Goblins – Getting these fellas down can be extremely quick if you know their mechanics. Obviously they are programmed to run away. They can get interrupted in this state and will drop some loot, invariably gold. They also have hit point ‘tiers’. Once a hit point tier is reached, they go into a short animation, and are temporarily scrubbed of all debuffs. If you have tried rend on one of these guys you will see this in action. The best tip is to try to whirlwind round them a couple of times, and pop rend. Once you see Rend disappear, then hit them with it immediately again. Ideally you can keep them rooted to the spot and bleeding quick enough that they hit each hit point tier quickly in succession, stopping them from moving too much. Another worthwhile thing to know about goblins is that they will open two portals, the first one if they are left to run off as soon as they are activated. If they get hit whilst opening the first portal, or waiting to jump through, they will run off and then open another portal. The second portal they open, they cannot be distracted from running through unless you kill them.
Know your route. If, like me, you do the Alkaizer route, make sure to optimize it as much as possible. There are a few things that can help out here. Running the Tower anti-clockwise on the inside. This will let you see any elite packs on the stairs down before you get there. The shrines on this map are mainly on the outside though, so keep an eye out for them (there are 3 places shrines can spawn, opposite the TP, at around 10 o’clock on the outside, and around 6 o’clock). When you get to the Fields of slaughter, remember to check the minimap around the TP. There can be a shrine right next to it that is not easily visible from the TP. Figure out the way the Keep Depths lvl 2 is laid out. It always has a squared ‘circle’ you can run around, getting maximum XP from this level.
Know your enemy. I, whenever I see them, always kill those fat goatmen sorcerers first, as they will invariably cast shield on someone. That makes them priority number one for me whenever I see them. I even go out of my way after a ctivating goblins to kill them first. Why? They can shield the goblins, making them much more difficult to kill. The same goes for champ/elite packs.