Diablo 3: Inferno - A Wizards story

Once I got to level 60 and Inferno I thought life was good...

About a third of the way through Act 1 things got really tough which usually means it's time to upgrade.

The only problem is that the high end items are very expensive to buy on the Auction House.

I has about 100k in the bank which will barely buy one medium item.

Enter gold farming

Once you get to level 60 Blizzard added Nephalem Valor. Every elite you kill gives you +25% gold/item find which lasts 30min (and resets the timer). You can kill up to five elites to get +125%. I found some cheap gold find items on AH and have +95% gold find as a base.

So far I found a couple of nice areas to get gold.

Inferno: No NV, but the Dark Celler out side the Old Ruins usually has 3-5k and there is sometimes a well were you can get another 2-4k. You can do this over and over again (each run only takes a minute or two, but the celler and well don't always spawn, about 40% spawn rate).

Hell: Doing a Butcher run, I can usually get 5NV (+125%) and about 60k. Then the three crypts in the cemetary while NV is still active. The brings in another 40-50k.

I read were others are making 300k per hour, but I think I'm only aroung 150k/hour.

Once I get enough to buy some decent equipment, I'll start back up in Inferno.

You can also load yourself up with Gold Increase items.
So where do you get Nephalem Valor?

Ross wrote:You can also load yourself up with Gold Increase items.
So where do you get Nephalem Valor?

I do, I have a set of equipment for normal adventuring and another for farming.

You get Nephalem Valor automatically at level 60.

I guess it's an insentive to keep playing your level 60 char since you don't go up in level anymore.

After farming for a few days I made over 1M gp. Bought a few new items and decided to try adventuring again.

Night and Day.

The monsters that use to take me out in one hit were now falling before me with ease. I was able to complete Act I with little problem.


Act II
Looks like Blizzard thought things were a bit too easy and upped the monsters a bit more...

The only thing I could really upgrade at this point was my weapon and skills.

I ended up switching to a 2-handed weapon (kinda funny watching my wizard run around with a big two handed hammer) with over 1k DPS. It's a bit slower than what I'm used to and ended up switching my main attack power to compensate.

Went back through Act I and basically walked through the monsters once I got the hang of the new powers and tactics.

Will be trying Act II again soon.

Act II:
Progressing slowly...

The normal monsters and bosses aren't too bad. The elite and champions are very difficult, some almost impossible.

I've had to evade many of the tougher elites in Act II which means its time for equipment upgrades again.

Currently at:
Health ~26k
DPS ~22k
Armor ~4k
Resist All ~600

Upgrading my weapon will be costly as all the one I seen in the AH are 1M+.

Currently searching for deals on Int 140+/Vit 140+/ResistAll 50+ items in the AH.

No good farming spots in Act II. Hopefully I can get through Act II without dying too much. I hear Act III is a bit better (tougher, but better maps and loot ).

Sounds like it's time to say screw Inferno. It's not like you get anything cool out of finishing it.
You should just start a new character.

Ross wrote:Sounds like it's time to say screw Inferno. It's not like you get anything cool out of finishing it.
You should just start a new character.

But I want to beat the game!!!

I want the satisfaction of melting Diablos face off with a Venom Hydra or Disintegrate.


Looking at some of the forum threads I need to start spending about 500k per item to regear to finish Act II. This is probably why I'm struggling since my gear was about 50k-200k each.

I'd sugest playing in public games at least for Act II until you get to the juicier farm grounds in Act III. The game seems much easier with a party than solo (which I think is good)

My monk can't finish hell. I'm in the last half of act 4 make my way up to Diablo.
When i run into a group of 3 champions with those laser beams I'm toast.
Currently at:
Health ~20k
DPS ~12k
Armor ~5k
Resist All ~400

Need to do a lot of farming to make enough to upgrade.

bradly wrote:I'd sugest playing in public games at least for Act II until you get to the juicier farm grounds in Act III. The game seems much easier with a party than solo (which I think is good)

I think that depends on your class.
The larger the party the tougher the monster are.
But it would feel easier for squishy wizards, DHs and witch docs with defender types up front.

For some reason my wizard seems to die less solo.

I tend to play much slower/cautionsly than others. I'll send out a hydra to see if there are any monsters close and blast any that come to attack. Then inch forward and repeat. It's slow going, but works for me.

In a party there is a lot more chaos with monsters coming in from all directions. Since the monsters are tougher, I die quicker.

Made it to inferno while playing with Damon.
The Elites & Champs in act 1 are nasty.
Have to do a lot of running around to stay alive.

