Getting to the end game has almost always been my priority in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. For me the process evolved from Walk through to self-rushing, then normal rushes, and eventually to Grush (Glitch rush). Don't get me started on ubers power levelling days. Everyone has their own take on the path to the end game and even in D2R that's shifted. Gone are the days of a simple act 3 quick clear, I can still hear friends saying "If you die stay dead, STAY DEAD!" on the council and bosses. So through the years, I've grown to love and hate some of the various hurdles to the end game, I actually enjoyed having to run Act 3... once. So now that I've got to explore the quests available to me in Diablo 2 I want to share my insights on the various methods of reaching the end game.
If you don't like spoilers and you're new to the game, you might check back after you've completed the 5 Acts storyline.
WALK THROUGH
I will start off with everyone's favourite, the standard walk through. For most people, this is what they know and their version of playing the game and that's great! I wish more people would stop every once in a while and stroll through the game as if it were always a new ladder. But for most of us, it's very easy to give up our hellforge's so we can get to faster leveling and a quicker endgame.
The standard walk through for most people goes
Act I
Den -> Save Cain -> Kill Andariel (Andy)
Seeing as the other quests are optional and vary in personal perspective on usefulness
For me however, it's usually
Rush Cain -> Farm levels -> Kill Andy
Den is generally slow and not as rewarding early game and you can always come back later and blow through it for the skill and early game most skills aren't going to make or break you.
Act II
The second act is generally the longest, there's very few shortcuts you can utilize to speed through this, so if you make it out of Act II you only have to deal with the second longest act next... yay!
Radament (Rady) -> Cube -> Staff -> Ammy -> Summoner -> Duriel
Not much in the way of optional here... as far as a walkthrough goes. (We'll come back to this later)
Once again I tend to do the following.
Cube -> Staff -> Ammy -> Summoner -> Duriel
Same with Den, Rady isn't something I tend to spend time on until later and even other useful quests are generally skipped by me early game prepping for the late game. I return later for quick completion.
Act III
This act got hit with a Derushing tactic either at launch or early into the game's life, but that's a whole other convo. For now, we'll stick to the basic route most go through.
Eye -> Gibbin -> Brain -> Tome -> Heart -> Council+ Flail -> Orb -> Mephisto (Meph) and at some point the Jade Figurine random drop during that.
I added Gibbin because it's at the Flayer dungeon entrance and is a free shot at a ring most people I assume don't pass it up. Now you know me already, 'cause I pass it up. There are reasons you might also pass it up in later difficulties as well. Act III for me tends to go.
Eye+Likely Jade Figurine -> Brain -> Heart -> Council+ Flail -> Orb -> Meph
I have almost no reason, seeing as the Ruined Temple is so fast, to pass on the Tome and it's +5 stats... But I do. The Jade Figurine doesn't take me really out of my way so the +20 HP is always welcome.
Act IV
Not a whole lot to cover on this one as it's 3 Quests so most people end up doing them, but Diablo is all that's needed, easily the second fastest in a rush scenario. But for most in a walk through, it'll look like
Izual -> Hellforge -> Diablo
For myself, I tend to skip The Hellforge until later.
Act V
Inching just a few quests off from the finish line and on to a new difficulty players venture through frozen lands to put a stop to the final brother. It tends to go something like
Kill Shenk -> Rescue 5 prisoners -> Save Anya -> Traverse 3 zones -> Brutally murder Ancient guardians of the world Stone -> Baal
Seriously though Rescue 15 prisoners scattered through a zone that's painfully annoying to get through while catapults toss random effects at you? I'm going out on a limb here and guessing this is one of the first optional quests most people say "Yeah, I'll do this one later." I do however feel bad for Korlic and Madawc, Madawg... Not so much for Mr. Twister Talic though, at the end of the day, they're victims as much as everyone else is. If hardcore had a stopping point I wouldn't blame people for it being the Ancients. I tend to just kill Shenk and run to the Ancients, followed by Baal. Sorry Anya I got better things to do, I'll come back for you I promise. No seriously -10 resists per difficulty isn't much fun to work around. #FreeAnya
Small Lore - Baal was able to pass by the Ancients due to possessing an Ancient relic given to him by Nihlathak, to be fair he was tortured before giving it up so there is that I guess.
Now that we've gone through the walk through portions I'll go through the various ways to rush the end game and my perspective on it. Some of the leveling methods might be dated, at least earlier on, but they're still generally quicker than beating your head on a wall.
Let us cover what people talk about when it comes to a rush
RUSHING
Rushing means to get to Act V as fast as possible, okay thank you for reading!
Just kidding, well at least on that being the end. Rushing is generally taking a fresh class and going through the Acts until you are ready to kill the Ancients then moving on to farming Baal. It tends to look like
Kill Andy -> Go to Act II -> Borrow rushers cube (You can get off Council in Act III, but I think it's a one-time thing iirc) -> Farm staff -> Kill Summoner -> Kill Duriel -> Act III -> Farm Flail components -> Kill council -> ORB -> Kill Meph -> Act IV ->Sometimes Izual but Usually on to payment (Hellforge) -> Diablo -> Act V.
Once in Act V the rush is usually over, depending on your level, if it's level 1 then the rush usually ends here, unless it's a Grush in which we'll cover momentarily. If you're however 20+ you're likely to get Ancients and potentially have Baal killed in this run, but we'll stick to fresh. At this point, you're likely to go back and run the standard.
Trist to 15 -> Tomb to 20 -> Cows from 20-24 (Sometimes cows aren't being run so it's common to stay in tombs until 24.) -> Ancients and possibly Baal -> Baal until 40
Then in Nightmare, you do it all again, this time you're 40 so you can go straight to Ancients then start Baaling after the process of the first four acts and killing the Ancients. This lasts until 60-70 and is usually followed by another rush through Hell, congrats the character is ready for terrorized farming! Among standard farm areas with the selected class.
Now the main difference between D2R rushes and D2:LoD rushes is Act III in D2:LoD you can skip assembling the Flail and just kill the Council and Meph. A luxury actually still in D2R it does involve a roundabout method, which to me is infinitely easier to do.
To do this all you have to do is Kill the Council like normal and then have the rusher create a game for you to walk down the stairs avoiding the orb shattering. Now I do this on self-rushes, which I'll get to, so for me, I tend to solo the area I'm going through. The rusher might have to completely guide you to Durance 3 for this, I'm not 100% on whether or not you can enter TP's once the game registers you have been down there at all. The plus side is once you get Waypoint to level 2 you can port there, then it's back to creating a game where you can get kill credit on Meph.
Now a small but fun Act II Tip, this one is way less likely to be used but can be, that is that Summoner is the main gate, but he also has a gate. The altar for the amulet is the Gate to enter the palace to kill The Summoner, which is Duriel's gate. You don't actually need to complete the staff, assuming you hate the maggot layer as much as I do, it can be skipped. There's a catch though, the rusher needs to have completed the staff and placed it outside Duriel's entrance on, we'll call it an Act II rush helper. Act II would go on to look like altar -> summoner -> new game by rusher's alt, you join and they rejoin on their rusher -> Duriel. It's likely more trouble than it's worth unless you're being rushed without teleports. Still fun and possible.
Now that you're familiar with the basics of rushing I'll quickly go over a Grush.
It follows the same format as a standard rush up to Act V where it then requires another person without having done their Ancients. I've been told Ancients aren't needed and purely all that is, is Baal, but I've never tried this way out of personal fear of time waste. What it tends to look like in Act V is
Kill ancients for eligible 20+, while you stay in town. -> Kill Baal once again for eligible person with you in town.
Grats now you need to repeat it for Nightmare, this time with a 40+ or more typically the same person like 1-2 hours after they've leveled. Once you reach Hell on your low-level character you do another rush, but this time to level you start doing Chaos runs until 60. Then you can finish after that by completing your ancients and Baal so you can farm Terror zones. Most of the time in a Grush the rusher is generally rushing 2 people, so the higher level is usually the one collecting stuff while the 1 sits around in town and comes out for the gates like bosses or Summoner & Council. It's been years though so you might not even need to enter for those.
Hooray!
Now if you've made it this far I'd like to thank you, this is a form of education and I enjoy giving my time for free education. So truly thank you!
Lastly, we get to talk about my favourite rush, the one you do yourself. This can be done in a variety of ways but I'll touch on my ways.
SELF RUSHING
Typically if I start a new Ladder I tend to want a few Classes for a variety of reasons they tend to look like this.
Paladin - Smiter. I use this for their incredibly easy gearing to be able to kill Ubers and clones. There are a few ways to build either as a pure smiter or sealing smiter ( Zeal... not seal autocorrect >.>), the latter allowing more farming potential. I stick with a pure because i use others for clearing that content.
Sorceress - Lightning. I tend to make more than one of these, but one will work if you're okay with respecing a lot. That said making more than one requires either multiple gear sets or constant swapping, which isn't super enjoyable to do. All specs have their pluses, I just prefer Lightning and Blizzard over the others. These have great farming potential with their teleporting capabilities, allowing for quick boss farming and great AOE clearing speeds. This is why you tend to join leveling-based runs where half the game or better are sorceresses.
Assassin - Traps. More commonly known as the Trapsin, come in fire and lightning, but are usually lightning. Since D2:LoD this has been my main farming character. They are one of the safest classes to play with very little gear for a variety of reasons. Fade giving Damage Reduction based on its overall level, Tied for highest health gain from vitality (IIRC), can run around while traps go off, and so, so, so, so much more. Great at clearing areas that don't really require a lot of teleporting, so like less kills per hour than a Sorc can get with teleporting to bosses. With D2R and Mosaic runeword, I'll definitely be giving that Assassin a try sometime down the line.
Those are the standards I tend to make when I start a new ladder, sometimes I'll find myself making an Item Find Barbarian, Windy Druid, Bone and Poison Necromancer, Javalin-based Amazon, and more recently a Fist of the Heaven's Paladin. Most of these other classes are more so from time to time when I feel like playing them again.
With all that prefaced time to explain the Self-rush.
Simply put it's going through a game/Act I've already completed.
I'll make the classes I want then walk through Act I on those classes, once I've completed it with my main. The main in this case is usually 10-12 by the time I've cleared through the act. Walking through a safe Act, in the same game I was just in, collecting the waypoints to make my later life a bit easier.
You can do what I did for Act I for all the Acts assuming you're keeping your classes tied through-out the process. For example doing a route like this.
Waypoint gathering Act I with multiple characters and leveling them up to 15 through Trist runs then killing Andy, thanks to your easily gathered waypoints.
Followed by running through Act II and then taking your characters through for Waypoints, again, then killing Duriel on your main and going onto Act III. Your other classes can gather the staff faster thanks to waypoints and then tomb until 20 before killing Duriel themselves.
