1
Like ruksak says, "I have been pleasantly surprised by how rare some items still can be, and rarer still..... great rolls in Ancient form.".
If you're happy with crappy legendaries, then yes, the gear will cease to satisfy you rather quickly. If you are seeking optimization, then you will continue the hunt for quite a long while.
19
How to start a new season (season 4)
In this guide I will discuss every topic you could imagine for getting started and getting started FAST most importantly in a new season. I will be covering how to prepare for the season start, different strategies for leveling from 1-70 plus my own strategy for leveling, level 70 gearing strategies, and paragon farming.
TLDR/TLDW : Prepare by writing down skills for 1-70, Level by Cursed Chest bounties, Halls of Agony Level 3 and Rifts, collect Kanai’s cube mats while gearing to gear faster, gear pool to gear even faster(read the post if you wanna know what that means), 2-3 xp/leech builds most efficient for farming paragon levels.
Video Guide: https://youtu.be/HZuJ6OftFbU
Bounty Map: http://imgur.com/j08EaYG
Will also leave a link to the reddit post for those interested in the questions/discussion brought up there
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3hnove/guide_how_to_start_a_new_season_fastest_170/
Links to 1- 70 skill order cheat sheets/notes for all classes below.
Demon Hunter notes and spread sheet version
Due to many requests for spreadsheets for other classes the following spreadsheets were created, the ones below are untested by me and are there just as a general idea for each class so use at your own discretion.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Preparing for the Season
1-70 Leveling Strategies
Level 70 Gearing Strategies
Paragon Leveling Strategy
FAQ
Edits
Foreword
I realize many of you may have heard some of these tips before and while I will be combining ideas and information that has been spread out into one place. I will also be providing my own insight on existing ideas and providing to my knowledge "original" tips, tricks, and strategies or at least ones that have been kept somewhat secret. For those interested in reading something (I hope) you have read no where else before skip to Hybrid leveling strategy and gear pooling.
Preparing
Preparing for the season is mostly about cutting out the time you would normally spend in game wondering what to do next, you might think it is not important but that time will start to add up if you don’t prepare. So to prepare for the new season I suggest doing a few things. First of all knowing when the season will start. Season 4 starts Friday August 28th at 5:00 p.m. for North America. Europe and Asia start times can be find here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/19842943/season-3-ending-soon-8-7-2015
. Next you will want to figure out what class you will be playing and who you will be grouping with whether it be friends, clanmates, or random players. I highly advise forming a 4 man group for fastest leveling (sorry solo players), because of the group xp buff. Knowing what class and who you will be partying with ahead of time will allow you to get started on your journey from 1 to 70 the second the season goes live, instead of fiddling around with that once it has already begun. Additionally you may want to form a party or pick your characters based around group synergy as well. Having a person dedicated to bunching up mobs will be nice, could be a monk, crusader, or witch doctor (however wd pull comes very late into leveling). Probably the most important thing you can do to prepare though is to write out a detailed list of what skills and keys tasks you will be doing and at the levels you need to assign those skills or do those tasks. This will help cut down a lot of time wasted checking your “new” skills every 5 levels and wasting time deciding what skills to change. You can check my DH notes/cheatsheet http://imgur.com/Zgjsv61. I list out every skill and rune I will take, what level I will take them at, and which key they will go on. I also have other key tasks in that list which I will discuss later. Two finals things to do for the season is to know what difficulty you should be playing on and what leveling strategy you want to do, doesn’t matter too much which strategy as long you know what you are going to do once you enter the game. As for the difficulty you should be on a difficulty where you 2-3 shot most white mobs and also note that expert is the least efficient difficulty so its advised to either bump it up one above or drop one below.
1 to 70 leveling strategies
There are 3 fairly well known strategies to level from 1-70 at the beginning of a season. I will explain all of the strategies and my own hybrid strategy that involves using all 3 of the strategies. I will also include the “Key tasks” that are on my list that I mentioned early when I explain my hybrid strategy.
Cursed Chests
Pros: High Density, Completion Reward(chest, handin xp & gold)
Cons: Inconsistent (don’t always spawn)
This method involves doing cursed chest bounties over and over until you reach level 70. The reasoning for this strategy is that the cursed chests you will be looking for provide a lot of easy to kill mobs and are generally harmless and you get the resplendent chest, and bounty xp and gold. The cursed chests you will be looking for include: Cursed Chapel act IV, Cursed Bellows act I, Cursed Cellar act I, Cursed Court act I, Cursed Grove act I, Cursed Hatchery act I, and one that most people don’t mention but I really like it Cursed Peat act V - Paths of the Drowned. All the waypoint locations can be seen in the Bounty Map http://imgur.com/j08EaYG. So you look for the corresponding bounty(ies) in each act (only one should spawn per act as a bounty). If they spawned go complete the bounty if not remake the game and look again. Repeat until level 70.
