News Tag: Diablo 4 Leveling Guide

Diablo 4 Season 11 made changes to many fundamental mechanics, such as equipment drops, skills, and monster AI. These changes have increased the difficulty of leveling in the early game.

So, did leveling speed slow down in Season 11? Actually, no. According to player testing, leveling speed in Season 11 was not only not slower, but even faster, provided you knew which enemies and events to focus on.

Diablo 4 Season 11 Changes

Season Rank And Reputation

First, the new Season Rank system completely replaces the old reputation system. Players no longer need to grind reputation by region. Characters will gain skill points at Season Ranks 1, 2, and 3, and Paragon Points at Season Ranks 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Lilith Shrines no longer grant permanent stat bonuses. Instead, they drop XP,  gold, Murmuring Obols, and gem shards, making them less essential.

Capstone Dungeons

Capstone Dungeons are no longer optional; they must be challenged to increase your World Tiers. You must complete them in order and at the specified levels and difficulties to access higher difficulties:

• Torrid Menagerie (Level 30): Hard
• Hellish Descent (Level 50): Penitent
• Unseen Awakening: (Level 60, Pit 15): Torment 1
• Tempest Oasis (Level 60, Pit 30): Torment 2
• Sins of the Many (Level 60, Pit 35): Torment 3

Item System

Rare Diablo 4 items drop less frequently before level 30, and unique items before level 40. Originally, the level cap was 25, forcing players to use magic and rare items early on. For new players, the lack of powerful equipment in the early game slows down leveling and makes dungeon runs riskier.

However, the corresponding Tempering system is completely free from level 1. Players can freely choose and apply desired tempering effects at the blacksmith, without randomness or the need for reforging. If used effectively, it can slightly increase early-game leveling speed.

How To Level Up Fast?

Helltides And Duriel

In Season 11's Helltides, Blood Maiden was removed from it and replaced by Duriel. When Helltides progress bar is full, Hellborns no longer appear; instead, illusions of Duriel appear. Defeating them drops Baneful. Hearts, when collected in sufficient quantities, can summon the true Duriel.

An XP bug appeared in Helltides on the PTR. Due to various events (which spawn large swarms of maggots), and Heavenly Sigil obtained after killing Duriel, which can be interacted with by finding an angel in town, equipping a Divine Gift in Corruption Slot will cause the killed maggots to drop pure experience orbs.

A 30-second fire circle event can level you from level 55 to 59, and by chaining these events, it's theoretically possible to level from 1 to 60 in 2 hours. This bug may be fixed in the live server, but even if it is, it remains the fastest way to level up in the early game under normal circumstances.

Infernal Hordes

Infernal Hordes have also received a significant buff, basically granting 120 million XP per participation, with high-health monsters like Aether Lords providing particularly high amounts of experience.

World Bosses And Wilderness Bosses

Based on PTR 2.5.0 patch that the official update has increased the XP players gain from various events in Overworld, especially from boss battles. This makes defeating bosses the most efficient way to level up in the mid-to-late game of Season 11.

Azmodan, The Lord Of Sin

Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, is a new world boss in Season 11. Each kill grants approximately 70 million XP. In addition to experience, it drops a large amount of loot, including Runes, Essence of Sin, and Essence of Hellfire.

Even The Pit 150, which is theoretically impossible to complete at the moment, only provides 15 million XP per run. Defeating Azmodan is equivalent to completing nearly five Pit 150 runs.

It is the simplest, but not the most efficient, leveling goal, as players can easily defeat it in a group, and some can even participate semi-AFK. Furthermore, no specific materials are required to challenge it, and the treasure chest items are immediately available after the kill. Other world bosses provide significantly more XP. Both are relatively good farming targets.

Lair Bosses

Lair Bosses like Duriel and Andariel provide 25 to 30 million XP. Challenging lair bosses doesn't require materials; they're only needed when opening treasure chests. This means that if you just want to level up, you can summon them immediately after defeating them.

Of all Lair bosses, Urivar is the fastest and most efficient for XP gain because it's extremely fast to kill. If your build is good enough, you can basically kill it in 20 seconds. Farming Urivar can yield approximately 4.5 billion XP per hour.

Defeating Lilith grants a whopping 73 million XP, currently the highest known source of experience per kill. However, she doesn't drop loot and is quite difficult, making it less efficient.

Leveling Tips

Players can gather at boss spawn points, taking turns or fighting bosses together. Experience is shared, and there's an XP bonus for team play. For bosses like Lilith and Urivar, located in dungeons, you can quickly reset the boss and skip the waiting time by using the “escape dungeon hotkey” or leaving the game and creating a new one after defeating it.

This is the fastest way to level up in Season 11. If you can efficiently utilize boss farming for leveling, you can reach paragon level 300 in about 12-13 hours, although this might shorten your game lifespan. However, this method of gaining XP is too fast obviously and may be nerfed.

Diablo 4 Season 10 is a very interesting season, with several powerful builds for almost every class. So, how can you reach the endgame as quickly as possible?

