I stumbled across this forum not too long ago, didn't know a site like this existed. I've used a lot of the AFK farming methods mentioned here until they got fixed. Recently I discovered a new method to AFK farm that should not be as easily patched like the others. This method does not get any significant gold or XP, only legs but this is the main goal of AFK farming anyways, as the gold and XP aren't that great in the previous methods. As far as I know, this has not been mentioned elsewhere so I decided to sign up and share this with you guys.
The concept is simple, but the execution takes optimization for your class/skills/gear. Basically, this method takes advantage of the guaranteed leg you get after x hours. Here's a quote from blue on this.
We do have a safety net in place to help even out those long periods without a Legendary drop in the form of (what we call) the “unlucky” bonus. This bonus slowly increases your Legendary drop rate over time and is based on the amount of time you’ve spent fighting monsters without seeing a Legendary drop normally.
This is the basis for all the previous AFK farming methods; it is why killing trash whites will still net legs over time. It seems the timer is roughly 2 hrs before you are guaranteed a leg. However, you DO NOT HAVE TO KILL ANYTHING for the timer to count up, you just have to be engaged in combat. See where I'm going with this? The concept to this method is simple and as follows:
1) Find any large group of monsters (No longer requires infinite spawn locations!)
2) Use a method that will allow you to slowly kill them while afk over several hours
3) ???
4) Profit
Depending on how you do it, a large pack can last for 10+ hours. It will not last indefinitely but will be long enough fort a night's sleep or a day's work. You can easily "reset" by making a new game and starting again. I have done this and gotten the 1 leg/2 hr average that I've been getting with previous infinite spawn AFK methods. The trick is optimizing your set up, but once you do you can start it up trivially.
Here's how I do this with my WD, but this method works with any class. The farm spot I use is A3 Areat Core where it spawns a bunch of those small trash mobs. I stack a lot of LPS and toughness. For my WD passives I use jungle fortitude, blood ritual and physical attunement to stay alive. I also have the ring that doubles your LPS based on your life, forgot the name, as well as St. Andrews Gage for the periodic shield. This shield gives me a buffer time for my LPS to catch up so I stay alive. I also have the shoulder that makes everything not take durability damage.
I run around aggroing everything I can, easily 50+ since there are so many of those little guys. I stick my guy in a corner so I only get attacked by a few at a time while the others wait in line. I spam Hex-Hedge Magic using something to hold down my key to not be afk. Hedge magic is perfect since it summons a guy that does no damage and heals me to stay alive.
For my kill method I use a low level item that has some thorn damage and Bul-Kathos's Wedding Band. Bul-Kathos deals 0.4% of their max life in damage (also heals you, bonus!). Here's a quick table of how much damage Bul Kathos deals by itself:
Time(min) - % Health remaining
0 - 100
1 - 79
2 - 62
5 - 30
10 - 9
20 - 0.81
40 - 0.0066
The ring itself can not kill anything so I use a little thorn damage to finish them off and the first mob dies in about an hour. Since the ring is AOE, once the first one dies, others slowly follow at a steady pace every 10-20 min. I usually wake up to 3/4s dead and several legs. I just remake a game and in 3 min I've aggroed a bunch and set it up again (no more RNG luck to find a specific spawn location anymore!).
So it takes some optimization to get it set up and depends on what gear/skills you have access to, but once you have it down it will work forever. The ring helps, but I'm sure you can figure out another way to do it, be creative.You also might have more luck at different locations and with other mobs. Good luck!
