Diablo 4 March of the Goblins: Maximize Your Gold and Loot Gains

 

Diablo 4 players, rejoice! The March of the Goblins event is back, and this time, those gold-laden critters are invading Sanctuary in even greater numbers. If you’re looking to stack your gold reserves and hoard as much loot as possible, this is the event you’ve been waiting for. Let’s dive into the best ways to capitalize on this limited-time opportunity.

What is March of the Goblins?

March of the Goblins is a special event in Diablo 4 that sees an increased spawn rate of Treasure Goblins across Sanctuary. These sneaky little demons are notorious for dropping heaps of gold and valuable loot when defeated. During this event, not only do you encounter more Goblins, but they also appear in pairs and groups, especially after defeating certain bosses like Avarice the Gold-Cursed.

The event kicked off on Tuesday, August 27, and runs until Tuesday, September 3, so make sure to get in on the action before it’s too late!

Why Now? Timing is Everything

Blizzard has thoughtfully timed March of the Goblins to coincide with other beneficial in-game bonuses. For instance, Mother's Blessing is still active until August 28, providing a 35% experience boost and a 50% increase in gold drop rates. This multiplicative bonus stacks with other buffs, making it the perfect time to burn through Elixirs and use the Urn of Aggression for maximum gains.

The Best Strategy: Nightmare Dungeons and Greed Shrines

1. Run Nightmare Dungeons

The key to maximizing your loot during March of the Goblins is to run Nightmare Dungeons. These dungeons offer a high monster density, which means more opportunities for Greed Shrines and Treasure Goblins to appear. If you can gather a full party, even better—teamwork makes this grind much more efficient.

Crafting the Right Sigils

To optimize your loot, you’ll want to craft Nightmare Sigils at the Occultist. Aim for Sigils that are in the sweet spot level-wise (specifically, between levels 26-30) to ensure you encounter level 80+ Treasure Goblins. These goblins are guaranteed to drop Item Power 925 loot, thanks to a recent hotfix (1.4.1). Remember, Sigil Powder is a precious resource, so only craft Sigils with the green Extra Shrines Dungeon affix. Salvage the rest for more Sigil Powder.

2. Activate Greed Shrines Strategically

Greed Shrines are your best friend during this event. When activated, these shrines have a chance to spawn Treasure Goblins for every enemy killed. The trick here is to lure as many enemies as possible to the shrine before activating it. This method is especially effective in groups, where players can take turns activating the shrine, maximizing the number of goblins spawned.

While Greed Shrines also cause regular enemies to drop extra gold, the real prize is in the Treasure Goblins. Make sure to clear out all the Greed Shrines in a dungeon before teleporting out and restarting the process.

Additional Tips for Maximum Loot

1. Defeat Avarice the Gold-Cursed

Taking down the World Boss, Avarice the Gold-Cursed, during this event is a must. Defeating him triggers a horde of Treasure Goblins to spawn at the site of his death, offering a treasure trove of loot and gold.

2. Look Out for Cursed Greed Shrines

Cursed Greed Shrines are another great way to boost your gold and loot gains. These shrines summon waves of mobs and elites, and when combined with the March of the Goblins event, you’ll end up with mountains of gold.

3. Dismount to Chase Goblins

When you spot a Treasure Goblin while roaming Sanctuary on your mount, resist the urge to chase it down while riding. Dismount and pursue on foot, or risk the goblin disappearing into thin air, leaving you empty-handed.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Miss Out!

The March of the Goblins is a prime opportunity to bolster your gold reserves and expand your loot collection in Diablo 4. By focusing on Nightmare Dungeons, strategically using Greed Shrines, and taking down Avarice the Gold-Cursed, you can maximize your gains during this event.

So, gather your party, craft those Sigils, and get ready to rake in the riches—because when the goblins march, it’s time to grind!

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Gold Find Gear List

Here is a list of some/all of the most practical gold finding items. I excluded things like the Litany/Wailing host set bonuses because they aren't really worth getting (2pc = 15% GF). Make sure to socket Boon of the Hoarder into a ring/amulet for extra gold. If I missed anything let me know.

Helm

• Leorics Crown - Socketed with a Flawless Royal Emerald (+41% GF) and with a GF secondary provides up to 117% GF. Does NOT always roll GF.