Halls of Agony
Pros: Consistent, High Density, Low threat
Cons: Boring, No guaranteed bonus rewards
This strategy is to go to Halls of Agony level 3 in act I and clear out the entire floor leave the game and repeat. This is claimed by many to be the fastest although I think it is very debatable I think all 3 strategies are nearly equal each having its pros and cons. Pros to this strategy is its consistency since it is always there and the high density low threat mobs that Halls of Agony level 3 provides. Its packed with mostly slow moving skeletons.The con to this strategy is that it becomes boring as hell when done repeatedly for hours. So once again you just clear the entire floor back out and remake. Some people choose to do Halls of Agony levels 1 and 2 as well but they tend to have lower density.
Rifts
Pros: Increased Legendary droprate, Bloodshards, Hand in Bonus
Cons: Random Density, Random Mobs
This strategy explains itself fairly well you just do rifts until you hit level 70. Since you no longer needs keys to enter rifts you can now just do rifts back to back until 70. Reason behind doing rifts is for the increased legendary drop rate in rifts so you can upgrade your gear faster than you normally would, which can make a big difference. If you have ever gone for a couple levels without finding any major upgrades you know that feeling of the monsters becoming increasingly difficult to kill. Doing rifts should help prevent that from happening. However the drawback to rifts is the random mob types and random density which can slow things down.
Hybrid Strategy
Pros: Somewhat Consistent, Bloodshards, Hand in Bonuses
Cons: A lot of teleporting around
Ok so I am going give a brief overview of the rotation and reasoning behind the strategy then go into detail of the exact plan and key points I’m going to hit while leveling from 1-70.
So the rotation will be go into a Rift and start clearing as normal. Once 1 or 2 people find big upgrade getting a big power spike we will then teleport back to town.From there we will look for the cursed bounties I listed in the cursed bounty strategy and clear any of them if any spawned, once we do that we will also go clear halls of agony level 3. Then we will head back into the rift finish it hand it in and reset the game. I’m sure someone will ask for me to define a “big upgrade/power spike” while it all depends on how you and your group feels so adjust the following example to something that feels right. Here is an example: If your progression is <25% look for 75% dmg increase combined among members (ie 3 people each find weapons increasing damage by 25%), progression <50% 50% dmg inc, <75% 30-40% dmg inc, <100% 20%dmg inc, if you find no dmg increase finish the rift then do the cursed chest bounties and halls of agony level 3, then reset and repeat.
Philosophy behind this strategy is that you gain the benefits of getting increased drop rates and once you hit a power spike you can take advantage of the guaranteed easy xp of Halls of Agony and easy xp and loot of potential cursed chest bounties. Only downsides are the extra time spent teleporting around and again the uncertainty of rift mobs and density. Here are the exact steps I will be doing while trying this strategy.
LVL 1: Steal Follower Weapons & Find Cursed Chest Bounty or Easy Boss Bounty
Why?: The chests rewarded at the end will provide initial blues/yellows to get you started
LVL 1-12: Do cursed chest bounties and halls of agony.
Why?: Guaranteed easy mobs to get through the first few levels
LVL 6-7: Check Fence Merchants in Act I and Act II for rings.
LVL 10-12: Check Fence Merchants in Act I and Act II for amulets
LVL 16-18: Switch to Campaign go through until you can kill Skeleton king.
LVL 18: Kill Skeleton King
LVL 20: Kill Skeleton King
Why?: First time killing SK guarantees a Leoric's Crown being lvl 20 ensures socket. Put ruby in the socket
LVL 20-70: Run Hybrid Strategy rotation.
LVL 45: Craft lvl 60 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it
LVL 60: Craft lvl 70 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it
General Tips for All Strategies
Keep an eye out for the following items
Leoric’s Signet: %xp roll
Puzzle Ring: save for lvl 70 put into cube for greed’s realm
Bovine Bardiche: save for lvl 70 cow level
Nagel Ring: Provide huge burst dmg while lvling
Craft lvl 60 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it
Craft lvl 70 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it
Craft and wear Cains if you find the recipe for %xp
Level 70 Gearing Strategies
Bounties First Strategy
So this first strategy for gearing up is definitely up for debate since I have not tested it. So once you have hit 70 spend your blood shards and go get Kanai’s cube. Use up your puzzle rings and Bovine Bardiches if you found any. The reason you may want to start bounties first depends on what items you found while leveling up 1-70. If you found something worth extracting right away you can start doing bounties otherwise doing rifts and greater rifts first will be the best to gear up. So do bounties until you have the item or items you want extracted early in the cube then switch over to rifts asap because they will give much more reward until you are ready to farm mats again at t6+.(Thank you to mhgd3 for replying and correcting me here).