Act III is the breadwinner if you keep your characters at the same progression thanks to being able to run directly to Travincal with previous areas being cleared. The other classes just need to be able to kill council and meph then you're through the worst of it. We'll touch on this shortly.
Rinse and repeat this process for the later Acts gathering waypoints and killing bosses.
Typically I don't keep my characters all at the same point, It's generally a jump start to level 15 so i can progress through. Sometimes I'll clear areas like the maggot layer then run it on my alt. Other times once i reach Act III I'll ask for Travincals waypoint from someone to speed the Act up, either way.
For me in most cases, since I don't tend to keep my classes at the same progression it's more like
Act II because my other classes are still level 1 and gated behind killing Andy, most of the time I'll come back to them at the point I want to level and further progress them. Act II isn't really all the fun even in a self-rush, it is still a walk through, the only real help I can give myself is a cube which does help. I tend to continue like normal completing the staff, killing summoner, then Duriel. Sometimes clearing out the maggot layer for myself.
Act III can be done the intended way or you can be like me and say "Na imma pass on that Flail and just kill the council." As mentioned earlier, the way I do this is by running all the way to Tracincal or asking for the waypoint and killing the Council. Then scout for games that signal to me they are past Act III, I'll join one and run past the council into Durance, clear it until I have Durance 2 and then create a game to kill Meph. This method can be done later by a character that has passed Act III if you don't want to look for games like Baal-X or Chaos-X or Act IV/V help. Create a game on your main and join on alt then run and get the Durance 2 waypoint.
At Act IV I just run to Izual and kill him before moving on to River of Flame to get to Chaos Sanctuary, Kill Diablo then move on.
Act V for me again is a walk through killing Shenk for sockets later then to Ancients, and Worldstone 2 Waypoint. At which point I run Baal until 40 and do it all over again on Nightmare until 60-70. I then tend to get some help in Hell usually with either TPs, killing, or paying for a rush, but that's me.
Self-rushing in essence is a modified walk through meant to speed up the process a bit by collecting already cleared Acts for waypoints and boy does skipping Act III speed things up.
Thank you once again for reading this it was a lot of time, but feels good to share. Hopefully, the self-rushing portion makes sense.
Happy farming out there
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Description
Getting to the end game has almost always been my priority in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. For me the process evolved from Walk through to self-rushing, then normal rushes, and eventually to Grush (Glitch rush). Don't get me started on ubers power levelling days. Everyone has their own take on the path to the end game and even in D2R that's shifted. Gone are the days of a simple act 3 quick clear, I can still hear friends saying "If you die stay dead, STAY DEAD!" on the council and bosses. So through the years, I've grown to love and hate some of the various hurdles to the end game, I actually enjoyed having to run Act 3... once. So now that I've got to explore the quests available to me in Diablo 2 I want to share my insights on the various methods of reaching the end game.
If you don't like spoilers and you're new to the game, you might check back after you've completed the 5 Acts storyline.
WALK THROUGH
I will start off with everyone's favourite, the standard walk through. For most people, this is what they know and their version of playing the game and that's great! I wish more people would stop every once in a while and stroll through the game as if it were always a new ladder. But for most of us, it's very easy to give up our hellforge's so we can get to faster leveling and a quicker endgame.
The standard walk through for most people goes
Act I
Den -> Save Cain -> Kill Andariel (Andy)
Seeing as the other quests are optional and vary in personal perspective on usefulness
For me however, it's usually
Rush Cain -> Farm levels -> Kill Andy
Den is generally slow and not as rewarding early game and you can always come back later and blow through it for the skill and early game most skills aren't going to make or break you.
Act II
The second act is generally the longest, there's very few shortcuts you can utilize to speed through this, so if you make it out of Act II you only have to deal with the second longest act next... yay!
Radament (Rady) -> Cube -> Staff -> Ammy -> Summoner -> Duriel
Not much in the way of optional here... as far as a walkthrough goes. (We'll come back to this later)
Once again I tend to do the following.
Cube -> Staff -> Ammy -> Summoner -> Duriel
Same with Den, Rady isn't something I tend to spend time on until later and even other useful quests are generally skipped by me early game prepping for the late game. I return later for quick completion.
Act III
This act got hit with a Derushing tactic either at launch or early into the game's life, but that's a whole other convo. For now, we'll stick to the basic route most go through.
Eye -> Gibbin -> Brain -> Tome -> Heart -> Council+ Flail -> Orb -> Mephisto (Meph) and at some point the Jade Figurine random drop during that.
I added Gibbin because it's at the Flayer dungeon entrance and is a free shot at a ring most people I assume don't pass it up. Now you know me already, 'cause I pass it up. There are reasons you might also pass it up in later difficulties as well. Act III for me tends to go.
Eye+Likely Jade Figurine -> Brain -> Heart -> Council+ Flail -> Orb -> Meph
I have almost no reason, seeing as the Ruined Temple is so fast, to pass on the Tome and it's +5 stats... But I do. The Jade Figurine doesn't take me really out of my way so the +20 HP is always welcome.
Act IV
Not a whole lot to cover on this one as it's 3 Quests so most people end up doing them, but Diablo is all that's needed, easily the second fastest in a rush scenario. But for most in a walk through, it'll look like
Izual -> Hellforge -> Diablo
For myself, I tend to skip The Hellforge until later.
