Normal Act One Only?! Yes, I'm level 55!

General Discussion
1

Original Post

I have 1 of each class that have reached level 55! None have any waypoints to act 2, not even Lut Gholein. All have killed Andriel, but never selected from Warriv to go to act 2. Is this a world first? I'll take that claim! Ha ha!

Why? Having fun while proving the theoretical possible!

Could I go higher? Technically yes, I could push to 58 as a ~hardcap, but that’s a grind I’m not personally willing to do at the moment.

How is this possible? Knowing how the game deliver’s experience.

  • 1-12 Level in act 1 normally
  • 12-19 Level from Unique packs in Catacombs 1-4
  • 18-38 Cow level (open with alt, or have someone else open)
  • 38-55 Terror Zones whenever available in act 1

Back before terror zones, the grind to 99 became uber grindy at around lvl 95, since monsters lvl was generally capped at 85, in limited zones.

I wondered how high I could level in act 1 normal only. And it turns out before terror zones, you could get to lvl 38!

Since Catacombs level 3 & 4 are monster lvl 12, you could get 10 level’s above that to 22.

And cows become better exp around 18-19 than Catacombs. And as we all know, cows are fantastic exp. from 20+

Turns out, cows are monster level 28, which means we can climb 10 level’s higher to 38.

Pre terror zones, I put it to the test, and got a Bowazon to lvl 41 I believe, (the goal was to equip Vamp Gaze). I found that I was able to equip Harmony bow runeword at lvl 39, which greatly pumped up the damage, and running speed. Lycander’s Aim was at a tantalizing lvl 42, but the Harmony bow was better, so I didn’t pursue.

Alas, that character has long since been deleted due to inactivity… but the memory remains! Thankfully on d2r, they wont be deleted due to inactivity!

With the introduction of terror zones, and being capped in normal at lvl 45. That meant I could start max terror zones at 35, and be catapulted to 55!

Unique monsters in lvl 45 terror zones, are lvl 48, which means you can get to 58. But you basically skip everything but them! To me that was to much of a grind for 7 characters, when I’ve done it on a single character already.

Whenever I mention this stuff in game, it usually comes with a giggle, or someone’s jaw dropping, or people just staring quizzically at there screen I’m sure. Some are impressed, some think its nuts, but to me it was another way to play the game. And after playing it for 20+ years off and on. It made it interesting again.

How am I going to get to 55 on this class? what skills should I spec, what gear should I use?

Even though they are level 55, and can decimate everything, I can still try to find ways to make them a little better here and there too (although I think I’m not going to be as hard focused on them going into the future).

In a future post, I could talk about what skill choices I’ve done, and what gear I currently have on. Maybe the community could give ideas on how to make them better, idk.

I just wanted to put this out there, since these forums, are really the only place that I know, that would remotely care about this feat of strength.

As a last note, act 1 gives one free re-spec, some toons did that, others didn’t have to. I haven’t needed a token yet. I’m happy about that too.

Character Classes

Amazon

NormActOneOnly
Level 55 Amazon

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Harmony
Ceremonial Bow
+3 Bow Skills
Off-Hand
Arrows
Weapon-Swap
Staff of Teleportation*
Teleport
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
The Face of Horror
Monster Flee +50%
Armor
Rattlecage
Monster Flee +40%
Gloves
Rare
Chain Gloves
+1 Bow Skills
+10% IAS
Belt
Razortail
Boots
Gorefoot
Amulet
The Mahim-Oak Curio
Ring
Manald Heal
Ring
Manald Heal
Charm
Large Charm of Inertia
+5% FRW

*I didn't buy a staff of teleportation for each character,
I moved it to the next character I was leveling.
Didn't bother with acquiring one for each.
Skills
  1. Multiple Shot: Level: 14 (Base: 10)
  2. Guided Arrow: Level: 22 (Base: 18)
  3. Critical Strike: Level: 8
  4. Pierce: 9
  5. Valkyrie: Level: 4 (Base: 1)
  6. Penetrate: 1
  7. Dodge: 1
  8. Avoid: 1
  9. Evade: 1
  10. Decoy: 1
  11. Inner Sight: 1
  12. Slow Missiles: 1
  13. Magic Arrow: 5 (Base: 1)
  14. Cold Arrow: 5 (Base: 1)

Mercenary
Level 54 Fire Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Insight
Diamond Bow
Meditation Aura
Helm
Cathan's Visage
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Armor
Cathan's Mesh
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Assassin