Shoulders

• Profane Pauldrons - Always rolls 4-6 yd pickup radius. Does NOT roll GF.

Chest

• Goldskin - Always rolls 100% GF, Chance for enemies to drop gold when you hit them.

Gloves

• Gladiator Gauntlets - After earning a massacre bonus, gold rains from sky. Does NOT always roll GF.

Wrists

• Custerian Wristguards - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Gain EXP equal to the amount of gold picked up.

Belt

• Goldwrap - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Huge defense boost after picking up gold for 5 seconds.
• Harrington Waistguard - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Huge damage boost after opening a container for 10 seconds.
• Blackthorne's Notched Belt - Always rolls 30-35% GF, 3 piece Blackthornes also gives +25% GF, 250 vit, and +10%/-10% elites damage.

Pants

• Hammer Jammers - Always rolls 30-35% GF.

Boots
(none)

Rings

• Avarice Band - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Each time you pick up gold, increase your Gold and Health Pickup radius by 1 yard for 10 seconds, stacking up to 30 times.
• Stolen Ring - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Always rolls 1-2 yd pickup radius.

Amulet

• Pre 2.1 Kimbos Gold - Always rolls 75-100% GF. Secondary stat can be re-rolled to GF for a max total of 180% GF.
• Post 2.1 Kimbos Gold - Always rolls 75-100% GF. Picking up gold heals you for an amount equal to the gold that was picked up.
• Rondals Locket - Always rolls 4-6 yd pickup radius. Does NOT roll GF.

Weapon

• Sunkeeper - Always rolls 70-80% GF.
• Devils Tongue - Always rolls 70-80% GF.
• The Raven's Wing - Always rolls 70-80% GF.

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100m Gold/hour farm

With the addition of new gem Boon of the Hoarder from Goblin rift you can get insane gold drops. It offers 25% chance +1.5*level that every monster you kill will drop piles of gold.

Best place to farm gold atm is Halls of Agony level 2. I farm with jade harvester WD T6 and with rank 33gem (74.5%) and +7k gold find every mob i kill drops around 70-250k gold.
Another zone worth looking into is Arreat creater but it is lot harder.

Even with worse gear and gold set you shoud be able to get to 30-50m gold/hour easy.
I feel like with even better items i shoud be able to get up to 150-200m gold/hour.

I highly advise you to use Goldwrap belt as it gives you enaugh toughness to facetank everything they throw at you the moment you kill one monster and get proc.

Here is a good guide for this (and optional equipment to get more gold)

 

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1 Billion exp/hr + 9M Gold/hr | ANY gear, half-afk.

 I'll let the video speak for itself but i'll just say that this works ALOT better with 4 people letting everyone create a party until they get it and you'll have it almost all the time. Also, if you do it with a party only you will get it but there's a way for two people to get it and that is that one person goes there the first time and then you go there and complete the bounty. That means he starts the bounty (will say in chat) and you finish it. That way both will get two quests completed.  Happy farming!


 

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Goldfarm speadsheet

I just wanted to share a little speadsheet I put together to estimate gold profits. Of course, it doesn't take into account item sales. The first sheet is the master and is uneditable. Just click along the bottom to either duplicate it, or use an existing copy. 

Enjoy.

click here

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Auction House Analysis - A look at gem sniping

What is gem sniping?
Gem sniping is where one bids at the last minute on an item+gem(s) that has a minimum bid less than the value of the gem(s). Ideally, one wants to acquire the gem(s) for substantially less than the what the gem(s) are worth.

How do I gem snipe?
The easiest way to find items to snipe is to go into the Auction House and search for equipment>armor>all armor types>has sockets and then sort by time left. One should be able to search through 46 pages of results in under five minutes and expect to find at least one item+gem worth sniping. Once one has found an item worth sniping, filter the results until that item is showing up on the first page. Then, check back when the item gets to two minutes and then constantly refresh the results until the time left shows >1M. At this point, one wants to start a chronograph on their phone. When the chronograph gets to 45-50 seconds, one bids the amount the gem(s) is worth in the last ten trades subtracted by 15%.