Act V
Inching just a few quests off from the finish line and on to a new difficulty players venture through frozen lands to put a stop to the final brother. It tends to go something like
Kill Shenk -> Rescue 5 prisoners -> Save Anya -> Traverse 3 zones -> Brutally murder Ancient guardians of the world Stone -> Baal
Seriously though Rescue 15 prisoners scattered through a zone that's painfully annoying to get through while catapults toss random effects at you? I'm going out on a limb here and guessing this is one of the first optional quests most people say "Yeah, I'll do this one later." I do however feel bad for Korlic and Madawc, Madawg... Not so much for Mr. Twister Talic though, at the end of the day, they're victims as much as everyone else is. If hardcore had a stopping point I wouldn't blame people for it being the Ancients. I tend to just kill Shenk and run to the Ancients, followed by Baal. Sorry Anya I got better things to do, I'll come back for you I promise. No seriously -10 resists per difficulty isn't much fun to work around. #FreeAnya
Small Lore - Baal was able to pass by the Ancients due to possessing an Ancient relic given to him by Nihlathak, to be fair he was tortured before giving it up so there is that I guess.
Now that we've gone through the walk through portions I'll go through the various ways to rush the end game and my perspective on it. Some of the leveling methods might be dated, at least earlier on, but they're still generally quicker than beating your head on a wall.
Let us cover what people talk about when it comes to a rush
RUSHING
Rushing means to get to Act V as fast as possible, okay thank you for reading!
Just kidding, well at least on that being the end. Rushing is generally taking a fresh class and going through the Acts until you are ready to kill the Ancients then moving on to farming Baal. It tends to look like
Kill Andy -> Go to Act II -> Borrow rushers cube (You can get off Council in Act III, but I think it's a one-time thing iirc) -> Farm staff -> Kill Summoner -> Kill Duriel -> Act III -> Farm Flail components -> Kill council -> ORB -> Kill Meph -> Act IV ->Sometimes Izual but Usually on to payment (Hellforge) -> Diablo -> Act V.
Once in Act V the rush is usually over, depending on your level, if it's level 1 then the rush usually ends here, unless it's a Grush in which we'll cover momentarily. If you're however 20+ you're likely to get Ancients and potentially have Baal killed in this run, but we'll stick to fresh. At this point, you're likely to go back and run the standard.
Trist to 15 -> Tomb to 20 -> Cows from 20-24 (Sometimes cows aren't being run so it's common to stay in tombs until 24.) -> Ancients and possibly Baal -> Baal until 40
Then in Nightmare, you do it all again, this time you're 40 so you can go straight to Ancients then start Baaling after the process of the first four acts and killing the Ancients. This lasts until 60-70 and is usually followed by another rush through Hell, congrats the character is ready for terrorized farming! Among standard farm areas with the selected class.
Now the main difference between D2R rushes and D2:LoD rushes is Act III in D2:LoD you can skip assembling the Flail and just kill the Council and Meph. A luxury actually still in D2R it does involve a roundabout method, which to me is infinitely easier to do.
To do this all you have to do is Kill the Council like normal and then have the rusher create a game for you to walk down the stairs avoiding the orb shattering. Now I do this on self-rushes, which I'll get to, so for me, I tend to solo the area I'm going through. The rusher might have to completely guide you to Durance 3 for this, I'm not 100% on whether or not you can enter TP's once the game registers you have been down there at all. The plus side is once you get Waypoint to level 2 you can port there, then it's back to creating a game where you can get kill credit on Meph.
Now a small but fun Act II Tip, this one is way less likely to be used but can be, that is that Summoner is the main gate, but he also has a gate. The altar for the amulet is the Gate to enter the palace to kill The Summoner, which is Duriel's gate. You don't actually need to complete the staff, assuming you hate the maggot layer as much as I do, it can be skipped. There's a catch though, the rusher needs to have completed the staff and placed it outside Duriel's entrance on, we'll call it an Act II rush helper. Act II would go on to look like altar -> summoner -> new game by rusher's alt, you join and they rejoin on their rusher -> Duriel. It's likely more trouble than it's worth unless you're being rushed without teleports. Still fun and possible.
Now that you're familiar with the basics of rushing I'll quickly go over a Grush.
It follows the same format as a standard rush up to Act V where it then requires another person without having done their Ancients. I've been told Ancients aren't needed and purely all that is, is Baal, but I've never tried this way out of personal fear of time waste. What it tends to look like in Act V is
Kill ancients for eligible 20+, while you stay in town. -> Kill Baal once again for eligible person with you in town.
Grats now you need to repeat it for Nightmare, this time with a 40+ or more typically the same person like 1-2 hours after they've leveled. Once you reach Hell on your low-level character you do another rush, but this time to level you start doing Chaos runs until 60. Then you can finish after that by completing your ancients and Baal so you can farm Terror zones. Most of the time in a Grush the rusher is generally rushing 2 people, so the higher level is usually the one collecting stuff while the 1 sits around in town and comes out for the gates like bosses or Summoner & Council. It's been years though so you might not even need to enter for those.
Hooray!
Now if you've made it this far I'd like to thank you, this is a form of education and I enjoy giving my time for free education. So truly thank you!
Lastly, we get to talk about my favourite rush, the one you do yourself. This can be done in a variety of ways but I'll touch on my ways.
SELF RUSHING
Typically if I start a new Ladder I tend to want a few Classes for a variety of reasons they tend to look like this.
Paladin - Smiter. I use this for their incredibly easy gearing to be able to kill Ubers and clones. There are a few ways to build either as a pure smiter or sealing smiter ( Zeal... not seal autocorrect >.>), the latter allowing more farming potential. I stick with a pure because i use others for clearing that content.
