The Barbarian is one of the most powerful melee classes in the game. Not only does he have the ability to deliver devastating damage to a group of enemies, but he also has treasure find boosting abilities that make him one of the best candidates for farming. A combination of that area of effect damaging power grouped with those farming abilities will make gathering up rare items and gold effortless. The following build takes advantage of all of the farming friendly features of the Barbarian.

Mobile Farming
A barbarian farmer has to be able to move around the map quickly without getting stopped by groups of enemies that aren’t worthwhile. On top of that he has to be able to cut down a large group of enemies as fast as possible. In order for a Barbarian farming build to be efficient he needs a set of movement enhancing abilities as well as some serious group damage dealers, and that is exactly what this build has.

Farming abilities
It’s vital that your Barbarian has and uses both Hammer of the Ancients and Threatening Shout often.  With Hammer of the Ancients and the Birthright skill rune your enemies drop additional treasure every time you make a critical hit on them. This means that Hammer of the Ancients should be used to kill enemies whenever possible.
On top of the 10 percent from Hammer of the Ancients you will get an additional 15 percent from Threatening Shout, so that should be activated before killing any group of enemies.

Barbarian Farming Build

Combat Process Explained
With this farming build you will start off combat by leaping into the middle of a group of enemies. From there you will deliver a series of cleaves to build up your Fury and weaken them. Finally throw out a Threatening Shout and finish off all the enemies using Hammer of the Ancients.

Over the course of the fight Revenge will go off several times and its rune effect will spike your crit chance improving your chances of finding treasure even further. When combat is finished use Sprint to get to your next group of enemies before your Fury diminishes too much.

Quick Look Skill Rotation
1. Leap – Position yourself in the group.
2. Cleave – Continue to build up Fury
3. Threatening Shout
4. Hammer of the Ancients – Use until out of Fury or enemies are dead.
5. Go back to step 2 if you run out of Fury and enemies aren’t dead.

Passive Skills
Ruthless makes an excellent passive skill for this build because the higher chance you have to crit, the better chance you have of finding treasure. On top of Ruthless you should also have Inspiring presence to boost the treasure enhancing effect of Threatening Shout. The last skill to really pull off this build is Brawler. Brawler will make it easier to wipe down hordes of enemies much faster.

The Best Farming Gems
As a Barbarian your ability to farm both rare items and gold are directly related to your ability to kill enemies quickly. The faster you kill them the better chance you have of finding something good. At the same time, because of Hammer of the Ancients you see increased treasure drops with a higher crit rate. This means that you should socket your weapon with emeralds to boost your kill rate and treasure drop rate.

Your helmet should be socketed with topaz gems because it increases the chance that you will find magical items. Topaz is more appropriate than emerald because most of the time magical items are worth much more gold than you can expect to accumulate from a slight increase in the amount of gold you get from each enemy.

Diablo 3 Demon Hunter Farming

Demon Hunters can be very effective farmers when played properly. In order to get the most possible loot from your Demon Hunter you have to plan out your farming area so that you constantly have enemies to fight. On top of that you also have to be able to take out large groups of enemies quickly. This means you have to slow down your enemies and hit them with powerful AOE attacks to kill them before they have a chance to get in range.

Demon Hunters also have a small edge over most of the other classes when it comes to farming with their Ferret Pet. By getting the Ferret Companion skill rune for Companion you won’t have to worry about picking up gold, and you will have more of it coming in constantly.

Demon Hunter Farming Build

The Strategy
Summon your ferret companions and lay down six spike traps in a location your enemies will cross over. At the beginning of the fight begin pulling in your enemies with Entangling Shot. The upgraded skill rune will grab four enemies for every shot that you take so make sure to spread your shots around. Herd all of the enemies into a single location. As soon as they are all together and they run into the spike traps use Rain of Vengeance on them. Finish any remaining groups with Chakram and single targets with Entangling Shot.