If you're a beginner, completing the campaign on Normal difficulty will take about 25 hours, putting you at around level 50-60. By the time you reach level 100, you'll have taken about 60 hours playing. An experienced player can cut this time down to under 20 hours.

Difficulty Selection

The first step in the game is naturally to create a character, skip the story, equip a pet, and let it automatically pick up Diablo 4 gold and materials. Then, select the difficulty. The game's difficulty can be adjusted freely. The first four difficulties are unlocked after completing the prologue:

• Normal
• Hard (75% more Experience and Gold)
• Expert (125% more Experience and Gold)
• Penitent (175% more Experience and Gold)

For other seasons, it's generally recommended to start on Normal difficulty and then level up, starting at around level 15 before moving up to Hard. However, due to the comprehensive character enhancements in season 10, you can try starting directly on Hard difficulty and experimenting with Expert difficulty as early as possible.

The key to determining whether the current difficulty is right for you is whether you can instantly kill monsters. If not, switch to a lower difficulty for efficiency.

Leveling 1-15

You first need to complete Raising Spirits side quest in Kyovashad and obtain a Herb Cache. This allows you to craft either Elixir of Advantage or Elixir of Precision immediately after level 10, increasing your XP gain by 5%.

Elixirs and incense in the game both increase XP gain. If you have enough materials, it's best to use these consumables continuously while leveling up:

Stat-boosting Incenses:

• Ancient Times
• Blessed Guide
• Sage's Whisper
• Spiral Morning
• Queen's Supreme

Defense-boosting Incenses:

• Reddamine Buzz
• Song of the Mountain
• Desert Escape
• Storm of the Wilds
• Soothing Spices

Then you'll need to begin the seasonal story questline, which unlocks Season 10's Chaos Perks and is the most important way to unlock season 10 mechanics and powers.

Season 10 quest will lead you to your first Helltide. In Helltide, prioritize completing Tree of Whisper quest over focusing on collecting Aberrant Cinders.

Also, keep an eye out for Fleeting Hordes Compass (available only in Penitent Difficulty and below), which unlocks a small Infernal Hordes with only four waves of enemies and provides a significant amount of XP.

Prioritize completing this when you encounter Chaos Rift. Although the higher HP of monsters in this season's event makes farming less efficient, it provides important seasonal materials and reputation.

Leveling 15-60 (Complete Campaign)

During this stage, you'll need to utilize Helltide (55 minutes) to level. You'll also need to accumulate Aberrant Cinders to open chests for significant XP.

During the intermittent rest periods (five minutes), you'll need to check your inventory for better equipment, swap them out, and salvage any unused gear for materials.

Level 30: Dungeons

Around level 30, you can farm Normal difficulty dungeons to obtain Codex of Power and Aspects. Then, visit The Occultist and use some materials and Diablo 4 gold to have him imprint Legendary Aspects you need onto necklaces, rings, gloves, and defensive gear. Note that only weapons, due to their frequent changes, are not suitable for imprinting.

You should adjust the difficulty based on your monster farming efficiency to maintain a high level of instant kills for maximum experience efficiency. Don't forget to progress through the seasonal questline to earn more powerful Chaos Powers.

Level 45: Strongholds

Around level 45, you can clear Strongholds. It's recommended to clear all Strongholds on Normal difficulty, as they clear much faster on lower difficulties, while still earning the same experience as higher difficulties. Clearing all Strongholds will bring you to level 60.

Leveling 60 And the Endgame Transition

After reaching level 60, the game enters the endgame preparation phase. Your goal during this phase is to complete level 10 of The Pit to unlock Torment I difficulty and gradually transition from a leveling build to an endgame build. To accomplish this, you need to upgrade your gear.

You'll need Legendary Aspects, materials, Diablo 4 gold, and runes. You can obtain these resources by running through Nightmare dungeons several times, which will also begin to drop and upgrade glyphs.

• Tempering: Prioritize fixed defense and damage attributes.
• Imprinting: Add core power to key gear.
• Runes: Socket runes on two-socket gear (more important than gems).
• Enchantment: Adjust the attributes of key gear.

Endgame

After unlocking Torment, your main focus shifts from leveling to upgrading gear. The following are your primary ways of getting gear:

• Lair Bosses: It is free to challenge them, but the reward chests require the corresponding materials, and you can choose to challenge it in a group for increased efficiency.
• New boss Bartuc: Summoned in Infernal Hordes (requires 666 Burning Aether). Killing Bartuc for the first time on Torment I or higher unlocks Chaos Armor. He's the primary source of Chaos Armor, making him your priority.

You can obtain your first set of unique Ancestral Unique weapons from Gamblers and Lair bosses, then gradually build up to a full set of Ancestral gear and the required unique gear.

After that, you'll need to cycle through Nightmare Dungeons (for glyphs), The Pit (for glyph upgrades), Helltide (for gear and Chaos Rifts), and Infernal Hordes (for Bartuc). You'll then unlock higher difficulties.

This is a rough guide to leveling. If you're familiar with this process, reaching level 60 will take about four hours, while new players can expect it in less than 10 hours.