Rifts First Strategy
Alternatively you could start doing rifts right away and start looking for a weapon and set pieces that way since there is the increased chance of finding legendaries in rifts and you get more blood shards. After obtaining sets and once you can do about t6 or higher you can start farming bounties for the mats to reroll legendaries and extract them.
Gear Pooling
This is a strategy that I almost never hear people talk about which surprises me because it is so strong. Maybe I am out of the loop or maybe people are just too greedy and that is why it has not caught on yet but here it is. Note that this strategy will work with either of the ones previously mentioned. So what you will do is get in a party with 2 or more players of the same class as you that you trust(clanmates or friends, usually best). Determine who is going to carry (I recommend whichever person will be playing the most) then everyone will pool all of their important set pieces to the carry. For example if it were DH’s the three people being carried would give the person who is carrying EVERY piece of Marauders, Natalya’s, and Unhallowed Essence. Pool set pieces into the carry until he has finished one then bump up the difficulty as high as you can, which will most likely be t6 to start and then ease your way up. The carry then carries (hence the name) the other 3 through t6 until they finish their sets. The carry should also be handing set pieces out to the group that he finds since he obviously already has a set. To restate the person carrying should be the one who plays the most incase people leave before they finish their sets the carry will hopefully be online when you regroup. This is a super effective method for gearing up fast if you have trustworthy people to do it with because even if just one person has a set finished it will be enough to crank up the difficulty and the entire party will find gear faster and level up faster.
Paragon Leveling Strategy
So as many of you may know %xp has changed from Season 3 to Season 4. The xp is now shared with the entire party instead of just the one person wearing xp gear. They also changed Greater Rift keys so you can no longer recycle keys. This means the paragon farming meta is going to shift. Now when you are running greater rifts you will want 2-3 people wearing “leech” setup even though now it would be more appropriate to call it xp build or something since they are no longer leeching but helping the entire party gain more xp. So the builds for an xp build will essentially be the same as they were last season give or take a few skills due to the cc changes. I have a feeling running 2 people with full xp gear and 2 dps (maybe with a few pieces of xp gear on them) will be the most efficient way to farm xp but it is still up in the air as things will shift once the season pans out. Also since keys were changed there will also need to be some experimenting with exactly which greater rift level will be the most efficient for most groups. Now that it takes longer to get greater rift keys, since you can’t recycle anymore, you have to find the sweet spot between doing grifts fast but also doing one of high enough level so you get the full value out of your greater rift keystone. I imagine having times between 7-10 minutes will end up being the sweet spot but it needs to be tested further.
That is all I have to offer for now guys, thanks for reading and or watching. I will do my best to provide updates when the meta changes. Let me know your questions, ideas, and comments on how to start next season.
FAQ
Q:Any advantage to doing the previously high exp bounties (ie. clear x lvl 2) or things of that nature? Or do crafting mats / cube mats only drop at lvl70?
A:You can get cube materials before level 70 and you will still get the cache and extra xp/gold for handing in all the bounties for an act however some bounties are not worth the time to complete all of an acts bounties. If you have something that you plan on cubing once hitting 70 you could collect them while leveling but it will most likely slow down your leveling. If the correct bounties spawn in act 1 it can be efficient to clear the act. Believe it was more thoroughly discussed here which bounties to look forhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3g81kb/updated_23_season_4_fastest_leveling_guide_full/
Q:You cant cube legendaries with a lvl below 70, right?
A:You can use any level item in the cube, unless it specifies otherwise in the recipe.
Q:Can I ask why have you not included the Cursed Chest events at Howling Plateau (The Cursed Outpost) and Archives of Zoltun Kulle (The Cursed Spire - Unknown Depths)?
A:I listed the ones that were proven to be best for seasons 2 and 3. I will definately check these two out though and add them if they seem worth it. If you like them though by all means do them when you level up.
Q: see everyone suggesting to hold on to the bovine bardiche to open the cow level, but what's good on that level at all? I know there's a greater spawn of resplandent chests, but is that it? or does it have any kind of increased xp/legendary drop chance?
A:Like you said there are a lot of resplendent chests. There are also high density easy mobs to clear out that give fairly high xp. So a fresh lvl 70 will get pretty good benefit out of opening a bunch of resplendent chests to start getting your lvl 70 items.
