How do You Level?

[jamesixgun]

I've been wondering about this for several days, and sparked by BaronScarpia's post in Smancer's info thread, I thought I'd go ahead and ask...

How do you level?

Personally, I've always made a strong attempt to do full clears of every level, every dungeon, with every character. I think the Den of Evil quest sortof plants this seed in the player's mind (or is meant to), and I just kept it going.

But I've long been aware that there are other ways to play, and I wonder how crazy I am for always clearing everything. (I started skipping the Hole only very recently—like 2008 or so—and I still feel a bit guilty when I pass it by... After all, the monsters in there could come out and ravage the Rogue Encampment or retake the Monastery or something...* And I still full clear all of the false tombs: you never know when another chipped gem or cracked dagger is going to fall out of one of those pots...)


Also, since this game is rather old and many of us have been playing for 10+ years, I expect many of you have all the twinking gear anyone could ever desire, so let's put this in two parts:

1. How do you level new, non-tourney characters?
2. Is this similar or different than how you level restart characters?

Also:

do you pop all the chests/crates/hollow logs/jugs/pots/etc. (I pop 90+% of everything, still)?

And what are the various circumstances, if any, that cause you to change your style?


Thanks! :wave:

And yes, I am still a n00b, even after all this time, and have neither the godly skills nor the massive stashes that would necessitate skipping more parts more often, though I may start moving a bit more towards running past some dull stuff to get to some more exciting stuff at some point.
*yes, I know the monsters respawn after every s&e, but still...

 

[Kitteh1]

Restart/tournament characters I clear everything pretty much. With twinked characters, I just play through the quests and then Pindle/Pit depending on the character.

 

[Maltatai]

I usually clear almost every area in normal at /players8 apart from bosses, and run through nightmare at /players1 to get to magic finding runs as fast as possible. I have one or two characters that have been given some items (some crafted normal themed items); all the rest are untwinked so I can't say much about twinking gear anyone could desire :whistling:

Occasionally I increase the player setting in nightmare if I find a particularly easy area, which I guess means a change of style.

I am very careful not to miss any crates except when going back to look for specific items such as runes.

 

[mr teach]

Well i cant say for twinked stuff since i just recently restarted and so far i am not really twinkable
but I just clear every area (including false Tombs - they are just so much fun)
and i try to stay on /p8 as long as i can (right now my necro is doing pits at /p3 for the items and the exp

 

[One nOOb to rule them all]

For me it depends how fun the character I am using is to play. I tend to drag things out by clearing everything if I am enjoying myself. If I am really enjoying myself I will hit all the caves and and other side dungeons except the ones in act 3 usually. I rarely do anything there. Otherwise I just do the main quest areas to make progress when I am finding the character less fun or interesting.

 

[spearv]

Bog standard characters I tend to just play through the game at high speed on the highest player setting that continues to feel fast. I twink the entire process but I attempt to go with tried and tested combinations so I don't spend more time in Atma than in game.

I try to avoid popping every piece of scenery and I attempt to only pick up items that're valuable. I avoid all side areas that aren't necessary and I'm prepared to skip many way points (there are a few specific WPs that I insist on collecting in case I die a horrible death or in case I blue screen). I skip quests that don't have meaningful rewards unless I happen to complete them. I guess one exception is the Countess tower, sometimes I'll go out of my way to do that because the XP is just so good. I rarely kill normal Blood Raven unless I feel my character will slap her around easily and I pass by the entrance to the area, on p8 the rogue unlocks relatively quickly just by levelling up.

An occasional, slight, deviation I will make is that sometimes I'll start a character fresh and go get to level 3, say, without any twinking or anything just for the thrill of hitting things! This has the advantage that when I start "for real" in a fresh game, I'm a little closer to being able to equip set items / unlocking a rogue the lazy way.

 

[RobbyD]

I play my characters much like you do, jamesixgun - I micromanage their twinking to be as powerful as possible, and pretty much do full clears of all areas, keeping a P8 setting for as long as it's viable (generally well into Hell before dropping to a lower setting). Not strictly - I'm not against revisiting an area, but I don't really see the point early in the game (though I have been known to spend some quality time with Coldcrow, since even in 1.09 I'm missing a TC3). I do tend to pop chests/baskets/tombs, but I don't make a point of it until late NM when I know some cool charms or bling can pop from those.

I will sometimes do some WSK/Baal clears at the end of a difficulty for some fast levels, though.

 

[coju]

Too many actual methods to post, "I just let the program do it naturally for me."

I p8 all the way through nightmare. Feels masochistic. I do not do full clears. Hate them. I don't even come close to attempting them. I skip waypoints, quests, anything. If I want to go into that cave, I'll walk in it, kill a couple things. If it's too big, walst on out.

I tend to rush through the game, as that is the way I've always played it. Got spoiled getting on bnet the first few times. I play HC, so the only reason I'll get a wp is for running purposes, or in case I feel like I may have to s&e.