Items Acquired+Prices Paid:
Imgur Gallery of Items+Prices Paid
Imgur Gallery of a few of the Items stuck in AH Limbo

Results: (not including items that are still stuck in AH limbo)

• Time Taken: 120 minutes
• Items Acquired: 13
• Gold Spent: 2,480,675
• Value of Gems(last ten trades price): 5,522,476
• Value of Gems(-15%): 4,694,105
• Value of Items(vendor value): 20,067
• Profit: 2,233,497 (Closer to 3M if items weren't stuck in AH limbo)
• Profit Per Minute: 18,612

Conclusion:

• Gem sniping is not more profitable than farming/paragon leveling in the long run.
• Gem sniping may become more profitable at a time when more inexperienced players are playing again, eg. 1.07 release, expansion release, etc.
• Gem sniping is stupid easy, requires little attention, and gives break periods during sessions.
• Gem sniping, unlike brimstone legendaries, is not a bot target.

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MP-farming efficiency spreadsheet

This is nothing new or revolutionary and I'm not a spreadsheet wizard so it's pretty simple, but I figured someone could get some use out of it.

The standard advice for farming is to do "the lower monster power levels" because they're faster, but which one is right for you and your gear?

I just have it so you fill in your starting/ending gold/xp, count your rares and enter the number of minutes the run took. It'll average 3 runs for each MP level and show you your rares/gold/xp per hour. I only put it up to MP5 but it's easily expandable and I don't think 6+ would be the most efficient for anyone who would need this spreadsheet :P

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B9zV693tIF-hQjc5Z1B0VDQtYXM

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Radiant Emeralds tips

I don't know if any of you guys have noticed this, but radiant emerald are at 14 million on the auction house right now! They were at 11 yesterday... and they go up till 20 or more..

So if anyone wants to make some profit, instead of buying tomes/essences and hope for em to go higher, now is the time! Radiant emeralds will eventually go up since it costs around 17 million to craft em.

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Tips for Managing your Gold in Diablo

Anyone that plays Diablo with any seriousness wants to make and hold onto as much gold as they can. If you think about it, building and managing your gold in Diablo is much like playing poker. In fact, there are some poker money managing tips that can help you make more gold and manage your earnings in Diablo.

Know When To Drop a Bad Item
When a game gets bad in poker, meaning that there is little money to be made, it is time for the good players to hit the road. The same is true in Diablo in regards to holding onto certain items.

Some players will hold onto items way to long in the hopes of seeing the value of said item go up. They don't want to lose money, but the longer they hold onto it the more money they lose. Learn when to cut your losses and move on.

Do Your Research
Online poker players do extensive research into what the best games are and even take notes on their opponents. You can do the same regarding items in Diablo to help determine the best way to buy and sell items for a profit.

For example, anything with a gold find and pickup radius is going to be valuable.
Research the market to see what things are going for and then try and find those items at
a reasonable rate to sell in the auction house.

Don't Show Your Hand
In poker, it is a bad idea to show your hand or to reveal too much about your strategy. The same applies in Diablo. If you have a tactic that you use to build gold, it is counterproductive in many cases to share. This is especially true if it is an in-game auction strategy. Giving away knowledge will cost you gold.
While it is said that poker players do not respect the value of money, that statement is largely untrue as without money they cannot play. For those that play Diablo, you know that without gold it is very difficult to level up in the game. As such you need to devise and execute strategies and use tactics like the ones above to manage your gold so you can put yourself in position to level up.

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A note about making gold

The most important thing you can do is be aware of what the value of items is. Items that might appear to be superficially similar can be worth drastically different amounts. You need to know what particular stats people want on each gear slot.

Let's take an example. On most items the roll for a stat affix is 1-100, but for some stats on some items it is 1-200. You can get a double stat affix (say, Dex/Vit) where both range from 1-100.

• Compare three pieces of gear that are 150 dex, 75 vit, and 60 all resist.
• Gloves - these would not be valuable. Gloves get a 1-200 dex roll, people want attack speed, crit chance, and/or crit damage on there gloves, and lots of gloves have been made chasing these stats. Worth maybe 10k tops.
• Boots - also not valuable. Boots also get a 1-200 dex roll, and people want movement speed on their boots. 10k tops again.
• Shoulders - Jackpot. Dex only goes 1-100 on shoulders, so you would have needed to get both a Dex and Dex/Vit affix, making them rarer. There aren't competing dps stats people are chasing on shoulders, either. Add in life % or another resist and the value shoots up even higher, but even with the initial stats these worth over 2 million gold.

