I am interested in revisiting Diablo 3 for the first time in 9 years but I am more interested in whether or not I can play without running rifts. I’ve always been a proponent of open world farming since it doesn’t confine me to a single avenue of play at end-game… So to the title;
Is it possible to farm in Diablo 3 without running rifts at the end-game?
If so, how feasible is it?
How lucrative it is?
Keep in mind, I haven’t played since 2014 so a lot has changed for me… Just wish item drop rates were lower too…
You can do it but you’ll cap out XP-wise pretty quickly… Maybe a few hundred paragon. Because if you’re not going to run rifts then it’s pretty much just ubers, bounties and puzzle rings. Having said that, echoing nightmares (ENs) WILL net you some decent XP but the only way to do those would be to leech off someone else as petrified screams (how to open an EN) only drop in greater rifts.
PS if you want to lower the drop rate, play on Normal. But of course that may not be the challenge you want.
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Yes.
Well, if you actually want some progress, not at all.
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Say perhaps I want to build my gear set outside of Rifts and actually find worthwhile gear.
Is top-end gear gatekept to Rifts or can anything drop the best loot?
Playing rifts is the way. Anything else is wasted effort. Gear can drop anywhere, but you won’t get primal gear if you decide to never play rifts.
You can only upgrade your lego gems in GR though. So you can’t complety close out rifts from your progression. But if it’s only for materials and radomly killing stuff then it’s totaly doable without upgradeing gems.
They are not required though, especially not if you’re intent on just running around in the overworld.
You need to complete a Greater Rift 70 (solo) to unlock Primal versions of gear, so if you’re intent on never doing rifts you’re unable to get those. Outside of that there’s no restrictions.
Well, outside not getting Primals you can get anything in the world, you will have very limited XP gains and item efficiency compared to running Rifts though. I doubt you’ll average more than maybe 25 legendaries an hour in the world, being somewhat efficient you’ll get 300+ in Greater Rifts.
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Yes i refered to that in the second half of my comment.
That was entirely unclear.
Read more carefully next time. 
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That’s entirely alright with me. I put in about 12,000 hours into Diablo 2 between 1999 and 2017 with maybe an additional ~1000 for D2R since launch. I’m no stranger to farming for hours on end - I actually prefer less items drop, just makes it feel like I’m getting more despite getting less. If that makes sense?
That’s why you edited post my comment? 
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So now you better understand what i meant. 
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Sure, I get that, but Paragon is a major part of your character power and it’s hard to overstate how much you will lack in the XP departement if entirely bypassing Rifts, but of course you’re free to play however you want.
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Perhaps I’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel the further progressed I get. I am coming off of a mindset I had for Diablo 3 back when it was in its very… tumultuous and havoc ridden days. May just need to adjust as I go.
Well, as long as you have fun that’s the only thing that matters, GL 
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You could play the campaign over and over - and with different classes…
The thing with the drop rate is that, though it seems overwhelming, once you’re geared up (yourself and your followers) the drop rate (of useful items and improvements) is quite low. So you soon end up salvaging most of it or not picking it up at all. (To take advantage of the holiday gifts you need a lot of salvaged legendaries).
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Don’t worry. Even with the generous drop rate, you still won’t be able to get 13 usable primal gear your character. 
As for the farming, bounty is the only rewarding end-game that you can do.
I would consider EN as instance zone that similar to Rift, so I assumed it is no-go for you as well.
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When builds rely on specific items with specific affixes, even the current “loot rain” in D3 is inconsequential. Gearing up a character properly can still take ages.
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I have 30,000+ hrs since 2012 on D3. D3 is not D2, they have different farming modes. In D2, there’s only campaign maps, end game is built on these maps. If you don’t enjoy doing 1 region repetitive runs, you can run open maps from 1 section to another. D3 is different.
99-99.95% of gear drops are USELESS therefore to acquire gears to play smoothly in what ever build of your choice, you need mass drops to enhance those powers. In D2 gears are crucial, but core is skill tree. Not D3, D3 gears are crucial but most importantly paragon is the core. The entire D3 end game is revolving around XP for highest possible paragon and very pigeon holed gears. D3 simply is not worth your time if you prefers D2 type map system/farming mode and wanting to by pass rift /GR repetitive cycles. Rift and GR is THE D3 endgame. If you really not finding fun in D3 rifts, then perhaps just wait till D4, it should suit you better in my opinion.
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