Quick Look Skill Rotation
* Companion
* Spike Traps – 6x in front of you
* Entangling Shot – Hit all surrounding enemies in groups of four.
* Rain of Vengeance – As soon as spike traps go off
* Chakram or Entangling Shot – Former with groups, latter with single enemies.

The Passives
Cull the Weak will dramatically boost your Spike Trap damage if you get them to hit the traps after you snare them. While farming most of the lower difficulties you will find a high number of health globes. By adding Vengeance as a passive you should be able to jump from group to group almost constantly. Steady Aim will give you a nice damage boost all the time since you should always be far away from the enemies.

Gem Selection
Equipping the proper gems to your Demon Hunter will give you an advantage while farming for items and gold. You should have Topaz gems socketed into your helmet for the nice magical item find boost.

Your weapon should be full of Ruby gems to help you kill enemies more quickly. The faster you can drop your enemies the more rare items and gold you are bound to find.

It’s important to upgrade these gems as often as you possibly can to keep your farming ability at its highest level. Unlike the first two Diablo’s, in Diablo 3 you can remove your gems and socket them again after you have upgraded them, which means that you should keep the same gems throughout the game and build them up just as you do your character.

Diablo 3 Monk Farming Guide

Monks make excellent farmers in Diablo, but you have to approach farming differently than you would with a Barbarian. Monks aren’t as heavily armored as Barbarians but they can dish out a huge amount of burst damage.

The best approach to farming is to move around the battlefield very quickly, dealing huge bursts of damage in every location. This way you don’t become overwhelmed by the enemies and you still burn them all down quickly.

This farming build is pretty skill intensive if you are facing enemies near your level, so it is important to get used to the techniques on weaker enemies before attempting a stronger group.

Monk Farming Build

Farming Strategy
Use Mantra of Conviction before attacking anyone. Start your attack by hitting the enemies around you with Crippling Wave. Continue using Crippling Wave until you start to get surrounded by enemies. Now Unleash Seven Sided Strike and Lashing Tail Kick and move to a less crowded area with Tempest Rush.

Continue using the same rotation until all of your enemies are down and use Blinding Flash if you ever run into trouble while you are farming.

Quick Look Skill Rotation
1. Mantra of Conviction
2. Crippling Wave – Until Surrounded
3. Seven Sided Strike
4. Lashing Tail Kick
5. Tempest Rush – Move to a less crowded area.

Passive Abilities
While the passive abilities won’t have as much of an effect on your gameplay as the active abilities do, selecting the right ones will help you farm considerably better. Fleet Footed will allow you to evade enemies, but more importantly it will let you get from one pack of enemies to another in a shorter time span. This means you will gather more items and gold per hour which is very important while farming. The next passive you want to get is One with Everything. The improved resistance granted by this ability will help you withstand large numbers of elemental enemies at the same time which will broaden your farming options quite a bit. The last passive that you should get is Exalted Soul. This final passive gives you enough Spirit to unleash a burst of attacks if you need to drop a powerful group of enemies.

Gem Selection
Using the best gems for farming will make a noticeable difference. With a Topaz gem placed in your helmet you will have an easier time finding magical items. Even though rare item drops are completely random, with better odds you have a better chance to find something truly rare. On top of the Topaz gems in your helmet you should have Emerald in your weapon. The additional crit chance offered by emerald gems will compliment your monk’s burst damage nicely and you should see a difference in the time it takes to take out a group of enemies.

Diablo 3 Witch Doctor Farming Guide

So you’ve been playing Diablo 3 for a little while and you want to learn how to turn that Witchdoctor into a farming machine. Despite what some people say, Witchdoctor’s do have the potential to be very efficient farmers. You just have to know how to approach the problem effectively.

With a Witchdoctor you have two play style options available to you. You can either hide behind a cluster of pets flinging damaging spells on top of your enemies, and fight longer more consistent battles, or you can crush everything in a few seconds and wait around for your mana to come back.

Witch Doctor Farming Build

Since Witchdoctors don’t have many abilities to regain their mana after it is lost, a pet heavy build is much more effective for long term farming. While you won’t have as great of an ability to generate high burst damage, you shouldn’t ever have a problem with running out of mana either.

