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Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

07/12/2012 By TLN

Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

INTRODUCTION

This guide is intended only to cover the basics of the wizard class in inferno; i.e. what the popular builds are and how to gear your wizard in a general sense. A friend of mine just hit 60 on his wizard and asked me to write something up for him so I decided to make it into this post in case anybody else is interested. It’s a general guide; if I don’t mention your build or your strategy it doesn’t mean I think it sucks, I’m just posting general information on what I perceive to be the popular builds and strategies. The guide is geared towards preparing for and clearing act3/4 inferno, and eventually farming act 3.

BUILDS

1) BLIZZARD KITING BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#blROQS!Ydf!bbbYZZ

Strategy:

This build’s strength comes from the use of two combos: Blizzard’s strong 60% slow + Venom Hydra’s stacking DOT pools, and Teleport + Illusionist. To play this build you want to engage from max distance (preferably the very edge of the screen) by dropping a hydra about halfway between you and the mobs and then dropping a blizzard on top of them and then a line of blizzards between you and them. This way the mobs will walk through your blizzard trail while slowed and take continuous damage from both the blizzard and the venom hydra. When possible, you spam your signature spell to add damage. Continue this while kiting. When/if the mobs eventually get to you, you take a hit (which is reduced to 35% of your HP by force armor) and then teleport away. Since you have illusionist, you can do this every time you take a hit. For sustainability in the longish fights vs. elites you need some form of healing – life regen/sec is the most effective in combination with force armor.

This is the build I used to clear inferno and after trying numerous other builds its what I’ve come back to and currently use to farm act 3. A lot of people find it boring but its very efficient. Since 1.0.3 I have not had to skip a single elite pack in act 3 while farming and I generally die less than once an hour farming act 3.

Pros/Cons:

+Least gear dependant of all the builds, great for new 60 wizards, but still scales well

+Extremely safe due to permanent Blizzard slow + Illusionist/Teleport

+Great AOE damage from Blizzard + Venom Hydra + Piercing Orb

-Some people find it boring

-You have to kite a lot, you can’t stand and tank like the prismatic armor builds

-Relies somewhat on skillful play to avoid taking hits

Choices/Variants:

Signature Spell – I like Piercing Orb for better AOE damage and for shielding/invulnerable minion packs, but some people prefer Magic Missile – Seeker.

Blizzard – Stark Winter is a viable alternative to Snowbound.

Teleport – Some people prefer Fracture to Wormhole, both are fine.

4th Skill – I recommend Force Weapon at lower gear levels, but once you get enough DPS you can switch to Diamond Skin, or if you find yourself dying too much. Some people think Familiar – Sparkflint is better than Force Weapon. Some people like Mirror Images or Frost Nova here too, but I don’t think they are as strong.

2) CRITICAL MASS BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VSYXhj!gWY!YZcbcZ

Strategy:

These builds are based primarily on utilizing high crit rate and the Critical Mass passive to constantly refresh cooldowns such as Frost Nova and Diamond Skin. Some use Prismatic Armor instead of Force Armor and build fairly tanky so that they can stand in melee range. They rely either on Spectral Blades or Energy Twister – Wicked Wind to trigger Critical Mass as much as possible. The Energy Twister variants are probably more gear dependant because you will need AP on Crit gear in order to not run out of AP, but the Spectral Blades variants probably require more defensive/resistance gear. These are the builds I have the least experience with, so I would refer people to http://www.windupwizard.com/ for more specifics on what’s probably the most popular variant of the build.

Pros/Cons:

+Much less kiting required, can often stand still and spam abilities

+Some consider it more fun/exciting, possibly more fast paced depending on the variant

+Able to put out massive dps – see the video of the Belial kill on the link above

-More gear dependant than the force armor builds

-Not nearly as safe as the blizzard/vhydra build since you are in melee range and don’t have teleport

-Requires careful play to make sure the combo doesn’t “fizzle out”

Choices/Variants:

Spectral Blades vs. Wicked Wind Prismatic Armor + Tanky gear vs foregoing that and relying on Diamond Skin + Frost Nova spam. Lots of variance in the damaging abilities used – some use meteor, some explosive blast.

