Farming the Crypt

Hearing all of this hoopla about the Legendary run du jour – the Defiled Crypt Level 2 rinse and repeat – I had to give it a whirl. The run involves killing Manglemaw over and over and over and over and over and over…and over…until orange or green stuff starts dropping. Hearing about how painless and lucrative this can be, I was anxious to give it a go.

I started out thinking I was going to to do 20 runs and that was that, but my gambling spirit took hold and I ended up with 56 Manglemaw kills total.

The run is appealing for a few reasons…

• The fight is really easy. Even with my sorry DPS I could still handle this in T3 with no issues at all.
• Each attempt takes less than a minute, or even shorter depending upon your DPS and difficulty setting.
• Right at the checkpoint often times there is a shrine, which once in awhile may be a Pool of Reflection.

To do this run, you go into Campaign Mode and select Act I, Quest 3: A Shattered Crown, Northwest Gate.

You can start the game in normal mode because all you’ll be doing is running to the necessary checkpoint, after which you can resume the game in the Torment level of your choosing. Once you create the game, run out the NW Gate into the Weeping Hollow and on to the Cemetery of the Forsaken. When you get to the cemetery, quickly explore the Defiled Crypts until you find the Defiled Crypt level 2, then head on in.

When Manglemaw appears you can kill him or just juke past him and into the Chancellor’s Tomb. Once you receive the checkpoint you’re now free to leave the game, resume the game, kill Manglemaw, leave, etc…etc…etc.

Note: I’ve seen some players comment that you need to be careful not to break down his door before he appears, and that you must not kill him before you enter the Chancellor’s Tomb. This is not the case. I tested this several times and it doesn’t matter. As long as you get the checkpoint, you can come and go as you please, smash his door in if you like…whatever.

I did my first several runs on T3 – about 45 to be exact. The last 11 runs I did on Torment I. Here’s what I ended up with:

• Human Cartilage x 10 (used for crafting Wall of Man)
• Skull Grasp
• Aquila Cuirass
• 20 gems, including 2 Imperials (diamond and topaz)
• Flawless Royal Ruby JC Recipe
• 2 yellow upgrades for me and 1 for my Follower
• and a whole mess of salvaged crafting mats

I have no idea what I’ll ever need with 10x Human Cartilage, but not having enough is no longer a problem. 😉

In addition, I gained about 11 Paragon bars (leveled from 64 to 65) AND I stacked 5 Pools of Reflection during these runs, which is a huge side benefit of doing this. Right at the checkpoint where you port in there is often times either a shrine of some sort, and once in awhile, i.e., about 1 in 10 runs, there is a Pool of Reflection.

Once I stacked 4 pools I decided to take the difficulty down to T1 and just burn through Manglemaw in an effort to see if I could get more pools to spawn. As long as you’re in T1 you still have a shot at class set items, so unless your DPS is just insane and you can handle T3+ kills within seconds, I’d recommend T1 or T2 for this. More opportunities at loot offsets the greater drop chance, plus you get the benefit of receiving additional gems and most importantly, stacking Pools of Reflection.

Running this over and over I think it would be entirely possible to stack 10 of these in under an hour. If you wanted, you could even avoid Manglemaw altogether, repeatedly leave and resume at the checkpoint and probably get 10 pools stacked within 30 minutes. Just don’t die afterwards!

Based on my experience, I wouldn’t consider this an ideal run for Legendary farming. I’d much prefer to do Bounties, try and get the sweet loots from the Horadric Caches, as well as farm Cursed Chests and Nephalem Rifts. To me, those things are not only more exciting and enjoyable, but I’ve had much better luck when doing that content. Furthermore, parking my toon on an easy to kill boss and face-rolling him for an hour or two just doesn’t feel like “playing the game”. The thrill of the hunt keeps it fun for a little while, but then it just becomes like work.

56 kills and 2 Legendary items was a little disappointing, but when you consider that I managed to tear through a whole Paragon level, stack 5 Pools of Reflection, walk away with 20 gems, a few nice rare upgrades, and a wheel barrow full of Human Cartilage, it wasn’t a bad evening after all.

What’s also nice is that I can leave the game open and casually run Manglemaw at my leisure. In fact, I’ve killed him 6 times since I started this post. 😉 You can even park your character at this spot, leave for the weekend, then come back and hit Manglemaw. In fact, I’ve left my Demon Hunter in this game for 2 days now, popping in on occasion to see if Manglemaw feels like dropping any goodies.

As I said, I don’t consider it the best way to get Legendaries quickly, but it is a worthwhile run to do when you consider its ease, along with the other things you can get out of it.

If you haven’t tried this run yet, please do, then tell me how it went!