Sorceress - Lightning. I tend to make more than one of these, but one will work if you're okay with respecing a lot. That said making more than one requires either multiple gear sets or constant swapping, which isn't super enjoyable to do. All specs have their pluses, I just prefer Lightning and Blizzard over the others. These have great farming potential with their teleporting capabilities, allowing for quick boss farming and great AOE clearing speeds. This is why you tend to join leveling-based runs where half the game or better are sorceresses.
Assassin - Traps. More commonly known as the Trapsin, come in fire and lightning, but are usually lightning. Since D2:LoD this has been my main farming character. They are one of the safest classes to play with very little gear for a variety of reasons. Fade giving Damage Reduction based on its overall level, Tied for highest health gain from vitality (IIRC), can run around while traps go off, and so, so, so, so much more. Great at clearing areas that don't really require a lot of teleporting, so like less kills per hour than a Sorc can get with teleporting to bosses. With D2R and Mosaic runeword, I'll definitely be giving that Assassin a try sometime down the line.
Those are the standards I tend to make when I start a new ladder, sometimes I'll find myself making an Item Find Barbarian, Windy Druid, Bone and Poison Necromancer, Javalin-based Amazon, and more recently a Fist of the Heaven's Paladin. Most of these other classes are more so from time to time when I feel like playing them again.
With all that prefaced time to explain the Self-rush.
Simply put it's going through a game/Act I've already completed.
I'll make the classes I want then walk through Act I on those classes, once I've completed it with my main. The main in this case is usually 10-12 by the time I've cleared through the act. Walking through a safe Act, in the same game I was just in, collecting the waypoints to make my later life a bit easier.
You can do what I did for Act I for all the Acts assuming you're keeping your classes tied through-out the process. For example doing a route like this.
Waypoint gathering Act I with multiple characters and leveling them up to 15 through Trist runs then killing Andy, thanks to your easily gathered waypoints.
Followed by running through Act II and then taking your characters through for Waypoints, again, then killing Duriel on your main and going onto Act III. Your other classes can gather the staff faster thanks to waypoints and then tomb until 20 before killing Duriel themselves.
Act III is the breadwinner if you keep your characters at the same progression thanks to being able to run directly to Travincal with previous areas being cleared. The other classes just need to be able to kill council and meph then you're through the worst of it. We'll touch on this shortly.
Rinse and repeat this process for the later Acts gathering waypoints and killing bosses.
Typically I don't keep my characters all at the same point, It's generally a jump start to level 15 so i can progress through. Sometimes I'll clear areas like the maggot layer then run it on my alt. Other times once i reach Act III I'll ask for Travincals waypoint from someone to speed the Act up, either way.
For me in most cases, since I don't tend to keep my classes at the same progression it's more like
Act II because my other classes are still level 1 and gated behind killing Andy, most of the time I'll come back to them at the point I want to level and further progress them. Act II isn't really all the fun even in a self-rush, it is still a walk through, the only real help I can give myself is a cube which does help. I tend to continue like normal completing the staff, killing summoner, then Duriel. Sometimes clearing out the maggot layer for myself.
Act III can be done the intended way or you can be like me and say "Na imma pass on that Flail and just kill the council." As mentioned earlier, the way I do this is by running all the way to Tracincal or asking for the waypoint and killing the Council. Then scout for games that signal to me they are past Act III, I'll join one and run past the council into Durance, clear it until I have Durance 2 and then create a game to kill Meph. This method can be done later by a character that has passed Act III if you don't want to look for games like Baal-X or Chaos-X or Act IV/V help. Create a game on your main and join on alt then run and get the Durance 2 waypoint.
At Act IV I just run to Izual and kill him before moving on to River of Flame to get to Chaos Sanctuary, Kill Diablo then move on.
Act V for me again is a walk through killing Shenk for sockets later then to Ancients, and Worldstone 2 Waypoint. At which point I run Baal until 40 and do it all over again on Nightmare until 60-70. I then tend to get some help in Hell usually with either TPs, killing, or paying for a rush, but that's me.
Self-rushing in essence is a modified walk through meant to speed up the process a bit by collecting already cleared Acts for waypoints and boy does skipping Act III speed things up.
Thank you once again for reading this it was a lot of time, but feels good to share. Hopefully, the self-rushing portion makes sense.
Happy farming out there
Description by If you don't like spoilers and you're new to the game, you might check back after you've completed the 5 Acts storyline.
WALK THROUGH
I will start off with everyone's favourite, the standard walk through. For most people, this is what they know and their version of playing the game and that's great! I wish more people would stop every once in a while and stroll through the game as if it were always a new ladder. But for most of us, it's very easy to give up our hellforge's so we can get to faster leveling and a quicker endgame.
The standard walk through for most people goes
Act I
Den -> Save Cain -> Kill Andariel (Andy)
Seeing as the other quests are optional and vary in personal perspective on usefulness
For me however, it's usually
Rush Cain -> Farm levels -> Kill Andy
Den is generally slow and not as rewarding early game and you can always come back later and blow through it for the skill and early game most skills aren't going to make or break you.
Act II
The second act is generally the longest, there's very few shortcuts you can utilize to speed through this, so if you make it out of Act II you only have to deal with the second longest act next... yay!
Radament (Rady) -> Cube -> Staff -> Ammy -> Summoner -> Duriel
Not much in the way of optional here... as far as a walkthrough goes. (We'll come back to this later)
Once again I tend to do the following.
