@Southpaw8668 - Welcome to the fold! As for your question, it will of course depend on the build that you're running with. For higher clvls I'm assuming you mean 90+?
Generally (in my experience, anyways):
90-94/95 - Pits or AT depending on build. Great experience, the monsters aren't too tough (watch out for archers in the Pits though!)
From there on it starts to diverge a bit. If you can handle the CS at a decent speed then XP becomes significantly faster there. Gripphon has
shown what the (as far as I can find out anyways) most efficient way to level to 98 is for several builds.
If you can't run CS at that point either due to gear restrictions, or build restrictions, then you have several ways of going about it (until 98 anyways).
- Stay in the Pits/AT (still a great option, just slower)
- Start Baaling (or just the waves, see below)
- Other A85 runs if you want, although you won't be able to match the efficiency I don't think.
If you are going to be Baaling, it diverges even more from there depending on the build. Basically it comes down to whether or not adding Lister or Baal into the mix is worth it. Usually it's not at the "lower" levels. Typically it will go like this:
- until 96/97: Ventar or Lister runs (depending on the char/firepower)
- Add Baal in until 98
For you specifically, notice
2 posts down from that one, Gripp details optimal Baaling (well, his waves anyways) strats for a Windy.
Once you hit 98, you essentially have 3 options (again, depending on gear/build). I stated it briefly in my post last page, but I'll go into a bit more detail here. The options from here on out are (ranked in terms of general efficiency):
1. Nihlathak runs (~23k XP/run)
2. Diablo runs (51k XP/run)
3. Baal runs (83k XP/run )
Those numbers do not take into account XP shrines, which you can (and should) hunt for for either Nilly or Diablo runs, so they'll be even faster. Diablo is the easiest target to carry a shrine with, as witches can still curse your shrine away on Nilly runs.
Taking in to consideration the time it takes to run these targets, Baal is by far the least efficient of the 3. Of course not all builds can run CS/Nilly (and not all players want to). Another bonus to Diablo/Nilly paths are that you can save your Ancients quest until 98, making the most out of that free XP. I guess it's worth it to note though that with some builds that may not necessarily offset the time you save by Baaling from ~94-98 (vs running, say, the Pits until 98), although I haven't seen any hard data on that so it's just conjecture.
Of course this all depends on your run times, and speed vs safety and everything, but it's a good template to go off of. Also, I am by no means an expert on this stuff, so if someone wants to come by and prove me wrong, they certainly can!
