Lack of powerleveling hurts (kills) online population

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bapcja
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Hear me out. I've played diablo 2 for almost 20 years now (sometimes with 1-2 year break obviously) and leveled dozens of characters in 85-93 range over the years.

I got pretty burned out on playing UHM (lvl 135) around week into season and would love to make another main. Sigma leveling system is slow and forces you to change zones constantly. I tried leveling 2 alts and only lasted till mid 50's on both, before i couldnt stomach it.

Obviously everyone can see, that with each sigma release its harder to level, with +%exp on items being nerfed and killing the last powerleveling methods available (known to me) like hell a5 elite portals.

I feel like that the slow leveling hurts the online population a lot, because once a person burns out and/or stops enjoying how its main plays he/she simply wont want to level another character (and quit the season) - with how tedious the sigma leveling has become (1-100 and 120-125 seems both most important to character development and also most tedious to grind through).

To anyone reading this, especially if you dont post alot on the forums, please, give your opinion.

If anyone could brainstorm an efficent 1-100 leveling guide for the current patch (zones with best exp/monster density for each level range) it would also be amazing, cause honestly, with the direction the devs have taken so far i dont think they will do a sudden 180 on leveling (man can dream though)

thanks for reading
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Crash
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bapcja
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Crash wrote:https://forum.median-xl.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=26223

viewtopic.php?f=40&t=34407


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sorry but i dont really consider "Quest Progression" aka run all acts from 20 to 100 a power leveling guide and i think most people wont either
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lazyknob
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Did I remember something about a level 100 toon from the TG shop or did I dream that up after too many hours farming in Teganze.
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bapcja
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lazyknob wrote:Did I remember something about a level 100 toon from the TG shop or did I dream that up after too many hours farming in Teganze.


you just made me check on it. unfortunately this is not the case as i would propably buy two immediatly
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ChuckNoRis
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regarding the level 1-100 (105 i may say) , then the act 5 red portals and dungeons (such as icy cellar for example) on normal and nightmare give a shitload of xp , so in case you want to rush trough the acts 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 , there is a place where you can recover the lost xp . the only bad part is that your character level can be too low compared to the area level you got to , and so you won't gain (much) xp if that happens . try not to have more than 10-13 levels difference from your character level and the area level you are in , else you will need to go back to another act and gain some more xp .

getting from level 1 to 105 (end of nightmare) takes less than 8 hours untwinked , and about half if twinked

that is quite a fun part of the game imo , which most of it can be cleared with shitty gear .

between 105 and 127 it's the "cool" part of the game where you see most of the extra content and there you grind for most of the charms and better gear

once you go past 127 the "fun" and "cool" is usualy replaced by "boring"/"annoying" reruns of the same areas just to gain more xp and ultimate gear and once you got past 130-135 it's just "frustrating" and usualy makes me wanna stop and play another character once i got all charms . i haven't found any good reason yet to farm for xp beyond 135-ish . the time you waste from 135 to 140 is almost the same as leveling another new one from 1 to 135 . i prefer diversity , so i like to play as many characters per patch as i can .

if you have a job and can only afford a few hours/day of gaming and maby something extra in the weekend , you can get a character to 135-ish in about a week .
Edited by ChuckNoRis 4 years.
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Crash
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Most leveling nowadays is running the acts.

Places like act 2 sewers are good powering, act 3 kurast city areas have a lot of mobs/elite packs, including durance levels (plus meph farming anyways if you choose to do that)

Almost all of act 4 running areas deal decent xp

Nihlathak runs.

There aren't really "powerleveling" options because it mostly depends on where you're at in relation of character level to area level. The uberlevel powerleveling can work if someone runs you through, but you need to be minimum level to enter areas. Island of Sunless sea takes maybe 1.5 runs in a small group with a high level running it for you, cows is easy and safe, k3k is decent drops, big area, good xp. etc.

Playing the game normally will put you right at 103-105 by the time you hit Butcher on Hell to start your charms. Getting to 105 is really easy because normal/nightmare aren't overly challenging. Better gear/pierce only becomes more necessary in hell transition, so once you get to that point, someone can easily run you through uberleveling
tempmail
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The leveling is actually the reason why I quit playing online entirely. I quit playing the time they made it impossible to gain exp with tcows. Now I play single player exclusively with "230% to experienced gain" jewels and I would recommend you do the same.
Also I would recommend to NEVER EVER use the median xl launcher because the launcher forces you to update the game and that's very bad when the devs come up with a dumb pointless nerf ( like the assassin hotfix ). Read this thread viewtopic.php?t=22755
it will tell you how to play without the launcher.
Istaryu
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I dont understand why ppl cry about leveling to 100/105, when its made super fast, compared to pre-sigma versions.
Manu300000
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Am i the only one who is annoyed by playing through norm / nightmare / hell with every char, every time? I mean, i play this game and median since they are released. Played probably around 500 chars or even more :bounce: