The "best" way to build wealth

[MageChick]

I'm going to try to capture a lot of the discusion that's been going on sporatically throughout this forum.

Please feel free to contribute - this is a discussion, not a how to guide - but hopefully some good advice an come out of this.

Now we are discussing this in the sorc forum, so let's try to keep it somwhat related to sorc builds. That said, advice on what some other char does better than a sorc, is perfectly on topic.

[Klæmint Vágadal]

Dont really know whats the best way to build up wealth, but my main wealth income on this season was my pure blizz sorc. I ran meph to death, got some good drops too, incl. HoZ, Arach, Perf Shako, Azurewrath ect.

Next season I will try something elese than meph, I'm going to make a pure blizz sorc for meph and ancient tunnels and a Summonmancer (Will mainly be using this char, sorc only to vary things abit) for Baal and Pits, hope it will work :thumbsup:

Now im currently palying with a Blizz Baller (a sorc with Max. Blizzard, Fireball and Meteor, rest in masteries) and she doses quite good only at clvl 83, killed baal alone :smiley: Defenetly a char that is worth spending time on.

[sirwhere]

Ok, here goes my way: maximize killing power, forget magic-find and keep your charms/jewels unidentified to trade 40 of them for a rune like um, mal or ist.

mf = negative modifier, in my opinion :)

[kuafu]

To discuss building wealth, we need to first define wealth. To some people, wealth means 100HRs; to me, wealth means finding every single item in the game without trading; to some others, wealth means the experience of able to kill a lot of monsters fast and safely. There're certainly many other possibilities, like I know people collecting char names instead of items:smiley:.
I think it's this different view of wealth that caused all the heated discussions in the other thread, which led to this one. So it is better to make it clear in the very beginning, that the wealth you meant here is basically the number of HRs in possession.

[MageChick]

I agree, wealth probably needs a definition. :rolleyes: Let's say that wealth = your ability to buy valuable items, as defined by the economy in your realm. This doesn't necassary mean high runes, but those are certainly a good curency (so are pgems)

I'll argue that the most important rule when trying to build wealth is to know the value of items. If you don't first understand the economy and the relative value of stuff, you will have a very hard time. No matter how quicky you kill, and how much (or how little) MF% you have, some good items will drop eventually. If you don't know the value of what you are finding, then you are cutting yourself short.

At a minimum, read through your realms price guide and familerize yourself with everything that has a value > lem. If you havn't done this before, it may surprise you. Plenty of people know to look for gold (unique) items, but there are alot of plain (white), magic (blue), socketable and etherial (gray) that have exceptional value also.

[MageChick]

Below is a post I made elsewhere, but fits this thead better.

I see MFing - or maybe I should say developing MF builds as fitting into distinctly seperate strategies. They can, and often do overlap, but the overlap is often inefficient. Either way the end goal is still to aquire wealth.

1.
Pump your MF as high as you can (while still killing quickly) and run the bosses & super uniques for unique items (Andy, Meph, Diablo?, Pindle, Eld, Shenk, and Baal). Key here is to get your MF up to at least 200+ (probably more like 350-500 or higher), and run them over and over again. Your goal is to get SOJ's, CoA's, Arach's, Fathoms, etc.

2.
Boost your killing speed, but accept a lower amount of MF. Focus on farming the TC 87 areas for charms, elite items, maybe ETH elite items. I think key farming fits into this category too. That run would look like Pits, Countess, Summoner, Ancients Tunnels, River of Flame, Diablo? (Chaos Sanc), and Niki.

A high MF% doesn't help your ability to find keys, and it doesn't really help you with tyring to get those skill+life GC's, or Elite items. The very nature of MF running (luck) means that you'll probably get some of the items from both strategies, but some builds are better for 1 type of run, and the others are better at type 2.

I'm a fan of running the bosses (type 1 above) with my MF meteorb sorc (350% MF - 600% on switch). I avoid the pits, tunnels and the key bosses, just because I can run those, faster with my hammerdin (~150% MF).

Don't get me wrong, you can diffinately run both types of places with the same char. For type 1, you load up on MF (Nagel's, MFSC's etc), for type 2 you focus on speed (SOJ's, skill GC's, etc). Both can produce wealth fairly quickly.

[Jek]

Erm, starting from total scratch, ie. ladder reset?

If so, there are - IMO - three ways to build wealth very fast.

