How to reach level 99 in 400 hours (250 hours once /playerX is added)

[scharn73]

On 1/17/2023 at 4:02 AM, kowalski_turkey said:

Fist of Heaven was faster on /players 8 Chaos Sanctuary than Hammer? From what I read online FoH starts to get weak above p3. On the other hand I really like that it's not required to aim it (on consoles anyway) and it's safer than Hammer (damn you De Seis!).

A few months back they improved FoH in a patch, so yes, with that patch FoH (in my opinion) puts Hammer to shame.  It is not even comparable (all the way up to p8).
 

I tried a Hammer paladin and I loathed it.  Having to constantly line the hammer spiral pattern up with enemies, especially in tight corridors, was loathsome.
 

FoH against undead & demons is just mass destruction, in an AoE spray that hits everything, and you can just spam it.  I did have FoH & Holy Bolt up to 49 by the time I was done, but I was at 45 most of the play time.

[yoszek]

On 5.02.2023 at 11:17 PM, scharn73 said:

A few months back they improved FoH in a patch, so yes, with that patch FoH (in my opinion) puts Hammer to shame.  It is not even comparable (all the way up to p8).
 

I tried a Hammer paladin and I loathed it.  Having to constantly line the hammer spiral pattern up with enemies, especially in tight corridors, was loathsome.
 

FoH against undead & demons is just mass destruction, in an AoE spray that hits everything, and you can just spam it.  I did have FoH & Holy Bolt up to 49 by the time I was done, but I was at 45 most of the play time.

Hey man,did you farmed gear for your FoH pally on other character or just went full game with him?

 

Sorc for gearing up maybe? Like usually ppl do. Any recommended path for gearing up to FoH?

[kowalski_turkey]

So terror zones are coming to singleplayer in a week or so:
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo2/23899624/diablo-ii-resurrected-ladder-season-three-coming-soon

[TheGrindMaster]

On 2023-02-08 at 2:27 PM, kowalski_turkey said:

So terror zones are coming to singleplayer in a week or so:
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo2/23899624/diablo-ii-resurrected-ladder-season-three-coming-soon

This should be interesting. Will make the lvl99 grind way faster now

[jpd_nascimento]

On 10/02/2023 at 7:47 PM, TheGrindMaster said:

This should be interesting. Will make the lvl99 grind way faster now

 

How much faster?

[kowalski_turkey]

11 hours ago, jpd_nascimento said:

 

How much faster?

I would guess 2x-3x faster. Popular youtuber made it last season under 100h in online mode (p8). But he was fed experience shrines.

Time to make it solo will heavily depend on ability to somehow choose terror zones we want to play. Online terror zones are chosen server side. I wonder how it will be implemented in offline/singleplayer. If offline terror zones rotation will be system clock related then it should be possible to play great terror zones just by setting console clock to specified date/hour.

Best terror zones xp-wise are Tal Rashas Tombs, Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Chambers+Baal Throne. I'd like to point out that (contrary to popular belief) terrorized cows are really bad xp-wise. Cows are spongy and give little xp.

Edited February 12, 2023 by kowalski_turkey

[jpd_nascimento]

2 hours ago, kowalski_turkey said:

I would guess 2x-3x faster. Popular youtuber made it last season under 100h in online mode (p8). But he was fed experience shrines.

Time to make it solo will heavily depend on ability to somehow choose terror zones we want to play. Online terror zones are chosen server side. I wonder how it will be implemented in offline/singleplayer. If offline terror zones rotation will be system clock related then it should be possible to play great terror zones just by setting console clock to specified date/hour.

Best terror zones xp-wise are Tal Rashas Tombs, Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Chambers+Baal Throne. I'd like to point out that (contrary to popular belief) terrorized cows are really bad xp-wise. Cows are spongy and give little xp.

Nice, I'm lv90 with a hammerdin in offline mode, I'll wait for the update and test the terror zones.

[NathanielJohn]

Anyone have any advice on Paladin builds that are good for terror zones? I have a level 94 HC paladin that I've spec'ed as a smiter (since I used it to farm DClone). I've used a hammerdin before too, but was always kinda "meh" on it.

