I know that Diablo 3 is still in the beta phase, and that we’re only seeing a minute portion of the game’s content, but…there is a really great farming spot just outside of Tristram that you should know about. Beyond the northeast gate and across the bridge, is the Weeping Hollow.

The place is teeming with bad guys – including loads of champions, rares, and even the occasional unique (Mange). The Weeping Hollow is a low-level farmer’s dream, with the potential for providing a bounty of decent magic gear, along with tons of gold and vendor items.

Random Dungeon: Den of the Fallen

In addition to the motherlode of goodies you can reap from the Weeping Hollow, there’s a random dungeon that can spawn there, known as the “Den of the Fallen”. The Den of the Fallen is also chock full of champion and rare monsters, as well as treasure chests.

The place is a gold mine, but be careful…the Den of the Fallen is home to some of the toughest mobs in the beta. In fact, I almost lost my Hardcore Barbarian in there when he was level 11! He went up against a group of Champion Plague Carriers – with the “Molten” affix – and almost didn’t make it out.

Those things do a surprising amount of damage if you happen to get stuck within their lava trail, so don’t underestimate them if you happen to run into a pack.

The spawn rate on Den of the Fallen is pretty low. I’ve been playing the beta since fall of last year and I don’t encounter it all that often. This evening I felt like doing a little farming, so I decided to carry out a Weeping Hollow Farmfest in an effort to see how many times I’d get the Den of the Fallen. I’d start a game, run the route where it can spawn – blowing up all of the bad guys along the way, then I’d leave once I found it wasn’t up. I did this until I couldn’t take it anymore.

The results — In 20 games, Den of the Fallen spawned three times.

8 times I experienced the frozen field, rising corpse event, and 9 times the mini-events which require disturbing some corpse, coffin, or some other thing.

Based upon my experience, the mass corpse rising and Den of the Fallen are linked, so only one or the other can occur. If you’re running through the Weeping Hollow and you encounter the corpse rising, then you can leave and resume your game – hoping to get Den of the Fallen on the next go.

Although none of us are likely to spend too much time grinding the Weeping Hollow once Diablo 3 is released, it’s not a bad place to run a few times if you’re looking to get geared in a hurry – especially if you’re hoping to well equip a hardcore character.

Due to the sheer amount of mobs in this relatively small zone, combined with the number of rares and uniques, you can blast through a level or two in this area pretty quickly. More importantly, though, it’s a great way to start stockpiling gold and farming magic items for crafting materials.

Here’s the route I’d use for slaughtering monsters while out searching for Den of the Fallen…

Weeping Hollow Farming Route

Like I said…it may seem overkill to discuss a farming area this low-level, but what else have we got right now..?!

I tell ya… May 15th can’t come fast enough! 😀