Experience Pools – The Basics

This is just a quick guide to get help you find experience pools in Diablo 3. Here are some quick facts about experience pools:

Experience pools give you 25% experience for 10% of your current level

They stack up to 10 times

Pools are saved per character, not per account.

If you die, the pools on that character are removed.

Experience pools work with the Greater Rift completion hand-in

Experience pools work inside Regular and Greater rifts while killing monsters

Shrine Locations, Health Pools, and Experience Pools all spawn in the same set locations randomly.

At the very top end of the game, many groups who are trying to maximize efficiency will use multiple characters, stack 10 pools on each, and quickly rotate between them during a grind session.

With the addition of the armory this season, it makes it very easy to switch between pool-stacked characters, if you’re willing to risk losing all your items to armory bugs 😉

Finally, I would like to point out that while experience pools work in all situations of the game, they are typically only seen as an efficient use of your time somewhere above 800 paragon.

Pool Stacking Tips

If nobody in the group has pools, it’s best to split up and have everyone check locations, but otherwise, have your witch doctor look for pools during single target boss kills. (This is for speeds only, but make sure to save 1 gem up so Urshi doesn’t fly away from the witch doctor who is getting you bonus exp pools.)

Torment Rifts have a good amount of Experience Pools, and many players will try to stack pools while farming keys, making sure not to die on that character.

Alternatively, many groups will take 5-10 minutes before they greater rift to stack 10 pools using the Enchantress Quest “A Sister’s Voice” from Act V Campaign Mode.

After the 3rd quest in Act V this quest line will appear. You can do this yourself or by joining someone else’s game. Be sure to never activeate the sisters inside the rift, or it will be unrepeatable.

Inside the rift, there are 4-6 different shrine spawn locations which all have a chance to be experience pools.

Bovine Bardiche aka “Cow Sticks”

The last tip we’ll go over is Cow Sticks. The reason you hear about this so often in higher groups is because every Bovine Bardiche is a guaranteed 2 Experience Pools.

Simply take your Bovine Bardiche, stick it in Kanai’s Cube, and voila, you’ve opened a red portal (1 per game) to “Not the Cow Level”.

In this rift you will find one of every shrine, except fortune, and 2 experience pools. There is always 2 experience pools.

Finally, if you want to get super efficient with your mats, and share the burden of creating Cow Sticks, you can craft them on a level 1 Crusader, which has the lowest selection of Legendary Polearms, meaning you get a higher % chance to craft a Bovine Bardiche every time you upgrade a rare Polearm.

The Pool Locations

In the list below, I will mark the best locations with red, these are locations that should be checked in every single game, while locations with blue are still great, but not necessarily the most efficient.

Act 1

Leoric’s Manor Courtyard – 2 Spawns in circle around waypoint, Head out to northern highlands, make a big circle where there are 4 more spawns up top

Cemetery of the Forsaken – 2 Spawns near waypoint, and 1 spawn near entrance of each crypt

Southern Highlands – 1 Spawn below waypoint, Head across bridge left until passed large rock, turn around go up right a bit for 3 spawns (Can also check Cave of Moon Clan for 1 more)

Drowned Temple – Head up left inside temple, a few spawns seen from middle platform

Festering Woods – Warriors rest (Up Left) 1 Spawn & Crypt of the Ancients (Down Right) 1 Spawn

Act 2

Road to Alcarnus – Check left of wp for 2 spawns, go back inside, there are 2 spawns below, and 2 more up top inside Alcarnus

Howling Plateau – 1 Spawn on wp, head up to caravan, turn right follow path up and loop up into black canyon

Black Canyon – Make a huge circle there are spawns all over

Stinging Winds – Head down, follow right wall to see pools up top and below, go down into black canyon

Act 3

Tower of the Damned Level 1 – Head up for 1 spawn, and down left for 1 spawn

Tower of the Cursed Level 1 – Head up for 1 spawn, and left for 1 spawn

The Battlefields – Head left from waypoint up both sets of stairscases for 2 spawns

The Bridge of Korsikk – 1 Spawn on the wp, 1 up left of wp, and 1 more down right of wp

Rakkis Crossing – 1 Spawn down left about 2 screens near the pillars

The Ruins of Sescheron – Head backwards to the right through the Eternal Woods portal, 1 Spawn should be near entrance

Act 4

Hell Rift Level 1 – 1 Spawn on waypoint, very rare, my personal favorite location to trigger SD

Act 5

Pandemonium Fortress Level 2 – Head up right, you’ll see spawns at junctions, should find 2-4 pretty fast

Ruins of Corvus – 1 Spawn on waypoint or in next room

Passage of Corvus – 1 Spawn on waypoint or in next room

Battlefields of Eternity – 1 Spawn on waypoint

Paths of the Drowned – 1 Spawn near waypoint, sometimes a little off screen

Greyhollow Island – 1 Spawn around waypoint in a circle

This wraps up the guide on how to farm experience pools, if you need more help on rifting in Diablo, make sure to check out our How to Rift Guide, and all the other guides available on Zhanji’s Youtube.