City of the Damned Farming Guide

The City of the Damned is one of the coolest looking areas, with old corrupted cathedrals left behind for demons to lurk in. It is often overlooked because everyone farms in the River of Flame or The Chaos Sanctuary in Act 4. However, it is Area Level (alvl) 84, which means you can find every single item from Unique Elite Groups and their Minions. This includes rare Unique Items like Tyrael's Might to complete your Holy Grail.

The added advantage of City of the Damned is its direct Waypoint. Compared to max level areas such as Pit and Ancient Tunnels, the City of the Damned is a lot more challenging due to the Monsters’ high Life and resistances. Enigma and Infinity become very important because of this, making this an end-game farm for most builds.

Why farm the City of the Damned?

The City of the Damned is an Area Level (alvl) 84 zone. While Experience suffers a bit from this, Unique Elite Packs and their Minions in this area can drop every Set and Unique item in the game, making them incredibly valuable to farm.

Killing high monster density rewards you with High Runes (up to Zod Rune) and Charms as well.

How do I find the City of the Damned?

The City of the Damned can be accessed from 3 areas.

• Plains of Despair
• Waypoint
• River of Flame

The Plains of Despair stairs is initially how you find the City of the Damned in a play through. Do not use this approach when farming, instead use the Waypoint or the stairs when coming from River of Flame.

Tips & Tricks

Don't Get Stuck

A lot of the buildings in this area only have 1 way in, so you either have to leave the same way you came in or teleport out. Don't go into buildings unless there are Elites or clickables visible as it, brings down your efficiency.

Farming Route

The City of the Damned is a massive square map, with the Waypoint starting anywhere within this square. Elite Groups are your main target, and we'll use a spiral strategy to hunt them down. This allows you to quickly find Elites and the edges of the map.

Immune Monsters

Throughout City of the Damned, there are many immune monsters.

• Lightning immunity is a big problem here and Infinity does help but doesn't work against Dark Familiars (bats) or Damned (bad dogs). Farming on pure Lightning Damage builds like Javazon or Lightning Sorceress is not recommended.

• Cold immunity cannot be broken on the Stygian Hags (puke guys) and always cause trouble with builds like Blizzard and Freezing Arrow. If they do spawn, just skip the area and try again next time. Please check the number and dial again!

Maximize Magic Find

Super high level Unique and Set Items are the main reason to farm any high level area. Optimizing the "Better Chance of Getting Magic Items" Stat increases your chance of finding them. Make sure to keep up your kill speed and survivability, or the Magic Find you stacked will be for nothing!

The Cathedral

There is a very rare area that can spawn in the City of the Damned, commonly known as The Cathedral. It has cool looking stained-glass windows that you can smash! This area was potentially part of a cut Quest, an Uber boss or maybe some drastically different content that didn't make the final product.

Build Recommendations

Farming the City of the Damned efficiently usually requires some very high-end gear, like Enigma, and /or Infinity. We do NOT recommend farming this area without them! If you still need to power up your character, check out our Andariel and Mephisto farming guides!

• Amazon - Freezing Arrow
  • Cold Damage: Check! Massive AoE Crowd Control: Check! She also has access to Physical and Magic Damage for any Immunes she may encounter. She doesn't gain access to teleport easily but, she can stack high amounts of Faster Run/Walk to make up for it.
  • Be careful to plan out your path and not get stuck in buildings or alleys.
• Assassin - Lightning Sentry
  • The Trapsin can kill everything in the City of the Damned, however Infinity is highly recommended with the amount of Lightning Immune and high Life of monsters.
  • Burst of Speed grants great mobility at all times, making Enigma not as important.
• Barbarian - Berserk
  • When it comes to Elite hunting, no build on the Barbarian is as efficient as the Zerker. When properly equipped, this guy just jumps onto a boss, uses howl, and basically one-shots the boss.
  • Find Item adds a chance for additional drops from the boss. This increases farming efficiency of any Barbarian build by around 30%.
• Druid - Hurricane Tornado
  • The can all, do all build of the Druid is well suited for farming the City of the Damned by absorbing a lot of damage with arctic armor. With a high Life pool through Oak Sage and summons to tank melee attack damage, he has little to fear.
  • With Physical and Cold Damage, this build is capable of killing every monster in the area.
• Necromancer - Bone Spear / Summon
  • The Necromancer can negate a lot of the Physical Damage with his bone armor, making him a safe choice for the City of the Damned.
  • While the Bone Spear Necromancer snipes away at Elite Groups from a safe distance, the Summoner teleports right on top of any Boss.
  • Corpse Explosion grants massive Area of Effect damage for additional clear speed.
• Paladin - Blessed Hammer - is recommended YET AGAIN!!!
  • The Hammerdin is the best build for farming the City of the Damned. Even before Enigma this character can shred this area like nobody else. His high mobility from Charge, Vigor, and Staff of Teleportation allow him to get around just fine.
  • He also has Blessed Hammer which deals additional damage to almost everything that is in the City of the Damned on its own. Between the benefit of having Auras and buffs for you and your team, this is an excellent character for your farming.
• Sorceress - Blizzard
  • The Blizzard Sorceress does well in this area with one MAJOR issue, Grotesques are always Cold immune! The good news is that they do not always spawn in the City of the Damned. If they do spawn, either skip farming this area or kill them with Fire Damage and Infinity.

Summary

• The City of the Damned is a lot more challenging compared to other areas. Be sure that your Character is up for the task at hand!
• Be ready to fight many Lightning Immune monsters and bring an Infinity!
• Focus your efforts on Elite Groups, they are the reason why you are here.
• Maximize your Magic Find without compromising your damage and / or survivability.
• Remember to screenshot and share with your friends if you find the rare "Cathedral!"

Credits

Updated and maintained by Teo1904
Originally written by BTNeandertha1
Reviewed by Raxxanterax and Teo1904