Pick an equipment slot to upgrade.

[Archon_Wing]

At this moment, I'm throwing gold at random slots, and sometimes the gains are small and the average piece lasts like... 2 weeks at most! :o So I figured I'd need a plan to save up gold and focus on various things. I have an annoying tendency to buy something, spot a good auction a few days later, and throw the old item away.

So in this thread, it'd be a good idea to post your profile and your goals as well as what you are willing to sacrifice so that people may scrounge for affordable upgrades. Budget is a matter too, since a valid answer would simply be to save up for more.

My profile is in my sig, and I'd like some more DPS for my monk to handle the higher MP levels. As of PTR, MP3 is already giving me a lot of trouble. I am willing to sacrifice my resists and life though the decreasing amount of Life on Hit on my gear is bothering me. I also have no life regeneration at all, though that was negligible in the first place. Current budget is 2 million gold. (Yea, I blew 20 million already , including a few on my follower)

Essentially, this would be spotting the weakest link.

Feel free to comment on my wizard. Her goal is a lot simpler-- get to act 2 alive, but only has 400k

[Chesspiece_face]

At the point you are at I would seriously begin looking towards what your end-game plan is going to be. You're at the point where you are going to be spending more and more on minor upgrades and it will become extremely gold and time inefficient to keep plucking away at minor upgrades. Start looking over the auction house and planning out what set pieces you are going to want and what legendaries you are going to be looking to settle on for your final pieces. Prices are going to be in fluctuation in the next month or so with the higher influx of items coming next patch. It's also probably going to be easier to build up gold stockpiles to some degree. Start saving gold and looking for deals on those items you choose for your final build.

Some ideas:

Helm - Inna's Radiance
Shoulders - Vile Ward
Chest - Inna's Vast Expanse
Neck - Blackthorne's Duncraig Cross
Gloves - Tasker and Theo
Belt - Hellcat Waistguard
Bracers - Lacuni Prowlers
Ring 1 - Natalya's Reflection
Ring 2 - Skull Grasp? (This would be a no-brainer if the +Elite Damage was going to stay on it.)
Pants - Blackthorne's Jousting Mail
Feet - Natalya's Bloody Footprints

[Archon_Wing]

Save up gold, eh. We'll I'll try my best. :p

Nat's boots look really good, they were good in D2 too IIRC.

[Chesspiece_face]

Save up gold, eh. We'll I'll try my best. :p

Nat's boots look really good, they were good in D2 too IIRC.

Keep an eye out for the Blackthorne pieces the next few weeks. I've seen some good deals pop up on those from time to time. Maybe not in your price range at the moment, but we'll see how prices trend. The ability to knock out upwards of 1k LoH on those two pieces alone is pretty huge. They also offer decent health.

I'm not sure I would bother buying anything truthfully until after the patch settles down. Looking over the AH to respond to this post I noticed prices absolutely out of control since the last time I checked a few weeks ago. Probably just the rush prior to the patch, but it may take some time for it to balance back out again.

Edit: Just checked and apparently the Litany/Wailing host set for rings can be rolled in all primary stats. That is what I am using and it is probably a good set to look at for any class. It gives crit and more importantly offers +Elite Damage/-Elite Damage taken. Also allows you to trade out the 2 pieces Nat set (boot/ring) for 3 piece Blackthorne which I'm also using for extra damage/reduction on Elites. I've found those stats to be unbelievably strong especially against reflects damage. In my experience the reduced damage from Elites lowers the reflect damage as well.

[Spangles]

I found a paperdoll DPS/EHP analyzer, http://d3up.com where you import your Bnet profile and view a wealth of statistics that help with gear purchase decisions.

The site is similar to chardev.org, which I used to configure WoW characters for Simulationcraft. The biggest difference is that switching gear pieces in D3UP is less convenient because gear stats can't be called up by item name. There are forms for editing gear properties, however.

There are queries that show how well each of your equipped gear pieces are contributing to DPS and EHP. Contributions to DPS and EHP from skills and passives that are not always active can be shown by clicking them on/off.

Stats not available in the D3 Details page, such as DPS vs elites, are shown. Stats that can be compared with those in Details are accurate.

This site is much more user-friendly and the results more accurate than spreadsheets. There is an introductory video on the home page that must be viewed, since there is a lot of navigating to be done.