 

[Bali]

Act1 - Do every quest, no full clears...actually I never do full clears, I don't have the patience for that. Rerun countess as needed/feeling
Act2 - Every quest, maybe a false tomb or two if I'm feeling like it
Act3 - Flail quest then out to kill meph, nothin else
Act4 - Every quest
Act5 - Every quest, rerun baal as needed/feeling
Cows - As needed/feeling

This goes for normal and nightmare, haven't gone farther in single player yet Doing everything on p8 so far. The above is not my absolute truth, I'm mostly a feeling player. If I don't feel like doing something, I don't do it. I pop every chest, but that's about all the scenery I destroy. Maybe urns, because I love their sound.

 

[BaronScarpia]

I... nevermind, link on OP :wave: (Thanks for reading and mentioning J6)

Ok, for the sake of non-spamming:

- The method I described is kinda a sorc rule. I don't feel sorcs as good material for untwinked p8 full clear without respec. If I try to do that with a lightning sorc... "Gieb mana potionz". Sorcs work so well at players 1 that I just go to p4-p8 I tend to use the same method with melee chars and characters I don't like.
- I never full clear everything. Never. If I full clear something, we can call it an accident.
- When I'm following a guide that says "kill stuff and move on at /p8" I do it - like fishymancer.
- When I'm going "story mode" - like a untwinked daggermancer I have, named Scarpia, which will retire as a poisonmancer - I tend to do full clears (by accident), avoid respecs, etc. My daggermancer can only use daggers/swords. I dropped his wand and killed corpsefire with a damaged dagger.

The only char I level single-passing is fishymancer. I don't have tourney chars, so... After the rune drop chances, re-running countess on norma or NM became so useful (for runes) that most of my chars just do it 1 or 50 times :whistling:.

Bottomline is I don't really see a reason for NM. I like to move the level 70-ish char to hell, respec and struggle properly there.

 

[MYK]

How do you level new, non-tourney characters?
Untwinked, P8, full clears. Though, sometimes I'm just looking for certain super unique monsters. Though, I rarely make it out of Normal these days.

Is this similar or different than how you level restart characters?
Different. Anti-Mephisto Sorks are my go-to for this task. I haven't needed one in SP yet. Knock on wood!

 

[TazOne]

On bnet you can go from lvl1 to lvl 80 in a day, no problem. After i started to play SP I was search for a way to lvl as fast as possible and I found one monster that can really help with this quest. And his name is Pindleskin. I do it something like this:

Normal - all quest and by the time I get to Act5 and open Pindles portal I'm about ~lvl25. Then I do pl8 Pindle from lvl25 to ~lvl45. It actually goes really fast.

Nightmare - same thing but Pindle or Baal form ~lvl45 to ~lvl65

Hell - Pits,AT,Pindle,CS,Baal - depends what my char is capable off runing.


I thing as far as "fast leveling" goes, lvl25 is the biggest "problem".

 

[jiansonz]

After all, the monsters in there could come out and ravage the Rogue Encampment or retake the Monastery or something...*

Exactly! We can't have that, can we?

 

[Arkardo]

As a rule of thumb, I give my incompetent young chars Khalim's flail and complete the first two acts or so on /p8. Depending on their build, I switch earler or later to some actual gear. For example, for most melee chars you need to wait till level 24 to get some good weapons, and my current necromancer max'd Teeth early on (really weak without synergies), so they have to wait till Act 4 or so. On the other hand, most sorcs will do fine with some +mana and mana after each kill on her gear, so they might even kill Andy with actual spells.

As for leveling, /p8 through Normal Act 1-3 and /p1 for some bosses does nicely. I make a stop at Eldritch (spelling?) to level to 30 or so at /p8 again. Sometimes I run Pindle for a few levels, too, depending on the build; a lightning sorc is awesome for this, but a Hammerdin obviously sucks here. Then I Baal to ~40. I blaze through Nightmare and do NM Baal runs till 73-75, but sometimes up to 79, because I want to equip my end-game gear (or at least my build-defining gear) at the start of Hell.

 

[Smancer]

Well since I just started I might as well post. Mind you I have only just finished Act 1.

I enjoyed the quests very much. I did clear everything and find every single nook and cranny of my map. I went in every cave, crypt, hole, portal etc. I found exploring, identifying drops, and kicking open barrels to be just as fun (if not more) than the actual quests. I really liked the two crypts found right next to the Blood Raven. I thought I was going to find something there that advanced the story, but I didn't. I guess because the quest ended when I killed Blood raven, and the two crypts were right there. Regardless I liked exploring them.

I am hoping for more variety in Act 2, as most of the quests in Act 1 were go here, kill this guy. The Cain quest was probably my favorite. And the way I got the Countess quest was really cool too. The text of the book was a little odd (bathed in the blood of 100 virgins???). But I think this was written tongue in cheek. There is a bit of humor to some of the dialogue. Like when I finally killed the last boss, Gheed said "I'm going to party like its 999"... lol

But the first quest of Act 2 was to go somewhere and kill someone. I did like the Sewers (Although they were tough so many arrows). Its cool that the trap door was actually in the town. It made that zone feel like it was part of the city, especially since I discovered a second entrance on the opposite side of town. And the second quest is going to be rough, I have to collect a bunch of stuff.