[kowalski_turkey]

On 13/02/2023 at 2:12 AM, NathanielJohn said:

Anyone have any advice on Paladin builds that are good for terror zones? I have a level 94 HC paladin that I've spec'ed as a smiter (since I used it to farm DClone). I've used a hammerdin before too, but was always kinda "meh" on it.

Didn't checked myself but from what I've read and watched: FoHdin is suitable for players3-players5 setting (also animal type enemies are troublesome for him). Hammerdin is player8 viable although it is kinda hard to telestomp enemies with controller. FoHdin plays better with controller and it is safer build, just shoot from afar.

 

New D2R patch just went live on psn. Just checked on ps5 and offline terrorzones rotation is related to system clock/date and time (Setting->System->Date and time). So by setting date and time manually on console it is possible to change terrozones. Meaning it is possible to play Chaos Sanctuary with Hammerdin 24/7 (with small break once an hour to change system clock).

 

I didn't play long enough but sunder charms should also drop offline. Unique monsters and champions in terrorized zones on Hell difficulty should drop sunder charms now. To unlock Hell terror zones you have to beat Hell Baal (once per offline character I think).

Edited February 16, 2023 by kowalski_turkey

[Property_Damage]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:12 PM, NathanielJohn said:

Anyone have any advice on Paladin builds that are good for terror zones? I have a level 94 HC paladin that I've spec'ed as a smiter (since I used it to farm DClone). I've used a hammerdin before too, but was always kinda "meh" on it.

Hammerdin all the way

and when you get a magic immune sunder charm you can farm the entire game, including baals throne rooms with the infamous wave 2 magic immunes that would normally prevent hammerdins from progressing

 

serious edit: all previous guides and roadmaps are obsolete now that offline terror zones are here

Edited February 15, 2023 by Property_Damage

[Property_Damage]

My hammerdins setup

shako socketed with ber for added damage reduction

maras kaleidoscope amulet 29 all resistances

mage plate enigma

heart of the oak flail 40 all resistances

35%fcr spirit sacred targe +30 all resistances base

magefist

soj

arachnid mesh spiderweb sash

10%fcr all res rare ring

hotspur boots

6bo cta on switch

Duped scared targe spirit on switch

17-16 pally torch

20-20-10 anni

3x +6 dexterity pally combat gc’s

4x +16 life pally combat gc’s

6x +23 defense / +20life sc’s

Recks players 8, has max block, max fcr breakpoint, 14k-15k hammers damage after buffs

95%fire res

75%cold res

79% light res (will be 80% at lvl98)

75% poison res

max your hammers and synergies, 1 point into holy shield, 1 into redemption and the rest into resist fire and resist lightning

 

[Property_Damage]

1 hour ago, kowalski_turkey said:

 

New D2R patch just went live on psn. Just checked on ps5 and offline terrorzones rotation is related to system clock/date and time (Setting->System->Date and time). So by setting date and time manually on console it is possible to change terrozones. Meaning it is possible to play Chaos Sanctuary with Hammerdin 24/7 (with small break once an hour to change system clock).

This is 100% accurate

changing the date and time manually changes the terror zones

for instance, i found the chaos sanctuary terrorized for tomorrow february 16th at 1am

guess ill be rinsing and repeating this for a while

Edit: 1x players 8 terrorized chaos game at lvl 97 with 10% bonus xp anni gave me roughly 1.656 million xp VS the roughly 100k non terrorized xp i would have received, whats that like a 16times increase?

Edited February 15, 2023 by Property_Damage

[Vextens]

1 hour ago, Property_Damage said:

Hammerdin all the way

and when you get a magic immune sunder charm you can farm the entire game, including baals throne rooms with the infamous wave 2 magic immunes that would normally prevent hammerdins from progressing

 

serious edit: all previous guides and roadmaps are obsolete now that offline terror zones are here

 

If I recall correctly, using a magic sunder charm with a hammerdin isn't even really worth it. I believe there's only one item in the game that reduces enemy magic resistance and it isn't something you'd be likely to use on a build so you'd be taking a massive hit to your magic res just to reduce magic immunes to 95% resistance. Unless you need to clear Baal wave 2 it's probably still preferable for a hammerdin to just skip magic immune monsters. 

