Many players will want to get to the endgame content as quickly as possible. This is especially true when a new Season starts, as you are forced to start from scratch to participate in each Season. Luckily, there are a few ways you can make leveling a fresh character easier, and several strategies to use once you’re ready to start leveling, to hit level 70 within a couple of hours.
Note that these steps are for playing in Adventure Mode, as you won’t have access to most of these resources at the start of the Story Mode.
First Steps After Creating your Character
- Complete a Challenge Rift before doing anything with your new character – you can access it from the Mode Selection screen. Once you’ve completed it, log on with your character and open the Cache you got as a reward.
- Use the rewards from your Cache to immediately level your Blacksmith and Mystic to the max level.
- Take a Follower’s starting weapon, as it will be better than yours.
- If you have a pet, equip it using the Wardrobe at the Mystic, as it will pick up Gold for you.
- Get Kanai’s Cube.
- It will be located in the Ruins of Sescheron in Act 3 (at the top-right Waypoint of the map).
- Once inside, go to the end of the second level and you will unlock Kanai’s Cube. Enemies will scale to your level.
- Go to the Blacksmith and craft a Rare level 70 weapon (the weapon type will depend on your Class). Take this weapon and use the 3rd Kanai’s Cube recipe to upgrade it into a Legendary.
- You are not guaranteed to get a useful Legendary for leveling but, if you do, it can save you a lot of time.
- Once you’ve gotten your Legendary, use the 1st Kanai’s Cube recipe to store the weapon’s effect, giving you access to it no matter what you equip.
Legendary Weapons for Leveling
Listed in the table are the Legendaries useful for leveling, for each Class.
| Class | Weapons |
| Barbarian | 2-Handed Mighty Weapons: –Bastion’s Revered –Blade of the Tribes –Fury of the Vanished Peak –The Gavel of Judgment Spears: –Arreat’s Law –The Three Hundredth Spear |
| Crusader | 2-Handed Flails: –Akkhan’s Leniency –Fate of the Fell –Golden Flense 1-Handed Flails: –Darklight –Gyrfalcon’s Foote –Johanna’s Argument |
| Demon Hunter | Daggers: –Lord Greenstone’s Fan –Karlei’s Point |
| Monk | Daibos: –Balance –Incense Torch of the Grand Temple –Flying Dragon –The Flow of Eternity |
| Necromancer | 2-Handed Scythes: –Bloodtide Blade –Reilena’s Shadowhook –Nayr’s Black Death –Maltorius’ Petrified Spike |
| Witch Doctor | Spears: –Scrimshaw Ceremonial Knives: –The Barber –The Dagger of Darts –The Spider Queen’s Grasp |
| Wizard | Wands: –Fragment of Destiny –Wand of Woh –Unstable Scepter –Serpent’s Sparker |
- Then, use the Blood Shards acquired from the Challenge Rift Cache to try to get a useful piece of Legendary armor. The pool of possible Legendaries will be much smaller since you’re level 1, meaning there’s a better chance that if you get one, it will be useful for leveling.
- The armor slot you want to gamble for will depend on what Class you are (see the table below).
Legendary Armor Pieces for Leveling
Here are the Legendaries you want to aim for with each Class. Note that some of these won’t be obtainable until a later level, but are worth waiting for, to use the Blood Shards on.
Alternatively, you can roll on Helms to get a Leoric’s Crown, or Pants for a Pox Faulds, as these will be useful no matter what Class you are.
| Class | Armor |
| Barbarian | Bracers: –Bracers of Destruction –Bracers of the First Men Rings: –Band of Might |
| Crusader | Bracers: –Gabriel’s Vambraces Shields: –Guard of Johanna (gambling for Shields includes Crusader Shields as well) –Denial |
| Demon Hunter | Bracers: –Wraps of Clarity Quivers: –Holy Point Shot (level 31) |
| Monk | Bracers: –Gungdo Gear –Cesar’s Memento –Pinto’s Pride Boots: –Rivera Dancers –The Crudest Boots |
| Necromancer | Gloves: –Grasps of Essence Rings: –Circle of Nailuj’s Evol |
| Witch Doctor | Mojos: –Gazing Demise |
| Wizard | Sources: –Winter FlurryEtched Sigil (level 33) |
- Try to craft a level 70 weapon at the Blacksmith that has Life per Hit as a Primary effect, and a Crowd Control effect as a Secondary effect.
- Once you have one, go to the Mystic and try to reroll a Secondary effect to Reduced Level Requirement.
