Originally Posted by
Trotheus
You don't need godly gear to MF - farming act 1 is a very reasonable way to get drops. The drop rate for i61-63 items in act 1 is 25% of what it is in acts 3-4, so as long as you can get ~4 times as many rares per hour in act 1 as in act 3, you're fine. Most people usually can do this, since act 1 elites have very little health and die so quickly.
With that said, I'm farming act 3 as a DH with only 25k hp, 400 AR and 55k damage (without SS). These stats are a bit gimpy for a DH in act 3, because of my focus on MF over dps / stats, but as long as I play carefully I generally avoid dying too much. I just have to be careful of certain monster types and certain affixes, and be flexible enough to skip the stuff I know will give me a headache.
Mine had a perf 300 spear, and perfect blue mf + vit shield + jewelery. As you put it, he could die like a pro.
As I was creeping into the area of 25+ mill per upgrade to my character, it occurred to me to rethink the Templar just a bit. Equipped with perfect MF gear, he gives me 24% magic find. That's more than the max on most pieces, but it doesn't count if he's dead, and of course he can't save my bacon if he's dead (not that it happens often when he's alive!). So keeping him alive is sorta like wearing a 14th piece of gear, which has very high MF and can occasionally proc something nifty to save my life.
As such I got him a perf sun keeper (higher dps, almost 500) with str and ~300 LoH, and a good shield with str, vit, AR, and perf MF ofc. Even though he's still wearing his crappy blue vit/mf neck and rings he's far more survivable now. If I got him some good jewelery, especially with LoH, I don't think he'd ever die. I'm considering it - it would be cheaper than continuing to upgrade my character, who frankly kills fast enough as it is.