Spent 500K on upgraded items but don't see a big improvment in stats.
Currently around:
Health ~22k
DPS ~15k
Armor ~6k
Resist All ~500

We'll see if it make a difference tonight.

Looks like I'm not alone...

I've been reading this Wizard's Inferno Guide and it sheds a lot of light on the issues I've been running into.

I haven't checked, but they should have guides for other classes as well.

Though I do need to upgrade a few items, the biggest mistake I've been making is trying to kill all monsters I encounter. Some are just not killable solo or not worth the trouble.

Another mistake I've been making is trying to get moderate Int/Vit on all items. It does increase my DPS, but the costs is skyrocketing. It's better to get some items with really high values in Int (for a wizard) or Vit, both aren't needed.

Storage is getting full and am starting to sell stuff off.

If there anything of interest, let me know.








A few I was planning on selling on AH for 100k+ (Hammer Jammers and a couple of others). But if anyone needs an item or to, it's yours.

Damn dude, all of your "B" items are way better than my highest PC's main items! And you're still needing a serious upgrade?? Any of those will help me so no need to save anything in particular for me. Next time we're online together, just give me anything & it's better than what I have... (& thanks!)

I'd like the Keen Talon and Royalty Style if possible.
Thanks.

I could probably use the Spell Hate wand when my wizard hits 60.

Holy crap! Thanks to those 2 weapons Ken gave me, I went from 4k dps to 8k dps (& I was only that high because of items Ross gave me). I went from dying over & over and not being able to get enough gold to pay for repairs, to clearing the catapults. I'm pretty sure I'm still the weakest 60 around... Oh well. Thanks again Ken!

Mick wrote:I'd like the Keen Talon and Royalty Style if possible.
Thanks.

Keen Talon went to Brad... I'll save the amulet.

If I see another monk weapon, I'll save it as well.

No big deal, thanks anyway.

Keen Talon went to Brad... I'll save the amulet.

I think the Keen Talon is a hand crossbow. Is Brad's monk using a crossbow?

Mick wrote:

Keen Talon went to Brad... I'll save the amulet.

I think the Keen Talon is a hand crossbow. Is Brad's monk using a crossbow?

Sorry, you're right. I gave Brad the two monk weapons. I'll put the xbow and amulet aside for you.

Hmm, I'm not sure if its a bug or intended behavior, but...

My damage output went up by a lot when I started using the Cold Blooded passive skill.

If I case Blizzard, which chill/slows targets in an area, then any other damage I do also benefits from the +20% boost.

I always thought Cold Blooded only worked for cold powers. It looks like it works on all powers while they're "chilled".

I met a guy on fb who said he cleared out Inferno and makes extra $$ farming Inferno at RMAH. He said his favorite character is the wizard because "there's a glitch where you can continually spam 'blizard'".

I do that.

Currently reading a thread on Critical Mass:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?834642-Has-anyone-experimented-with-a-Critical-Mass-build/page10

With it, if you have high enough "crit chance", you can permanently stun groups of monsters and not run out of Arcane Power.

I tend to run out of AP pretty often since I use Blizzard and Disintegrate. With high enough "AP on crit" I should be able to stun/disintegrate without running out of power.

I'll have to check out the AH when I get home to see how much this type of an upgrade will cost.

Currently I have:
crit chance 22%
AP on crit 0

I'll need:
crit chance 35%+
AP on crit 20+


One of the guys running a Critical Mass build showed a screen shot. I was surprised that I have higher health, Int, armor and DPS than him. But he has a much higher crit chance, crit damage, resistances (~1000 in everything). He also has around 55M in the bank to afford the better toys...

I've been using a Crit Mass Build and it's been working for me.
I'm not even equipment spec'd for it yet.

Didn't get a chance to play much yesterday but I did spend 200k or so on the build.

I haven't tested it out yet, but have 33% crit chance, +208 crit damage, and +19 AP on crit (giving up about 7k DPS).

Should be enough to give it a go in inferno...

The build I'm currently looking at includes:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ViXRYO!fgW!YZabcc
Energy Twister (Wicked Wind)
Disintegrate (Chaos Nexus)
Diamond Skin (Crystal Shell)
Hydra (Venom)
Frost Nova (Bone Chill)
Energy Armor (Prismatic)

Galvanizing Ward, Critical Mass, Cold Blooded

Close to mine.

I was using
-Hydra(Lightning), instead of Venom
-Blizzard(Snowbound) instead of Frost Nova
-Electrocute((Lightning Blast) instead of Energy Twister

I'll try Venom and Energy Twister and see how I do. I really like the damage output of Energy Twister.
Frost Nova seems like too long of a cool down right now. I'm only at Crit Chance of 21%, so I don't get the quick recharge that you get.
I'm a 56 Wizard, with 6,033 DPS, but only +50% damage for Crits.