Norm_ActOneOnly
Level 55 Assassin

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Spirit
Broad Sword
Off-Hand
Sigon's Guard
Pavise
Complete Set Bonus
(6 Items)
Magic Jewel
Req -15%
Weapon-Swap
Staff of Teleportation*
Teleport
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
Sigon's Visor
Winged Helm
Complete Set Bonus
(6 Items)
Armor
Sigon's Shelter
Embossed Plate
Complete Set Bonus
(6 Items)
Gloves
Sigon's Gage
War Gauntlets
Complete Set Bonus
(6 Items)
Belt
Sigon's Wrap
War Belt
Complete Set Bonus
(6 Items)
Boots
Sigon's Sabot
War Boots
Complete Set Bonus
(6 Items)
Amulet
Cathan's Sigil
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Ring
Cathan's Seal
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Ring
Cathan's Seal
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Charm

*I didn't buy a staff of teleportation for each character,
I moved it to the next character I was leveling.
Didn't bother with acquiring one for each.
Skills
  1. Wake of Fire: Level: 23 (Base: 20)
  2. Burst of Speed: Level: 4 (Base: 1)
  3. Fire Blast: Level: 23 (Base: 20)
  4. Wake of Inferno: Level: 16 (Base: 13)
  5. Claw Mastery: Level: 4 (Base: 1)

Mercenary
Level 54 Cold Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Insight
Long Battle Bow
Meditation Aura
Helm
Howltusk
Knockback
Monster Flee +25%
Armor
Rattlecage
Monster Flee +40%
Necromancer

NormActOne_Only
Level 55 Necromancer

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Venomous Grim Wand
+3 PnB Skills
+2 Lower Resist
Off-Hand
Trang-Oul's Wing
Partial Set Bonus
(3 Items)
Weapon-Swap
Staff of Teleportation*
Teleport
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
Tarnhelm
Armor
Trang-Oul's Scales
Partial Set Bonus
(3 Items)
Gloves
Trang-Oul's Claws
Partial Set Bonus
(3 Items)
Belt
Razortail**
+15 Dex
Boots
Waterwalk**
+15 Dex
Amulet
Venomous Amulet
+3 PnB Skills
Ring
The Stone of Jordan
Ring
The Stone of Jordan
Charm
Fungal Grand Charm
+1 PnB Skills

*I didn't buy a staff of teleportation for each character,
I moved it to the next character I was leveling.
Didn't bother with acquiring one for each.
**Was needed to equip Blackbog's Sharp while leveling.
Haven't bothered to replace.
Skills
  1. Poison Nova: Level: 32 (Base: 20)
  2. Lower Resist: Level: 7 (Item)
  3. Poison Dagger: Level: 32 (Base: 20)
  4. Poison Explosion: Level: 25 (Base: 13)
  5. Corpse Explosion: Level: 13 (Base: 1)
  6. Teeth Current Skill: Level: 13 (Base: 1)

Mercenary
Level 54 Cold Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Insight
Composite Bow
Meditation Aura
Helm
The Face of Horror
Monster Flee +50%
Armor
Rattlecage
Ethereal
Monster Flee +40%
Barbarian

NormAct-OneOnly
Level 55 Barbarian

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Bonesnap
War Club
Shael Rune
Off-Hand
Weapon-Swap
Staff of Teleportation*
Teleport
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
Immortal King's Will
Slayer Guard
Partial Set Bonus
(4 Items)
Armor
Shaftstop
Gloves
Immortal King's Forge
Partial Set Bonus
(4 Items)
Belt
Immortal King's Detail
Partial Set Bonus
(4 Items)
Boots
Immortal King's Pillar
Partial Set Bonus
(4 Items)
Amulet
Angelic Wings
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Ring
Angelic Halo
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Ring
Angelic Halo
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Charm
Large Charm of Inertia
+5% FRW

*I didn't buy a staff of teleportation for each character,
I moved it to the next character I was leveling.
Didn't bother with acquiring one for each.
Skills
  1. Mace Mastery: 20
  2. Whirlwind: Level: 3 (Base: 1)
  3. Leap Attack: Level: 3 (Base: 1)
  4. Grim Ward: 3 (Base: 1)
  5. Find Item: Level: 16 (Base: 14)
  6. Find Potion: Level: 8 (Base: 6)
  7. Battle Command: Level: 3 (Base: 1)
  8. Battle Orders: 3 (Base: 1)
  9. Shout: 3 (Base: 1)
  10. Increased Speed: 1
  11. Natural Resistance: 1
  12. Iron Skin: 1
  13. Concentrate: 3 (Base: 1)
  14. Stun: 3 (Base: 1)
  15. Bash: 3 (Base: 1)
  16. Leap: 3 (Base: 1)
  17. Howl: 3 (Base: 1)
  18. Increased Stamina: 1