3) ARCANE ORB BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#cRXOQS!YdU!YbaYZZ

Strategy:

These builds are kiting builds similar to the Blizzard build above, but replace Blizzard with Arcane Orb + Temporal Flux for the slow. At higher gear levels it’s possible to drop Temporal Flux altogether due to the damage output of Arcane Orb. The basic strategy is similar to the Blizzard build above; engage from max range, drop Hydra and spam Arcane Orb while kiting. When you get caught, you rely on Illusionist + Teleport to get away.

Pros/Cons:

+Less gear dependant than the Critical Mass or Archon builds

+High burst damage from hard hitting Arcane Orbs

+Fairly safe kiting build

-Not as safe as the Blizzard build since you are using a weaker/less reliable slow

-More gear dependant than the Blizzard build

-Relies on kiting, which some find boring

Choices/Variants:

Orb – Tap the Source is the most popular rune for Arcane Orb, but some people use Obliterate or Celestial Orb. To use these you probably need to add a signature spell, likely Magic Missile – Seeker.

Hydra – Arcane Hydra can be used instead of Venom Hydra to make the build safer by adding a more reliable slow. It is less damage, but not tons less and is perfectly viable/safer. Probably better at lower gear levels.

Teleport – Again, some prefer Fracture to Wormhole.

3rd and 4th Skills – Any combination of Diamond Skin / Force Weapon / Familiar – Sparkflint / Frost Nova / Mirror Images is fine.

Passives – At higher gear levels you can drop Temporal Flux for something else.

4) ARCHON BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VmjOQS!Ybg!YcacZZ

Strategy:

These builds revolve around being in Archon the most time possible and using it to quickly melt everything. They are the most gear dependant, but probably also the most efficient at the highest levels of gear. Your buffs such as Energy Armor, Force Weapon and Familiar persist into Archon form, which itself also adds 40% resists/armor. The goal is to buff your dps as high as possible, pop archon, and maintain it by killing tons of mobs to get a bonus to the duration from each kill. Once Archon ends your goal is to refresh it as quickly as possible so that you can do it again. Actually killing things with Archon is self-explanatory, just hold down right click and point at the mobs. Don’t forget that you likely don’t have an escape or CC spell though and will quickly die if you allow anything to actually get to you and hit you.

Pros/Cons:

+Insane speed/efficiency at high gear levels

+Hilariously fun to melt entire screens of enemies in 1-2 seconds and champ packs in 5-10 seconds

+Great AOE damage, great single target damage, trivializes certain boss fights

-Most gear dependant build

-Not very safe while in Archon form due to no escape spell or CC

-Weak/vulnerable when Archon is on cooldown

Choices/Variants:

Archon Rune – I think Improved Archon, Teleport or Pure Power are the best. Some people use Slow Time.

What you do when you aren’t in Archon is up for debate. Some people take Arcane Orb and try to farm or at least clear white mobs with that while Archon is down. Another strategy (the one in the build linked above) is to take Critical Mass and either Wicked Wind or Spectral Blades to try to refresh Archon as quickly as possible. I prefer the latter.

