I decided to run my Demon Hunter this morning on Monster Power 0 just to see how much experience, drops and time it would take. Although I managed to drop things fairly fast, it still felt quite slow. Also, the experience and drops felt really watered down. So later, I switched back to Monster Power 2 and saw my everything rise back up without much loss in time. Not to mention that I found two Bul-Kathos’ Solemn Vows, one which rolled decent DPS that I have up on AH right now.
That experience makes me believe that at least for my Demon Hunter farming on less than Monster Power 2 really isn’t efficient. I know there are people who say that if you can’t kill an elite in less than 20 seconds (or just one shot them) then you’re farming on too high of a Monster Power. Quite honestly, I find all these theories on efficiency to only apply towards races. Considering that all the top paragon levelers have been reached, then efficiency to me really is a non-issue.
Quite honestly, if you only take advice from those people who just farm the same spots over and over, you might find yourself frustrated. I think the people who just do Alkaizer Runs or Vault of the Assassin really don’t get that much to be honest. Again, all this goes back to setting goals for yourself. Alkaizer Runs were popularized on the basis of paragon leveling. After that others such as Raoha have tried to create other solutions for efficient paragon leveling. Remember, those are just guides but not necessarily the best methods for the individual.
My style varies depending on my class, gear and what I want to accomplish. My Demon Hunter is, unfortunately, my best all-around class but I have little desire re-running Alkaizer Runs all the time. I feel that Alkaizer Runs might be okay for experience, but they get extremely boring after a short period. Instead, I think Act 3 near complete runs might be better overall. The nice thing about progressing like that is you feel like you’re moving forward rather than doing things for strict efficiency. It feels less boring and gives you something to look forward to rather than just the same five areas over and over.
But here’s the other thing that I’m beginning to believe. Doing Alkaizer Runs for drops also hinders your drops. The problem is that by doing Alkaizer Runs you’re essentially knocking off the 5 stacks of Nephlam Valor each time you reset. So that you’re missing out on a lot of good items with the automatic rare that you get per elite/champion pack.
Quite often, I’ll read on forums how people complain about not finding legendaries despite being of high paragon level. But the bigger question to me is what is their farming strategy? If they’re doing Alkaizer Runs or restricting everything to Vault of the Assassin, they’re probably missing out on a lot of guaranteed items. I watched some people on stream and noticed that they ended up skipping white mobs. However, for myself, I find many legendaries on white mobs as well. So just restricting oneself to certain types of mobs and quick runs makes me believe that people could be missing out.
Another thing I feel is wrong is how people only pick up certain types of items. I know there are a few popular youtubers/streamers who dictate that only certain types of items are worth picking up. They believe that you lose efficiency in avoiding the other items. However, let’s say you lack gold or have poor gear and need to build up your war chest. Those rares and the gold drops can add up fairly quickly. And they’re guaranteed. Right now, I probably average around at least 500k/run doing near complete Act 3 clears. I rarely find anything worth putting up on the Auction House and most of the items I end up selling for between 10-20k max. However, on an Monster Power 2 near complete Act 3 run on my Demon Hunter, I can load up around 5-6 bags of rares that might garner me around 30-50k/trip.
The thing is that picking up those items and gold takes a few extra seconds but that’s all guaranteed money. For myself since it takes roughly 2 1/2 Act 3 near complete runs on Monster Power 2 to gain paragon levels for my Demon Hunter, I can compliment my leveling with farming and estimate my incoming gold. That’s not that bad.
Some things I do consider as I farm Act 3 Inferno on varying Monster Powers is my gear/stats on my characters. I did try Monster Power 1 on my Tempest Rush monk but he had quite a bit of trouble due to low DPS, resistances, life-on-hit and life (EHP). On the other hand, my barbarian is doing fine because of those higher stats. I might give my witch doctor a try in terms of higher Monster Power as well just for fun to see how he does considering he’s closer to my Demon Hunter with regards to overall stats and DPS. Right now, I feel that if you have around 20k health, 400-500 resistances, 400 life-on-hit and between 70-80k DPS, you can handle Inferno normal mode just fine. My Demon Hunter is at 140k DPS (buffed) with 460 resistances, but 45k life and over 460 life-on-hit and has no issues doing Monster Power 2 (except when I’m playing stupid or have some bad luck).
Either way, I think it’s important to move beyond just efficiency and see how much you really get out of your runs before choosing a method. Set your goals up and figure out what you want to accomplish in your runs. Everything shouldn’t just boil down to what popular people are doing. Experiment a little and discover on your own what works best for you.