How I start to playing a new hero?

I will start soon to play a new hero, a crusader.
I like the process to get a very good starting equipment and planing around this equipment and skills and only start to play the hero after I have good gear.

1. Level your hero to lev 70 - done
I used this method.

2. Choose a skill combination and get as most information about it. - done
Are there any important items to have? How to play? What stats on gear do I need?...

I read about the Lightning Hammerdin and I sounds very nice and after I get a Schaefer's Hammer which is a very powerful item for this build, I decided to start soon.

3. You decide to start to get equipment and spent your gold, gemts and crafting materials for your new hero. - done

4. Make a list of all items you have/need and which sets you want to craft an with which stats on it. - done

Because I allready had a Schaefer'S Hammer and a good dexterityThundergod's Vigor, which I don't need for my monk and where I can reroll dexterity to strength, I had a good starting point to work around.

The X in the first column means I have this item. The green color means it's good and I must not care about this slot longer. Blue means it's okay, but maybe later I try to get an upgrade or if I don't know what to do or bored from some other activity.

In the 2nd column, the red color means, if I get these Items I won't have much influence on the stats.

I have a Schaefer's Hammer with 13% Lightning Damage (15% max) with Vitality and a Socket. I rerolled the damage near max. Furthermore I have a Thundergod's Vigor with 15% Lightning Damage (15% max) with Strength, Vitality and All Resistance. I rerolled to max Strength, which was lucky.

I allready crafted a Piro Marella and got 9,5% Crit (10% max), low Strength, Vitality and enchanted a useless stat after many tries into 10% Blessed Hammer (15% max). The % Blessed Hammer Damage and Strength is very low and maybe I try later to craft / enchant a better one.

I farmed Normal Act1 Bounties in Split groups with my barbarian for the Ring of Royal Grandeur. Now I have one, which is very important. Maybe I try to get a better one, if I want to play my barbarian. As random stat I got a socket and then rerolled Life on Hit to Crit Damage.

5. Get every item one by one or farm first all crafting materials and then start to craft and enchant- in process

I allready got 2 Items. I got Ring of Royal Grandeur and crafted the Crusader Shield Piro Marella. For the Piro Marella you need Woven Plate, which I got some during my act 1 split bounty runs.

It can take very long to get the Ring of Royal Grandeur. If you have one from another hero, which you can use, it's a good start, but if you want have one with your core stat (ex. Strength) then you must farm it with a Strength Class. So maybe you have another Hero or wait until your new hero is equipped and then start to farm.


X. Which items / materials do I need to for crafting and enchanting?

Forgotten Souls
If you don't have a high amount on stock, you must farm Forgotten Souls.
You can get them from destroying useless Legendary Items or from Rift Bosses.
I would calculate 10-15 Forgotten Souls per crafted Slot for crafting and enchanting. You will get back some Forgotten Souls from destroying the bad crafted items, but you will need them for enchanting, so 10-15 is a good number, depending on your luck.

Gems
It depends with which quality of gem you are satisfied. For me it's only the maximum quality (Flawless Royal Gems). Therefore you need marquise or imperial gems and gold.

Marquise or imperial gems you will get from playing the game or from bounty bags.

Gold
You need gold for crafting gems and enchanting your items by your mystic. For every Flawless Royal Gem you can count 10 mio gold. For calculation the gold cost for enchanting it really depends on your luck, but 2 million per crafted item should be for a start enough.

I farm my gold with my demon hunter doing T6 Hell Rift Runs.

Legendary Set Crafting Materials for alls Crafting Sets
How you can farm it, you can find it here.
I would farm 3-5 Legendary Set Craftign Materials for every crafted slot. If you are unlucky or want better stats you will need more.

Legendary Crafting Materials such as Woven Plate for Piro Marella

White Ascended Items for Crafting Sets
For crafting Legendary Set Items you need white Ascended Items. Pick them up and store them for later use. There is also a rift level where you can get many white Items or there are vendors for white items.

Normal ROS Crafting Items (Reusable Parts, Arcane Dust, Veiled Crystal, Death Breath's)
If you pick up every blue and yellow item by playing the game or farming all other materials, which you need you will have enough of these crafting items.


