I've levelled two hardcore characters from 93 to 99 during this month, both hammerdins, one on ps4 d2r version and one on ps5 version, singleplayer players 8, terror zones. I've used clock set method to get desired terror zone. And I used backups to recover if my character died. It took about 8 hours from 96-97, 12 hours from 97-98 and 15-16 hours from 98-99.
I've used respective item duping methods to get high runes and got powerful runewords like Enigma, Call to Arms, Heart of the Oak (additional time was needed to get perfect stat rolls on those items). I've also farmed materials for respec tokens and organs for Uber Tristram torches farming.
Farming spots
Since I played hammerdins I wanted to avoid places which can spawn magic immune monsters. So Tal Rasha Tombs and Worldstone Keep was out. I also wanted to minimize downtime between runes so act 2 and act 3 terror zones were out due to long run times from spawn point to waypoint. Because my gear lacked some good unique items (like Shako or Arachnid Mesh or Stone of Jordan) I needed terror zone with act boss. Farming act bosses is the best way to get unique items and because of terrozones all act bosses can drop all unique items. That requirements left me with two viable farming spots:
Act 1 Catacombs + Andariel
Act 4 Chaos Sanctuary + Diablo
I measured time for couple runs for both places with and without killing main boss and found out that best exp/time ratio went like this (from best to worst):
1. Catacombs lvl2 without killing Andariel
2. Catacombs lvl2 + killing Andariel
3. Chaos Sanctuary without killing Diablo
4. Chaos Sanctuary + killing Diablo
Diablo has more hp than Andariel and there is small downtime between popping last seal and him spawning.
My measurements maybe wrong for other builds, for example Lightning Sorceress will probably have better xp in Chaos Sanctuary because she can mow down large numbers of monsters pretty quickly. I used hammerdins as champion/unique monsters snipers, more so from level 97 onwards. Sniping/telestomping with Hammerdin is rather hard on console/controller so use running to reposition your character and get most of your hammers.
There is also D2R version to consider. Loading game on ps4 is considerably longer than on ps5 so on ps4 it is preferable to make longer runs (for example <Chaos Sanctuary + killing Diablo> was quite long for me) and minimize loading penalty. I installed Playstation 4 version of D2R on my ps5, on external ssd drive. It took about 20-25 second to quit to menu and load game. If you have D2R installed on hdd it can take a little longer than that. Loading time on ps5 version were very short. During Chaos runs one must be careful when dealing with Lord de Seis minions and Infector of Souls pack.
Although <Catacombs lvl2 without killing Andariel> was the best I've done most of my runs on <Catacombs lvl2 + killing Andariel> because I wanted to gear my characters. And the gear dropped (mostly by Andariel) was quite good. On those two characters combined I got 2 Griffons, 3 Shakos, 4 Arachnid Meshes, 5 Stone of Jordans (which also enabled Uber Diablo farming for +10% xp Anni charm), 4 Maras Amulets. I got many sunder charms and some skillers too. Your mileage may vary due to RNG gods but it should be possible to get nice gear during levelling to 99.
You may have to reset map few times to get nice layout (change difficulty to other, enter game, quit game, change difficulty to Hell, enter game, new map should be generated). After couple of runs you may notice that there are boss and champion pack which have fixed spawn points between runs on Catacaombs lvl 2 and lvl 3. Example of one such run:
There were couple of times when my characters almost died in Catacombs due to usual suspects: Fanaticism and/or Might Aura on boss packs so be aware of those.
Backups
There were couple of times when I lost progress due to character dying or strange menu glitch. Sometimes when I quitted game to backup save games to cloud I noticed that my progress wasn't saved. I think it might be related to dupe method which uses that glitch. Shared stash is saved but character inventory and progress is rolled back. Encountering that glitch during levelling is annoying.
I advise to backup progress once in an hour (and also reset system clock to get desired terror zone). On ps4 version of the games it is possible to transfer saved games to cloud (if you got ps+) or to usb drive. On ps5 it is possible only to transfer saved games to cloud (if you got ps+). There is an option of backing whole ps5 to another ps5 console but it takes time and you have to own 2 consoles.
Character list glitch
Character list sorting/order is also tied to clock/time (last characters used are on the top of the list). When you change clock time to set terror zone you may notice that you can't choose character and instead other character is chosen. It happens when you enter game with other characters (for example you move items to mule characters) and then turn back time. To avoid this glitch don't change characters during levelling.
If you want to fix this situation temporarily:
1. Close the game app.
2. Set current time in console settings
3. Launch D2R.
4. Choose your desired character on the list but do not enter the game yet. Your character model should now be displayed on center of the screen.
5. Go to dash without closing game and set date and time to set terroz zone.
6. Go back in game and enter game with your character.
You will have to repeat those every time you launch game (eg when you backup saved games). Alternatively you can find new time and date after you switched characters which sets chosen terror zone. I wouldn't set future dates to avoid further complicating character list. Thanks
I'd like to thank you all for helpful info in this topic.
