My Observations on Farming

[hatoreehanzo 0]

Being the loot wh*re that I am, I thought I'd start this thread to not only give, but get insight on your farming experiences in this game. I've taken all classes to 70+ with multiple builds and here are my thoughts on the process. Keep in mind, none of this is of solid substance, but rather my experience.

 

 

 

- Best farming class hands down is the SW. I know he has secondary EP abilities which suck, but out of the four builds I've made with him (none included EP); he always brings in the goods.

 

- Other then more ** items and larger gold drops, "EP and % to find valuables" never noticably increased the *** drop rate.

 

- EP is a touchy subject as I'm still always seeing new trends. The classes I have made with it showed very odd results though... The biggest was my BFG seraphim with "up to level" EP and over a 100% to find valuables getting LESS drops then my CH Dryad with a dozen points into EP and 8% to find valuables.

 

- Items are NOT area specific.

 

- The best farming area has been the orc cave, statistically speaking. I know the 4 guardians have better rates, but they take a lot longer to kill and you could have already cleared the cave 10+ times.

 

- Bring the minimals. I also set my pickup preferences to 2 star and delete the lower grade items found, the more you start to fill up.

 

- I have never gotten a *** item from the Griffon. Yes, seriously.

 

- Never pass up elite mobs, even if it's out of your way.

 

- I get a lot of the same level/items drops; in excess of having 3-7 of the same item and level. This has happened on multiple characters.

 

- Classes get more class specific drops, but I did notice some consistancy with secondary class drops. SW get a lot of seraphim drops. Dryads get a lot of Inquisitor drops. Seraphims get a lot of High Elf drops. The rest hasn't been consistant enough to say.

 

- If you're not fond of the repetitive Orc Cave other good areas have been the desert, orc mountains, and jungle. I'm not going to say the swamp because I hate undead. I'm all about large, fast, mob grinding and even if they resurrect once; that's more time cleaning up.

 

- Survival bonus DOES increase drop rates. I wouldn't say the higher SB, the better the drop rate; but more towards it giving higher drop amounts at certain % points. ie: 5%, 10%, 15%. I'm still trying to find it's real method.

 

- When in doubt, explore. It always throws a monkey wrench in my methods when I'm killing non elite scarabs I came across in the desert and four *** items all drop at once.

 

- I have gotten 14 *** items in a row from the Orc Cave.

 

- Higher difficulties do not mean higher drop rates. The quality yes, the rate no. The 14 item bullet above was done in Silver on my DW SW.

 

- The Dryad without EP has had the least amount of drops statistically to any other character.

[treasure farmer 0]

wrong section bud

[Zinsho 0]

Moved to General Discussion.

 

As to the fact that EP doesn't have an effect, your mileage will vary afterall (just like the people in D2 that found amazing items without any MF at all... it doesn't guarantee better, it just means you have better odds of better items).

 

However to be anecdotal:

 

My TG pre level 65 was getting very few sets/uniques (maybe 2-3 per 5 levels type of thing). I take EP at 65, with +skills and relics it hits 60+, suddenly I'm typically getting 3-4 sets/uniques per level, and I'm leveling roughly as fast as I was before then. So it seems to have had an effect, of course there's no real way of knowing what caused the change in luck (And I had no items with %MF from EP equipped beforehand)

[Zonc1 0]

Uniques farmig: orc cave

 

Set items farming: Griffon, Kobold Chief, The Boar, Warewolf, Ice Lord and Thranak (same cave), Fire Lord, Holos, Harpy, Poison Lord and Forest Guardian. I noticed dragons have poor drop quality.

 

XP: SW area near warewolf village (swamp). Accept 5 quests and do them while grinding.

Turtle island where poison lord is. Turtles are easy to kill and give great XP (a bit slow so not easy to herd)