I'm lacking Forgotten Souls and all other materials are no problems to farm, so therefore I will start to do many rifts in the next days. I will aim for 100 Forgotten Souls and then start to craft and farm all other items.

I will give some updades about my crafted gear and my crusader.

Overview - Legendary Crafting Materials for Crafting Sets

This list contain all guides for farming the legendary crafting materials for the lev 70 crafting sets.

Shard of Entsteig Plate for Aughild's Authority Set
normal farmable

Born's Key for Born's Command Set
normal farmable

Iron Wolves Doctrine for Asheara's Vestments Set
easy farmable

Maghda's Tormented Soul for Cain's Destiny Set
easy farmable

Symbol of the Guardian for Guaridan's Jeopardy Set
easy farmable

Essence of Twin Seas for Captain Crimsonst Trimmings Set
hard farmable


coming later

Angelic Shard for Hallowed Protectors Set
???

Demon Skin for Demons Hide Set
???

Mytical Source for Sage's Journey Set
???

Farming Woven Plate for Piro Marella (Crusader Shield)

Woven Plate is used for the Crusader Shield Piro Marella

You can farm this through following bounties:

Act 1 - Cathedral Level 4 - Kill Captain Cage
Act 1 - Festering Woods - Last Stand of the Ancients

Act 3 - The Keep Depths Level 1 - Kill Captain Doon Adams
Act 3 - The Keep Depths Level 1 - Kill Captain Dale



Some example pictures below:

Proc Mechanics - Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker

I got all information from Druin's post.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/12506331470

General Inforamtion about procs

Item procs do not appear to proc Area Damage.
Item procs do not appear to be able to proc other item procs.


Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker

Chance on hit to blast your enemy with Lightning, dealing 279 - 372% weapon damage as Lightning and then jumping to additonal  nearby enemies. Each enemy hit has their attacp speed and movement speed reduced by 30% for 3 seconds. Jumps up to 5 targets.

Mechanics Thunderfury Proc

does listed %damage.
hits target you are attacking.
will proc with either weapon when dual-wielding and uses active weapon to determine proc damage.
hits up to 5 targets one of which is always the target being attacked.
has an internal cooldown of 1/APS
does not scale with +% lightning damage


Analysis Thunderfury
The proc of Thunderfury makes this weapon so powerful, therefore you want a high %damage of the procc. (range 279-372%) It provides a very good amount of aoe damage. Furthermore it provides a defensive debuff on monsters.

With a guranted socket, you will only hope for the right stat (dexterity, strength or intelligence) and for %damage or attack speed. Then you can reroll the damage of the Thunderfury.

 

I only have a bad rolled Thunderfury which has Strength and low % proc damage. I wanted to use it for my monk, so I decided to reroll strength. But a bad Thunderfury is better then no Thunderfury.

Farming Essence of Twin Seas for Captain Crimsons Trimmings Set

Essence of Twin Seas is used for Captain Crimsons Trimmings Set
This legendary crafting material is hard farmable, because there is only one bounty, which occurs very rarely.

There is only one bounty, which is worth to farm it and this bounty is very very very rare, so I suggest to farm this legendary crafting material in a group.

Act 2 - Howling Plateau / Black Canyon Mines - Kill Razormouth

1. Start an adventure game as highest torment level as possible.

2. Look for the act2 bounty Kill Razormouth (Howling Plateau).

3. If you found it, then invite your friends.

4. Take the waypoint to the Howling Plateau and run north to the Black Canyon Mines, where you will find Razormouth.

5. Kill him.

Good look finding this bounty.

Farming Symbol of the Guardian for Guaridan's Jeopardy Set

Symbol of the Guardian is used for Guaridan's Jeopardy Set
This legendary crafting material is easy farmable, because of an 100% obtainable rare spawn.

Easiest method is to farm the Rare Monster Dragus in Stonefort, but there are also some other bounties, where you can have a look for.

