So I've been farming Act I Inferno for a while now. I can proceed through half of Act II Inferno but am constantly having my ass handed to me by hordes of enemies, not just elites, when they start ganging up. I've been helping a friend get up to Inferno so that we can kind of gang up on it together, but that's still a ways away. With the assistance of a few members here I have a pretty decent setup with abilities so I'm good there, but is there something I'm missing? I'm barely having any trouble with Act I Inferno. My damage is 11.6K, health is 21.6K, critical hit damage is 50% with a chance of 5%, no attack speed increase, with 5.5K in armor, and 672 resist across the board. Is Act II just that much harder? I won't say it's impossible, I'm sure with enough time I could get through it with the gear and setup I have now but with repair costs like they are, I'm kind of waiting for the gear I need to drop in Act I. Do I need more resist gear? I know the patch made everything past Act I easier, but it still seems like I'm hitting a brick wall...even after upgrading a few pieces of gear here and there.

11.6k is way too low for Act 2, maybe just save up for a new weapon on the auction house? Other than that, just keep getting whatever upgrades you can find.

You don't say what class you are but I am going to assume that you are a barb or monk.
 
You need more HP.

@ShadowConqueror: I don't buy off the AH anymore. I was looking when I was online but even a moderate upgrade from the weapon I have now was in the range of 5-10 million gold, and I don't have nor do I want to pay that kind of gold for one item...same goes for all my other gear. I'm sure there are deals some where in that mess but I have failed to find one.

@Cataphract1014: Sorry, thought I did. The character is a Monk, hence why all my resist gear is the same across the board.

I switched back a few pieces of gear to up my damage and health. Now I'm back to 13.4K damage, 23K health, with a 4.5 percent increase in critical hit chance, but at the cost of over 100 resist. Can someone give me a few examples of what set goals I should shoot for? And can someone tell me what governs damage reduction? Is that Armor? Right now I'm sitting at 65% damage reduction, which is what I assumed was making Act I Inferno so tolerable.

You want around 800 Resistance to All, buffed. You also want way more HP Than you are currently rolling with. Increasing your DPS isn't as important as making sure you can stand in there and take hits. I'm not familiar with monks specifically, but I'd also guess you want way more armor too.

Armor and resistance both influence your damage mitigation.

Do you have active/passive talents set up to boost your armor and/or resistances?

So I feel like I'm in the exact same position. Below is a full breakdown of my character. What should I be doing? Act II on Inferno is kicking my butt. How much should I be paying for Act II+ gear? I've been staying around 100k for items on AH and I never seem to have more than 300k. If I need to farm what's the most efficient way/place to do that? I was Doing Act III Hell with about +250% gold find gear (with Valor stacks) but it just didn't seem to be that effective.

So guys... what should I be doing?

I just got to act 2 and I've been doing quite well. The monsters do more damage but I have been able to survive as long as I'm careful. I aboslutely steamrolled act 1.

This is the build I used http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aYhgiX!YUX!accacb

You're going to have to buy some gear to get this build to work however, but it shouldn't be that much of an investment. You need crit chance. A lot of it. Best way to get it is to get it one your shield, you can get up to 10% on a shield. Gloves are a close second, try to get at least 8. Then look for it bracers and a amulet or ring. Shoot for at a minimum 25. Over 30 and you will really see the magic happen. Everytime you crit with full cyclone up you send out a tornado that does 20% wep damage to things it comes relatively close to. And I've had up to 10 cyclones out at once before. Here is a similiar build in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhBnb3vu-x4&feature=player_embedded

Also, you need some life on hit. It will help you maintain good life levels in the middle of a mob. Easiest way is to get a weapon with a socket and put a star amethyst in it, but if you get it as a mod on a weapon or rings or amulet that is a big bonus.

I wouldnt worry about your damage too much. Mine is only 12k and I do just fine. The beauty is that it could easily be increased, but the build is so effective I don't need it right now. Maybe for act 3 and 4 though.

Demon Hunter here.. just got to Act 2 with 16k HP, 41k DPS (no Sharpshooter), 412 res all, 2032 Dex.

Getting my ass handed to me by normal-ass packs of leapers/bees. Wat do?

Demon Hunter here.. just got to Act 2 with 16k HP, 41k DPS (no Sharpshooter), 412 res all, 2032 Dex.

Getting my ass handed to me by normal-ass packs of leapers/bees. Wat do?

@ajamafalous said:

@Spiritgod: 5.5k seems super low for armor. Are you using Seize the Initiative passive? Your health is entirely too low; you'll probably want to sacrifice some DPS for it if you can. Resists might be a little low too. You'll also want to invest in some Life on Hit; the more, the better.

Yeah, I'm using Seize the Initiative, and does that skill show the true amount of armor? I though I saw my character with more armor on the profile screen. I've switched out a few things but I'm still having problems getting my health up, but have raised my resist to almost 700. My problem is that I can't balance everything I need...like my character is some sort of crazy puzzle. I might just have to keep an eye on the auction house and hope I can find the proper gear to continue at a decent price. Though, I see the released the patch that is supposed to help with repair cost, so maybe I can continue without actually losing gold.

I remember my Barb friend telling me that his goal for Act II was 8k armor and 800 resists. Sorry I can't be more help, I'm a DH so I just melt shit.

Easy mode for monks in act 2: decent resist (more than 400) and a lot of Life on Hit (about a thousand) will let you even straight up tank Belial's non-meteor attacks.

