Where can I farm Pages/Tomes of Crafting?

Question

So I have found that these pages are needed for progressing crafting to grandmaster and illustrious. I have also been able to discover that in nightmare difficulty you get the pages, in hell you get the tomes and then in inferno you get the Tome of Secrets.

What I am looking for is areas where I can go and find them more often. Are they world drops from destroying the environment and/or opening chests and if there is a preference which one? Or are they mob drops and, again, is there a preference towards a type of mob?

Answer 1

Total Blacksmith Leveling Cost and Materials

• 593,000 gold
• 50 Page of Blacksmithing
• 50 Tome of Blacksmithing
• 35 Tome of Secrets

Source

Total Jeweler Leveling Cost and Materials

• 140,000 gold
• 20 Page of Jewelcrafting
• 20 Tome of Jewelcrafting
• 40 Tome of Secrets

Source

Drop Rate and place

 - Page of Blacksmithing  - Drops in Nightmare, Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Blacksmithing  - Drops in Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Secrets        - Drops in Inferno difficulty

 - Page of Jewelcrafting  - Drops in Nightmare, Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Jewelcrafting  - Drops in Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Secrets        - Drops in Inferno difficulty

These items do not drop in Normal mode

Source

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Aside the above information, there are reports about pages droping in ACT IV normal.¹²

I believe is because some monster have a iLv in ACT IV normal equivalent to the early monsters from nightmare (Like the gems, where you get better quality based on the item level), but I couldn't find source to support (or to invalid) this information. (still looking)

Answer 2

I have no hard data to base this on, aside from watching drops as I play through, but the drop rate does not seem to be specific to any areas.

Rather, pages and tomes seem to drop randomly the same as with potions and gems.

Champions/uniques/bosses seem to have a much higher chance of dropping them than regular mobs, as do chests (particularly Resplendent Chests), but it is not 100%. However, I frequently receive both jewelry and blacksmithing pages from the same chest, so it appears the chances of either type dropping are independent of each other.

As was mentioned, pages drop in Normal mode are almost non-existent.

From my experience, the best way to obtain them (aside from the Auction House), is simply grinding champion/unique/bosses, and looting every available chest you come across.

Answer 3

You can buy them from the Auction.

Answer 4

This will work on any difficulty, so be sure you are on the one that provides the tome/page types that you want. I can't promise that this is the easiest or best method, but it's a quick way to generate resplendent chests (which drop pages/tomes and gems with a high frequency) and doesn't require going through dungeons to get them. Additionally, it allows quick farming attempts for the Wheel of Misfortune device.

Set your quest to Act II - The Black Soulstone. Warp to the "Desolate Sands" waypoint. Make your way to the upper left of the area until you find the warp to the "Archives of Zoltan Kulle." Go in, get the checkpoint, and TP and quit. You'll want to retain this checkpoint for the duration of your farming.

Start your game again. The following information is best used with this map from Diablowiki.net: http://www.diablowiki.net/images/4/4a/Map_desolatesands.jpg

The areas marked "Ancient Device" are the ones you are aiming for.

Start by warping to the quest location (TP in town upon game start should take you to the Archives.) Exit to the south, cross the bridge, and head south to the closest "Ancient Device" location.

If you: 1. See a circle drawn on the ground: Kill the dervishes. Open a resplendent chest as your reward. TP. 2. See a spiral of spine bones: Go to the center. Open a resplendent chest. Kill mobs without moving down the spiral (this spawns more mobs and wastes your time.) TP as soon as they are dead. 3. See the Ancient Device: Explore it if you wish. 4. See none of the above, but ESPECIALLY a flat plane covered in either bone graphics or many giant skulls that spawn enemies: Leave ASAP via TP to avoid wasted time.

Now, Warp to the "Ancient Path" waypoint. Head north, cross the bridge, and move towards the lower "Ancient Device" spawn point as shown on the map. Follow the list as above, except this time, when done, TP and quit, then continue your game if you wish to farm again.

The benefits of this method is that it is a fairly quick way to spawn resplendent chests, and both map tiles that spawn them can and often will spawn on the same map. Nephalem Valor has no effect on tome/page (or gem) drop rates so you don't need to pre-grind, nor do you need to hunt elites/rares or goblins. Once you have run this route a few times you will learn to identify which tile has spawned very quickly, further increasing your farming rate.

Answer 5

You can get pages in Whimsyshire normal difficulty.

Answer 6

I've found that warping to Wortham Chapel cellar (Act 1) and hitting the bookshelves is really effective. Their right next to the WP and each farm takes about 30 secs. Quit and repeat. Been doing it for about 5 mins and have about 6 pages (mixed) :D

Answer 7

A few things with respect to Tomes of Jewelcrafting in particular (XBox 360 version):

ToJ are the hardest to farm. For some reason, they drop about 1/5 as often as Tomes of Blacksmithing.

You need ToJ to upgrade Radiant gems to Square, and Square gems to Flawless Square.

Square gems drop in both Hell and Inferno mode, and ToJ only drops in Hell. So, unless you farm ToJ specifically, you will have a bunch of Radiant and Square gems in your inventory every time you go through Inferno. I leveled up a DH and a Barb, and found I had over 100 of each in Topaz, since you don't need topazes for either of those classes.

Tome of Secrets starts dropping (sometimes) in Act IV of Hell mode. Therefore, the best place to farm ToJ is in Act III of Hell mode, where there are more and tougher mobs who drop better stuff than the earlier acts.

I just went through there. Master I doesn't seem to drop much more than Hard. If you blow through Act III in Hard, you should pick up 30 to 40 of them.

Finally, make sure that your follower has a Puzzle Ring on. This will proc more Treasure Goblins, who drop ToJ fairly often.

Edit: I went through act III on Hell/Hard level. The take was 37 ToJ with about a dozen square gems. Net gain about 30 ToJ. I got about 60 ToB as well, so my 5 to 1 is exaggerated. More like 2 to 1.