I’ll be honest, I don’t envision that ‘grinding’ (long periods of killing enemies and looting them) is the way to dominate the Diablo III RMAH – at least not the most efficient way. Playing the Diablo 3 Auction House has the potential to net you far more profit than grinding ever will. Much like playing the stock market versus working 9-5 5 days a week. And just like playing the stock market, playing the Diablo III RMAH requires a lot of specific knowledge and/or trial and error. Don’t worry! I’ll be walking you through what I learn, giving you my knowledge and helping you avoid some of the errors in this blog.
Even if the majority of smart players choose to make their money primarily from the D3 RMAH, they’re still going to need to play a class to the higher levels to unlock all three artisans (this will be very important), gain the ability to get any item regardless of demand (avoid bottlenecks or choke points), and generally be self sufficient (one of the reasons I made so much money in World of Warcraft). Also, we’re getting Diablo III to play as well as attempt to make money aren’t we? That’s the appeal here isn’t it? We’ll be making money playing a game. It doesn’t hurt though, to know which class is the most profitable (time or money wise) to level up first. With all that in mind I will (amongst other things) be fully working through each class in the beta. I’ll complete Act I (The Skeleton King) on each and take my favourite classes (if I can find any) even further. I’ll be squeezing every drop of information I can out of this Beta Invite and those who follow me will get to share!
Diablo III Beta: Witchdoctor Level 0 - 10
Let’s begin with the class I’ve been following very closely: the Witchdoctor. Where do I start? I’m in love. This character plays a lot like the World of Warcraft Warlock class with plenty of fire, dots and pets. Those of you who’ve played World of Warcraft and tried to make money by grinding will know that the Warlock was one of the strongest grinding classes in the game: Dot, Dot, Loot. The Witchdoctor’s level 1 ability does what it should. It gets you to level 2. When you reach level 2 you gain a set of tanking zombie dogs and an indirect damage/area of effect spell (Plague of Toads <3). You only have to reach level 6 (level 4 for Haunt and level 6 so you can have 3 active skills at once) to have all you need to comfortably storm through act I (the limit of the Diablo III beta at the time of writing) at the very least. 
These spells are, first and foremost, lots of fun – so much fun. It’s a bonus that they are also very strong. You have three tanks to keep mobs off you, you’ve got AoE (a bit erratic though Plague Toads may be) and the dot component of Haunt means you can adopt a ‘fire and forget’ style, even surrounded by a horde of decaying monsters. All you have to worry about is haunting a few enemies and dispensing your toads. Then you avoid the dying while picking up the gold and loot.
The style isn’t smashy or flashy like I expect the rest of the other classes to be. It may even be an acquired taste (if so it’s a taste that I can’t get enough of) but there’s no denying it’s effective and efficient. Energy and time saved when levelling can be channelled into the Diablo III Auction House. The Witchdoctor can take on masses of enemies and deal damage while staying mobile from the very earliest levels. I’m looking forward to playing the Witchdoctor more during the Diablo 3 Beta and indeed come launch.
Ray