Rare Monster Dragus

1. Start an adventure game as highest torment level as possible.
2. Take the waypoint to Stonefort.
3. Go the stairs up and there you will find Dragus.
4. Kill Dragus and repeat or do other bountys for your legendary crafting material hunt.


Bounties

Act 3 - Skycrown Battlement - Thromp the Breaker
Act 3 - Stonefort - Kill Bricktop
Act 3 - The Keep Depths Lev 2 - The Crusher

Farming Maghda's Tormented Soul for Cain's Destiny Set

Maghda's Tormented Soul is used for Cain's Destiny Set
This legendary crafting material is easy farmable, because this item drops from a boss.

1. Start an adventure game as highest torment level as possible.

2. Take the waypoint to Road to Alcarnus.

3. Run to the lair of the witch and ignore all other monsters if possible.

4. Kill Magdha and repeat or do other bountys for your legendary crafting material hunt.

Farming Iron Wolves Doctrine for Asheara's Vestments Set

Iron Wolves Doctrine is used for Asheara's Vestments Set
This legendary crafting material is easy farmable, because of an 100% obtainable rare spawn.

This legendary crafting material can be farmed from Ssthrass a rare monster in Dahlgur Oasis, which you can reach very fast.

Preparation

1. Open a game in campaign mode at low difficulty level and with the Act2 Quest Blood and Sand

2. Take the waypoint to Dahlgur Oasis and run to the north. At the bridge you will find Ssthrass.

3. Enter the Ancient Waterway, because there you get a checkpoint.

4. Leave the game.

Farming Run

1. Set difficulty level as high as possible, test around which torment level you can afford.

2. Start game and take portal to your last checkpoint.

3. Leave the Ancient Waterway to Dahlgur Oasis.

4. Infront of you, there will be now Ssthrass. Kill him and loot.

5. Port to town, leave game and repeat.

How to powerlevel your own heroes without boosting from others?

With this method of power leveling you don't need someone who must waist their time to boost you, but you will need someone other. The big difference for the other player is, he will get rewarded for helping you with gold and xp. If you read already my blog, you know which run we will do.

Preparation:

1. You need a lev 70 hero, who can do T6 Bounty Act 4 (Clear the Hell Rift)
As I recommend in the guide a ranged hero is preferred and it is also doable with medicore gear.

2. level your hero to lev 5+.

3. Find someone who needs gold or / and xp. This player must not be geared very well.

4. Provide the player all information about Hell Rift Farming T6  or sent him this link to the guide.



Your Powerleveling starts now:

1. You open a T6 adventure game with your lev 70 hero and look for the act 4 bounty "Clear the Hell Rift".

2. If you find a game kill all except 1-5 monsters.

3. Invite the other player and wait until he ported to you.

4. You port to town, leave the game, switch your hero to your leveling hero and join the resuming game. The other player must wait.

5.  After you joined the game and ported to the other player, he can kill all remaining monsters and finish the bounty.

(If your partner is geared enough, he can try the cursed chest and hope for the white monsters.)

6. Repeat until lev 70

Current Play Time: 1 Hour 9 Minutes, but this char was also used for storing items.

Your hero will get a high amount of experience per run and level very fast.
At low level you will get 4 level per run, above 64 you only get 1 level per run.

I leveled my crusader, witch doctor and 2nd monk with this method, but I forgot to count the number of runs. I did some math and it will be less then 25 runs to level from lev 5 to lev 70.

During the time you search and prepare a game, I recommend that you partner don't waste his time. The best thing he can do is farming legendary crafting materials.

Following Guides for farming legendary crafting materials provide this blog:
Shard of Entsteig Plate (Aughild's Authority Set)
Born Key (Born's Command Set)

Farming Born's Key for Born's Command Set

Born's Key is used for Born's Command Set

This item drop by rare Gravediggar or Brigand. You can farm this through following bounties:

Act 1 - Cemetry of Forsaken - Digger O'Dell
Act 1 - Cemetry of Forsaken - Dataminer

Also look for following rare outside of the Defiled Crypt, when farming the above mentioned bounties.
Act 1 - Cemetry of Forsaken - Lucious the Depraved (Brigand)

Some example pictures below: