By no means am I a pro or great wizard, but I know where you're coming from. Right now I can pretty much handle Act 1 inferno, having to skip certain types of packs. In act 2 I can't even get out of the gate to reach the desert lol.
I think that the AH plays a big part in progressing. If you're not using it to upgrade and only relying on drops, that is probably a large part of your problem. Personally, nothing that I'm wearing now to be able to do act 1 came from a drop. Everything has been bought from the AH. So I've just been farming as much as I can to steadily do upgrades.
My suggestion would be to do the same, farm as best you can to buy as many upgrades as you can. Then get with friends or join some pubs to maybe do butcher runs and hope for some upgrade drops or stuff you can sell on the AH yourself.
I am now at 40k HP and 26k'ish damage. I think I need to work on a lot of stuff to raise my Dmg much higher. I get the whole don't get hit thing everyone likes to say, but for me that has proven easier said than done so I'm still working on that part too.
I just recently raised my Dmg by 5k to put me at the 26k mark(buffed). What I had to end up doing was switching to a 2H to do it. Although I would prefer a 1H + Oh, I just can't afford the items I need to increase my damage. With the 2H I'm now using, it was much cheaper and I also got it with Int and Vit stats that significantly raised my HP and Dmg, which again was much better than what I had with my 1H + Oh.
So for increased Dmg, maybe this is something that could help you for now. I searched for a high Dmg 2H with int and Vit stats.
Anyway, hope this helps a little bit and good luck!
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I think that the AH plays a big part in progressing. If you're not using it to upgrade and only relying on drops, that is probably a large part of your problem. Personally, nothing that I'm wearing now to be able to do act 1 came from a drop. Everything has been bought from the AH. So I've just been farming as much as I can to steadily do upgrades.
My suggestion would be to do the same, farm as best you can to buy as many upgrades as you can. Then get with friends or join some pubs to maybe do butcher runs and hope for some upgrade drops or stuff you can sell on the AH yourself.
I am now at 40k HP and 26k'ish damage. I think I need to work on a lot of stuff to raise my Dmg much higher. I get the whole don't get hit thing everyone likes to say, but for me that has proven easier said than done so I'm still working on that part too.
I just recently raised my Dmg by 5k to put me at the 26k mark(buffed). What I had to end up doing was switching to a 2H to do it. Although I would prefer a 1H + Oh, I just can't afford the items I need to increase my damage. With the 2H I'm now using, it was much cheaper and I also got it with Int and Vit stats that significantly raised my HP and Dmg, which again was much better than what I had with my 1H + Oh.
So for increased Dmg, maybe this is something that could help you for now. I searched for a high Dmg 2H with int and Vit stats.
Anyway, hope this helps a little bit and good luck!