The Farming Strategy
Before you even think about fighting anyone you need to be prepared. Summon all of your Zombie dogs and your Gargantuan. Have all of your pets attack a group of enemies. After the enemies are engaged it’s time to lay down some damage. Use Acid Cloud over top of the group of enemies. Then cast Haunt on the most powerful enemies in the group.

Continue to chain cast Acid Cloud and Haunt until all your enemies are dead or they get past your pets. If they start to get past everyone use Wall of Zombies to hold them back. If the situation becomes really drastic you can use Sacrifice to burst down your enemies, but be prepared to run if it doesn’t finish them off. As long as you don’t challenge enemies that are too strong for you, your pets shouldn’t have a problem holding them back from you while you burn them down.

Quick Look Skill Rotation
* Zombie Dogs  -  4x
* Gargantuan
* Acid Cloud – Try to keep this spell up over all your enemies constantly.
* Haunt – Use this on all the more powerful enemies.
* Wall of Zombies – Cast on enemies that make it past your pets.
* Sacrifice – Use as a last resort to finish off enemies. 
 
Passive Abilities
Your passive abilities will only serve to strengthen the pets that defend you even more. Circle of Life will help you build up the number of Zombie Dogs protecting you. Over time you should be able to replace most of the lost dogs with new ones. Zombie Handler makes it possible to start with four dogs which will make farming easier and more manageable. Fierce loyalty is your last passive ability and it will really help keep your pets alive over the long term. With your life regeneration your pets can rejuvenate between battles. The longer they live, the more mana you have to spend on damage spells and the faster you can farm.

Gem Selection
The most important gem to your farming efforts is the topaz gem because it will boost your chances of finding rare items. Since item drops are completely random the best way to get better items is to get as many possible magical drops as possible. With the best Topaz gems you will see more items and have better odds at finding something great.

Place emerald gems in your weapon sockets to maximize your farming ability. Since your character will be dealing a series of slow but powerful spells the best way to take advantage of that damage is to increase your odds of getting a critical hit. When you do you will have a huge boost of damage that will overshadow the small amount you would get from a ruby.

Diablo 3 Wizard Farming Guide

The Wizard class is well known for being able to dish out some serious damage. With this farming build you will not only be able to manage high bursts of damage but maintain a steady amount of damage group after group. By combining bursts when you need them and steady damage the rest of the time you should be able to farm nearly nonstop and in most situations without a problem. 

Farming Strategy
Turn on your Energy Armor. Start the battle by sending out fire bolts using Shock Pulse. Try to get all your enemies to surround you before you lay down major damage. When they are close use Wave of Force to blast them back. Continue to hit them with fire bolts until they get close again, now lock them down with Frost Nova and hit them with Meteor. Teleport out of range of them and restart the process all over again. Continue doing the same thing until everyone is dead.

Wizard Farming Build

This low cost skill rotation should leave you with more than enough Arcane Power to keep dealing with group after group. With the Astral Presence passive along with the reduced cost of Meteor energy shouldn’t be an issue. On top of having staying power you should have enough excess Arcane Power to burst enemies down if you ever need to.

Quick Look Skill Rotation
Energy Armor
Shock Pulse – Blast surrounding enemies until they get close.
Wave of Force – Knock back enemies that get too close.
Frost Nova
Meteor
Teleport – out of range and start over.

Passive Abilities
With all of the active abilities in place you are already powerful enough to farm effectively, but these passive abilities will help boost your power even further. Glass Cannon is an obvious choice because you shouldn’t be taking melee damage at all with this build. Astral Presence will help make sure that your Arcane Power stays full for when you need it most. With a high amount of power you can let out bursts of spells in bad situations. Conflagration will give a nice damage boost to both of your main damage dealers with this build as long as you have the Fire Bolts skill rune on Shock Pulse.

