TOKYO: Blizzard have perfected the Diablo III addiction cycle. It starts out like this: Play the game in a crazed manner for dozens of hours levelling, looting, and having the constant feeling of progression and achievement. It then progresses to: “my work here is done; I don’t feel like playing another class, so let’s move on to another game.” Then, this is where the magic happens, Blizzard kick off a new season with some juicy additions and changes that draw people straight back to step one. Here are some ways to hit that sweet level 70 cap in no time at all.
Find some high-level friends
This is easily the best way to reach level 70 as quickly as possible. All you need is a really patient, high levelled friend to hold your hand through these few hours.
It’s simple; you, as your level 1 (or low-level character) start a game on the hardest difficulty, Torment VI (1600% extra gold and XP is delicious). It is important that you start the game, as the creeps will then be tailored to your level.
This will allow your high levelled, super DPS friend to dispatch enemies in stupidly short amounts of time. You will be dinging so often that you probably won’t be able to keep up with all your new skills, runes, and passives.
As you start hitting higher levels, you may want to lower the difficulty accordingly. If an elite pack suddenly feels like it is taking too long to die, a lower level is probably required. Too many people get caught up in slogging through harder difficulties thanks to the promise of more XP and better loot. They forget that killing more enemies on a lower difficulty is just as efficient, and not nearly as painful and slow.
It should take you as little as 3-4 hours (maybe even less) to hit level 70. The only real downside to this method is that your friend stands to gain nothing of importance in their time played with you.
Follow a professional guide
If you feel that the above method borders on cheating, or you just want the traditional, fresh-from-the-beginning experience, you may want to follow a legit speed guide where a dedicated gamer has done some number crunching and tested out several builds on classes that results on optimal dinging. This is one that Blizzard themselves highlighted recently.
The author of the guide, Rhykker, makes use of the Wizard class. He has put together a spreadsheet that highlights everything from what abilities to take at what level, to a lengthy checklist on whether a new weapon or piece of gear is worth equipping or not. Here’s a video where he explains everything in more detail.
According to Rhykker, with this method, you can hit level 70 within 5-6 hours. That is stupidly fast when you consider that I myself sank about 9 hours into Diablo III this weekend, playing a mix of campaign, adventure, and rifts, and my Crusader is only level 54.
Have you tried any of the above methods, or do you have some other optimal way of reaching level 70?