Cube -> Staff -> Ammy -> Summoner -> Duriel
Same with Den, Rady isn't something I tend to spend time on until later and even other useful quests are generally skipped by me early game prepping for the late game. I return later for quick completion.
Act III
This act got hit with a Derushing tactic either at launch or early into the game's life, but that's a whole other convo. For now, we'll stick to the basic route most go through.
Eye -> Gibbin -> Brain -> Tome -> Heart -> Council+ Flail -> Orb -> Mephisto (Meph) and at some point the Jade Figurine random drop during that.
I added Gibbin because it's at the Flayer dungeon entrance and is a free shot at a ring most people I assume don't pass it up. Now you know me already, 'cause I pass it up. There are reasons you might also pass it up in later difficulties as well. Act III for me tends to go.
Eye+Likely Jade Figurine -> Brain -> Heart -> Council+ Flail -> Orb -> Meph
I have almost no reason, seeing as the Ruined Temple is so fast, to pass on the Tome and it's +5 stats... But I do. The Jade Figurine doesn't take me really out of my way so the +20 HP is always welcome.
Act IV
Not a whole lot to cover on this one as it's 3 Quests so most people end up doing them, but Diablo is all that's needed, easily the second fastest in a rush scenario. But for most in a walk through, it'll look like
Izual -> Hellforge -> Diablo
For myself, I tend to skip The Hellforge until later.
Act V
Inching just a few quests off from the finish line and on to a new difficulty players venture through frozen lands to put a stop to the final brother. It tends to go something like
Kill Shenk -> Rescue 5 prisoners -> Save Anya -> Traverse 3 zones -> Brutally murder Ancient guardians of the world Stone -> Baal
Seriously though Rescue 15 prisoners scattered through a zone that's painfully annoying to get through while catapults toss random effects at you? I'm going out on a limb here and guessing this is one of the first optional quests most people say "Yeah, I'll do this one later." I do however feel bad for Korlic and Madawc, Madawg... Not so much for Mr. Twister Talic though, at the end of the day, they're victims as much as everyone else is. If hardcore had a stopping point I wouldn't blame people for it being the Ancients. I tend to just kill Shenk and run to the Ancients, followed by Baal. Sorry Anya I got better things to do, I'll come back for you I promise. No seriously -10 resists per difficulty isn't much fun to work around. #FreeAnya
Small Lore - Baal was able to pass by the Ancients due to possessing an Ancient relic given to him by Nihlathak, to be fair he was tortured before giving it up so there is that I guess.
Now that we've gone through the walk through portions I'll go through the various ways to rush the end game and my perspective on it. Some of the leveling methods might be dated, at least earlier on, but they're still generally quicker than beating your head on a wall.
Let us cover what people talk about when it comes to a rush
RUSHING
Rushing means to get to Act V as fast as possible, okay thank you for reading!
Just kidding, well at least on that being the end. Rushing is generally taking a fresh class and going through the Acts until you are ready to kill the Ancients then moving on to farming Baal. It tends to look like
Kill Andy -> Go to Act II -> Borrow rushers cube (You can get off Council in Act III, but I think it's a one-time thing iirc) -> Farm staff -> Kill Summoner -> Kill Duriel -> Act III -> Farm Flail components -> Kill council -> ORB -> Kill Meph -> Act IV ->Sometimes Izual but Usually on to payment (Hellforge) -> Diablo -> Act V.
Once in Act V the rush is usually over, depending on your level, if it's level 1 then the rush usually ends here, unless it's a Grush in which we'll cover momentarily. If you're however 20+ you're likely to get Ancients and potentially have Baal killed in this run, but we'll stick to fresh. At this point, you're likely to go back and run the standard.
Trist to 15 -> Tomb to 20 -> Cows from 20-24 (Sometimes cows aren't being run so it's common to stay in tombs until 24.) -> Ancients and possibly Baal -> Baal until 40
Then in Nightmare, you do it all again, this time you're 40 so you can go straight to Ancients then start Baaling after the process of the first four acts and killing the Ancients. This lasts until 60-70 and is usually followed by another rush through Hell, congrats the character is ready for terrorized farming! Among standard farm areas with the selected class.
Now the main difference between D2R rushes and D2:LoD rushes is Act III in D2:LoD you can skip assembling the Flail and just kill the Council and Meph. A luxury actually still in D2R it does involve a roundabout method, which to me is infinitely easier to do.
To do this all you have to do is Kill the Council like normal and then have the rusher create a game for you to walk down the stairs avoiding the orb shattering. Now I do this on self-rushes, which I'll get to, so for me, I tend to solo the area I'm going through. The rusher might have to completely guide you to Durance 3 for this, I'm not 100% on whether or not you can enter TP's once the game registers you have been down there at all. The plus side is once you get Waypoint to level 2 you can port there, then it's back to creating a game where you can get kill credit on Meph.
Now a small but fun Act II Tip, this one is way less likely to be used but can be, that is that Summoner is the main gate, but he also has a gate. The altar for the amulet is the Gate to enter the palace to kill The Summoner, which is Duriel's gate. You don't actually need to complete the staff, assuming you hate the maggot layer as much as I do, it can be skipped. There's a catch though, the rusher needs to have completed the staff and placed it outside Duriel's entrance on, we'll call it an Act II rush helper. Act II would go on to look like altar -> summoner -> new game by rusher's alt, you join and they rejoin on their rusher -> Duriel. It's likely more trouble than it's worth unless you're being rushed without teleports. Still fun and possible.