Hey, are "tombs of secrets" common drops in Inferno? If so, save a few dozen for me. I ain't beating Hell anytime soon...

I just buy them from the Auction House if I need them.

Yeah, but I have no cash in my stash, and your computer doesn't crash immediately upon entering the AH...

Did you ever rebuild your computer? That should fix it.

"Rebuild my computer"? Me?? You know how silly that question sounds, don't you? I gotta be the most technoilliterate geek around...

If you have all of the disks and stuff that came with the computer bring it over one day and I can do it up for you, or I may be at my parents tomorrow and I can get you started.

You'll want to back everything up though, as far as files you want to save.

Still plugging away...

Got stuck in the water tunnels in Act II. After a couple of days of not making any progress I opened a game up to the public. Within a few minutes we had a full party and completed Act II (still died a lot, but at least I'm out of Act II.

I'll probably go back to farming Act I until I can afford better equipment. Probably about 3-4M way.

Tried Act III, briefly... didn't go well.

After a lot more farming I hit a mini Diablo lotto. I found a really nice rare item that I was able to sell for 4.5M.

With the sudden increase in gold I started bargain hunting and item flipping. I was able to buy a few weapons and armor with empty sockets, add a gem or two and re-list them. Made another 1M with that so far.

Inferno Act III:
After upgrading several items I can now kill most of the normal monsters. Having a rough time with the elites, but can kill some (after a death or two...).

I've noticed repair costs are steadily increasing, may need to stick to Act II a bit longer...

Keep saving your handmedowns for us! My wizard is strugling with Act 1 of Hell 53rd level, my monk with Act 4 Hell (60th). They are both in desperate need of item upgrades...

bradly wrote:Keep saving your handmedowns for us! My wizard is strugling with Act 1 of Hell 53rd level, my monk with Act 4 Hell (60th). They are both in desperate need of item upgrades...

Oh...

I've been selling/dusting quite a bit of stuff lately...

I've only been keeping stuff that is level 60+ (still have a couple of pages of stuff though).


Also, is your laptop still crashing during the game? I had several crashes over the weekend which I think were due to the system overheating. I had to start putting a book under my laptop and leave room under the vent for air to circulate.


Ross, if your wizard still needs a wand I'll have to find a new one for you. I ended up going back to the one I was saving for you. After changing my build again I couldn't find anything better for less than 6M.

Tried the Critical Mass Melee Wizard build for a bit yesterday... I'm very surprised Blizzard hasn't nerfed it.

It usually takes me 45-60min to do a Cemetary/Butcher run, with the melee build it took 25min with no deaths.

To use the CM melee build you need:
35% or better crit chance
15 or better Arcane Power on Crit
Frost Nova (Cold Snap)
Energy Twister (Wicked Winds)
Critical Mass passive
Evocation (optional)

In Play:
Move up to a group and use Frost Nova (freezes the monsters)
Repeatedly press Energy Twister and Frost Nova

ET has a high critical modifier and will reduce your cooldowns. With a high crit chance Frost Nova will be ready to use again in 1-2 seconds so as soon as they're thawed, you freeze them again. The more monsters around you the better and you get more criticals and can keep them frozen.

I'd say about 50% of the wizards I've seen in Act III are using this build.

Note:
There are several monster types this build doesn't do well against.
Shielding, Arcane (if you can't keep them frozen), Molten (have to watch where you stand), Electric (will do damage to you even when frozen).

Getting closer...

Made it to Diablo in inferno, but am so far 0 for 10 in attempts to finish the game. A few were solo attempts, the rest coop. Stage one is pretty easy, but the shadow clones in the second stage always wipe out the party.

One odd thing is that for Act 3 & 4 I had to swap out my weapon and powers. The CM/Melee build is much more effective, but lowers my DPS from 48k down to 28k.

Dwarmaj wrote:Getting closer...

Made it to Diablo in inferno, but am so far 0 for 10 in attempts to finish the game.

Churchill said, "If you find yourself going throug Hell, keep going." 'Hell'... When you reach Inferno, you can stop whenever! :-)

Got some advice on one of the Diablo 3 Wizards forum.
1. run away from the clones, they'll despawn after a bit
2. change out weapon for something with Life on Hit and a Socket (put in gem for 300 Life on Hit) for a total of ~800 LoH
3. Changed the rune on Energy Armor from Prismatic to Force to negate the auto kill shots.


Result:

Nice. Now you can join me and Mick on Guild Wars 2.

Congrats! Great end to the Wizard's story...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97bggI_GY64