I actually can't wait untill I have time to play again.

@Jamesixgun
What can you do with a cracked dagger?

 

[Kitriara]

I never do tournaments or anything, so I generally play to take a build through Hell Baal, then retire them. I don't MF very much at all, so my item wealth, even after years of playing, is minimal.

I generally just enjoy playing through the entire game. I'll do every quest for sure, though I don't always full-clear every area. Once a character beats Hell Baal, thats it, they're generally immediately retired, stripped of their gear, and eliminated.

There are only a few characters I continue to play either for casual occasional MFing, or because I have pipe dreams of one day getting them to 99 - particularly my Frost Zealot. It should take me another decade, so I think I have plenty left to do in this game! =)

 

[felixbavaria1]

Like when I finally killed the last boss, Gheed said "I'm going to party like its 999"... lol

I must've played through Act I literally a few hundred times and I've never noticed that.

And no, the quests won't get any more complex than "go to X, kill Y, retrieve Z". They are very well designed though, definitely with a good sense of black humour.

Back on topic, I clear roughly 95% of the game areas. I do all the side areas in Act III, for example, for the fast-paced combat there. For some reason, I dislike the Seven Tombs, the Arcane Sanctuary and Durance of Hate so I rarely full clear them. I usually play Normal and Nightmare at /p8 and Nightmare bosses at /p3, then switch to /p3 or /p1 for Hell. For levelling, Act V is best (Eldritch and Pindleskin). Also I re-run the countess a few times in each difficulty for the runes.

I play only untwinked these days since I do not see the purpose of playing this game any more if like 99.99% of the monster drops are meaningless anyway.

 

[Ilandalar]

For twinked characters:
- Den of Evil (p8) till level 6
- run to the Outer Cloister (p1) while grabbing the Scroll and WPs for Stony Field and Black Marsh
- Trist runs (p8) till level ~12
- Countess runs (p8) till level ~16
- run all the way (p1) to A3 Kurast Bazaar where I do Battlemaid runs (p8) all the way to level 25
- run all the way (p1) to Pindle/WSK and run those all the way to level ~48-ish
- run all the way (p1) to NM Pindle/WSK and run those till I'm at level ~70-ish
- after that it's just character specific

When I am ultra bored (rarely) and just want a character I self MP with my barb helping out with Battle Orders and waypoints.

For fresh restarts I do semi-full clears on p8 all the way yet still stop for some Trist/Countess/Pindle runs.

 

[pharphis]

Well I've never full-cleared, but have been working on my first attempt with that with a tournament char.
For me, unless i'm being rushed or something, I always do all the quests, and get most of the wps.

something like this normally,
/p8 act 1, maybe reduce for act 2
act 3 I'm not really sure what settings
act 4 is p1
act 5 is p1 other than eldritch from 25ish+ to ~40, and I throw in pindle runs as well at p8 as soon as I decide to go get him, until maybe level 50 or something?
maybe some baa, but these are generally replaced with pindle now.

p1 nm and rush through it (doing all the quests, but skipping most monsters), until I get to eldritch/pindle again, which I use to level to high 60s or low 70s with some baal if I really feel like i need it to equip something, for example.
Hell; p1 and not really sure. a lot has changed now that I'm in HC and my 2 guardians so far are a rushed char for the last MFO, and my multi-pass tournament singer, so. . . they rushed through quests and ran areas (AT and pits) so they aren't very representative.
The same is true for my 2 newest chars in hell - area clearing (or boss pack hunting) chars, but these are also MP chars.

Restarts:
Always a zealot, usually fanat (only my most recent was holy freeze, because it was my change to HC - I died to a fallen in the blood moor hell lol)
Run Coldcrow perhaps for a Gull
Maybe some andy runs
maybe some meph runs
most of the rest still applies.

 

[Anaesthesia]

Anaesthesia's patented "I hate Normal and Nightmare, get me out of here" process:

/p1. Kill what gets in your way. Pop what objects you can conveniently. Run as fast as you can to Tristram.
Tristram: /p8, 3 or 4 runs should put you up to lv 15.
Back to /p1. Run as fast as you can to the Tombs.
Tombs: /p8, clear 3-4 of them and you're 24.
Back to /p1. Run as fast as you can to the Bloody Foothills.
Run Eldritch on /p8 until lv 35, Pindle to 45. Baal until you get bored at 51ish.
Blast through Nightmare and Baal runs to late 60s.
Then play the actual game.

My current (restart) characters I'm playing slightly differently, but that's my usual MO, doing all quests that are required/have useful rewards (Countess? pff. Nihlathak? pff.) On HC the corpse-to-Conqueror ratio isn't great