There are some other areas to pay attention too, e.g. anything with gold find and pick up radius is going to sell for something. Anything with a high gold find roll and dex will sell too. Even middling gold/magic find rings sell for a little bit.

Once you know this you can make money on the AH. Even if you don't want to camp the AH, you can still find bargains as you price out the gear you find. Check the current prices of that blue 18% magic find ring you found (usually around half a million) and see one for 80k with a 1d12h buyout? Don't hesitate, grab it immediately before someone else does and relist it, you've made over a quarter of a million gold in 15 seconds work.

As for advice on how to grind out loot to sell in the AH, you want to find a route that works for you to first build up NV stacks and then hit elite packs quickly. There's been quite a bit of discussion here on routes if you search. Be efficient in what you pick up. Find out what works best for you in value- I pick up any 61+ rares (and all jewelry), and generally skip all blues that I can't sell on the AH. I have the names of items/levels memorized and some important affixes so I can quickly evaluate what's worth picking up (rare Sacred Shield, glittering ring, etc) and what's not (rare Hoplon, glittering balor pauldons.)

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Let's talk about how you maximize farming efficiency

I was having a discussion with some of my SWTOR guildies about looting items during a farming run, which I found pretty interesting and helpful.

With the recent updates and changes to the economy, however, I am interested to hear about what you guys do now.

Personally I I pick up:

• All yellows ilvl62 or higher
• All yellow amulets and rings regardless of level
• All gems/tomes/potions, as long as it's within like 1 second of walking distance or so
• All ilvl61 or higher weapons
• All legendaries
• Gold within 1 second of walking, as long as it looks decent.
• While walking to my loot I'll scan any blues, but it's a super fast glance (maybe .5 seconds for everything).

Unless the other stats are good, I typically vendor:

• Any gloves without crit chance
• Any boots without run speed
• Anything less than 60AR
• Any helmet without a socket
• Any weapon under 900 DPS (lots exceptions with crit damage, LOH, and socketed weapons)

For my AH techniques, I typically:

• AH anything that I think is worth over 50k.
• Look up what other people are selling slightly inferior items for, and then price mine lower.
• Almost never do a straight-auction (no-buyout), because people are impatient and so am I.
• Sell many of a similar type at once. This makes price look-ups way faster. (i.e. selling 5 gloves at once, so I don't have to keep switching item types when looking up prices.)
• Anything I can't sell the first time get's priced reduced up to 50%. Exceptions are 5m+ valed items, in which case -20% max.
• Anything I know is good buy wont sell I RMAH for it's gold equivalent.

My biggest problem is that I save too much to sell and my stash is too full of things that wont sell. I need to rethink my "keep" rules.

How do you approach your farming? Do you pick up all the rares? Only rares above a certain ilevel? Do you bother with blues?

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Possible item investment...

I may be shooting myself in the foot here, but here goes:

I'm not sure if this has been posted already, but I was reading through the "upcoming" legendary changes and noticed The Three Hundreth Spear no longer has the magic find affix.

Now this is pure speculation, but I'm wondering if this is for all of them, or is still random and just the one in the image didn't contain the affix:

Assuming this is for all of them (since the ones now all have MF), and they will no longer have the MF affix, this could potentially become a very rare/expensive item post-patch.

Just a little tip, grab 'em while you can!

I apologize if this is garbage, just trying to contribute some

ps... no I'm not fishing for buyers. Honestly, I don't have the gold to pull off such an operation

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Fliping Legendarys (high profit atm)

this is a vary simple metod how to make a lot of gold atm. Basicly what you need to do is buy legendary items and selvage tham to get Fiery Brimstone.


Basicly they sell around 190k per 1 on EU ah. I would suggest to sell tham in stacks of 5 since every thing more than that its not worth it as much.

Buy legendary items for 100 - 130 k and than selvage and sell = profit (around 40 to 60 k gold)

Here is the full list of legandary weapons and armor.