Now that you're familiar with the basics of rushing I'll quickly go over a Grush.
It follows the same format as a standard rush up to Act V where it then requires another person without having done their Ancients. I've been told Ancients aren't needed and purely all that is, is Baal, but I've never tried this way out of personal fear of time waste. What it tends to look like in Act V is
Kill ancients for eligible 20+, while you stay in town. -> Kill Baal once again for eligible person with you in town.
Grats now you need to repeat it for Nightmare, this time with a 40+ or more typically the same person like 1-2 hours after they've leveled. Once you reach Hell on your low-level character you do another rush, but this time to level you start doing Chaos runs until 60. Then you can finish after that by completing your ancients and Baal so you can farm Terror zones. Most of the time in a Grush the rusher is generally rushing 2 people, so the higher level is usually the one collecting stuff while the 1 sits around in town and comes out for the gates like bosses or Summoner & Council. It's been years though so you might not even need to enter for those.
Hooray!
Now if you've made it this far I'd like to thank you, this is a form of education and I enjoy giving my time for free education. So truly thank you!
Lastly, we get to talk about my favourite rush, the one you do yourself. This can be done in a variety of ways but I'll touch on my ways.
SELF RUSHING
Typically if I start a new Ladder I tend to want a few Classes for a variety of reasons they tend to look like this.
Paladin - Smiter. I use this for their incredibly easy gearing to be able to kill Ubers and clones. There are a few ways to build either as a pure smiter or sealing smiter ( Zeal... not seal autocorrect >.>), the latter allowing more farming potential. I stick with a pure because i use others for clearing that content.
Sorceress - Lightning. I tend to make more than one of these, but one will work if you're okay with respecing a lot. That said making more than one requires either multiple gear sets or constant swapping, which isn't super enjoyable to do. All specs have their pluses, I just prefer Lightning and Blizzard over the others. These have great farming potential with their teleporting capabilities, allowing for quick boss farming and great AOE clearing speeds. This is why you tend to join leveling-based runs where half the game or better are sorceresses.
Assassin - Traps. More commonly known as the Trapsin, come in fire and lightning, but are usually lightning. Since D2:LoD this has been my main farming character. They are one of the safest classes to play with very little gear for a variety of reasons. Fade giving Damage Reduction based on its overall level, Tied for highest health gain from vitality (IIRC), can run around while traps go off, and so, so, so, so much more. Great at clearing areas that don't really require a lot of teleporting, so like less kills per hour than a Sorc can get with teleporting to bosses. With D2R and Mosaic runeword, I'll definitely be giving that Assassin a try sometime down the line.
Those are the standards I tend to make when I start a new ladder, sometimes I'll find myself making an Item Find Barbarian, Windy Druid, Bone and Poison Necromancer, Javalin-based Amazon, and more recently a Fist of the Heaven's Paladin. Most of these other classes are more so from time to time when I feel like playing them again.
With all that prefaced time to explain the Self-rush.
Simply put it's going through a game/Act I've already completed.
I'll make the classes I want then walk through Act I on those classes, once I've completed it with my main. The main in this case is usually 10-12 by the time I've cleared through the act. Walking through a safe Act, in the same game I was just in, collecting the waypoints to make my later life a bit easier.
You can do what I did for Act I for all the Acts assuming you're keeping your classes tied through-out the process. For example doing a route like this.
Waypoint gathering Act I with multiple characters and leveling them up to 15 through Trist runs then killing Andy, thanks to your easily gathered waypoints.
Followed by running through Act II and then taking your characters through for Waypoints, again, then killing Duriel on your main and going onto Act III. Your other classes can gather the staff faster thanks to waypoints and then tomb until 20 before killing Duriel themselves.
Act III is the breadwinner if you keep your characters at the same progression thanks to being able to run directly to Travincal with previous areas being cleared. The other classes just need to be able to kill council and meph then you're through the worst of it. We'll touch on this shortly.
Rinse and repeat this process for the later Acts gathering waypoints and killing bosses.
Typically I don't keep my characters all at the same point, It's generally a jump start to level 15 so i can progress through. Sometimes I'll clear areas like the maggot layer then run it on my alt. Other times once i reach Act III I'll ask for Travincals waypoint from someone to speed the Act up, either way.
For me in most cases, since I don't tend to keep my classes at the same progression it's more like
Act II because my other classes are still level 1 and gated behind killing Andy, most of the time I'll come back to them at the point I want to level and further progress them. Act II isn't really all the fun even in a self-rush, it is still a walk through, the only real help I can give myself is a cube which does help. I tend to continue like normal completing the staff, killing summoner, then Duriel. Sometimes clearing out the maggot layer for myself.
Act III can be done the intended way or you can be like me and say "Na imma pass on that Flail and just kill the council." As mentioned earlier, the way I do this is by running all the way to Tracincal or asking for the waypoint and killing the Council. Then scout for games that signal to me they are past Act III, I'll join one and run past the council into Durance, clear it until I have Durance 2 and then create a game to kill Meph. This method can be done later by a character that has passed Act III if you don't want to look for games like Baal-X or Chaos-X or Act IV/V help. Create a game on your main and join on alt then run and get the Durance 2 waypoint.
At Act IV I just run to Izual and kill him before moving on to River of Flame to get to Chaos Sanctuary, Kill Diablo then move on.