1) Sorc and farm Mephisto + Andy (gogo gadget drop bug)
2) Hammerdin and farm Diablo + Everything you want.
3) Amazon/Lightning Sorc/Hammerdin/Necro/Trapper: and farm for charms + runes + jewels + socketables.

note: sadly I don't think druids and barbs are exceptional strong at getting wealth, however a good equiped barb make some _great_ MFers due to the find item skill. *grin*

Personally I think the fastest route to acquire wealth from scratch is route #2 (theoreticaly at least, more on that in a bit). As the hammerdin can solo every area the instant he has max block + resists in hell. How ever, I quickly get bored with a hammerdin and begin to fool about so I'm in reality better at building wealth it a funnier albeit slower char, like a dual or even tri-elem sorc or my favorite class a lightning amazon. :girly:

But since we are focusing on sorcs, I'd say the best way is to farm Andy+Meph, and when you are decked out add Baal, Diablo and keys to the list. Me? I'd probably make either a Blizz/Charged Bolt/Fire Wall sorc or a Blizz/FW/Es sorc and just run every TC 87 area + Meph and Andy. :)


note: if we are talking about already having _some_ gear then, and desperately want to gain wealth by all means a sorc capable of soloing baal fast.

[MageChick]

This thread would be incomplete without a collection of links to the invaluable atricles that are posted around the forums

Building Wealth on the Ladder: A Guide for the Poor and Impoverished (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=422336)
This is an awsome article, if you haven't read it before, its a must for everyone.

Trading Value Forum (http://forums.diabloii.net/forumdisplay.php?f=25)
If you need to find the value of something, this is the best plact to start. Just do everyone a favor and search the price guides first, search the forum threads second, then if you're still out of luck, post a new thread and ask.

Watch Out For Scams!! Updated & Condensed (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=388625)
Think you found a deal that's too good to be true...It probably is. Read this before drop trading your gheeds or doing anything you'll regret

(Final) Area Listing (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=218836)
Can't find the ancient tunnels or the pits? This guide will tell you where to find everything in the game.

Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms for D2 (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=127257)
Ah, yes acronyms. Gotta love them.

[MageChick]

Jek brings up a good point. There are many differnt places to start from. Most of us reading this aren't total newb's playing dii for the first time.

Some discussion on how to build wealth eary in your career, middle, late, and end-game would probably be valuable.

Early Career
My advice is start collecting gems. Lots of them. NM cows is a good place to get started (for those who aren't strong enough to do Hell cows). A high MF% isn't needed at all, just try to kill without being killed. It's worth your time to open the treasure chests and look under rocks too. Lots of gems hiding there.

If you get tired of cows, but you're not ready for hell runs yet, you can also farm NM Meph. He drops some decent items. Yes, here your MF% will start to come into play - so if you already have some MF - go for it. Even if you're not strong enough to kill him on your own, do a search on "moat lock" and you'll be safely killing him in no time.

Mid Career
This is where people typically start running the hell bosses. You can still moat lock Hell Meph just as easy, and his drops only get better in hell. Hell Andy is also real easy for any fire build. If you're playing a build that can't tele (i.e. non-sorc) then farming pindle, eldrich, shenk can get you some decent stuff too.

Late Career
It takes some decent gear, just to survive in hell, much less trying to kill quickly. Once you have decent gear, you can probably decide on what strategy you want to have. My above post about going high MF vs. high killing power starts to come into play here. Yes, you can do both, but you'll probably have more luck, trying to build your char with one goal in mind.
This is also a decent time for sorc's to run keys. Yes, sorc's aren't the best build for key running (Hammerdin's are :thumbsup: ), but they can make it easy enough. MF% doesn't matter at all, so just focus on getting there in one piece and getting out as quickly as possible.

End Game
Here the options are pretty unlimited. If you are killing hell baal easily, then you might want to concider rolling baal CG's (or sc's). These plus some pgems can really help you get some good stuff. Be prepared to spend hundreds of pgems trying to get what you want. If you can't afford the pgems, then you are still late career - not end game.

This is also where you can totaly tweak your char's. Slap on that 4x isted monarch and go kill bosses or load up on those skill GC's and run the tunnels. Either way you'll be getting decent stuff faily often.

I have yet to meet a sorc that can do solo uber runs. Don't even try this youself. But, you can play a valuable part in a uber running party (your job is to kill all the minions, while the paly's hit the bosses). Just be sure that they'll share the rewards with you.

my $.02 - take it for what its worth

[lordbaver]

I'm still quite a n00b, but for me running hell countess has yielded some luck... Found a mal and a couple of other useful runes. And then we're not talking about 5000 runs, only maybe a hundred.