WEAPONS

• Sky Splitter
• The Gidbinn
• Last Breath
• Blood-Magic Blade
• Wizardspike
• Nailbiter
• Earthshatter
• Sun Keeper
• Empyrean Messenger
• Skycutter
• Griswold's Masterpiece
• Sever
• Azurewrath
• Fire Brand
• Skorn
• Schaefers's Hammer
• Vigilance
• Wormwood
• The Tormentor
• The Grand Vizier
• Maximus
• The Grandfather
• Warmonger
• Venomhusk
• Windforce
• Pus Spitter
• Hellrack
• Manticore
• Fragment of Destiny
• Ruinstoke
• Slorak's Madness
• Calamity

ARMOR

• Mempo of Twilight
• The Helm of Command
• Tzo Krin's Gaze
• Madstone
• Visage of Giyua
• Storm Crow
• Seven Sins
• Vile Ward
• Robes of the Rydraelm
• Tyrael's Might
• The Inquisitor
• Wondrous Deflectors
• Strongarm Bracers
• Gladiator Gauntlets
• Hellcat Waistguard
• Ageless Might
• Lamentation
• Gehennas
• Depth Diggers
• Ice Climbers
• Fire Walkers
• Ouroboros
• The Star of Azkaranth
• Mara's Kaleidoscope
• Xephirian Amulet
• Band of Hollow Whispers
• Hierophant's Seal
• Skull Grasp
• Oculus Ring
• Stone of Jordan
• Ivory Tower
• Uhkapian Serpent
• The Oculus
• Black Bone Arrows
• Dead Man's Legacy

NOTE : this may not work all of the time since you will not be able to buy items for lest than 150 k but its worth it i mad 30 mil like this in 2 days .

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Selling Unidentified Items

Hey folks! this past weekend i made 3 million gold doing what i'm about to describe.

its actually very simple:

1. Do your normal inferno farm run. either do a couple runs and save all your ilvl 63 items, or do one run then proceed to step two.
2. Join Trade channel. Start advertising your unidentified item. (Me: [Some unidentified iLvl63 item] No current offer. PST.)
3. watch the offers start rolling in. re-post your item with the top bid. (Me: [Some unidentified iLvl63 item] 150k c/o "Buyers name". PST.)
4. Every time someone outbids, update. if there isn't a bid on it for 2 min, post again. if there still isn't a bid, post again, add "Final Call!" to the end. (Me: [Some unidientified iLvl63 item] 500k c/o "New Buyers name". PST. Final Call!)
5. If someone bids, start over from 3. if no one bids, whisper the buyer and either join there game, or have them join yours. trade the item for the gold. be careful of trade scams. if you think there trying to scam call them on it. stay calm, stay cool. don't click-and-drag into the window. right click. if they really are trying to scam, leave game and start over from #2.

"Voy, WHY? are you dumb?!? you could get a 10m item!"

Yes, you could. but, you have a 5% chance, or lower, of your item being worth big gold. with this, you have a 70% chance of EVERY ITEM being worth at least 100k.

So, you sell 10 items that end up being junk, you make 1.5 m

If in those 10 items you get an item that happens to be worth 1m on the AH, you've still come out ahead.

and the more you sell, the better it gets, because if you sell 20 items, and make 3m, then if you get an item worth 1.5m you're still ahead.

over the weekend the best item i sold was worth about 500k to the seller. he bought it for 150k.

The best sale i made was worth 650k. the buyer salvaged it because it was garbage.

I sold about 25 items over the weekend, and made around 3m. not one item was worth more than 500k.

(for a bit of additional gold, save your 62 items as well. they will sell for around 10-25k.)

The only caveat to this is: save all 60-62 rings and ammys. 60 rings/ammys will go for around 100k, 61 rings/ammys 200k, 62 rings/ammys 300k.
Hellion Crossbows sell really well.

There's a market here for gambling players. you can capitalize on it for a smoother, if lower, gold income.

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A spreadsheet to assist in determining optimal farming efficiency, between MF and Acts

Heres the spreadsheet

436 elite kills varying my MF from 0 to 323 (with and without Valor) and logged every rare drop.

