Benchmarked a lot of runs. On average I get 4.1x more yellows farming act 1 than act 3. I think the breakeven point is something like 3-3.5x more yellows.

So yeah, ignore acts2/3/4 until they buff drops in later acts or (more likely) nerf act 1.

Use this route, and ignore bosses:

• Northern Highlands - Watch tower dungeon (go north west). If it's not there restart.
• Festering woods
• Cemetary (crypts)
• Cathedral 3 (check for elite near WP, if not there leave)
• Leoric's manor - exit and kill elite outside (short walk). Sometimes you'll find one inside on your way out too)
• If you've got godlike gear (really godlike, not lol 150k with SS gear), do pony level. Not worth it if you can't clear it in under 10 minutes with no deaths

This post was edited by Yukitaro on Jun 21 2012 02:44pm

Agreed lol. I can farm all acts in inferno but I mostly just do act1 cuz its faster, easier and I seem to find more things worth selling.

Yup. I think if they don't make any changes to the game act 3 will be worth farming again in about two months. But for now, iLVL 61/62 armor can still roll a 10m+ gold item not to mention rings and amulets which are capped at iLVL 62 anyway and don't need a high iLVL to be worth a crap ton.

I never found an item worth more then 400k igg with playtime 150hours
only an lidless 8x str 8x int 30fire res 30@ res

I'm at 225 hours and have made about 150m selling items in the AH. I killed 7,842 elites, about 4,500 of them in act 3.

You don't check the treasure goblins with 5 stacks? and Halls of agony has a bunch of easy elites. It doesn't make sense to end the game without maximizing your elite potential, because every new game you make has 5 wasted elite packs just to get your 5 stacks of NV.

I recommend starting on the warden quest, and doing all the elites including warden and butcher. They both still will drop 2 rares and are very simply/fast to do still.

The main limiter in act 1 farming efficiency is finding elites. I do make pretty good use of the 5-stack as I kill about 14 elites per run, so 64% of my elites kills are with 5NV. The reason I stop is that there are no more elites within a short walking distance. Walking for a minute between elites is just not worth it, even with 5NV. In my runs I kill 14 elites in 8.5 minutes which means an average of 30 seconds or so to find each elite pack (and about 6 seconds to kill it).

Also the first 5 elites are not wasted. I get an average of 1.6 yellows from the first five elites. So an elite without 5NV is still worth 62% of an elite with a 5-stack.

This post was edited by Yukitaro on Jun 21 2012 03:33pm

Think too

this is the reason why blizz is nerfing alll the good farm areas is because they want us to play the game as it should be and not just search for elite packs. soon, they will buff ALL elites in ALL acts, even though i disagree with them.

If they really wanted us to do full clears they would just give bonuses for full clears. Not that hard to spawn a big chest with lot's of loot when you clear 100% of a zone or act.