Arcane Sanctuary & Summoner Farming Guide

The Arcane Sanctuary is a massively underrated farming location and has a range of features that make it worth your while:

• Key of Hate drops from The Summoner which is required to farm the Hellfire Torch
• 8-9 Super-Chests which have increased chances of item drops
• High chance of Runes from Specters

While the area deals all elemental damage types, the importance of Resistances is relatively low. With capped Fire Resistances, only melee Physical Damage is left to be worried about.

Arcane Sanctuary is located in Act 2 and can be accessed through a Waypoint, located in the center of the map.

Why farm the Arcane Sanctuary and The Summoner?

The Summoner is the only source of the Key of Hate. For most players that want to fight the Ubers, this key is the only reason to enter the Arcane Sanctuary.

Another reason to farm the Arcane Sanctuary are the Specters that spawn in this area. This special monster type does not drop any Armor or Weapon type Base Item which increases the chance for:

• Runes up to Cham Rune.
• Small Charms, Large Charms, and Grand Charms.
• Rings, Amulets, and Jewels.

Finally, every end-tile that didn't spawn The Summoner contains 3 Super-Chests. They can drop up to a Vex Rune and a large quantity of Charms, Gems, and Jewelry.

How do I find The Summoner?

There is no way to tell which direction The Summoner spawns in. Use the Waypoint to enter the Arcane Sanctuary and start exploring the end tiles. You don't need to reach the very end of each direction to figure out whether The Summoner is there. Check the spots below, and you can save a couple seconds per run.
Note: Different layouts might change the position you need to be in to call the direction a dead end!

Top-Right

• Turn bottom-right at the first T-junction and make your way to the location marked with a green circle.
• Check the top-right of your screen for the spikes underneath the platform

Bottom-Right

• Turn bottom-left at the first T-junction and make your way to the location marked with a green circle.
• Check the bottom-right of your screen for the spikes underneath the platform

Top-Left

• Turn bottom-left at the first T-junction and make your way to the location marked with a green circle.
• Check the top-left of your screen for the spikes underneath the platform

Bottom-Left

• Turn bottom-right at the first T-junction and make your way to the location marked with a green circle.
• Check the bottom-left of your screen for the corner of the platform.

Tips & Tricks

Player Count

When farming the Arcane Sanctuary and The Summoner, a high player count is always beneficial. The chance of a Key of Hate-drop increases on every odd number of players (1,3,5,7). At the same time the chance for monsters and chests to drop items is increased which improves your chances at finding loot from the Super Chests and Spectres.

Specters

For items to drop, a monster needs to be killed over "walkable ground" (Areas on which a Character can walk). Specters can fly over the space background in the Arcane Sanctuary. Make sure to lure them onto the platforms before killing them!

Resistances

The main damage types you face in the Arcane Sanctuary are Fire and melee Physical Damage, so make sure to cap your Fire Resistances. 50+% Cold and Lightning Resistance are enough to endure these damage types. Keep your distance as much as possible to avoid the Physical Damage.

Shortcuts

There are some shortcuts with Teleport that allow you to not go back through the Waypoint tile. If you are

• On the top-right path, you can Teleport to the bottom-right path and vice versa.
• On the top-left path, you can Teleport to the bottom-left path and vice versa.
• On the bottom-right path, you can Teleport to the bottom-left path and vice versa.

Build Recommendations

Your main targets in Arcane Sanctuary are never either immune to an element (The Summoner) or Immune to Physical (Specters). In addition you face monsters which are Immune to Cold or Immune to Fire which limit the build choice pre-Enigma. With Enigma only Physical Damage builds are excluded from farming Specters. We recommend the following builds to farm here:

• Amazon - Lightning Fury
  • Even without Infinity the "Javazon" can easily farm the Arcane Sanctuary and slaughter The Summoner, making them a good choice in every stage of your progression.
  • Amazon's generally suffer from their low mobility when farming large areas.
• Assassin - Lightning Sentry
  • Lightning Sentry and Death Sentry allow the Assassin to easily fight through the Arcane Sanctuary.
  • Burst of Speed bring a nice movement speed bonus to the table pre-Enigma.
• Barbarian - Berserk
  • Most Barbarian builds only deal Physical Damage, with insignificant amounts of elemental damage. Any of them can easily kill The Summoner, but he is the worst option to farm Specters.
  • The ability to fear monsters away with howl makes the Berserk Barbarian a decent choice to target the Super Chests and snipe The Summoner. He converts Physical Damage to Magic Damage and can kill Specters. This is not recommended due to the single target nature of the ability.
  • With Increased Speed and a Staff of Teleportation the Barbarian has decent mobility early on.
• Druid - Hurricane Tornado
  • The Wind Druid deals Physical Damage and Cold Damage, allowing him to kill every monster in the Arcane Sanctuary. We don't recommend farming Specters because his main damage is Physical.
  • His only mobility comes from a Staff of Teleportation in his Weapon-Swap.
• Necromancer - Bone Spear
  • The Bone Spear Necromancer does not have to worry with any Immunities when farming the Arcane Sanctuary.
• Paladin - Blessed Hammer
  • The Hammerdin does not have to worry with any Immunities when farming the Arcane Sanctuary.
  • With Charge, Vigor and a Staff of Teleportation the Paladin has decent mobility early on.
• Sorceress - Blizzard / Meteor
  • Sorceress' in general benefits heavily from her built-in Teleport.
  • The Blizzard and Meteor Sorceress can easily snipe away at Specters. This can become a little tricky though as you have to play around the monsters that are immune to your damage.
• Sorceress - Lightning
  • The Lightning Sorceress is arguably the best option to farm the Arcane Sanctuary at all stages. She faces no Immunities and benefits heavily from her built-in Teleport.

Summary

• The Arcane Sanctuary Specters are farmed for Runes while The Summoner drops Key of Hate.
• Open the Super Chests at the end of each dead-end direction. They can have a lot of loot and you might be lucky enough to find a Vex Rune!
• High player counts increase the drop-chances of everything.
• High mobility is important to farm her efficiently. Make sure to have a Staff of Teleportation at the very least.

Credits

Written by Teo1904
Reviewed by Raxxanterax