GEARING YOUR WIZARD FOR INFERNO

Tools: The Wizard DPS spreadsheet, the best way to compare gear and decide on potential DPS upgrades: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuCuIwwOof50dGpVRXhOYTZHNUJ3R1dWTmdNdS1TeWc#gid=1

The EHP calculator, an essential tool if you’re using force armor and very useful regardless: http://rubensayshi.github.com/d3-ehp-calculator/#intro

The maximum values of stats which can appear on gear of different slots: http://www.d3rmt.com/guides/diablo-3-item-stat-maximum-values/

Offense – Your primary offensive stats are int, crit chance, crit damage, attack speed and bonus damage, and not necessarily in that order. The relative value of all of these stats depends entirely on how much of them you already have, and the only good way to figure it out for you individually is with the DPS spreadsheet I linked above. Just as an example, for me with my current gear my equivalencies are as follows: 1% crit = 27.28 int, 1% crit damage = 4.47 int, 1% IAS = 22.29 int, and 1 average bonus damage = 2.52 int. Bonus damage is an often overlooked damage stat that can be very valuable and can often be found on jewelry for less cost than its worth because people overlook it. Stacking crit + crit damage is really the only way to get very high dps.

2h vs 1h + source is an endless debate, but after trying both extensively I prefer 1h + source, mostly because you can get crit chance on the offhand which I think at higher gear levels pushes 1H+OH over any 2h. If you are just starting out in inferno a good 2h may be cheaper and a better way to go initially.

Defense – Your primary defensive stats are vit, % life, bonus armor (which includes strength), resistances (which includes intellect), life regen, dexterity (everybody should have at least 100), movement speed (which includes IAS), and for some builds life on hit. Which of these stats and how much of them you want depends very much on whether you are using force armor or prismatic armor, which I’ll address more below.

Gearing by slot:

As you’ll have noticed from the link above, various different stats can appear or can not appear on different slots, and in different amounts. That means there is a strategy for which stats you want to look for on each slot. Generally, the slots you should focus on for offensive stats are your jewelry, helm, bracers, gloves, weapon and offhand, while you should focus on defensive stats on your shoulders, chest, legs, belt, and boots because, except for legendaries, those slots can’t spawn the good dps stats. Every slot should have some amount of int.

DPS gear:

Helm – You want the highest int and crit chance you can afford. A socket is nice, but not necessary and sometimes artifically inflates the price. Use a calculator to compare your gain from the % life on the socket to what you can get on an unsocketed helm in terms of vit and % life. This is one of the two slots (gloves are the other) that can spawn particularly high int, so this is a relatively cheap place to get a lot of it.

Gloves – You really want int, crit chance and crit damage all on this item. This slot, along with the amulet and the weapon, is the best place to look for crit damage. These three slots (gloves/ammy/weapon) are likely going to be both the most expensive and the most worth spending on. Again, one of the two slots that can spawn especially high int.

Bracers – Again you want int and crit chance here. There are a lot of these on the market, probably due to crafting, so this is a slot you can get a very good value on.

Amulet – Similar to the gloves, but more expensive. Int, crit chance and crit damage are all mandatory. Bonus damage is a nice plus as well, and can lead to you getting more of a bang for buck on this slot. For example, an amulet with +15-25 damage adds 20 average bonus damage, which for me would equate to an additional 50 int in terms of dps. IAS would be great but unless you are super rich you aren’t getting all of that on one amulet.

Rings – Crit chance and crit damage both spawn on this item, but the crit damage modifier on rings is fairly low and adds a ton to the cost of the item. Its often a better idea to skip it in favor of getting more crit chance, some bonus damage, or some IAS.

Weapon – If you’re just starting out this is going to be one of your biggest purchases, and is also your biggest opportunity to both get a ton of value or to vastly overspend. Basically, weapon DPS is highly overvalued by a lot of people, and the stats on the weapons are undervalued, although that is becoming less true as more people are figuring this out. For example, with my current gear I could replace my 789 dps weapon (with 126 int, 65% crit damage and a socket with a 90% crit damage gem) with a 1450 dps blue weapon with no stats and I would lose dps. A 1500 dps blue weapon with no stats would very slightly raise my dps. Obviously such weapons don’t even exist. The point is to use the spreadsheet when you make this purchase and actually figure out which weapons are best before you overspend for listed dps. Another thing is that weapon speed on a 1h matters when you are using an offhand and have bonus damage from gear, so you are generally going to want to buy either a sword, wand, or dagger. The 1.3 speed 1h axe can be acceptable too if it has good enough stats, but a 1.2 speed mace or spear needs much higher stats to be better so they probably won’t be cost efficient for you.

Offhand – Bonus damage is king on this item. Here’s a thread explaining some of the math on why that is: http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Strategy/comments/wfeii/wizwd_why_damage_is_king_on_offhands_and_why_you/ Basically at a minimum you want the numbers on the offhand to add up to 400, for a total of 200 bonus damage, bare minimum. Don’t buy anything less than that. 450 total is better and what you’ll want eventually, and 500 total is near perfect. The biggest stat to look for on this item is crit chance. You really want a source with the highest bonus damage and crit chance that you can afford.

Defense gear:

Shoulders – Int/vit/resists/life regen. Nothing special here, probably the most boring slot for wizards. I wore a blue archon spaulders with 170 int / a bunch of vit for the longest time, because there just isn’t anything special here. Probably best to pick up something like that if you’re on a budget. Good slot to get your resists as they are usually cheaper here than on chest/pants.

Chest – One of the two slots that can spawn a particularly high vit, the other being the pants. Also the slot that can spawn the most life regen. If you’re using a force armor build you want life regen here. Also, its almost always best to get one with 3 sockets.

Belt – Sort of like the shoulders, nothing really special here. It can spawn high strength so sometimes that’s a good find as strength = armor and you get 65% more of it from energy armor. Like shoulders, a good slot to get your resists as they are usually cheaper than on chest/pants.

Legs – Another slot to get your vit from. Get one with 2 sockets, it’s almost always better.

Boots – 11%+ movement speed is mandatory, and 12% is better. This is a slot that can spawn high dex so it’s a good place to make sure you’re over 100. Another good spot to grab resists potentially.

Force Armor vs. Prismatic armor builds:

If you’re going for prismatic armor you’re going to need a lot more EHP and resistances. If that’s the case, there really isn’t much to say other than just get as much as you can afford. However, for force armor its much more tricky.

Force armor reduces any hit to 35% of your HP, but it cannot reduce the hit by more than 100% of your HP. Therefore, Force Armor does one of four things when you get hit: A) The hit is for less than 35% of your HP. Force Armor does nothing. B) The hit is for more than 35% of your HP but less than 135% of your HP. The hit is reduced to 35% of your HP. C) The hit is for more than 135% of your HP but less than 199% of your HP. The hit is reduced by 100% of your HP and you live with a varying amount of life left depending on how hard the hit was. D) The hit is for more than 199% of your HP. Since Force Armor can only reduce it by 100% of your HP, you die.

I wrote two large posts about this in the past, one pre-1.0.3 and an update after 1.0.3. You can find them here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/ukkm9/wizard_how_to_get_the_most_efficient_use_out_of/ and here: http://www.diablofans.com/topic/54852-update-gearing-for-the-most-efficient-use-of-force-armor/page__p__951032#entry951032

The short story is that for Act 3 inferno you want 117.5k EHP in order to not take more than 35% of your life from any hit. This is fairly easy to obtain. Also, fire and physical are the most common sources of damage so you can fudge a little bit by getting those to 117.5k EHP while shorting the others a little.

Obviously, there are various ways to get to 117.5k EHP, because vit, % life, resistances and armor all contribute. However, the optimal way to do it is by raising resistances and armor as much as possible while reducing vit and % life. You will still need a good bit of HP, probably at least 20k, but if you can get to 117.5k EHP while keeping your life low your survivability will increase dramatically because you will get a much larger benefit from heals. This makes the life regen stat very strong. If you can get to 117.5k EHP with 20k hp, then 1k of life regen will full heal you in 20 seconds and heal a hit that is absorbed by force armor in 7 seconds.

AP on Crit:

This stat is important for some builds and only appears on Wizard Hats, Sources, and Wands. It’s expensive on good items and part of what makes the critical mass and arcane orb builds more gear dependant.

ABOUT ME – Full Credit for Guide goes to Prime_Meridian (from Reddit)

I’ve played a wizard as my main character since release. I cleared inferno on 6/7/12, pre-patch: http://imgur.com/4bbB6

My current stats in my farming gear: http://imgur.com/LKlTJ http://imgur.com/jAP3G

My current gear: http://imgur.com/vGN4S

The build I’m using in the previous screenshots: http://imgur.com/iJaPi

My follower for Act 3 soloing: http://imgur.com/mzUNa http://imgur.com/s0l9M

 

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50+ Useful Tips and Tricks for Diablo 3

06/19/2012 By TLN

Hey again my fellow nerds, here is a great list of useful tips and tricks for Diablo 3. 

Most Veteran players will know most of this, but I’m sure there are still multiple things everyone can get out of this post.  This is a repost from Reddit, and the names in ( *** ) is the contributors name on Reddit. 

The Original post can be found HERE. 

Enjoy and improve your PWN!

1 – CTRL + Mousing over and item on the ground (outside of inventory) shows stats so you aren’t forced it up. (kallell)

Doing this while having your inventory open should compare the item on the ground to what you currently are wearing as well. (broken1000)

2- There is a “force move” (labeled “Move” and is unbound by default) button that is unbound by default. This is helpful for running through packs of monsters and not accidentally clicking and attacking one. (need to manually bind) (kallell)

3- You can link items by bringing up the chat text box and shift + clicking an item, making it easier to show items to people to see if they need them or if you’re in different areas. (twincannon)

4- If you think you have an upgrade for someone you’re playing with, instead of asking him you can inspect him by right clicking his icon on the top-left. (twincannon)

5- Whites/grays sell for next to nothing and really aren’t worth the inventory space outside of the first act, just toss that junk for less town trips (make sure to check the prices in nightmare mode and beyond though, who knows if this will change later on). (twincannon)

6- Buy +2-4 damage magic rings ASAP, they’re pretty overpowered when they become equip able at level 6. Restart the game a few times if they don’t show up, or if they give a poor secondary bonus. (twincannon). Buy @ Radek the Fence: http://i.imgur.com/C0VXGh.jpg (Sf4tt)

7- Never sell magic items to a vendor as the crafting mats will probably sell for more in most cases (will change in retail but in beta, magic stuff sold for 50-75 usually and the essence sold for 150). Also rumors that you can trade the essence upwards, i.e. 10 normal mode essence for 1 nightmare mode one. (twincannon)

8- Don’t waste money on bigger stash early on, make mules to hold items, (twincannon)

9- If leveling up with a friend, designate one of you for leveling up the jeweler artisan (JC is MUCH cheaper) and one for blacksmith artisan, saving half the money required. (twincannon)

Although I don’t remember the exact numbers, the Blacksmith will require about ~700,000 gold to level up to max, while the jeweler will only take about ~45,000. (tolvinar)

10- You can hold left click to run around and simply tap shift to “stutter walk” fire instead of clicking the mouse (holding shift and casting will make you cast the ability in place,), works well for ranged characters to give your clicking finger a bit of a break. (twincannon)

11- If you’ve got a big friends list and don’t want people to join your game without your permission, or just want to play alone, there’s an option to disallow “Quick Join” under social options which is what makes your game show up with a “Join” button for friends (twincannon)

12-If you open your inventory (C or I), and THEN hold ctrl while mousing over the ground loot, it will pop out the compare box instead of just the item’s own stat box. (similar to when mousing over an item in your inventory — shows dps changes, etc.) (exuled)

13- And if you hold ALT it will compare to your off-hand/equip to your off-hand, while in inventory of course. Handy for dual-wielders. Also works on rings. (Nyctalgia)

14- You need to activate lecterns yourself. It is different than a chest as only you can activate your lecterns. If they don’t drop lore they can still drop gold. (rec916)

