For a short time in Diablo IV the Ruins Of Eridu was known as a loot cave. I ended up farming here fora few levels and gaining some of the best experiences yet. Then they not only nerfed the individual dungeon itself but the game machine that made it a loot cave. Thankfully while the experience did get nerfed this still ends up being a decent place for that.
In games like these knowledge is power and understanding why something was that way is far better than just knowing the current location of the best of something. As when far too many people are farming that singular dungeon it’s become quite clear Blizzard will nerf the daylights out of it.
It’s also somewhat funny the gaming community around Diablo IV has come up catch phrase to call Blizzard. As Blizzard has gone on massive hourly and daily nerfing of anything they can. Many are now considering them to be “no fun allowed.” It’s ok though the players will keep finding the most optimal path for doing something if the game developers want them to or not.
Now did Ruins Of Eridu need to get nerfed? More than likely as some players had such crazy claims as saying they could get 100+ legendary or better drops in an hour on the highest world setting with insane clearing speeds. I never got anything near that.
This is however how things and this cave worked. Once you zone into Ruins Of Eridu after walking up a little ways you will notice in every single run it splits off in three directions. It’s a giant loop here with a center path doing down the middle as well.
It’s rather funny on my first ruins of this place I got a legendary to drop rather quickly. I would go on to get another one in that single run. It was not always like this every single run it was however quite a lot more than I’d get elsewhere.
I would mostly clear out that middle section. Then I’d go to the left and just follow around the loop till I got to the right side back to where I started. Along the way, I was looking to clear out high-density pockets of creatures.
This dungeon is quite known for just how dense of spawns it has. It was also known for something else. Having an insane amount of elites. The elites as it turned out are what made this along with the “Slay all enemies” objective a loot cave.
Even cooler every once in a while in this cave it was like it was trying to raid you. You were not even close to being done yet and you see a message and get an insane amount of stuff just spawned on you. Along as you did not get killed which I hardly ever did. That was just more icing on the top. I loved the “enemy horde incoming” part.
There would become a point that you got to the end. You would have so many kills left. That is where “Slay all enemies” came into play. As it not only spawned in everything that got left behind it seemed to have gone overboard and spawned in an extra pack of creatures sky-rocking the remaining things to kill left.
You might also notice just how many elites are in this final pack. It was by all accounts insane. Even better I could do this solo!
This is perhaps the most important part. Once you have cleared this section you don’t run off to finish the dungeon. No. You open the emote wheel and click on leave the dungeon. You then exit to the character select. You then log back in and this gets the dungeon reset.
For a solo player like me having to re-log each time was the quickest way to reset the dungeon. For those running this in groups, I believe they just reformed the group to get a new dungeon.
One downside to logging out is you lose any buffs you had including elixirs. It’s not like I did not have an insane amount of elixirs. It’s not like I don’t have quite a few just taking up way too much space in my bags. It just feels like a waste to use them for a run that lasts at that time like 2 or 3 minutes. My build is not that fastest at the clearing.
After a while, I noticed my legendary drop rate was quite a lot lower than when it started. I’d still luck out and get a couple of drops on a single run. That however usually was from me running a random event that spawned in the cave.
Sometime later, the developers put a patch out and nerfed the daylights out of “Slay all enemies” objectives. It’s almost quite laughable now just how few elites there are at the start of this cave and quite a lot of other dungeons.
The crazy part is this did not just nerf Ruins Of Eridu it nerfed any loot cave that was one because of the game machines at play. Despite that, there are still loot caves out there at least at the time of writing this. They are just not as amazing as they once were.
This also comes up with another interesting thing. Since Ruins Of Eridu still has high creature density left unless they at some point come along and nerf that as well. It still has some of the best experiences I’ve found for playing solo.
Needless to say before the nerf and after I still ran this cave so many times I almost dream about this place. It was however quite a nice little boost to my level. Allowing me to quickly get quite a few paragons and levels in the process.
Just farming for high experience with a low legendary drop however has its drawbacks. While sure it be nice to be level 70+ and in the highest world tier possible for the best loot and experience possible. If you are not finding upgrades every couple of levels you will soon fall behind having enough damage for quick clearing speeds. So there is some kind of trade-off point between getting experience and getting critical upgrades.
There is however the other side of the debate. You can 100% get hosed by the RNG gods on loot. However, X experience per hour is exactly that. You know what you are getting just going for high experience per hour and it has an expected outcome.
Final Thoughts
It was quite fun to get to experience one of the loot caves before it got nerfed. While I’m not trying to rush per se to level 70 or 100. It is fun sometimes to stop and see what a large amount of the player base is up to.
I’m also posting this a few days well after things got nerfed. Blizzard has already banned quite a few players for some strange and not-so-strange reasons. I’m not looking for any trouble. I did however feel it quite important for people to develop the thinking to discover such locations so they can find them on their own before the word gets out and the masses show up and get it nerfed.
I also find it quite funny that I’ve yet to finish Ruins Of Eridu for the first-time completion bonus. I’ve never left the first area and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Perhaps at some point, I will.
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Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Diablo IV.
Originally posted on Enjar Games. Hive blog powered by ENGRAVE.