Week One Strategies

The day is almost here.  Tomorrow is May 15th and Diablo 3 will FINALLY launch, opening a whole new world of mob bashing, monster slaying, and money making.  Personally, I can't wait to play the game.  Outside of the money making aspect of the game, which has and will be my ultimate goal for Diablo 3, I am looking forward to the first play through and kicking some demon ass.  The one week (at least) delay of the Real Money Auction House is a blessing for players like me who want to really take a shot at making money playing Diablo 3.  It gives us a chance to be gamers and just play the game for what it is - one of the coolest games of our time.

Granted, I will not be slacking off and running around looking at all of the pretty (or dingy) landscapes and graphics...I plan on maximizing my time in the game and setting myself up to be able to make some serious cash once the RMAH goes live.  Even if I didn't plan on turning Diablo 3 into a business, I'd approach the game the same way.  I played WoW with the same mentality - have a goal and accomplish it the fastest and best way possible.  The goal of week one is to burn through content and amass an inventory of items and gold to sell on the RMAH.

Here's how I plan on accomplishing the week one goal.

1. Level - As I talked about in my Investing in Your Characters post, you need a max level character to have access to as many markets as possible.  Leveling quickly might require a little investment, like buying a high dps weapon or buying some gems early.  I'd rather spend a little gold in the beginning and have a level 45 barbarian at the end of week one than have a few extra thousand gold at the end of week one and only be level 30.
2. Level artisans - I will be focusing on the jeweler, but I plan on dumping a little gold into my blacksmith so that I can capitalize on a few of the lower level items that the blacksmith can make.  I'm planning on trying out the boot market and hoping to craft +movement speed items.  
3. Save 75% of the gold that I get and re-invest 25% - After each session, I will write down how much gold I made from auctions and farming and "set aside" 75% of it for re-sale later.  The other 25% I will re-invest in either my character or crafting materials.
4. Buy vitality gems.  Vitality will not be very important early in the game, meaning that low level vitality gems will be valued at a lower rate than other gems.  I plan on investing in these gems early and stock piling them so that I can combine them to create high level vitality gems for when players start to make it to Inferno.  I think that level 12+ Vit gems will sell for a decent amount on the RMAH, so if I can be one of the first Jewelcrafters to have a good inventory of high level Vit gems, I'll make a killing.

I actually will not be able to play until around day 3, because I will be traveling on May 15th and working both of my jobs on May 16th.  Poor planning, I know...but sometimes life happens and you have to roll with it.  However, I have May 18th off and will be playing a binge session then, so expect a status update on Friday.

Good luck to everyone who will be playing tonight at midnight and I will work on catching up with all of you later this week!