@Spiritgod: 21.6k Hp is too low. Try and get it up around 30k. Also you can never have your resist too high. 672 resit is prob fine with Barb buff. If you can get it to 800 with 30k hp you should see a huge difference. 11.6k is a bit low but dont listen to ppl who tell you damage is the most important. Inferno is about endurance. Being able to stay up is more important and will keep your repair costs down.

DPS is only important for mobs enraging. Which you dont always have control over if you pull a bad pack or get extra non elites that take up too much time to kill. Believe me you will be 100x happier stacking defense over offense. Offense comes later when you over geared.

@ajamafalous said:

@Spiritgod: 5.5k seems super low for armor. Are you using Seize the Initiative passive? Your health is entirely too low; you'll probably want to sacrifice some DPS for it if you can. Resists might be a little low too. You'll also want to invest in some Life on Hit; the more, the better.

Yeah, I'm using Seize the Initiative, and does that skill show the true amount of armor? I though I saw my character with more armor on the profile screen. I've switched out a few things but I'm still having problems getting my health up, but have raised my resist to almost 700. My problem is that I can't balance everything I need...like my character is some sort of crazy puzzle. I might just have to keep an eye on the auction house and hope I can find the proper gear to continue at a decent price. Though, I see the released the patch that is supposed to help with repair cost, so maybe I can continue without actually losing gold.

Easy mode for monks in act 2: decent resist (more than 400) and a lot of Life on Hit (about a thousand) will let you even straight up tank Belial's non-meteor attacks.

@ajamafalous said:

@Spiritgod said:

@ajamafalous said:

@Spiritgod: 5.5k seems super low for armor. Are you using Seize the Initiative passive? Your health is entirely too low; you'll probably want to sacrifice some DPS for it if you can. Resists might be a little low too. You'll also want to invest in some Life on Hit; the more, the better.

Yeah, I'm using Seize the Initiative, and does that skill show the true amount of armor? I though I saw my character with more armor on the profile screen. I've switched out a few things but I'm still having problems getting my health up, but have raised my resist to almost 700. My problem is that I can't balance everything I need...like my character is some sort of crazy puzzle. I might just have to keep an eye on the auction house and hope I can find the proper gear to continue at a decent price. Though, I see the released the patch that is supposed to help with repair cost, so maybe I can continue without actually losing gold.

If you have Seize the Initiative, it will update the armor value on your character sheet on your inventory, yes. A simple way of testing this is to stand in town without Seize equipped, look at armor, then equip it and look at your armor again.

Yeah, unfortunately, the game's progression is designed around the Auction House. You've just gotta keep your eye out for deals, which are getting increasingly harder and harder to come by as more people learn what items are worth and as bots inflate the price of gold to hell. Keep in mind that you can pick up an easy 12+% health if your helm doesn't already have a socket (having a socket on a helm is a must).

I've done all I can with the 2M gold I was saving. My DPS went up a few hundred...I know not a whole lot. Raised my VAT to 27.6K, still a lower than what other recommended but literally all I could find without spending real money...which isn't going to happen. Raised my resist to 736. And forgot to mention that when I heal in battle my DPS raises to 14.4K, and with my mantra spell I raise my armor to in the lower 6K mark. Sadly I'm going to have to farm Inferno some more to raise enough gold to get my stats where they need to be, but I'm seeing an improvement. I'm hardly using my skills when fighting elites and it appears that I'm surviving a lot better, though I don't know if its my new stats or just the elites I was up against.

@murisan said:

Demon Hunter here.. just got to Act 2 with 16k HP, 41k DPS (no Sharpshooter), 412 res all, 2032 Dex.

Getting my ass handed to me by normal-ass packs of leapers/bees. Wat do?

hp is low, rest of your stats sound pretty good. you do get your ass handed to you a lot in act 2 (pre 1.03 anyway.)

sounds like you need to adjust your play style some maybe. don't stand still, learn to kite.

might need to look into experimenting with different abilities.

@Turambar said:

Easy mode for monks in act 2: decent resist (more than 400) and a lot of Life on Hit (about a thousand) will let you even straight up tank Belial's non-meteor attacks.

Did you do this before or after 1.0.3? I haven't done Act II since then but I watched a video of Belial's enrage and it's pretty stupid, especially for a tank.

@ajamafalous said:

@Turambar said:

Easy mode for monks in act 2: decent resist (more than 400) and a lot of Life on Hit (about a thousand) will let you even straight up tank Belial's non-meteor attacks.

Did you do this before or after 1.0.3? I haven't done Act II since then but I watched a video of Belial's enrage and it's pretty stupid, especially for a tank.

After, with dps sitting at about 18k.

@ajamafalous: Thanks! I'll definitely look into the +Lightening +Resist All equipement. What kind of money should I start looking to spend roughly per piece of equipment? Which leads into my next question: how are people getting their purses up to 2 million+?! Most the gear I get from Butcher Inferno runs go straight to vendor and at best I feel like I get a handful of items that sell for ~20k on the AH.

@ajamafalous: Thanks! I'll definitely look into the +Lightening +Resist All equipement. What kind of money should I start looking to spend roughly per piece of equipment? Which leads into my next question: how are people getting their purses up to 2 million+?! Most the gear I get from Butcher Inferno runs go straight to vendor and at best I feel like I get a handful of items that sell for ~20k on the AH.