With the buff to high MP exp bonus, the 75% exp from 5 stacks of NV is less significant and I heard people farming just keep depths 2 over and over without trying kill elites (just skip elites, kill white enemies, once you get to the exit or dead end, just tp and reset game). Do you think it's better than the usual 5NV farming?
Also, if this is worth the time, is keep 2 the densest area in game in terms of white mobs?
Well it's not just about the timing, it also have to do with builds and gears. I am too poor to experimenting much with gears so if anyone has any experience, the input would be useful.
I'm not sure what you consider to be good XP/hr for barb but doing KD2 I manage 160M/hr over a 30 min test including load times as demonstrated by this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvrs0F1P47Y
A lot of people have said in the past to just avoid white enemies ("trash mobs"), but I really couldn't disagree more. One trash mob in Keep Depths 1 dropped a Marquise Ruby plan for me. Really can't complain there.
From what I've seen, the consensus goes like this...."the highest MP you can do reasonably well, and not die too often, is the one you should farm," the idea being, if you can handle MP8-10, why bother with lower MP and sacrifice the extra MF bonus? Over the weekend, I did numerous instances of a run I've enjoyed (basically Cydaea to Diablo...starting with a trip to the Keep Depths for NV stacks and hitting Stonefort for a key run), and I found at least 3 legendaries and two set items. And since the patch, my Monk went from Plvl 16 to 20 in next to no time.
Maybe before the patch, MP0-2 wasn't much less than higher MPs for XP, but now, even MP3 can offer a decent boost past MP0 over and over.
If you're looking for mathematical efficiency explanations, I can't help you, but I'd always recommend higher MPs when you can do them safely.
From what I've seen, the consensus goes like this...."the highest MP you can do reasonably well, and not die too often, is the one you should farm," the idea being, if you can handle MP8-10, why bother with lower MP and sacrifice the extra MF bonus?
I agree with this. You should be able to move at a decent pace where you can see the elite health bar drop fairly fast when you are attacking them. Personally I think if you die once in 15 minutes that is too much. If your dps is adequate then you need to raise your mitigation.
If you want to farm EXP, you should be doing so on lower MPs anyway. Even MP1 and 2 are much better now with the buffs to overall EXP. In most cases, you'll one-shot mobs on these levels if you're average to above average geared. And if you're geared for higher, do whatever level that allows you to one-shot trash mobs.
Elites die so fast at these levels you're better off taking 3-5 seconds to take them out for the bonus 15% per NV. 75% bonus is nothing to laugh at, especially since you'll be running with the buff the majority of the time, even if the percentages result in diminishing returns if you stack other EXP bonus sources.
Also, if this is worth the time, is keep 2 the densest area in game in terms of white mobs?
I'm not sure what you consider to be good XP/hr for barb but doing KD2 I manage 160M/hr over a 30 min test including load times as demonstrated by this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvrs0F1P47Y
The best I could get with a killing elite build was 140M/hr over a 30 min test as demonstrated by this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybHXO4ug3H0
Doing the same with Wizard netted me 110M/hr for KD2 versus 100M/hr killing elites using blizzard specs.
From what I've seen, the consensus goes like this...."the highest MP you can do reasonably well, and not die too often, is the one you should farm," the idea being, if you can handle MP8-10, why bother with lower MP and sacrifice the extra MF bonus? Over the weekend, I did numerous instances of a run I've enjoyed (basically Cydaea to Diablo...starting with a trip to the Keep Depths for NV stacks and hitting Stonefort for a key run), and I found at least 3 legendaries and two set items. And since the patch, my Monk went from Plvl 16 to 20 in next to no time.
Maybe before the patch, MP0-2 wasn't much less than higher MPs for XP, but now, even MP3 can offer a decent boost past MP0 over and over.
If you're looking for mathematical efficiency explanations, I can't help you, but I'd always recommend higher MPs when you can do them safely.
I agree with this. You should be able to move at a decent pace where you can see the elite health bar drop fairly fast when you are attacking them. Personally I think if you die once in 15 minutes that is too much. If your dps is adequate then you need to raise your mitigation.
Elites die so fast at these levels you're better off taking 3-5 seconds to take them out for the bonus 15% per NV. 75% bonus is nothing to laugh at, especially since you'll be running with the buff the majority of the time, even if the percentages result in diminishing returns if you stack other EXP bonus sources.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site