Act V for me again is a walk through killing Shenk for sockets later then to Ancients, and Worldstone 2 Waypoint. At which point I run Baal until 40 and do it all over again on Nightmare until 60-70. I then tend to get some help in Hell usually with either TPs, killing, or paying for a rush, but that's me.
Self-rushing in essence is a modified walk through meant to speed up the process a bit by collecting already cleared Acts for waypoints and boy does skipping Act III speed things up.
Thank you once again for reading this it was a lot of time, but feels good to share. Hopefully, the self-rushing portion makes sense.
Happy farming out there
Theoutrank
Can be used to make Runewords:
Time i'm most active 03:00am - 06:00am UTC on occasions 02:00pm-07:00pm
Nice guide!
I think my favorite tip that helped me the most for socket rushes was using the bumper char to skip having to make the staff in A2. Saves me so much stress not having to deal with maggot layer or the randomized desert area. Was a pain going through it the one time for the bumper char, but well worth it, as I've used him to help me make over 50 socket mules so far. And about to do another 10 today, if I have time!
I think my favorite tip that helped me the most for socket rushes was using the bumper char to skip having to make the staff in A2. Saves me so much stress not having to deal with maggot layer or the randomized desert area. Was a pain going through it the one time for the bumper char, but well worth it, as I've used him to help me make over 50 socket mules so far. And about to do another 10 today, if I have time!
Yeah, it seems minor until you rush friends over and over lolZero187 wrote: 1 year ago Nice guide!
I think my favorite tip that helped me the most for socket rushes was using the bumper char to skip having to make the staff in A2. Saves me so much stress not having to deal with maggot layer or the randomized desert area. Was a pain going through it the one time for the bumper char, but well worth it, as I've used him to help me make over 50 socket mules so far. And about to do another 10 today, if I have time!
Time i'm most active 03:00am - 06:00am UTC on occasions 02:00pm-07:00pm
Do you mind explaining what that entails exactly? Thanks.Zero187 wrote: 1 year ago Nice guide!
I think my favorite tip that helped me the most for socket rushes was using the bumper char to skip having to make the staff in A2. Saves me so much stress not having to deal with maggot layer or the randomized desert area. Was a pain going through it the one time for the bumper char, but well worth it, as I've used him to help me make over 50 socket mules so far. And about to do another 10 today, if I have time!
First, I created the "bumper" char and got him rushed right up until Duriel fight. Do not kill Duriel with him; this will be his permanent quest progression point. Had to go thru A2 with rusher and collect all the pieces to make the staff on him to get Duriel chamber opened, which is probably the worst part of rushes IMO.FlxEx#1911 wrote: 1 year agoDo you mind explaining what that entails exactly? Thanks.Zero187 wrote: 1 year ago Nice guide!
I think my favorite tip that helped me the most for socket rushes was using the bumper char to skip having to make the staff in A2. Saves me so much stress not having to deal with maggot layer or the randomized desert area. Was a pain going through it the one time for the bumper char, but well worth it, as I've used him to help me make over 50 socket mules so far. And about to do another 10 today, if I have time!
Next, I'll get my socket mule up to A2, then have the rusher create the game. He leads the way thru the Palace, Arcane Sanctuary, killing Summoner and going thru portal to grab Canyon of Magi waypoint with socket mule.
Now that I have Canyon of Magi WP on my socket mule, I can use the bumper character to create the game. Let rusher join, tell them the correct symbol from your quest log and then switch to your socket mule.
Finally, follow the rusher from Canyon of Magi WP right into Duriel chamber and no staff is needed to open, since your bumper char already had it opened due to his saved quest progression.
Hope that all makes sense!
So with your bumper char, you use the staff, open the door to Duriel but never enter the chamber and kill him?Zero187 wrote: 1 year agoFirst, I created the "bumper" char and got him rushed right up until Duriel fight. Do not kill Duriel with him; this will be his permanent quest progression point. Had to go thru A2 with rusher and collect all the pieces to make the staff on him to get Duriel chamber opened, which is probably the worst part of rushes IMO.FlxEx#1911 wrote: 1 year agoDo you mind explaining what that entails exactly? Thanks.Zero187 wrote: 1 year ago Nice guide!
I think my favorite tip that helped me the most for socket rushes was using the bumper char to skip having to make the staff in A2. Saves me so much stress not having to deal with maggot layer or the randomized desert area. Was a pain going through it the one time for the bumper char, but well worth it, as I've used him to help me make over 50 socket mules so far. And about to do another 10 today, if I have time!
Next, I'll get my socket mule up to A2, then have the rusher create the game. He leads the way thru the Palace, Arcane Sanctuary, killing Summoner and going thru to grab Canyon of Magi waypoint with socket mule.
Now that I have Canyon of Magi WP on my socket mule, I can use the "bumper" character to create the game. Let rusher join, tell them the correct symbol from your quest log and then switch to your socket mule.
Finally, follow the rusher from Canyon of Magi WP right into Duriel chamber and no staff is needed to open, since your bumper char already had it opened due to his saved quest progression.
Hope that all makes sense!
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Correct. Although maybe you could kill Duriel with him and it would still work, essentially saving you from having to kill Duriel again? But I haven't tested that and don't want to brick him.
Sounds like the Altar isn't the Gate that it is in D2:LoD, I briefly covered a similar rushing tactic for Act II. 
Just never see anyone using it except myself and my friend group. 
Just never see anyone using it except myself and my friend group.
Time i'm most active 03:00am - 06:00am UTC on occasions 02:00pm-07:00pm
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