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.

thanks, @sewcioj I am using Ondals , have Enigma , 6% or so anni + lately added new Stone. Still my Warlock is lvl 96 (just hit yesterday)
I also trade not enough (comparing to other folks on server as I see). And sometimes spend several days because I want to level some other character.

@hondasupersport How people find such games ? I had not much luck constantly finding them. You click "join" and it is full already. Cows are boring.
On previous ladder I raised my barb from 63 to 85 just running on other players cow games horking cows. I don't think I can bear that anymore.

I am still looking for a feedback from hoarder s how to manage my junk. Even with 9 shared tabs and countless mules I need some solution and guidance. 5S works at work but not in D2R. Lots of stuff just stays there, sorted-sorted-repositioned and ends on the Ground at the end.

The farming sunders in LOD and then transfering them will not be necessary, as the drop rate of Latent Sunder charms will get buffed.

If you want to play a Warlock I would start with a Miasma/magic Warlock. Easy and fast leveling without caring for too many immunes.

Miasma Bolt will get nerfed but overall, magic Warlock looks like staying very strong.

If you then find a physical or fire sunder you might respec if you want to.

Alternative to Warlock: Fire Sorc! She has

Teleport from the beginning (no Enigma needed, thus saving you "money" for other gear) and she deals lots of damage, but she is more squishy than the Warlock, of course. You will need some core gear like Phoenix and Flickering Flame, but since everything will still be Warlock-focused, good Sorc gear will not be very expensive, at least cheaper than before the Warlock was introduced.

first of all, I'm baffled about the patch notes. this reads really well.

druid I don´t know. I tried all druid builds except summoner, because I thought it's a lot like a necro.
I hope they buff the druid because even with really good items it was kinda meh.

dionisy_cn wrote: 7 hours ago

I am still looking for a feedback from hoarder s how to manage my junk. Even with 9 shared tabs and countless mules I need some solution and guidance. 5S works at work but not in D2R. Lots of stuff just stays there, sorted-sorted-repositioned and ends on the Ground at the end.

That depends. I'm completing a Grail, so I keep one of a kind of every unique/set item - you need around 13-14 mules in total for that (3 for sets and the rest for the uniques, as long as you level the characters enough, so that they can wear some of the gear). I've got them sorted by levels, so that mule one has all the items that can fit into his inventory from lvls 1-14, mule two - lvls 15-22, and so on. I've also made an Excel spreadsheet to keep track what is where, what stats does the items have, are they perfect or not, what stuff am I missing and which mule should keep it when I get it, etc. It was a bit tedious to set up, but really helps in the long run.

Spoiler

If you don't have that level of OCD - I dunno, really My buddy has seperate mules for

Boots, gloves, armors, jewelery/belts etc. - it at least helps him to compare apples to apples, I guess.

sewcioj wrote: 6 hours ago

dionisy_cn wrote: 7 hours ago

I am still looking for a feedback from hoarder s how to manage my junk. Even with 9 shared tabs and countless mules I need some solution and guidance. 5S works at work but not in D2R. Lots of stuff just stays there, sorted-sorted-repositioned and ends on the Ground at the end.

That depends. I'm completing a Grail, so I keep one of a kind of every unique/set item - you need around 13-14 mules in total for that (3 for sets and the rest for the uniques, as long as you level the characters enough, so that they can wear some of the gear). I've got them sorted by levels, so that mule one has all the items that can fit into his inventory from lvls 1-14, mule two - lvls 15-22, and so on. I've also made an Excel spreadsheet to keep track what is where, what stats does the items have, are they perfect or not, what stuff am I missing and which mule should keep it when I get it, etc. It was a bit tedious to set up, but really helps in the long run.

Spoiler

image.png

If you don't have that level of OCD - I dunno, really My buddy has seperate mules for

Boots, gloves, armors, jewelery/belts etc. - it at least helps him to compare apples to apples, I guess.

My word! That is really interesting thing to do. I am now at the same level as your buddy. Apples to apples, haha.

vued wrote: 9 hours ago

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

Baal Runs. [..]

I'd definitely challenge that.

So long as you have a build that can solo-clear TZ96 content at a solid pace, you get significantly more xp/time than even in the fastest of regular

Baal runs.
That's especially true now that shard games are a thing and you can just keep plowing through the decent zones in a chain, saving you time on game re-makes.

That is of course assuming you can reliably get/fill (ideally P8) shard games and the other people in there respect zones and don't keep doubling up on you.

Just to put some numbers to that, I did a quick pug

Baal run on my assassin (98, closing in on 99). P8, took about 2 minutes for waves and

Baal which - for pug runs - is on the fast end. Then spent that same amount of time in TZs for comparison

XP at the start:
3,409,153,626

After

Baal run (P8, throne room + waves +

Baal):
3,409,225,239
Gain: 71,613

After same amount of time in a bad TZ (starting at P4, increasing to P7 throughout the timeframe):
3,409,794,130
Gain: 568,891 (=7.9x as much as

Baal)

After some random trash clearing while waiting for the game to fill:
3,410,363,796
(Just for record keeping)

After again the same amount of time, this time in a mid TZ at P8:
3,411,554,397
Gain: 1,190,601 (=16.6x as much as

Baal)

That's with just leisurely clearing the TZs. If you really want to focus on maximizing your XP gains, you can certainly speed that up, not just in clear speed but also by focusing on the better zones, allowing you to again double+ the XP in the same time frame which would then be 30+ times faster than

Baal runs.