Gem Selection
Proper gem selection to go with this build will help give you an extra farming boost. Topaz is the number one gem that you should be concerned with. Get to the highest level topaz that you possibly can and keep it socketed in your helmet while farming. The plus magic find will make it easier to come across those rare items that are going to make you the most money.

By equipping emeralds in your weapon you will boost your crit chance even further making your build very powerful. When the crit boost from your gems is combined with the boost you get from Frost Nova your Meteor will be critical hitting very often dealing out a massive amount of damage.

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You will be able to play Wii games on the Wii U. The new console is fully backwards compatible. You will have the opportunity to enjoy each and every title that has already been released. The list includes games such as Super Mario Galaxy, Donkey Cong Country, The Legend of Zelda, The Last Story, Ninja Garden, Assassin’s Creed and all your favorite sports titles. You will be able to enjoy playing these video games on the controller using its own 6.2-inch 16:9 touchscreen as well as using a TV set. This expands the range of options available to games even further.

One really important thing to note is that Nintendo has announced their intention to keep producing the two consoles simultaneously. This means that you can expect new games in the future which will be both Wii and Wii U compatible. This is certainly great news for all passionate gamers who consider preserving their existing system after getting a new one.

You will be able to play Wii games on the Wii U, but you will not be able to play GameCube ones. The latest eight-generation Nintendo console is not backwards compatible with the sixth-generation one. This may be disappointing for some fans, but the reality is that the new system is much more advanced and offers a considerably enhanced gaming experience. It is true that many gamers find it hard to let go of their all-time favorites, but there are plenty of new and existing Wii titles to pick from.

While you can play Wii games on the Wii U, things may not work the other way round. The company has not made an official statement on the matter, but many experts believe that titles designed exclusively for the latest Nintendo console will not be compatible with its predecessor. This is because the new system supports full HD and developers will try to use this format as it gives a much more enhanced gaming experience. Its predecessor does not support this format and consequently the new games may not work on it. Still, these are just speculations. As highlighted earlier, new games compatible with both system may hit the market in the coming months and years.

Nintendo Wii U Average Rating: total customer reviews...

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How much will the Wii U cost? From the comments made by Nintendo officials so far, we have learned that the new system is not going to have the same price as the current price of Wii and that it is not going to be cheap. These statements are indeed very vague and give little clue about the actual price of the system. In one of his most recent statements Nintendo of America’s president actually admitted that the company had not come up with the actual pricing yet.

How about estimates of the cost of Wii U? Estimates are hard to make for a number of reasons. The main one is that no one outside the company knows for sure how powerful the processor will be. As you know, this is the major determinant of the price of electronics entertainment devices. The touchscreen integrated into the controller will certainly make the product more expensive. The question is how effectively the manufacturer can reduce the production costs so that the price becomes more competitive.

Many experts predict that the Wii U cost will be around $250 in the US market. However, most prefer to give a broader pricing range saying that the price may be as high as $300. Similar estimates are made about the cost in the UK. The system is expected to come at a price from 250 to 300 GBP.

Reports recently made by retailers from various part of the world suggest that the new Nintendo system will have a price tag of $600. An Australian retailer has said that they will most likely sell the console for 598 Australian dollars which is roughly equally to 600 USD. A popular online British retailer has reported planning to charge 500 GBP. One of the largest retail stores in France estimates that the product will be available for 450 Euro in Europe.

So far, there are only speculations about the Wii U cost so nothing is certain. It is best to make up your mind on buying the console once the official pricing has been announced.

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The Wii U console comes with an IMB multi-core microprocessor with Power Architecture technology. The GPU is AMD Radeon HD. It has been custom designed for the console.

There are two storage options. The console gets flash memory. It can be expanded via SD cards and external USB devices. The optical disc drive has standard slot loading design. It works with 12-centimiter Wii discs and with 12-centimiter high-density ones that are compatible.

The Specs of the Wii U continue with the peripheral ports. The console comes with SD card slot. It is compatible with SDHC cards. There are two front and two rear USB 2.0 ports. There is an HDMI 1.4 out port in addition to one for Sensor Bar and for AV Multi Out.

