New ladder coming soon. How to start it?

Hi, All. This is only third Ladder I will participate.
I want to make my first lvl99 character ever and most likely it will be Warlock .
So I am wondering what should I start with? Just go one character all the way ?or have some backup like Sorc on LOD to farm sunder charms and then transfer to rotw? Sorc is also fast to farm keys or for MFing gear.
I have only one account .
Sure after getting Enigma Warlock is fast and kills everything easy with just Insight. Even after the nerf he will be strong AF. He has

Blade Warp
to run CS fast too. But what about early farming and progressing to get Enigma/Infinity? Having 2 or more chars means I will need more time spent on leveling and more resources on gear.
How are you usually do, several classes or one only and rest of the gear traded to get this one stronger?

Do you spend much time trading gear on early ladder or progressing have better outcomes? With several characters I end up staying in the city sorting through my gear more than farming in the wild. How do you fight/enjoy hoarding addiction (if you have it)?

Do you have any list of gear and bases you tend to keep?
Now we all have this awesome loot filters, what yellow/ blue items you still keep visible to pick and identify? Do you turn off visibility for useless uniques/sets?
Please share your thoughts and technique works best for you. All inputs are welcome.
Thanks!

I did the sorc in LOD sunder thing last season and it was pretty good. Could get

Ohm for a decent sunder and

Vex for an average one for quite a while. Wouldn't take that long to get enough Wealth for Enigma etc. I read that Latent Sunders might be 3-4x easier to get now so that would drop value of LOD ones a bit.

Main trouble is lack of trades in LOD itself so it becomes SSF almost. And your runes are in ROTW so cant use to buff your sorc who is farming them...

Would be a good option if you're playing alot in first couple of weeks though. cold sorc with a cold sunder and not much else still does pretty well in

Terror zones.

I think terrorised Andy in LOD has better drops than ROTW as well (less the statues of course).
Good luck with your ladder

I heard Druid is good.

If lvl 99 is your goal, the most efficient way is to hang around in P8

Baal Runs. You don't need any GG gear for that, just persistence, time, and the willingness to endure the monotony.

The only item that really makes a difference there is

Annihilus for the extra xp.

The only difference of you having Enigma and GG gear yourself is that you can host those games.

I never had a lvl 99 for that reason, I prefer having several well geared lvl 90+ farmers with variety and options.

How to start it? just make a character and start playing. How else would one start to play

Dunno if leveling is done easier, but when I see people hitting 99 all I can think of is how they have no life. I mean, Ive played fair share of hours since the beginning of this game series and Ive not even once hit 99. Sure 98 multiple times, but the time and grind it takes to hit the last 99 is just too much for casual player and I used to be a very active "casual" talking about 12-14 hours a day playtimes at best.
Still never hit that 99.
Its for glitch abusers, botters and streamers who play 20 hours a day dont shower and sleeps for few hours at best. Its this penis stretching these people want with it. Got to stroke that ego somehow.

My best is lvl 98 Assasin and only because of 20 or so days of nonstop

Terror Zones.

I also have no idea how folks manage to hit 99 in just few days, even when Mosaic was a thing. But hey, once you need to achieve it.
Hosting

Baal runs is good. But I hate seeing that high rune droped and someone else got it.

@Skaijuice anything good about Druid in particular except dirt cheap Hellfire Torches?

ive found on p8

Baal runs i get about 100k exp every 3 minutes. ive been able to get around 500k-1m exp in 3 minutes in those same games just doing p8

Terror zones. id suggest finding a p8

Baal game and just do the

Terror zones instead. ive gotten this last hour a half bar at level 97.

After 5 years of playing D2R I just got my sorc main to level 98, and with my current pace getting her to 99 seems like another dozen weeks of semi-casual playing (an hour or two daily, mostly on TZs). So... good luck?

If you really want to do this and you're playing a caster, consider Ondals, especially with warlock - on P1 your weapon probably won't make that much of a difference, with any build. Other than that - get an Anni with +10% exp and one of these new unique jewels, at least from lvl 90 onwards. I'd be going for elite sniping in TZs, with equipment for max kill speed with a bit of survivability sprinkled on, and then maybe some MF.

Deaths on lvls 95+ still can happen if you're not paying attention all the time (and you won't, because the late grind is mind-numbing), and they REALLY sting, because you're losing multiple hours, if not days worth of experience. If you like to have a beer or a drink for a play session - don't.

Enigma sure will help in the endgame, but it's doubtful you'll get the runes yourself, so you'll need to do a little bit of trading (I personally don't bother at all with anything else than uniques, but that's just me being lazy). You can also make a cheap smiter for easy Ubers and sell that torches for a profit.

Also, I only play solo, but if you join/host public games, your speed probably will increase significantly.