Diablo 3: Monster Power and how to understand what is "high" and "low"

Monster Power (MP) is a system that allows you to adjust the dificulty however you'd like to make Diablo 3 challenging and rewarding or fast and fun based on your preferences and gear.  The only "real" benefit of Monster Power is an increased chance of Keys/Organs dropping from the new 1.0.5 encounters.  I say "real" benefit because I believe 100% that the other benefits (bonus xp/gold find/magic find) are more grey area and should be looked at as "potential" benefits instead of "real" ones.

You only get the full benefit of the bonus gold find/magic find/xp if you can move AT THE SAME SPEED.  If you get a 10% bonus but move 20% slower than you're getting 10% less even though there is a bonus.  If you get "20% less" but move 40% faster that's a 20% benefit!

My feeling is that you should find that "sweet spot" where you can clear an act with minimal deaths while still being challenged and set that as your benchmark. That is your Monster Power. If that's 3, than anything higher than 3 will be considered "high monster power" and anything lower is "low monster power."

The reason I feel this is important because I see a lot of people on various diablo boards giving advice on builds and saying things like "this build is for monster power 8 to 10" or "this is a great build for the lower monster powers like 0 to 2." The problem is, what is high and low is different for everyone. Saying "this is my MP9 DH build" doesn't mean anything to anyone but that guy and probably won't be very valuable to you unless you are very VERY similar in gear and experience.


I feel all builds should be based on your relative strength.  For instance, I love going with Grave Injustice.  It's especially powerful at "low monster powers."  For me, that's anything MP5 and below.  That doesn't mean the new 60 can go straight into MP5 with my build and do just fine.  He needs to figure out exactly where his sweet spot is and consider that this build is great for THAT POINT and below.  It also doesn't mean that my friends who are far more advanced than I am can't use my MP5 build at MP10.  It's all relative. 

I also feel like saying "This is my MP10 Uber Build" is just click bait.  There's no way you could just jump to MP10 and use that build unless you're in the same gear so why does it matter that he uses it on MP10?