'm one of the people who beat inferno. In any case, I will take your advice and stay strong and will just have to start farming for that "find" in order to sell to buy gear to farm for the next "find" haha.
If you can farm fast (ie. you're a blender barb) and have some decent MF then you can rake in the legendaries. Even though a lot of them will be low ilvl crap, and some of the high ilvl ones will still be crap, there's still much better odds that you will get a decent legendary than there are that you'll get a decent rare. If you manage to get any set item then it's a guaranteed >10 million item.
If it goes to 50 k and doesn't sell I vendor it.
One thing I will say is the ww barb is a lot faster then any other class at the moment (in my opinion) I leveled one and while it is expensive to gear there is plenty of guides on how to gear and honestly most of my gear has been pretty cheap.
For making money at the moment it is all about the legendaries so mob dense area's are good.
if you have 150-200 hours played you have def found good items that can sell for 1-5 million. i know this becuase i find them every other day i play, and i play probably less then you do. I didnt know what other classes found valuable until i did some research and played a barb to 60; you very well could be vendoring valubale items. You have to know what every class uses to know that it can actually sell on the AH. if my aboves statement isnt the case, you are very very very unlucky.
Now, I realize that's sort of the point of this thread, but starting it out by screaming cliche internet ignorance isn't helping attract useful commentary that's going to get you out of your rut.
The most glaring issue that I see is you're lacking knowledge on what's "good". That isn't to say you won't spot a really awesome item when it drops, but rather you're probably not valuing items in the 500k-2m range appropriately, and as such losing out on a ton of potential gold. It's purely anecdotal, but generally speaking, you should be finding at least a couple of decently valuable items (read: 250k+) per week in Act 1, and those numbers will only increase in later acts and/or with higher MF.
Someone has already mentioned it, but taking your time to appropriately value items for both selling and purchasing is well worth the time investment; put into perspective how much gold you're picking up and/or earning from vendoring true trash per run - generally somewhere in the 200k-500k range. For the sake of argument, let's say it's 500k per run. At an average of an hour per run (a quick average for later acts), you're making 500k/per hour, or approximately 8.3k/minute. With that number in mind, consider this: if you spend 5 minutes researching an item and its value, and sell it for 100k more than you would have otherwise, you've increased your profit by over 58k gold (100,000 - (5 * 8,333)). Consider the implications of that math on items you increase the sell value on by hundreds of thousands, or even millions, simply by spending a couple extra minutes looking around the AH.
The same is true for purchasing items. Don't be a "gotta have it now" person unless you A.) have a ton of gold (you don't), or B.) it's truly a steal of a deal and you know this for a fact. Bidding (even if you end up losing, and you will) is infinitely more profitable for a buyer than buyouts almost all of the time. A lot of people who don't understand it will bitch about "sniping" items at the end, but it's actually no different than placing a bid early and letting it sit (because unless you put in the highest number at the end, you're going to lose anyway). If you see an item you want, and have a price in mind for it, check back when it's near expiration, and put in your bid for what you think it's worth. You'll be surprised how many nice upgrades you can pick up for less than the outrageous buyouts that are listed simply by bidding at the right time, on the right stuff.
tl;dr - have more patience, spend some time researching items and stat valuation, and quit worrying about everyone else's gear.
*edit - stupid smiley!