15- When you are leaving a game and the timer is counting down because you are not in town, your mouse does not work but your keyboard does. You may be frozen and getting beat up while waiting to leave the game but you can still fire off those skills with 1-4. (rec916)

16-Lore books give EXP, make sure to pick up all you can. (Only works on lore books you have not already picked up!) (ethereal4k)

17- Elective mode (off by default). Gives MUCH more customization on where to stick your skills on your bar. (KroBa)

18 – Advanced tool tips (off by default). Shows advanced skill information such as % damage increase and what the skill does (KroBa)

19- While each player gets their own loot and gold drops, the health globes you pick up are shared and will heal other players if they are nearby. (Tolvinar)

20- Hitting “g” will make your banner fly down wherever your mouse is pointing at. Shows off your achievements as well. (Tolvinar)

21- Hitting “f” will bring up your follower’s (templar’s) inventory. Don’t forget to choose his skills and give him equipment! (Tolvinar)

22- Once you begin the fight with Jondar, use town portal and then wait in town for about 2 minutes. Once you go back through the portal Jondar will have summoned about 50 skeletons. They will most likely be in a tight group so you can get big massacre bonuses from this.( Tolvinar) That tip with Jondar will be great if they still have the achievement to kill 20 monsters in a single hit. I never managed that in the beta. (Oneironaut2)

23- Pressing “alt” will make items on the ground show their names for 10 seconds. The time can be adjusted in the options menu. (Tolvinar)

24- Intead of playing with your pinky on the shift key and the rest of your appendages on numbers 1-4 try this. switch the hold key from shift (default) to the spacebar. I felt it more comfortable if I played spacebar instead of shift. (spaceboundmonkeys)

25- Pressing ‘Z’ zooms in on your character until you press it again. (nathanstratton2010)

26- Checking the advanced tooltips option in the game play menus will show additional item information in your inventory while holding CTRL key. (snhender)

27- Numpad 0-9 will make your character say in game phrases (both audible and to chat). (kallell)

28- When hovering over a weapon in your inventory or a merchant it will bring up your currently equipped item to compare. However if you’re dual wielding it will only bring up your primary hand. To quick view the other hand just hold alt. (dextini)

29 -You must be level 10 to do hardcore. (kallell)

30 – Your battletag is what is going to show up in game to your friends. As of now, character names really do not matter outside of the character select screen and in game dialog with NPCs. Pick a battletag that’s easily remembered and that you wouldn’t mind others seeing! (kallell)

31- Patch 1.0.1. bug – Running programs that put an overlay over Diablo III (such as Mumble, Xfire, and MSI Afterburner) can cause Diablo III to crash. Use these overlays at your own risk. (kallell)

32- Treasure goblins will disappear if they are not killed fast enough. Make sure once you see them they become a priority as they can drop vast amounts of gold and loot. (kallell)

33- Gems in game drop up to rank 8 now, ranks 9-14 need to be crafted. (kallell)

34 – Magic find is averaged across group members. IE: if player a has 300 mf, and player B has 100, the MF rate for the group is 200. You get 20% of companion MF(kallell)

35- There is no “procs” for new recipes in crafting. All recipes become available on a rank by rank basis. (kallell)

36- Monster scaling (damage and HP) depends on the difficulty (norm, nightmare, hell, inferno) and players in game. Details can be seen here – http://goo.gl/BBKPU. (kallell) You WILL NOT get more exp per monsters the more players you have in the game. You do however, gain killing speed – theoretically farming monsters faster which in turn gives more exp and loot. (kallell)

37- If you fall behind or wander off away from your party, use your town portal and click their banner to quickly catch up.

