So I’ve completed the campaign and ran a few Monoliths to get my first key.
I ran an arena to level 68 until the ax men took me down.
Any advice on completing the run to 100?
Do you run monoliths until you get one key, or push until you die?
What level should I start to get serious about crafting my gear?
When do you start pushing for higher arena runs?
I think this topic might make a good video for the great content creators we have in this community.
Thanks!
When you are doing mono and arena runs, it is the time to start to get serious about your gear 
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The question is how good equipped you are. Do you already have items you can craft on?
When this is your first char I’d suggest you do mono runs untill you get a key. Do Arena as high as you can go (I mean until you die, do not claim the rewards, they are not that good). Arena mainly is for getting XP and leveling up. If you are lucky you can find some good items, too. But mono is far better for gearing.
If you can go to lvl 68 in arena already this is a ok XP boost so go in there as often as you can. If you’d struggle and die on wave 30 I’d suggest you gear up first by running mono as far as you can get and save the arena keys for when you get higher and get more out of it.
With lvl 68 you won’t find your endgame gear because you don’t get the top tier basic items, yet. But it’s not a good idea to save your crafting gear untill you do. You would have a hard time to level up. And you don’t know when your favoured item drops. So go all in with your resources. You will get them back fast enough with the gear you can craft on your level.
Collect all items that have the “set glancing blow” affix. Even when the items are crap you can shatter them for getting this affix to craft in an item that is a good base. (When you can afford it, collect and shatter all items with “set” because they are rare. Depending on what class you are playing you should also go for protections. At the end you want to have around 70% protections (this is a rough value because it is dependent on how much hp you have) and 100% glancing blow. Last you go for 100% critical hit avoidance.
If you are playing a ward build you ignore protections and go for int on gear for ward retention. This is one of the few exceptions where you gear for attributes that relate to your damage skills. For example it is not worth on a Sentinel to put strength on your gear. You get the str nodes of your passive tree and that’s it. Most skills only get a minor damage increase from your main attribute. When you go for flat and %increased damage you get way more than from a +x str affix.
It may be a good idea to search for a guide here on the forum because there are gear suggestions included.
What class are you playing?
I am working on one. So, soon. Basically what Raw said. Arena to level and monoliths/gambling to get good drops/crafting bases. Don’t overlook gambling. It is quite strong atm. Also there is a great guide to doing damage on here by marc/holycoffee. I suggest taking a peak might be useful. There is the written version and a video version to digest how you would like.
Great stuff, I’ve leveled most of the classes to around 50. I’m trying to push a spellblade to 100 now.
Totally forgot about gambling… Shame on me 
. I have to admit that this is the main recourse of items for me. Besides uniques most of my gear is from gambling.
I’ve also made the experience that you won’t be happy when you neglect your defences. You can activly avoid getting hit in arena only to a certain degree. I’ve seen phrases like “offence is the best defense” and “things that are dead can’t kill you”. But this also is true the other way round. You can’t kill things when you are dead or have to avoid every second hit to not to die. And in LE you should definitely build on your defense.
The higher you go in arena the more XP you will gain. And the higher your own level is the higher the arena waves have to be to have a remarkable impact on your progression. When you are level 80 you won’t get much out of an arena untill wave 70. So when you get to the point in arena that lets you progress, like wave 80-90, but you can’t sustain another 20 waves it’s not effective. Because 90% of your time you beat enemies that don’t grand much XP for you. It’s a waste of time.
To get the most out of it you have to aim for survivability to be as long as possible at the high waves to make a meaningful progress.
The numbers may not be correct, but I think you get what I mean. 
Another great tip is it depends on your build. High defense is good for arena. Monoliths can get away with more damage for speed farming. But defenses are always a good bet to hit all the caps for your build and they are different. Like a mage you don’t want prots really. You want to get as much ward as quickly as possible. While going for your GB/CA and dodge about 65-70% . Just wanted to add on to what you said.
How often do you reset monoliths? After every key or go until you die?
It takes a while to get to 70+ sometimes which is the sweet spot. But I generally go till I die. 50-60 is still good. But the further thought go the better the drops. About 70+ is where the good drops will really start happening
Set Affixes. Those that give bonus based on number of items you have equipped with that affix.
things like;
Elemental Protection Per Item Equipped With This Affix
Added Health Per Item Equipped With This Affix
Increased Health Regen Per Equipped Item With This Affix
I still do not understand how to use the “per item equipped with this affix”. Can you unpack an example in detail how to use that item in crafting?
When you put on 1 affix with +7% set glancing nothing happens. When you then add a 2nd with +5% set glancing you get the bonus of each affix multiplied with the number of set affixes. So it would be 2x +7% on the first an 2× +5% on the 2nd resulting in 24% glancing blow. With the next all values are multiplied with 3.
Per item equipped with this affix are more powerful version of an affix. Take glancing blow for example. If you have 3 affix slots with t2 set glancing blow, each affix slot will provide 2% glancing blow per item equipped. So that’s 3x2% + 3x2% + 3x2% = 18%.
I feel just half-stupid now? Do I shatter items with the “per item equipped” and added them to one item or do I use the “shard” on three different pieces of equipment where each one already has the affix of “per item equipped”?
Both, you want several items with as high affixes as you can get. From memory, you need 5 slots @ t4 (4%-5%) for set glancing blow to give 100% (with a min roll), or 4 slots @ t5 roll (3x 6% + 1 x 7%) to get 100% glancing blow.
Thank you so much-- I believe I see the mechanic now. I will experiment a bit. I really appreciate your kindness in taking the time to walk this old man through this. Great drops and good hunting. May all your hits be crits.
Nice man! 
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