Q:Two questions to those who've played the past few seasons. 1. With the high traffic of a new season start, does entering and exiting games to get the right bounty result in queues? 2. If doing this method at an average pace, roughly how long would it take to get to 70, assuming you don't have optimal xp gear?
A:There have not been queues in the past. Their live servers are much larger than their ptr servers. 6-7 hours at an avg pace can be done in 5 hours at a fast pace or even less with an optimized strategy.
Q: for "LVL 45: Craft lvl 60 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it". Blacksmith/Mystic level that is necessary?
A: Lvl 10 Blacksmith and lvl 2 or 3 mystic (either way mystic costs almost nothing compared to the gold you need for Blacksmith).
Q: Can you make skill layouts similar to your Demon Hunter notes for other classes?
A: I have a bit of free time before the season starts so I will do my best to create skill orders for all of the classes before the season starts and link them here. Of course I am more experience with DH than any other class so use them to your own discretion and feel free to modify any of the skill orders to your liking and leave feedback on them.
Edits
Edit 1: Revised statements under gearing section about doing bounties vs rifts
Edit 2: Added in edit section and link to reddit post.
Edit 3: Added FAQ
Edit 4: Updated FAQ
Edit 5: Reworded Hybrid strategy for further clarity.
Edit 6-10: Added Cheatsheets for all other classes
Edit 11: Updated for Leorics Crown changes
1
To all:
Just incase you haven't figured it out yet, this is how the bonus act rotates...
whom ever initiates the original party spawns the first bonus bounty. it will be in the same exact act you first spawned in on.
complete the acts in that bounty. when the "bases are loaded" the first free player moves to ANY act of their choosing.
The bonus bounty will follow as soon as the current act is turned in.
example:
player spawns in on act1 > players 2,3,4 join in > during act1 completion, player 3 goes to act 3 > any player turns in the current act1 bounty > bonus jumps to act3
don't believe me try it yourself.
1
/drops mic
1
With 2.3 and the cube, every class will have possibility to be fast(er) moving.
Barb, WW + charge + belt + skills
Monk, dashing strike + passives + teleport from Epiphany
WD, Manajuma set + angry chicken rework
Wizz, Aether Walker + Teleport
Crusader, Horse + Steed Charge Flail
DH, Danetta's + Vault
1
After speaking with other officers and giving it some thought, I felt it best to regretfully purge some of the more inactive members. Several of them (after reviewing each profile on a case by case basis) just don't play much at all.
While we welcome "casual" players, the purpose of a clan, as well as the purpose of keeping a full roster, is to try and reach a point where there will be plenty of clan members on at any given time. With that I ask very casual players to not apply. By "very casual", I mean if you're only putting in a few hours a month, and you often don't play at all for many weeks at a time.
If you want in, and you're sure to be playing a reasonable amount, able to participate in the clan as an active member, now is the time to send a join request in-game. I'll hop back in very shortly and see who applied, and I'll add on a first-come first-serve basis.
We have several invites sent out already, so if you applied in-game in the last few days, log in and join if an invite was sent to you.
We'll try to keep kicks at a bare minimum until after Season 4 starts, but we want to balance this with entering the new season with a full, active roster.
This is in reference to the (NA) <dfans> clan.
It applies to the EU clan also, we are currently doing the same there.
1
FIxed 
Yup there is an EU <dfans> clan
1
I can't wait for 2.3 and the new season, will renew my interest in Diablo 3 for a long while.
4
I feel like you should've added 'my child' to the end of that =D
1
progress orbs definitely dont add much to game play, especially multiple orbs instead of just one orb, like you were saying. and hopefully there is a fix on that rg spawn. that is not the only one i have gotten recently, but definitely the worst one as of late.
3
Every game gets old, every game reaches an end to each individual, in time. If you play too much, the game gets old.
I remember getting burned out numerous times during my many years of playing Diablo 2. I'd quit. I'd take a break. I'd play again and, inevitably, the thoughts of 'what to do now' always came back until I finally hung it up for good.
All there was to do is trade items back and forth, do some MF runs, gain some XP doing Baal runs. Maybe some PvP in between runs. After awhile, the shine wears off and so begins the rigor of realizing that all you're doing is repeating the same actions over and over again just to better prepare yourself to repeat the same actions over and over again.
Have fun, play your own way. Stop chasing cheaters and unemployed slackers. Stop predicating your Diablo 3 experience entirely upon your success on a dubious leaderboard.
4 years and I'm still having fun. I still come home and often sit my ass down, smoke a bowl and play Diablo 3 for a few (several) hours. 4 years now, and I gotta say, the game is more fun for me now than it ever was. I don't play as much as I used to, but when I do play, I have more fun nowadays than back when the game was lousy with underwhelming itemization and lackluster build pliability.