38- Make sure to delete your D3 beta entirely (including files in programdata/battlenet) ortherwise your D3 install may not work correctly. (kallell)

39- MAKE SURE TO UPDATE GRAPHIC CARD DRIVERS (and sound card drivers if you have non-integrated ones)! This can have vast improvements on FPS. (kallell)

41- There will be two types of auction houses. RMAH and Gold AH. Gold sounds exactly like what it is. Sell and buy items off the AH with in game gold. With RMAH, you have two options. Send money straight to paypal or use “battle bucks”. If you choose to use battle bucks, the money will reside in your bnet account and can be used for other AH purchases, or blizzard merchandise. YOU CANNOT cash this out. If you intend on getting cash for items, be sure to go the paypal route.(kallell)

42- RMAH will not be available for the first week after launch. (kallell)

43-RMAH: – Blizzard charges $1 + 15% transfer fee to paypal for items.

-For commodities Blizzard charges 15% for the item itself, and another 15% transfer fee to paypal.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL $0.30 + 2.9% paypal fee Formulas:

Items

(Sale Price – 1)*(1-Blizzard to Paypal Transfer Fee) = Profit

(Sale Price – 1)*(1-.15) = Profit

Commodities

(Sale Price)(1-Blizzard Commodities Fee)(1-Blizzard to Paypal Transfer Fee) = Profit

(Sale Price)(1-.15)(1-.15) = Profit

What are commodities? Crafting materials (from salvaging items), gems, and gold.

Additional info and calculation tables – http://tinyurl.com/bnfmwfg (kallell)

44-The official authenticator should be out today (May 14th) for 6.50 + S. However, you can always get the mobile app for free on any smartphone. (kallell) **Furthermore at the very least, make sure you sign up for mobile alerts. That way you get texted if anything is changed on your account (password, personal info, etc) Info and signup is here – http://tinyurl.com/7mu68rz (kallell)

45 – Dual wielding gives 15% attack speed bonus. (riraito)

46- The best magic finding will be from killing rares around the world rather than simply boss farming (unlike d2). Every rare pack you kill, you gain a (stacking) Nephalem valor buff which increases your gold and magic find. Dying or switching runes removes this buff. Only kicks in after level 60(kallell)

47-You can re-assign the 1234 keys to QWER (good for MOBA players)(riraito)

48 – Bosses have enrage timers. Inferno only? (kallell)

49 – Press X to show hp bars of every individual monster (altzan)

50- each vendor sells specific types of items that are generated when the game is created. If you want different items then remake the game.(riraito)

51-Unless they changed it from beta, magic (blue) items sold by vendors have unlimited stock. A cheap blue item can be a useful source of crafting materials if the auction house is too expensive.(tolana)

52-EXP chart basics:

If the level difference is less than 5, there is no penalty

if the level difference is between 5-10, there is a small penalty (10%, 20%, 30%,…)

If the level difference is more than 10, you’ll only receive 5% experience (95% penalty)

You only get “bonus” exp from monsters 6 levels below you. You gain increased (over 100% by default) exp by killing monsters up to 3 levels above you.

53- Activating ‘Letterbox’ mode in options will allow you to play in 16:10 if you have a 16:9 monitor. This means you will have more horizontal visibility. (Space-Dementia)

54 – Not as much of a tip as just personal preference…Remap my skills to , W,.A, D and potion to Q and/or E.

This way I can keep my hand in standard wasd position and have easy access to shift, alt, ctrl, skills and pots. No, need to reach for number keys.

I usually put my “oh shit” skill on space bar since my first instinct near death is to press every button. (hsmith711)

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/tmjw2/45_and_growing_tips_and_tricks_for_d3_come_look/

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How to know if A Diablo 3 Item is worth selling on the Auction House

06/05/2012 By TLN

A extremely difficult thing to do in Diablo 3 is to learn the market, aka Auction House.

The game of Diablo 3 is so new that most prices have not stabilized yet, hence, the market is fluctuating and constantly dropping for mediocre or mid/low level legendary gear. (6-5-12 is the date of this posting

In this article I will tell you a few tips on how to tell if a piece of gear is any good! I am still not a pro at the market, but when I see an item I usually can tell after 5 seconds of looking at it if it’s going to be used, sold(vendored), or thrown on the Auction House.