• Base rate is about 0.37 rares per elite
• Each point of magic find adds about 0.0028 rares per elite
• Elites drop 2 blues, 1 white and 50% chance for an additional white
• Nephalem Valor adds MF/GF. At 5 stacks an extra rare drops completely independently of the base drops.
• For a basic Butcher run (11 elites and 2 bosses), 250% MF will net you about 60% more gear

I just added my raw data to the spreadsheet. There is a gap in the data for 5-NV runs between 100% and 200% total MF, if anyone has similar data that could act as a proxy here

visual guide here: d3mf.webs.com/

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PSA: Don't listen to people when they say the Dank Cellar is good for rare drops

I've read, on a number of occasions, people talk up the Dank Cellar as a good place to get both tons of gold and easy rares. To test this claim myself and a few friends repeatedly farmed the Dank Cellar while noting down drop rates. While I have the data for sets, legendaries, rares, and magic drops I decided to only display the rare counts as thats what people generally care about.

Note that the Dank Cellar is also an amazing place for Gold, but counting gold on each run without it taking forever is a pain so we opted out of doing that.

Here is the chart that shows how frequently the Dank Cellar spawns (since it is a RNG based spawn):

Basically, after 2071 runs on the cellar we had a ~50% spawn rate.

Here is a chart showing how frequently rare items drop during the 50% of the time that the Dank Cellar successfully spawns:

That's only an 8% drop rate. So of the 50% of the time the dank cellar actually appears you only end up with an 8% drop rate on rares. I haven't dug into iLevel specifically, but at first glance it appears that iLevel 60+ items only drop 18% of the time that a rare does happen to drop.

Finally, here is the total loot spread for all of the runs including magic, legendary, sets, and rares:

TL;DR: Use the Dank Cellar for gold and don't expect good rare/legendary drops unless the RNG gods love you. Also, don't tell others its a good place for rares.

I should also note that this was done with each person wearing ~220% MF/GF gear.

Why did I write this? First of all, I enjoyed gathering the data and time enjoyed isn't time wasted. Whether this benefits anyone or not is irrelevant, I wanted to see the drop rates and spawn rates for myself.

Second, despite what some people have been arguing with me about, I have specifically heard people say that the DC is a good place to efficiently farm rares and items in Act 1. I simply present this to show how efficient it really is, and backup the claim that doing regular 5NV farming runs is more efficient than DC runs. Also, Act 1 is fairly easy, so it nearly has the same risk: none.

To those of you who are saying "uberamd, you're an idiot, nobody thinks DC runs are efficient", I just say OK. Fine. Nobody thinks that. Please take your elitest attitude and head to a different post. I didn't start this to argue with anyone. Refute what I've read and heard all you want, I can assure you that I haven't been talking to imaginary people about this.

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An in-depth guide to inferno Act 3 Tower Elite Farming

First off I will like to show of two videos, where somebody explains the general premise. I will go into a bit more depth, and explain some of the problems I have solved after.



As you can see in the vids, he runs through from the last waypoint available, from quest III-7(b):

Run through that level and get through the door. This spawn is WRONG:

This spawn is right:

Until you get the right one, leave and resume, and run through the tower again. Once you get the right one, when you leave and resume, you go back to the checkpoint you got when you entered the right zone. This is very important, and greatly speeds up the runs. Getting the checkpoint is the hard part.

You are on a big stairway, the immediate area to the right is one of the platforms where you want to 'drag' elite packs. You run up to them and agro them, then get right up to the edge, and die. You respawn at the top of the stairs. Proceed to dps them down without getting hurt! When they get low, swap out to full MF gear, and finish the job for good loot.

The red lines are for mobs/bad places you are standing, green are for good places to stand.

Here are bad places to stand if they have Teleport(TP), Mortar(MR) or Frozen(FR). They can and will kill you:

Here are much better places to stand, but can still be a bit weird sometimes:

Down the stairs you started on, there is a small bridge, and to the left of it you can see the platform below you. Here is another area to drag elites, using the same method described above. This is a bad place to stand. Small gap, hard to find the right angles to get everything:

This is much better. Easy to drag them to the general area, you can even stand out of the enrage AoE from the right places here. And of course, out of range of TP, MR and FR:

This also works, the mobs often get stuck on the circled areas. You are safe right in the corner there, with good vision as well:

This is very, very bad. Often, when initially checking if any groups have spawned, we will be surprised by 3 teleporting spearmen, who happily jump the gap and ace us. Again, its only TP, FR and MR you have to worry about, but make sure you know the affix before you stand here:

That sums up most of it. You fight your way through all of the random whites (be careful of the ghoul spawns) and find elites, dragging them to the death zones specified. Goblins are really common, probably just under 50% chance of finding one imo. Typically find 2 elite packs, but sometimes 1 and sometimes 4.