1
ATTENTION: THE PLAYGROUND IS NOW CLOSED!!!!
This thread, what happened here, is EXACTLY why we internally debate whether or not to allow botting discussions. Not because we covertly support botting practices, but because of what happened here in this thread.
In the future, please avoid arguing with angry posters. Just report them and be cool about it.
1
It's far more complicated than that.
I appreciate that there are 4 different game modes (HC NS and HC Seasonal included), offering players numerous choices etc etc. .... but I did not expect that there would be such a schism between season and non season as there is now. The disparity in player populations is dramatically worse than I thought it would be.
I don't like the idea of seasons, but I supported them being implemented because I knew many others would love it, and that would be good for the player-base overall. I play HC exclusively now and have for a very long time, but I got talked into jumping into season 4 because so many of my clan mates and friends were going hc season.
It's been a disaster. As soon as s4 hit, I picked up some extra work and I barely had enough time to play the first week to get 100 para, and then I started working even more.
Because I haven't had time to play I made a few mistakes and lost two characters back to back (I don't die much usually). So now everyone is ahead of me by hundreds of para and that combined with their impressive gear causes them to be far more powerful than I am, causing frustration when trying to party up and set the game difficulty.
There's no clear end to the hours I'm working, so I said 'fuck it' and went back to my fully loaded 650+ paragon non-season monks. Maybe a future season will work out when I get back to an easier schedule, but what makes non-season so great for some people is that we can work heavy hours and still enjoy a well-paragon'd, stoutly geared full account.
The issue? My choices of HC players to party with went down from about 40 to only 5. ...and don't even mention joining a public HC non season game. You will rarely ever find one .... not even one game. So yeah.......this issue is worse than I thought it would be. The disparity is too wide.
The silly part is; They would literally have to start introducing non season-only items at the start of each "era" to correct this issue. Not saying I support that idea, but that's the only thing I see fixing the disparity, because the chasm is a mile wide as of now.
1
I'd like to see them up the amount that the Odious Collector drops, something far more substantial. Another Goblin just for DB's seems unnecessary. Rather, just adjusting the numbers with the goblin that already drops them would be sufficient.
3
1
Question; Do you think the only point of Diablo 3 is placing on the leaderboards?
1
Not to sound snarky, but this is Diablo. It's supposed to get out of hand with ridiculous power. One of my pet peeves is hearing people constantly pine for more balance just due to the presence of leaderboards, but Diablo has never been about balance. Rather, it has always been grossly strong items an obscene, vulgar display of power.
1
BTW: You seemed to get upset that some people (myself included) got the impression you don't like Diablo 3. Have you actually read the title of your own thread?
1
You made a comment that suggested the current state of the game is angled toward "casuals". A suggestion that could be received as an insult. It is good that your clarified your position.
Of course it's still an item hunt. A Lion's Claw is just a Lion's Claw until you grind out an ancient version with beautiful rolls. There are many aspects which still present hardened item grinders like myself with a focus. To be clear myself; I have always advocated for extreme rarity with certain items, I want those White Whales.
I have been pleasantly surprised by how rare some items still can be, and rarer still..... great rolls in Ancient form.
2
There's a lot more to this game than simply dropping legendary items. Getting these items is only part of the process. How you build, how you mix and match, how you cube.... that is the business end of itemization in D3 patch 2.3.
Simply getting a 6 piece set together isn't going to get you anywhere special. It's what you do with it that counts.
One can be a cynic and think all of these changes were meant to cater to casual players. Or one could look deeper still and see that Diablo 3 is almost rebellious in it's freedom to build without having to purchase your items with real cash. The irony here is; Many of the people I've seen calling modern D3's itemization feeding frenzy as a call to casuals, are the same people who bought their way to success in earlier versions of D3 (AH's) and all throughout D2.
So we can ask; Is it more "casual" to buy your items with real cash, or to have easier access to them by actually playing the game?
The developers of Diablo 3 seemed to have flipped a unique switch within the ARPG genre by allowing players easier access to the items they need for builds without the insidious presence of 3rd party handlings. If you think simply cubing up a Witching Hour has elevated you to the top of Mount Fuck All, you are sorely mistaken, sir.
Beyond simple acquisition of desired items must come the knowledge in how to properly use it; or; When to use something else to pump massive amounts of NON-SHEET dps and toughness from a build using items some people disregard due to the lack of an orange (legendary) property (String of Ears/Eye of Etlich etc).
For your Diablo 3 enjoyment, might I suggest a beverage change for yourself? Switch from Haterade to refreshing Kool Aid. Much better to quench your thirst.