Mercenary
Level 54 Fire Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Insight
Gothic Bow
Meditation Aura
Helm
Naj's Circlet
Armor
Iron Pelt
Ethereal
Paladin

NormAct_OneOnly
Level 55 Paladin

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Hexfire
+3 Fire Skills
Off-Hand
Spirit
Protector Shield
Weapon-Swap
Staff of Teleportation*
Teleport
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
Sazabi's Mental Sheath
Armor
Hustle
Mage Plate
Gloves
Magefist
+1 Fire Skills
Belt
String of Ears
Boots
Tearhaunch
+2 Vigor
Amulet
Angelic Wings
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Ring
Angelic Halo
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Ring
Angelic Halo
Partial Set Bonus
(2 Items)
Charm

*I didn't buy a staff of teleportation for each character,
I moved it to the next character I was leveling.
Didn't bother with acquiring one for each.
Skills
  1. Holy Fire: Level: 27 (Base: 20)
  2. Zeal: Level: 4 (Base: 1)
  3. Vigor: Level: 5 (Item)
  4. Resist Fire: Level: 23 (Base: 20)
  5. Salvation: Level: 15 (Base: 12)
  6. Might: Level: 4 (Base: 1)
  7. Sacrifice: Level: 4 (Base: 1)

Mercenary
Level 54 Cold Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Edge
Edge Bow
Thorns Aura
Helm
The Face of Horror
Monster Flee +50%
Armor
Rattlecage
Ethereal
Monster Flee +40%
Sorceress

NormActOne-Only
Level 55 Sorceress

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Spirit
Broad Sword
Off-Hand
Moser's Blessed Circle
+2 Perfect
Diamonds
Weapon-Swap
Leaf*
Battle Staff
+3 Blaze
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
Cow King's Horns
Complete Set Bonus
(3 Items)
Armor
Cow King's Hide
Complete Set Bonus
(3 Items)
Gloves
Magefist
Belt
String of Ears
Boots
Cow King's Hooves
Complete Set Bonus
(3 Items)
Amulet
Caster Amulet
+1 Sorceress Skills
Ring
Nagelring
Ring
Raven Frost
Charm

*Left over from when I was doing firewall/blaze
Skills
  1. Frozen Orb: Level: 24 (Base: 20)
  2. Teleport: Level: 5 (Base: 1)
  3. Cold Mastery: Level: 15 (Base: 11)
  4. Ice Bolt: Level: 22 (Base: 18)
  5. Telekinesis: Level: 5 (Base: 1)
  6. Blizzard: Level: 5 (Base: 1)
  7. Glacial Spike: Level: 5 (Base: 1)
  8. Frost Nova: Level: 5 (Base: 1)
  9. Ice Blast: Level: 5 (Base: 1)

Mercenary
Level 54 Cold Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Insight
Rune Bow
Meditation Aura
Helm
The Face of Horror
Monster Flee +50%
Armor
Stealth
Mage Plate
Druid

Norm-ActOneOnly
Level 55 Druid

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Spirit
Broad Sword
Off-Hand
Moser's Blessed Circle
+2 Perfect
Diamonds
Weapon-Swap
Staff of Teleportation*
Teleport
Off-Hand-Swap
Helm
Jalal's Mane
Armor
The Spirit Shroud
Gloves
Frostburn
Max Mana 40%
Belt
Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth
+37% Dmg goes to mana
Boots
Natalya's Soul
Amulet
Terrene Amulet
+2 Ele Skills
Ring
Nagelring
Ring
Nagelring
Charm
(x4) Large Charm of Inertia
(x4) +5% FRW

*I didn't buy a staff of teleportation for each character,
I moved it to the next character I was leveling.
Didn't bother with acquiring one for each.
Skills
  1. Hurricane: Level: 26 (Base: 20)
  2. Tornado: Level: 19 (Base: 13)
  3. Cyclone Armor: Level: 26 (Base: 20)
  4. Twister: Level: 7 (Base: 1)
  5. Arctic Blast: Level: 7 (Base: 1)

Mercenary
Level 54 Fire Rogue

Slot
Item
Notable Stats
Weapon
Insight
Razor Bow
Meditation Aura
Helm
The Face of Horror
Monster Flee +50%
Armor
Rattlecage
Monster Flee +40%
6 Likes
2

It sounds pretty boring since normal doesn’t have any difficulty or challenges, especially act1. Also you are cheating as you bring other characters for TZ enablement/cows.

But congratz to reaching your goal

2 Likes
3

i’ve read about all sorts of wastes of time on here, this one takes the cake. you are the biggest waste of time.