The Wii U controller has a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer. The device features a microphone and speakers, camera integrated into the front panel and an IR Sensor strip. It comes with two round pads on the right and on the left side and a D pad. You get standard Start, Home, Select and Power buttons. There are also various control buttons – A, B, X and Y face ones, L and R bumper ones and ZL and ZR trigger ones. There is a synchronization button. You will enjoy a rumble feature. There is a stylus included in the package as well.

The new and perhaps most exciting of all Specs of the Wii U of the controller is the 6.2-inch resistive touchscreen. It has FWVGA resolution of 854×480 pixels. The touchscreen allows you to enjoy an enhanced gaming experience as it gives you a second window or viewpoint of the game. In addition to the touchscreen, the controller has Bluetooth and NFC capabilities.

The Wii U console supports the following video formats: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. The AV Multi Out port supports composite video. Via the HDMI 1.4 out port, you will be able to view 3D images. Through the same port, you can enjoy PCM linear output.

These are the main Specs of the Wii U announced so far by Nintendo. More and more detailed information will be available upon the official market release of the console.

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Given this, it is natural to ask what the difference between Wii and Wii U really is. The reality is that the latest console has some major features improved. It comes with a brand new and more powerful processor. It gets a new graphics card as well. While the Wii has PowerPC-based Broadway CPU, its successor comes with an IBM Power Architecture-based multi-core CPU. The first console has ATI Hollywood GPU, while the latter features AMD Radeon HD GPU which has been custom designed for it.

The most notable difference in the specs of the graphics cards is that the new one of the Wii U plays high definition video games. Indeed, the latest Nintendo console is the first one to support 1080p high definition graphics. Apart from full HD, the system supports other video modes including 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. In general, you will certainly enjoy better graphics with the latest console. You can expect more distinctive colors and improved dynamics.

Perhaps the main difference between the Wii and the Wii U is in the controllers. The latest controller has taken all the best from its predecessor including 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope allowing it to sense movement in three dimensions. However, it has a more advanced design and a 6.2-inch 16:9 resistive touchscreen.

This touchscreen allows you to follow the game and the action from a second standpoint and to get additional information. More importantly, you can continue playing using only the controller when the TV is turned off. You can use the touchscreen with a stylus that is included in the package. In addition to the standard buttons and the screen, you get a front-facing camera.

These are the major difference between Wii and Wii U. One very important thing to note is that the new console is backwards compatible with its predecessor. This means that you can use all accessories that you already have with the new system. More importantly, you will be able to enjoy all of the games that you have already got.

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The release date of Wii U is going to be in the fourth quarter of 2012. This is the more recent information available from Nintendo. It is expected that the console will hit the stores close to the start of the holiday season. This move will allow the company to achieve high sales right from the start. Before the recent announcement about the fourth quarter release, the estimated market launch period was from April to December 2012. Now things are much clearer. You can be certain that the system will not be in stores before the fall.

Will the Wii U be released on the same date in countries across the globe? This is a logical question to ask given that Nintendo’s competitors have the habit of releasing new products at different times in different parts of the world. Besides, the predecessor of the latest console, the Wii, was released in the US two weeks before its official launch in other parts of the world. Currently, we know that the console will be on the US, European and Japanese market during the 2012 holiday seasons. This means that the launches may be days or a few weeks apart, but not months.

You have plenty of time to prepare for the release date of Wii U. You would certainly like to know how much money to set aside for making the purchase, but the official pricing has not been announced yet either. The speculations range from $250 to $600. The gap is pretty wide so we just have wait and see.

Naturally, you are curious to learn what will be present in the package. Not surprisingly, the contents has not been officially announced yet, but you can expect to find the console and tablet-based controller with resistive touchscreen plus a set of cables necessary for setting the system up. There are speculations that the Remote Plus controller introduced with the Wii will be present in the package as well so that users can enjoy sports games as realistically as with the previous console.

Now you just have to wait for the release date of Wii U.

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