benefit of goldfinding?

[Dark Lotus]

What exactly is so good about finding tons of gold?
I understand gold is useful for shopping lots of appropriate base items to use for crafting, and for gambling. But can gambling seriously compete with mfing for turning up decent items at a respectable rate? It just doesn't seem worthwhile to spend x number of hours hunting for gold, then blow it all and get maybe 1 unique per 1000 gambles when you could simply be doing mf runs and get 2-3 uniques per 1 minute. is the point of gambling to search for godly rares and magic items then?

I'm interested in trying out a goldfind barb as something new and interesting, but I simply don't see why it is an efficient or profitable build.

[mephiztophelez]

the benefit of gambling is that you can select the BASE item you would like.

for example, the "godliest" rare assassin claws would be in a -30WSM base (runic or greater talons). so by being able to gamble for Blade Talons, one can be certain of getting the right "base". a 2sox/fools/+5LS/40ias claw would be godly, as a Hand Scythe, it would be a "OMGWTFBBQ BNET j00 retards!!"

it might pay to look at it this way: if a level 97 character decides to gamble a "circlet", the item generation resolution would function almost exactly the same as if you had fought your way through the Chaos Sanctuary and then Diablo dropped a circlet. except, you don't need for b.net to choose "circlet" when resolving what gets dropped. gamble 10 circlets in ~10 minutes (it should be faster than that) and you've essentially had hell Diablo drop you 10 circlets in the same period.

I wouldn't go gambling hoping for a unique, but instead your after those juicy rare items. especially when a rare can be the best item in it's class (some amulets, boots, rings, circlets and assassin claws come to mind as fitting this catagory). unfortunately, gambled items cannot spawn as ethereal.

just personally, i prefer a skelly'nec for goldfinding, but barbs can certainly do the job.

goldfinding and gambling, along with furious D-Key trading, is the key to my personal e-wealth.

[ThomasJohnsen]

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it might pay to look at it this way: if a level 97 character decides to gamble a "circlet", the item generation resolution would function almost exactly the same as if you had fought your way through the Chaos Sanctuary and then Diablo dropped a circlet. except, you don't need for b.net to choose "circlet" when resolving what gets dropped. gamble 10 circlets in ~10 minutes (it should be faster than that) and you've essentially had hell Diablo drop you 10 circlets in the same period.

I wouldn't go gambling hoping for a unique, but instead your after those juicy rare items. especially when a rare can be the best item in it's class (some amulets, boots, rings, circlets and assassin claws come to mind as fitting this catagory). unfortunately, gambled items cannot spawn as ethereal.
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This is exactly right.
And on another node, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of all godly and rare Circlets, Rings, Amulets, Boots etc. are gambled (or in case of diadems maybe rolled with skulls) rather than found. Simply because you can find enough gold to gamble many rare rings within the same timeframe one will drop ingame (regardless of your mf). And you can "select" the item-level by choosing an appropriate character to do the gambling, making it easier to aim for certain affixes.

[In the name of Zod]

Some uniques and sets have such a impossibly low chance of dropping that it can't do any harm to attempt a gamble on them too. Having tonnes of gold is also good for twinking characters and funding expensive characters that may use a lot of charges or expensive repairs.

[Dusk]

When iam going to gf - i consider it as a general item hunt,because not only gold is droped during the hunt...(found gul, lem ,fal runes ,full tal`s set,some gris , nats and trangs parts and a lot of good uniques..)
Alsow the gambling itself gives bigger chanse to reward u with some GOD rares (and sometimes sets and uniques - gambled once a perf seraphs hymn) then just some boss run....

[eugene]

And most importantly, for a hardcore character, gambling for items is generally safer than fighting the Bosses. :)

[SeCKSEgai]

While I don't do much of either anymore, I prefer gf to general mf. Gf proves to be far more efficient as I go through a lot of the junk but without the same delays. Of course, I'm comparing a solo baal run to a gf council run - while my baal runs have the potential to drop anything, my gf runs are more efficient.