One of the biggest complaints I see on the Diablo 3 forums is that many people are not getting legendary and set items at what they think is an acceptable level. I was one of the people who felt this way for awhile until I started refining my strategy. I now average 1 to 2 legendary items an hour and I am not maxed out on magic find or paragon levels. My strategy is built around a Whirl Wind Barbarian build with little to no magic find on my gear. My only magic find comes from my follower and my paragon levels.

The follower you should choose should be the enchantress. Buy her gear that has max or near max magic find, intelligence and vitality. For her weapon get a cheap intelligent based Maximus. The reason I choose a Maximus over a Grand Visor is because I feel the demon that is summoned by Maximus is far more useful than the 10% or so magic find you would get from the magic find weapon.

Finding more legendaries is all about efficiency. The more elites you kill in a given time frame the more likely you are to get one to drop. Some people have success with killing trash mobs or kicking breakable objects but these are very inefficient in my opinion. This does not mean you shouldn’t kill trash mobs, I just don’t go out of my way to kill them. I personally have never found any set or legendary items from a chest or any other breakable objects.

For max efficiency you should be farming monster power 1. This makes all mobs level 63, a 25% magic find bonus and one additional item dropping from mobs 10% of the time. If you are able to kill elites in 10 seconds or less you can move up to monster power 2. Higher monster power levels generally make mobs inefficient to farm because the health and damage output doesn’t scale well with the magic find bonus.

The odds of a sellable level 60-62 item dropping are very slim. Identifying items waste time as well as having to sell to a vendor. With this in mind you should never pick up anything other than level 63 items. The only exception to this rule is jewelry. Level 60-62 jewelry can roll stats good enough to sell for some decent money. Tomes and gems that drop are simply not worth the time it takes to stop fighting and pick them up. If you must pick some gems up only target the flawless emeralds since they range up to 4k each.

The absolute fastest and most efficient route I have been able to come up with is similar with Alkaiser’s run but sort of the opposite. Start the quest to kill Azmodan. Use the way point for the Arreat crater level 1. Run through this area killing everything in your path until you run into a dead end. If turning back means you will be running for more than about 15 second without anything to kill then you should port back out. I know some people will feel the urge to complete the whole level but it’s very inefficient to have to travel back over areas where mobs are already dead. Remember we are trying to kill the most number of elites in the least amount of time. Generally you will kill 2-4 elites in this area.

Now depending on the outcome from Arreat Crater level 1, you are either back in town because you town portaled or you are now at level 1 of the tower. Make you way around the first level in a counter clock wise direction. You want to go counter clock wise because you want to end up where the stairs lead down to the next level. You will find 1- 4 elites in this area and maybe a goblin.

There is nothing special about the next level of the Tower of the Damned. Clear this level and you should kill another 2-4 elites and maybe a goblin. Continue down to the next level The Heart of the Damned.

Clear the Heart of the Damned and you will again killed 2-4 elites. Sometimes a goblin will spawn on this level as well. You will now enter the Arreat Crater level 2.

Clear as much of the Arreat Crater level 2 as you can. Just like the Arrest Crater level 1, you want to port out as soon as you hit a dead end. If you can return to main path within 15 seconds turn around but if it will take longer than that just portal back out.

Depending on your outcome from the Arreat Crater level 2 you will either be in town or at the Tower of the cursed level 1. Portal into the tower if you are in town and begin to clear. Clear both the level of the Tower of the Cursed. You will have killed another 2-4 elites on each of the floors and maybe a goblin. Do not enter the Heart of the cursed. Once you have come to the Heart of the Cursed entrance portal back to town.

Now portal into the Core of the Arreat. This is the most straight forward area. There is only one main path and anywhere from 1-3 elites and maybe a goblin. Kill everything in your path until you reach Azmodan lair. Kill Azmodan and portal back to town.

Now portal to the Keeps Depths level 1. Immediately enter the portal to level 2. Clear as much of level 2 as you can until you run into a dead end. Log out and repeat this run again.

You should be able to do this entire run in under 20 minutes. With good gear you can do it in under 15 minutes. With around 300 or more magic find you will average 1 legendary every other run.