Another "Cursed Hold" Inferno Run and Results

I tabulated another "Cursed Hold" Inferno Run and felt it was more representative of what a player might find.

With 14% Gold Find, 0% Magic Find (not including Nephalem Valor), I encountered 5 Blue/Champion Packs and 3 Event Bosses.

I picked up around 35k in gold, but made 56k after selling worthless magic items.

I found 38 magic items, ranging from levels 54 to 60 (average level 58).  I also found 8 rares ranging from levels 51 to 60 (average 57).  One of these rares was even worth keeping.

In all, it took 26 minutes and 40 seconds.

Oh and one last tip, if you're looking for the Butcher end zone in "Halls of Agony Level 3," avoid the following:

If you see this area, you're headed toward the utterly useless waypoint.  No champions or uniques generate in this set piece so just turn around.

Value of an Act 1 Inferno Run - "The Cursed Hold"

As mentioned in an earlier post today, we recommend that Inferno Act 1 farmers begin their runs in "The Cursed Hold."  To illustrate the payoffs, I just did a solo run with a level 60 Monk with the following stats:

18 Minutes, 40 Seconds:

That's with a Mantra turned on that boosted Dodge and Armor...and never you mind my sad little Vitality score!  I managed to not-die and only used two health potions to boot!

My route was mostly direct.  In fact, I may have taken the shortest routes possible.  In "Halls of Agony Level 2," I recommend making a straight line directly away from the waypoint to get to the exit.  Even though I took a very short route I managed to acquire 5 Nephalem Valor stacks.

I should note that you may trigger an event in the area directly outside the "Halls of Agony Level 2."  I did not encounter the event on this run but you may fight an additional Unique boss.

In terms of loot, I have found set pieces and legendaries although I did not find anything spectacular this time.  The chart below summarizes the magic items I scored with 14% Gold Find and 30% Magic Find (in addition to Nephalem Valor):

I also picked up 21,569 gold and 6 Tomes of Secret.  That became 34,067 gold when I sold all the items I picked up (except for one which I am going to sell on the AH).

For those of you particularly curious, I've put these two maps of my route in the "Halls of Agony."

Inferno Run - Act 1

Based on my observation, the key to a good inferno run requires two things: a high concentration of baddies to whomp on and enough champion/unique monster packs to reach 5 Nephalem Valor.

Most of Act 1 is rather spread out and has the player chasing down leads to discover the identity of the mysterious stranger.  At the end of the act, however, the player crawls through Mad King Leoric's crazy dungeon (how many peasants died in its construction no one knows) which features narrow avenues packed with cultists and offers plenty of champion/unique packs to fight.

A good place to start is here, "The Cursed Hold":

And continue until you kill the Butcher.

Now those of you afraid to take on the Butcher can always skip that last Boss fight.  If you are going to venture an attempt, I have a small tip that may come in handy.  If the Butcher fight drags on too long, the floor will begin to flood with annoyingly constant flame.  You can avoid these by standing at the very southern end. Now surviving the fire won't help kill the Butcher, but it can clutch the victory if you're just within grasp of killing him.

In the image below you can see our party of hapless heroes dead except for one surviving monk exploiting this bug.  I imagine it'll be hotfixed soon so try it while it's hot!

Max Stats on Armor @ Level 60

I made a small update to the Google doc posted up earlier today to include more categories including: maximum attack speed % bonuses, critical chance %, resistances, and an armor estimate.

Again, these are based on observations of the AH and I will continually update these lists (and add additional levels).

Maximum Stats on Armor @ Level 60

Level 60 and Max Stat Boost on Items

To help better keep an eye on the Auction House from day one, my friends and I have gathered some interesting spreadsheets.  When we hit level 60, we realized that the game takes on a very different tone than the journey of 1-59.  Anyone who has attempted inferno, except this guy, knows that it can be terrifying challenge requiring excellent gear and intense skill.

In that vein, I attempted to catalogue the highest primary stat boost available on the 11 armor slots (strength/dexterity/intelligence).  My findings were as follows (not including exceptional legendary items):

Google Doc

As I played the game I noticed that certain items tended to have higher stats than others.  The spreadsheet makes clear that for each stat there appear to be two items which generate higher stat bonuses than others.  This may be intentional, or could be a flaw on my part (since my data is coming from the AH and is an incomplete snapshot of D3 items).  In any case, these items have higher stat boost of the following types:

Dexterity:  Boots, Gloves
Intelligence:  Gloves, Helm
Strength:  Shoulder, Belt
Vitality:  Chest

Amulets can feature high stat boosts of any type.

The items line up with our expectations of body position and character stat (head for intelligence, feet for dexterity).  Apparently, no one at Blizzard does squats where TRUE strength is formed but there you have it.  For those of you trying to optimize two stats (get your resists up!), hope you find this helpful.

Real Money Auction House Delayed Indefinitely and Why It's a Good Thing

Welcome Diablo fans!  We're nearly two weeks into Blizzard's latest and greatest incarnation of the Diablo series and so congratulations to those of you who have weathered the twin-storms of Hell's vile armies and Blizzard's constant battle with server stability.

In that vein, it should come as no surprise that Blizzard recently decided to delay the Real Money Auction House (RMAH) indefinitely.  For those of you just tuning in, the RMAH was going to be a place where players could meet and exchange in-game gold/items for real hard cash (with Blizzard pocketing a hefty 15% transaction fee).  So for the time being, we will have to settle on using the in-gold Auction House (AH).  Well, unless you want to go through disreputable 3rd party sites that change about $3 for 100k in gold.

I was initially skeptical when I heard about the RMAH.  I'm tired of companies attempting to monetize every single transaction in a video game.  But after the release of D3, I quickly became a huge fan of the AH and have used it extensively.  While I do not plan on letting Blizzard bleed more of my cash, I am now content that others may feel differently.  I am also very curious to see how the RMAH will function and where the trade of gold-to-cash will eventually settle.  That said, I am glad Blizzard chose to delay the RMAH.

E-commerce has existed stably for well over a decade now, but still, I tend to feel the slight tinge of skepticism every time I make a purchase online.  As a result, I tend to restrict my online activity to only the most reputable of sites.  When my credit card info goes across the net, I want 99.9999999% assurance that nothing will go wrong.  And on this vitally important area, Blizzard fails.
 
The AH constantly goes offline.  Prices fluctuate on goods radically.  Some of my auctions disappear, only to reappear with hilarious results:

My point is, the AH does not function to the level that I would require to use actual money.  I believe Blizzard is the victim of it's own success, players are flocking to their servers and placing demanding loads on the game and the AH.  I am not angry or upset at this naturally occurring problem (remember Diablo 2's Duriel memory leak issue, oh gods, I WAS ONLY 17).

We should all feel glad that Blizzard has acknowledged the problems facing the RMAH, and rather than jumping on the money train, have decided to hold back until the system is ready.  Now I must go and try to place a pair of pants on the AH for the 15th time...

-Z