 

EDIT: I'm in no way saying a hammerdin isn't worth using. They're still a top tier class. Only saying that the magic sunder charm doesn't really benefit them. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Vextens

[Property_Damage]

31 minutes ago, Vextens said:

 

If I recall correctly, using a magic sunder charm with a hammerdin isn't even really worth it. I believe there's only one item in the game that reduces enemy magic resistance and it isn't something you'd be likely to use on a build so you'd be taking a massive hit to your magic res just to reduce magic immunes to 95% resistance. Unless you need to clear Baal wave 2 it's probably still preferable for a hammerdin to just skip magic immune monsters. 

 

EDIT: I'm in no way saying a hammerdin isn't worth using. They're still a top tier class. Only saying that the magic sunder charm doesn't really benefit them. 

Magic immunes are few and far between, theres magic immune enemies in the ruined temple in act3 and magic immunes in baals throne room (wave 2)

Now for Magic resistance, this is kinda funny because there is no display indicator for it in your advanced settings, i cant think of any item that give + to magic resistance, i can think of spirit runeword but that give to magic absorb which isnt actually a resistance per say, only few enemies actually do magic damage, enemies that do bone spear and bone spirit for instance

im not saying go for a magic sunder charm, because you dont need it, unless you plan on solo farming terrorized throne room / throne chamber games

Edited February 15, 2023 by Property_Damage

[VencaHardy]

Maaan, they f***ed it up completely, terror zones offline are new game available only.. 

Edited February 16, 2023 by VencaHardy

[kowalski_turkey]

47 minutes ago, VencaHardy said:

Maaan, they f***ed it up completely, terror zones offline are new game available only.. 

I don't understand what you mean. Could you clarify please?

[VencaHardy]

Sorry for mislead

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by VencaHardy

[prosandude69]

9 minutes ago, VencaHardy said:

You cant activate terror zones with your existing char, you must start a new game with lvl 1 char.. Stupid bulls**t..

 

 

 

Have you killed baal?

[VencaHardy]

Yeah im stuupid i havent killed baal on hell thats why sorry guys

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by VencaHardy

[kowalski_turkey]

1 hour ago, VencaHardy said:

Yeah im stuupid i havent killed baal on hell thats why sorry guys

Funny enough that's how terrorized zones worked at the beginning. They were available as soon as character started each difficulty. It was possible to beat Nightmare and then do some Hell terrorized zones to get sunder charms which would make Hell playthrough a little bit easier.

But popular youtubers said that terrorized zones should be locked behind Baal and here we are (youtubers have a lot of sway on Blizzard nowadays).

 

I did some additional testing and it is possible to change date&time/terrorized zone even when character is in active game. It is not necessary to leave game or close game app.

[VencaHardy]

Nice, thx for info. ?

[kowalski_turkey]

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.

Edited March 20, 2023 by kowalski_turkey

[NathanielJohn]

7 hours ago, kowalski_turkey said:

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.

Another fix (for me at least, not sure if it works for everyone) is to just repeatedly "Change Character" and select the top character from the list every time (each time it will choose a different character than you expect it to). After going through the entire list of your characters, they'll be properly sorted and you'll be able to actually choose the one you want.

Edited March 20, 2023 by NathanielJohn

[Sunny]

8 hours ago, kowalski_turkey said:

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 anopption 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.

One question, if I run the terror zones normally (without the clock thing) is still faster than before? Thanks a bunch, gonna return to this game soon now that this method exists.

[kowalski_turkey]

15 hours ago, Sunnyburrito said:

One question, if I run the terror zones normally (without the clock thing) is still faster than before? Thanks a bunch, gonna return to this game soon now that this method exists.

I'd guess that it still will be significantly faster. You'll have to search for monsters to kill in some lower populated zones (and it can be tiring on longer play sessions).

Didn't check myself but read online that players 1 terror zone is better (xp wise) than players 8 non-terrorized Baal minions + Baal.