- The highest you can get this effect is -30, meaning you will be able to equip this weapon at level 40, letting you one-shot just about anything in Torment VI.
Leveling Strategies
Once you’re all set up, it’s time to pick a strategy to level. These are all efficient ways to level to 70, with varying levels of difficulty and speed.
Nephalem Rifts
- This is the slowest but most straightforward leveling method. Works for both solo and for groups.
- Simply keep going through Nephalem Rifts in any Town.
- This method has the added benefit of being able to get extra materials and Blood Shards.
- Nephalem Rifts also have a higher chance at dropping Legendaries compared to other methods.
- Run Nephalem Rifts at a difficulty that allows you to clear them in 3-5 minutes.
Massacre Bonuses
- A fast method that works well for solo players. This is especially good for Necromancers and Witch Doctors because of their pets.
- A Massacre Bonus begins when you kill at least 15 enemies within a short period of time. Once the killing streak has ended, you will get a multiplied experience bonus depending on how many enemies you killed.
- Find an area with a high density of enemies to kill as many as possible, as quickly as possible.
- Popular locations include Fields of Misery, Eternal Woods, and Temple of the Firstborn.
Hall of Agony Blades
- A fast method to level, but requires the most practice to use efficiently. Works for both solo and groups.
- Set the difficulty to Torment VI and head to the Halls of Agony, which is below Leoric’s Manor in Act 1, then find the cleaving blades. They will always be near the exit of the map.
- Once you find them, you will need to kite (lead, that is) enemies into the blades in order to have the blades kill them.
- Use Slows once you have access to them, as it will make the strategy much easier.
- At higher levels, it will be very easy to die and even get one-shotted by Elites.
- Because of this, you should NOT use this strategy on a Hardcore character.
Cursed Chests
- Generally considered the best leveling method, especially in groups. This strategy works even better with at least one Necromancer.
- Search for Cursed Chest Bounties in any map except Act 4.
- If in a group, split the party temporarily to give a higher chance at finding one quickly.
- Once you’ve found the Bounty, head to the Cursed Chest and take out waves upon waves of enemies.
- Necromancers are particularly effective here, especially if they have Grasps of Essence – with its effect Corpse Explosion will be able to take full advantage of the many bodies that will be created.
- Once the Bounty is over, search for another Cursed Chest Bounty and repeat the process.
Darkening of Tristram Event
- This is an efficient method, but is only available in January. This is because it’s part of the Diablo 1 Anniversary Event.
- While active, you can enter the Diablo 1 Anniversary Event through a portal in Old Tristram.
- The Event is essentially a very long Rift, and is a great source of experience, even allowing for quite a few Massacre Bonuses.
General Leveling Tips
- While leveling, remember to periodically check vendors for potential new equipment, and see if you can craft better gear at the Blacksmith (using the ‘Highest Usable’ option).
- At level 6 you will want to start looking for Rings, and then for Amulets at level 10.
- Choose a difficulty where you can comfortably survive and kill most of the enemies in seconds.
- If you gain a lot of power at once (from a new Rune or a Legendary weapon, for example), take advantage of this and raise the difficulty.
- Pick up all items from the ground.
- Socket your armor with Diamonds, and Helms and Weapons with Rubies.
- Don’t be afraid of using all your Gold and crafting materials, as you will easily get them back once you’re level 70.
Leveling an Alt
If you are leveling an alt character, and you have a decently established level 70 character in the same game mode (Normal, Seasonal, or Hardcore), there are a couple of extra things you can do to make leveling new characters much faster and easier.
Note that all Artisan levels and recipes learned, all Kanai’s Cube passives, Gold, Stash items and Blood Shards are shared across all characters in the same game mode.
- Get the Gem of Ease with your level 70 character, and get it to at least level 25.
- Any piece of gear Gem of Ease is socketed into will have a level requirement of 1.
- Once you have the gem ready, get any 2-Handed Legendary (preferably a non-Class exclusive if you will want more than one alt), put the gem in, and put it in your Storage for your alt to take.
- Make a Flawless Royal Ruby for both your alt’s Helm, and for their Follower’s Helm, so they can get an even bigger experience boost.
- You will likely have access to many more passives in Kanai’s Cube for your alt to use. Look through them and find one that will help you clear enemies quicker.
- If you unlock Seal C in the Altar of Rites, all items will have no level requirement, meaning your alt can have a full set of level 70 right from the start to level easily.