 

Nerd Tip # 1 – Don’t try to learn the entire market! Learn your class and the gear you are using, this will naturally allow you to learn the market of the gear set you use, and as you browse the auction house at level 60, you will see, and learn, what the max stats are for the stats you need on certain pieces of gear.  This will then roll over into other gear sets because it all uses the same formulas.

Nerd Tip # 2 - Wasted stats! Does the item you want to sell have wasted stats? What are wasted stats you ask? Let me give you an example.  If you find a level 60 belt, and it has, 150 strength, 100 vitality, +88 life on hit, a socket, and + 120 dex.  First thing to see is that it would be best for a barbarian, a monk or demon hunter could use it, but the wasted stat would be the +120 dex because it doesn’t benefit the barb as well as another stat.  So for this item I would rate it 8/10, if it had a better stat, say +5% life instead of dex, it would be 9/10.  This is just an example but you see where I am going.  People who are paying millions of gold are looking for improvements on their gear, and while this is a good belt, it isn’t worth dropping millions on, because it has the unwanted stat of dex, and will soon be replaced again by the buyer.

Nerd Tip # 3 – Weapons! Weapons are slightly different, but not really.  Weapon’s main stat is obviously the DPS(damage per second), but always take into account that IAS(increased attack speed), an open socket, or similar stats increase DPS too!So while say a Demon Hunter bow that has 1000 dmg and +20 ias with an open socket seems inferior to an 1100 bow with not as much IAS and no socket, you may actually LOSE DPS with the 1100 because of the stats.

Here an example price range, to demonstrate how at the higher level, a few stats mean the difference from 1 million and 15 million on the auction house.

500-700 blue bow – Average price 20-50k

700-800 rare bow – 650-1 million

800-1000 rare bow – 1 million to 2 million

1000-1050 rare bow -  2-5 million

1050-1200 rare / blue bow – 2.5 – 25 million (WOAH bro!)

It can go higher than this, but that is just an example of how much it jumps at the higher levels when people are trying to maximize their damage output.  A wasted stat on a 1200 dps bow could mean the difference from 2 million to 25 million.

Nerd Tip # 4 – Legendary rolls and how to price them!  Legendary items can be tricky to price, but if you study the item for about 5 minutes you can understand how much it’s worth.  I’ll give you an example.

String of Ears- This is one of the best barb belts, and I recently purchased one , but spent 45 minutes studying the auction house pages (40+ page of them) and after I learned what made the belt expensive, I knew what I was looking for.  As a barb I wanted strength, vitality, good+ life on hit, and 18-20% dmg reduction(20 being perfect).  I saw that the near perfect ones were 25 million, but low end ones were 1 million.   I had a price range of 3 million.   I looked at over 150 different belts, comparing stats, but i would just mouse over them looking for 1 thing that was the deal breaker that I didn’t , or did want that belt to have, DMG reduction, if it was 17% or less, i moved on, if it didn’t have strength and vitality, I moved on.  Finally I found one with 60 strength 30 vitality and 18% dmg reduction for 2 million.  I remembered what page it was on, doubled checked a few more belts, and decided on it.  I am glad I did, but the research I did was totally worth it because if not I would just want to upgrade it later on, and would have a hard time trying to sell a crappy rolled one that i “settled on”.  I can now flip this belt for maybe 3 million, and then use that to upgrade and do the same process for a slight upgrade.

The same wall of text explanation I just gave you above can relate to any other legendary that you are trying to sell, or buy.  I hope this was all atleast semi-helpful, to the new players atleast, because almost every day a friend or two asks me if this is worth something, so I figured their were others out there that could use a Price Guide 101 read!

Be easy my fellow nerds ! EZ PZ! -  Your Nerd Brother, Boot Danger

 

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