9 Likes
4

There’s nothing wrong sharing what someone is doing in the game for entertainment. If the OP is having fun, that’s what matters. Way to go, Habits/BadHabits for scoring another point for being one of the biggest trolls on the forum.

7 Likes
5

This brings to mind the South Park WoW episode. The gang grinding low level boars for XP.

The closest I’ve done, is grind a few early Pgems offline, if I got a good map for it. :grin:

3 Likes
6

There is a problem… You mention that all classes has reached level 55 by only playing act 1 in normal, congratz on that, wow amazing skills but how do you do these so called “Terror Zones In Act 1”, You cannot do Terror Zones in normal before you have completed baal, same goes for cow levels and as u mentioned none of your class has went though A2 or even higher… If you got someoneelse to open a game where baal is completed and to open cow levels for you or terror zone then you haven’t really reached level 55 by only doing act 1 since you cheated by allowing others to help you by open terror zones and cow levels… Even if you have a rule: Players can help, ect. Your entire thread/post is still like, guys, guys, i did a solo speed run and then mention you has 3 others helping you by giving you waypoints and then still calls it a solo speed run - that’s not how things works in the real world of speed runners or in the world of Normal act 1 untill level 55 and then mention oh but i had 8 other players in game to open cows and give me huge xp boost by having 8 players in the game.

Anyway i don’t know why u would waste your time by during only normal act 1 but to each their own… If you had fun, nice, but there is no need to brag about it my guy, which it’s kinda is, after saying it’s a World first. Like you did something amazing, and needed someone to call you a good dog,. But in reality, You don’t need to have any skills to do this and it could probally be done by only playing with your feets only so… Maybe come back when you completed Act 1 and got to level 55 by playing with your big feet in Act 1 only and have document of this by video clips… Maybe then some of us more would be more amazed by your stunning achievement… Or not…

Worlds first, hah, that was a good laugh.

  • Don’t get me wrong, i am not tryin to be rude but rather actually being polite and tell you the truth to your face. Like a real friend would do… I won’t reply to any responses i already said enough.
2 Likes
7

Keep us updated about your endeavors in a 25 year old game that was min-maxed in 2002.

3 Likes
8

Hilariously awesome. :+1:

As to people calling it boring: how was magic-finding the same zone/boss hundreds, or thousands, or hundreds of thousands of times not also boring? :thinking:

As to the people saying he “cheated…” what? He made up his own little mini-game, and the rules for it… so there was no cheating! :roll_eyes: He even specified which thresholds can be reached using different methods (or “rules” if you prefer).

I applaud your creativity! :clap:

2 Likes
9

To what Guinness book of world record rules are you 2 referring too???

There was no previous rules, since no one has done it before, I did check.(if you find someone, great! but, you’ll have to find someone before at least ~7 years ago when I did it the first time.)

Correct, the only rule that I really had, was don’t talk to Warriv to goto act 2, otherwise, everything the online game had available to me was fair game!

Waste of time is all about perspective. I feel like being a troll is a waste of time too.

Partly true, but a fully geared to the teeth hammerdin or mosaic assassin will say the same thing about all of hell difficulty too. The true difficulty in this endeavor was getting your character to be able to kill cows, without dying.

I love South Park, while that does have similarities. I suspect the time it took me to get these 7 toons to level 55, took less time for a pre-terror zone toon of 95 to get to 99.

None of those 7 toons yes, you can have more than 7 characters on one account. I do have a 80+ Sorceress that would help create cows or terror zones if none was available. But, I didn’t like doing that since experience is really low when your in the game solo. A lot of the time I was in someone else’s game. Unless I was hosting cow runs.

Where in my post did I say that it was a “solo” or “speed” run?

I’d love to see you accomplish this with your feet! I’d give my hats off to you!

Insulting my feet, doesn’t do your forum name justice!
Sorry, I’m not a streamer.
Sounds like your very unimpressed, and would care less if I did.

With all the responses out of the way. Here are some additional thoughts.

IF I were to do it solo, the max I could get is around 25 as a ~hardcap. Since I wouldn’t be able to open cows or make terror zones. The max area level is 12, in Catacombs 3 & 4. I can get 10 levels above the area level to 22, then grind the unique monsters up to 25.

But saying I’m level 25 having only done normal act one, isn’t as impressive as a level 55 in my opinion. People tend to initially say, what? How is that possible? Just like a magician, the trick is neat until its explained.

If I were to do this offline, the /players 8 command would be available, but I didn’t have access to other players opening cows, or creating terror zones. Which would cap me at ~25. So, I opted to do it online.

