DiabloFans

As title says, a 1387 DPS Xbow with a socket (no IAS).

Looking for serious offers only (100 mil +).

Battle tag Ghost711#1967 if you want to discuss.

I'm sure there are some of you out there that are taking advantage of the dual Auction House system and making some serious cash by buying low from one market, and selling high on another market.

My question is, from your experience in browsing similar items on the gold and money AH< what do you think the current Gold/USD (or Euro if you're European) conversion rate is? Also, if commodoity trading is introduced today, what would be the market price of 1 million gold?

My estimate is $5/million, based on the current black market value, and cross referencing similar items across the two AHs.

I think they fixed the spots that enabled AFK farming, like in act 2 Archive dungeons, the poles keep spawning spiders/little goblins that drop gold. If you wore enough thorns/regen gear you can afk there and farm gold

There is no such thing as a "mandatory" item. Diablo is all about synergizing your gear and build, which means there is no "mandatory" item or skill.

Very nice spreadsheet, awesome for assessing whether an item is in fact an upgrade to survivability!

For those that want a simple formula to quickly calculate your approximate EHP, use this formula (for barbs/monks):

Total HP /[0.7 x (100 - x) (100 - y) (100 - d)].

x is the damage reduction shown from tooltip from armor, and y is the damage reduction shown on tooltip from resistance, and d is your dodge chance.

This assumes you have no "reduced damage from melee/ranged" stats anywhere; it also assumes all your resistance is the same. To incorporate reduced damage from melee/ranged, simply divide by another 100 - z, where z is the % reduced from melee/ranged.

Quote from fenfire

Okay, after further using Bloodthirst I am quiet sure that it is not affected by the 80% life leech reduction you should see on Inferno. I am leeching the exact same numbers per hit be it Normal, Hell or Inferno.
If this is true, DPS oriented barbs just have another viable passive skill alternative.
I am currently running Bloodthirst, Ruthless and Nerves of Steel.

But I would highly appreciate if someone would try this and get back here to confirm my observations.

I have tried bloodthirst using a 2 hander but found it did not up my survivability much. The damage is too spikey for the life steal to be effective. My philosophy is to always gear/spec my barb in line with the most difficult elites that I might face (and not around normal mobs/easy elites/bosses). The most dangerous are the heavy-hitting melee mobs (fatties and phase beasts) and range mobs with multiple DPS affixes that runaway often (succubus), and in my opinion a damage reduction passive works better in these sort of situations.

After multiple runs of both act 2 and 3, I have found the most effective farming method is act 2 using a sword and board. I avoid crit altogether (only because it is out of my price range) and stack strength only to boost my DPS.

Using berserker rage and brawler and weapon master, along with maniac rune for Frenzy, my DPS in normal combat can reach 50K without wrath. This allows me to annihilate any act 2 elite packs within the 15 second frame with no chance of death.

My other skills are, warcry/earthquake/revenge/sprint.

Sprint is the reason why I do not do act 3 instead of act 2. In act 2, I can ignore all white mobs and hunt down elite packs sprinting as much as possible, but in act 3 I have to drop sprint for a survivability skill (leap or ignore pain). I generally kill 30-40 elite packs over an entire act 2 run, within 90 minutes. I get 40-50 rares per run.

In act 3, it takes me three hours to clear from Siege onwards and only get about half the amount of rares.

My stats: ~700 resist, 7.5K armor, 60K HP, 50K incombat DPS.

Umm, they didn't nerf the stat itself (no diminishing returns or anything), just the max amount of IAS you can get from gear.

So to answer your own question, IAS is still the best stat, what comes second still depends on your current set up, nothing changed.

Drop some defensive abilities/stats in favour of offensive ones. Perhaps pick up earthquake/WoTB? They nerfed the damage pretty heavily but added enrage timers to encourage people to play more offensively and not turn the game into a massive turtle fest.

Quote from I3igAl

how are you guys getting so much money/gear??? I am struggling to stay above 3 million gold after repair bills. Act 2 is kicking my ass even though i have 550 RA, I was only barely able to kill Magda but the elite packs in the sewers always beat me.

I have tried selling some items I find and havent sold anything for more than 300k, usually less than 80k. nothing that drops is even comparable to the gear I have purchased from the AH; I am not getting upgrades where I am, but I can't progress to where upgrades would drop, nor can I afford better upgrades.

I have also tried flipping some items and have been burned several times, apparently I haven't the slightest clue as to what is worth what.

With a bit of luck and a tonne of farming.

Act 2 has a small chance of dropping ilvl 63 gear, which means you have a shot at those crazy perfectly rolled items worth 10+ million. You should be especially excited when you see rare rings/amulets as they are often in huge demand with the rights stats. Even Act 1 sometimes drop items that are worth millions.

The rule is never to make assumptions about the value of an item. Obviously there are some absolute "shocking" items that are no good to anybody, but sometimes you may think an item is mediocre when in fact ones particular build or class find it to be the perfect itemisation. An example is a ring I found, 73 dex, 3% crit chance and 50~% crit damage, and another random single resist stat. I thought it was absolute crap having never played a DH at the time, but I did a bit of research and found very few rings like that, the ones that were like that were selling for 1.5mil +. I ended up selling it for 1.8 million, when, I mayvery well have just vendoered it seeing it being a level 54 item.

Also, the purpose of farming is not to get legendaries. It's to ensure a steady source of gold income (usually 200-250K an hour if you do 20 min Imprisoned angel/butcher runs with decent gold finder gear), along with 5-6 chances at "gambling" unidenfied rares that might hit you the jackpot/s. Legendaries and set pieces are just bonuses along the way if you are lucky enough to get them.

Don't bother farming until you hit level 60. Nephalem Valor gives 75% Magic find, 75% gold find, AND guarantees you two rares off a boss. Without it you get literally get squat for the time you spend.

Just focus on hitting level 60; if your gear is too weak then use the money you accumulated to buy better gear. If you can't afford it just run previous quests over and over to level up.

I'm astounded how many people are shocked that items are selling for up to $250 a pop on the RMAH.

Real money is just another form of currency that measures the amount of enjoyment brought about by either a good or a service. Alternatively, it is used as an investment tool to make potentially more money.

The RMAH is no different. People who purchase items on there clearly either is happy enough to pay the asking price in exchange for the joy of receiving a good item (whether this is because they are financially well-off, or just loves Diablo is irrelevant). Another possibility is that they purchase an item for real money to give them an edge in making more money by farming more efficient.

Time spent on the game is an opportunity cost, that on average comes at around $30-$50 an hour (yes, you are sacrificing real money by simply spending time on this game as you could be working overtime or doing a second job to make real money). So essentially spending some money to save the time on 'farming' is not abnormal at all. Of course, if you are at a stage where you are no longer enjoying the game then it is irrational to be spending any money on this game.