If you get a bad pack annoying you on the stairs, just leave/resume to reset. Seriously, its not worth the battle.

Remember, that once you have found the right spawn once, you NEVER have to run through the previous section until you lose the checkpoint by swapping missions. If you leave/resume and you are in town, the game has spawned the wrong instance of the tower. Just leave/resume until you get the right one again, you will respawn on the stairs when its right.

Keep in mind that I'm not preaching 'awesome' drops, simply the best method I have found for dropping the most rares in the shortest time. Act 3, so up to ilevel 63, I run it with 4 people, we get 1-2 rares per pack on average. Roughly 10 rares every ten minutes for the group, and we share pretty everything.

Skill recommendations:

Demon Hunter: I run hungering arrow/devouring, and nether tentacles. SS is a must for reflect damage groups. Bat companion is perfect for spamming more tentacles, for more dps. Other spells are optional, I use caltrops with the slow rune to make the ghouls easier to handle, and to keep any fast packs under control.

Wizard: The wizards I run it with use the homing magic missile, and the really big arcane ball. Venom Hydra is awesome for dps, but can be tricky to land over the wall. Same goes for blizzard. Other skills are optional. Update from wizard: Arcane w/Celestial, Magic Weapon w/Force Weapon gives more dps too.

Barbarian: Obviously can't dps it himself, but Ignore Pain with the group rune really for reflect damage packs, and helps to clear out the whites with us. Another soldier standing there in MF gear.

Monk: Get the skill that increases party damage, bring your healing spells too. Healing is great for reflects damage.

Witch Doctor: Really not much to say, have never run it with a WD. Splinters I'm guessing, maybe the poison geyser for your spender. I don't think any spawns will be useful over the gap.

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Diablo 3 crafting = consistent income

Consistent income is the goal of this post. The name of the game is supplying players with what they want. Namely, gear that helps them improve the statistics they care most about.

I originally thought that you needed to just craft and craft until you had the best gear, salvaging anything less than optimum. I was absolutely and totally wrong. Over time, I’ve realized that the majority of players aren’t willing to buy the most expensive gear, simply because they can get by with less than perfect. Sure, when you have a perfect item it sells for a ton of money, but it also takes way too much to create one.

How then can we come up with a method for making gold/money through crafting that results in consistent income?

The most commonly sought after affixes are the following:

• Primary Stat
• Magic Find
• Gold Find

For certain items, such as boots, special affixes top the normal “best” ones. Boots have something called +Movement Speed and since it only appears on boots, that’s a big reason why players will buy them.

For weapons, the most highly sought after statistic is DPS. Anything with +Damage and +Attack Speed will result in much higher DPS than the base version of the weapon.

Step 1: Get Crafting Materials Cheaply
There are several different ways to get cheap crafting materials. One way is to log on when most players are not playing, such as Saturday mornings, and buy as many underpriced materials as possible.

Another method is to bid on items which are selling for less than the normal cost of the crafting materials that they create. Since it’s easy to figure out what something salvages into in Diablo 3, this is a really easy way to grab tons of cheap materials. Just place as many bids as you can find deals for that are under 24 hours.

A third way to get cheap materials is to ask in trade chat. Often, players will be willing to sell their materials for less than the price of the auction house, so long as it isn’t more than a 15% decrease. Why? Because that way they avoid the 15% fee for the auction house. They get more money and you get a cheaper product.

So what salvages into what crafting materials? Magic items salvage into dust (blue). Rare items salvage into rare materials (yellow). Legendary items salvage into legendary materials (orange). Each "tier" of item has a small chance to salvage not only into a corresponding crafting material but also one tier higher. So you have a small chance to salvage a magic item and end up with both a blue and yellow crafting material. Each act has its own blue, yellow, and orange tier crafting materials.