Thank You for your positives comments!

10

Your title and introduction, but since you are claiming a world record, you should be able to deliver a full statement of the rules and regulations and proof that you stayed within the rules. Do you really want to go down that road?

In hell there is always a chance of ugly mob combinations that can 1 shot you. That’s quite a difference.

I stay by my statement that you cheated your initial proposal with using tz/cow opened by another character. It doesn’t matter that your characters never left act1, tz/cows circumvent any restrictions of a1

3 Likes
11

sure trolling might be a waste of time, but it’s like. a few seconds vs i don’t even know how long this took you. not really comparable. you wasted so much time doing very boring things in a very old game…

i just can’t wrap my head around why anyone would even want to do this. rather just… not. you know what i mean?

2 Likes
12

Ngl, that’s pretty awesome

1 Like
13

I’m pretty sure I did so

Proof that I stayed in the rules? I guess that would be a screenshot of my character level and standing at the waypoint showing only act 1 waypoints available? Nay-sayers would say those were photoshopped. Want a video? As I said before I’m not a streamer. I honestly have never uploaded a video to the internet. True, that might be the easiest way to explain it all, instead of a long forum post of each toon. I don’t exactly want to connect my youtube account to my blizzard account.(shows how much I know on the subject)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyV9nFvV_7k&t=9s
Mosaic being able to kill mobs on /players 2048
Are you sure its quite a difference?

You are definitely entitled to your opinion even though its wrong.

Its like saying, season 1 of ladder, the Rank 1 & 2 cheated since they had others open chaos levels, Teo_Unsullied & MrLlamaSc only killing diablo for experience since terror zones were not around. They cheated!

No, they used what was available in game. Just like I did.

These are rules that you are putting into play after the fact. When in fact these options ARE available to play in, while online and never leaving act one.

per post, how many posts do you have? On how many forms of media?

Same could be said for those who play football, basketball, hockey, baseball, etc.

But, they have fun doing it, and I did too.

I do know what you mean! What is fun to one, is not fun to another. Personally I don’t like sports, but there are many in the world who do. They will even spend hundreds if not thousands of hours watching sports. Good for them, but that’s not for me.

A few additional thoughts.

I found it fascinating that there were some people in games, that would get angry at me that I wouldn’t come to do ancients, or a particular boss past act 1. More than likely they couldn’t wrap there head around the fact a lvl 45, 49, or 52 hasn’t been through all of normal yet. Which was super funny to me. I think that’s another factor why I did this, is the reactions to it.

Thank you!

14

I did this in Lod :slight_smile: So not worlds first.

How did I do in lod:
Chant games. Andy runs. With andy q open all the way.
Highest level I bothered doing in normal(act 5 - Lod) was 80.

Congrats on the milestone :smiley:

I’ve done mephisto at level 1, that was probably the worst challenge I put myself to task. :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
15

you’ve probably wasted more time in this thread replying to each single post that i have in all my posts.

16

Can’t wait to see 7 lvl 99 chars of you in hc.
He used chaos as an example which has no guest mobs and no souls/dolls/deathlords and is very predictable.

BTW he died as mosaic.
He died at 2048 although most mobs had an hp over roll and were set to 1 hp.

I understand that you are butthurt because not everybody cares about your “challenge”, but don’t use strawman arguments when you know I am right.

17

In the end it was up to him if it’s boring or not, if he had his fun I don’t see the problem there.
If you want to see it like that, playing any videogame is a waste of time.

I like to do stuff like this too in other games, just farming the hell out of an early area and becoming OP fot the current state of the game for no reason ^^
One point doesn’t make sense to me tho.
Why would it matter that you never talked to Warriv to enter A2 when you open Cows and using TZ by characters that did that already?
Where is the point then not leaving A1 if you use chars that already did that to achieve your goal.

Anway, as long as you had your fun^^

1 Like
18

naw there’s a big difference in playing the game, and doing run-a-rounds to play the 1/15 of the game only. not legit because you need ANOTHER player to create EVERY SINGLE game for you. this feat cannot be done on one character but they never even mention using other characters, and that they NEVER LEFT act 1.

it’s all a joke and they used other features of the game to complete it. a massive waste of time not only in how they chose to do, but also using other characters to get it done, what a joke.

1 Like
19

As I mentioned I don’t see the point in this challenge neither since he needed another player. However if it’s fun for him it wasn’t a waste of time. I wouldn’t consider playing a game or doing something that enjoys you, a waste of time. The the benefit in RL playing a game “normal” or like he did is the same unless you make money with it.

1 Like
20

Did you complete any sets?

1 Like