Given, 98 is the most extreme example of course as

Baal waves give hardly any XP anymore and runs hence just end up sucking pretty hard (and forcing you to include

Baal himself which most pugs don't). At 94-95, you still get somewhere around 8-10 times as much per

Baal run even with just waves (can't remember the exact number atm, was somewhere around 500-800k, give or take). Though even then, if you can clear TZs at a decent pace, they already outperform

Baal even at 94.

Personally, I'd stick to

Baal until around 90, give or take, as that is still fairly quick either way. 94 if I'm just being lazy AF. Beyond that though, if the build can handle it and you have access to full (or even half-full) shard games,

Baal very quickly becomes a waste of time.

TZ

Baal runs in between are a different story of course as those make the waves worthwhile again. But you'll only get 30 minutes of those every once in a blue moon so that's hardly a reliable practice.

TL;DR:

Baal runs are great until around the low 90s, especially if you just want to be lazy. But if you're on a build that can actually clear stuff (and let's be honest, if the OP is going warlock, he will be, even with some nerfs coming up), TZ96/shard games beat

Baal runs by a significant margin that keeps increasing to more than an order of magnitude as you close in on 99. Even bad TZs at lower player counts still beat

Baal runs by a mile.

Schnorki wrote: 5 hours ago

vued wrote: 9 hours ago

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

Baal Runs. [..]

I'd definitely challenge that.

So long as you have a build that can solo-clear TZ96 content at a solid pace, you get significantly more xp/time than even in the fastest of regular

Baal runs.
That's especially true now that shard games are a thing and you can just keep plowing through the decent zones in a chain, saving you time on game re-makes.

That is of course assuming you can reliably get/fill (ideally P8) shard games and the other people in there respect zones and don't keep doubling up on you.

Just to put some numbers to that, I did a quick pug

Baal run on my assassin (98, closing in on 99). P8, took about 2 minutes for waves and

Baal which - for pug runs - is on the fast end. Then spent that same amount of time in TZs for comparison

XP at the start:
3,409,153,626

After

Baal run (P8, throne room + waves +

Baal):
3,409,225,239
Gain: 71,613

After same amount of time in a bad TZ (starting at P4, increasing to P7 throughout the timeframe):
3,409,794,130
Gain: 568,891 (=7.9x as much as

Baal)

After some random trash clearing while waiting for the game to fill:
3,410,363,796
(Just for record keeping)

After again the same amount of time, this time in a mid TZ at P8:
3,411,554,397
Gain: 1,190,601 (=16.6x as much as

Baal)

That's with just leisurely clearing the TZs. If you really want to focus on maximizing your XP gains, you can certainly speed that up, not just in clear speed but also by focusing on the better zones, allowing you to again double+ the XP in the same time frame which would then be 30+ times faster than

Baal runs.

Given, 98 is the most extreme example of course as

Baal waves give hardly any XP anymore and runs hence just end up sucking pretty hard (and forcing you to include

Baal himself which most pugs don't). At 94-95, you still get somewhere around 8-10 times as much per

Baal run even with just waves (can't remember the exact number atm, was somewhere around 500-800k, give or take). Though even then, if you can clear TZs at a decent pace, they already outperform

Baal even at 94.

Personally, I'd stick to

Baal until around 90, give or take, as that is still fairly quick either way. 94 if I'm just being lazy AF. Beyond that though, if the build can handle it and you have access to full (or even half-full) shard games,

Baal very quickly becomes a waste of time.

TZ

Baal runs in between are a different story of course as those make the waves worthwhile again. But you'll only get 30 minutes of those every once in a blue moon so that's hardly a reliable practice.

TL;DR:

Baal runs are great until around the low 90s, especially if you just want to be lazy. But if you're on a build that can actually clear stuff (and let's be honest, if the OP is going warlock, he will be, even with some nerfs coming up), TZ96/shard games beat

Baal runs by a significant margin that keeps increasing to more than an order of magnitude as you close in on 99. Even bad TZs at lower player counts still beat

Baal runs by a mile.

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

I wasn't aware that shard games provide that much xp (still on D2R LoD here). And I assumed that the issue that you can't get full games remained.

Even with

Terror zones,

Baal runs remained the best way just because they provided consistent P8 exp while TZ always got messy with more people (talking of previous seasons). Good to hear things changed, doing

Baal runs for hours is just booooooring.

vued wrote: 3 hours ago

[..]
Thanks for the detailed analysis.

I wasn't aware that shard games provide that much xp (still on D2R LoD here). And I assumed that the issue that you can't get full games remained.

Even with

Terror zones,

Baal runs remained the best way just because they provided consistent P8 exp while TZ always got messy with more people (talking of previous seasons). Good to hear things changed, doing

Baal runs for hours is just booooooring.

The problem is that D2 has 2 XP penalties affecting you. One for simply being the level that you are (which you can't avoid) and one for being too high a lvl as compared to the monsters you're killing. And even lister for example is only lvl 88. So at 98, that's a full 10 levels below you which gives you the highest possible penalty for xp.

in TZs on the other hand, even the trash mobs go up to 96 and elites even higher, effectively eliminating that 2nd penalty. That's what makes them so much better. Hell, even on P1 shard games/TZs are superior because they avoid that massive penalty.