Step 2: Diversify Your Crafting
Instead of crafting one item over and over again until you get a perfect version, craft one or two of each item type. Don’t just craft the items with the most affixes, or the ones with special affixes like boots (+movement speed). Basically, do your best to create a motley selection of items. If you end up with 20 different item types for your 20 auction slots (10 on each auction house) then you did a great job.

Craft a handful of each type. If you want, you can craft one of each, but I would suggest two to three in one sitting.

Step 3: To Sell Or To Salvage?
The hardest part of selling crafted items is figuring out what to throw away. Let me use general terms that can apply to all items.

Take the maximum stats for an item. If you get maximum for any one stat then the item is definitely a keeper. If you get a combination of one max stat plus any other valuable stat then it is a really good item. If it’s perfect in more than one stat then it will sell for tons.

If all of the stats on the item are below 50% of the perfect version, then I would salvage it.
If you have at least one stat above 50% then keep it and eventually try to sell it.

Remember, you’re going for a diverse group of items, so don’t sell more than one unless you have multiple “perfect”s.

It’s better to sell a boots with 75% stats, gloves with 75% stats, and belt with 75% stats then it is to sell three belts with 80% stats. Diversifying makes a huge difference on how many auctions you end up selling.

How do you tell the max affixes for an item? Simply go to Diablonut and look for your item. Then scroll down and click on the affixes tab like this one below.

Step 4: Perfect Pricing
If an item isn’t perfect, then it doesn’t deserve a “perfect” price. For each item, try to do the following:
Look up comparable items to determine your price. Get a feel for the competition. If there’s tons of items then undercut the lowest one and just get your money as quickly as possible. If there’s very few with similar stats then decide if you don’t mind waiting for the others to sell by pricing yours higher.

For perfect items, the sky is literally the limit. Price at 5 times any non-perfects of the same item.

If you don’t have the time to figure out a price for your items (let’s face it, some of us can’t afford the 2-3 minutes per item), then just use 10x the crafting cost as a rough estimate for non perfects and 50x for perfects. I would HIGHLY suggest looking up the price if you find a perfect.

As a new auctioneer, your best bet is to take the time to learn the value of items and put the time in. If you can’t do this for all your items, try to do it for one or two each time you post. This will help reduce the number of items you don’t sell.

Pricing Against the Right Competition
When someone searches on the auction house, they tend to search for one criteria at a time. So if they want movement speed, and your rare boots have the maximum amount, they will have more armor than similar magic items and therefore appear at the top of the list for that user's search.

When people sell their items, they sometimes forget that they don't have to compete against all perfect stats at once. Like a pair of boots with max movement speed, max gold find, max magic find, etc. If a person only cares about movement speed, then they will buy your less expensive "almost perfect" pair simply because that's the only stat they are looking for.

Make sense?

Example stats: (assume 10 is the max for all stats on a particular pair of boots)

Pair 1: 10 gold find, 10 movement speed, 10 magic find, 10 intellect. - 300,000 gold

Pair 2 (your pair): 5 gold find, 10 movement speed, 1 magic find, 3 intellect. - 50,000 gold

If someone searches for movement speed, your pair will come up second. Despite the fact that your boots are vastly inferior, the buyer will choose you because they only care about movement speed. Due to this fact, you could probably sell your boots for much more, such as 150,000 gold.

Step 5: Mules
Once you get into a rhythm of buying materials, crafting, and selling, you will inevitably end up with more items than you are capable of selling. Don’t salvage these though! You never know when a drought of materials will happen and you’ll need to rely on these items to make money.

Store everything you can, and organize it according to perfect and lesser degrees of perfect affix roles.
I’ll let you come up with your own method of storing, but basically you want to create a bunch of extra characters who all have names that identify their role.

You could create a Wizard called “Wizard” or “Wizloot” that keeps all of your Intellect and Wizard specific items. Basically, come up with a reasonable method for storing your items on extra characters (affectionately known in the community as mules).

Using mules, you really don’t need more than an entire storage tab on the shared stash. That way you can quickly move items from your main to your mules. You really only have to do this once, since you can sell from any character’s inventory when posting auctions.

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