True - I missed the part where the OP said “next season”.
My bad!
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Are you sure you’re remembering correctly?
The Vaults guarantee a legendary, but nothing will drop if you’re Level 1-4, and this was during the Ethereal season as well. Plus, the odds of getting something to drop at Level 1 are incredibly small. That gives you at most 5 monster kills.
I’m guessing most likely you may have been fighting something like Zoltun Kulle, and got pushed up to 5+. While the items coming off of Kulle would be your original level, any bounty cache would be your new level.
I am very sure, it was at level 3 and it was off a common Mob on the run to get the cube.
Ah well, Ethereal convo is moot now as they just announced next season will be any power in all 3 slots of the cube.
Are you sure about that?
I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but:
This is from the Season 31: Season of the Forbidden Archives Blog.
It would be awesome if they left them in but I don’t see that happening. The noted changes are likely only in place for the remainder of S30 and then those will be gone once S31 begins.
I suppose it’s possible for them to leave Shards in since S20 alone is not much of a season these days. I suppose all we can do is see when the time comes.
The post mentions the soul shard stain of sin for 2.7.7 at the bottom. But isn’t this an update for the present season?
I don’t know for sure. But, if that were the case, why didn’t they just amend the 2.7.7 Patch Notes in the Season 30 Blog instead (or both)?
And since it doesn’t look like we’re getting a new Patch, then Season 31 will be using the amended Patch 2.7.7.
Of course, this could be another Altar of Rites in Season and non-Season… NOT ! situation.
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Right now it’s leading to confusion as also mentioned in the S 31 preview discussion.
Yup, if you quoted the whole quote
As far as the patch notes, it doesn’t say Shards will be in S31. It just says they now drop progress orbs in CR’s, which will apply down the road when Shards are rotated in again or if they use an old build for a CR that has a Soul Shard in it.
Could they add Shards as a permanent feature? Sure. But the patch notes don’t specifically say that. Then again, even when they specifically say that, it doesn’t mean that is what is going to happen.
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So, I’ve been running a few test runs in prep for the new season, as we have only until the end of the season to do any serious level testing, as off season doesn’t have the altar. (The only nodes I have unlocked are the double Massacre, which everyone can get immediately, and the level reduce, but I don’t use that until I get my diamond.)
Diablo 3: Season 30+ Grabbing Cube to 18 vs Rushing 18 Then Grabbing Cube (youtube.com)
23 minutes & 24 minutes respectively in the above for efficient runs. About 26-27 minutes for median, and 35 minutes for runs with terrible luck. Add about 1-2 minutes in for stuff like upgrading the vendors, gambling at Kadala, and crafting items. In order to keep a safe and accurate leveling test, this mode was not touched until this week, so I had very few mats, thus am using the same gear, rather than recrafting everything. But that actually will help keep things consistent. No ancient gear, and nothing with +xp, though every piece has Intelligence + Vitality. That’s just luck of the draw.
To give you a comparison, this season was 27-28 minutes with the Magic Stone. So, overall, there’s really not that big of a difference in leveling times.
Demo: Wizard 1-20 in ~11 minutes. Up to wizards to decide if this is going to be a preferred approach to dual classing.
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Nice demo. Why is it when you are using massacre bonus, elites always have the waller affix?
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But if you won’t open the challenge cache you won’t have a materials to starting gear like in the demo.
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Diablo 3: 1-18 No Cache (youtube.com) in 5 1/2 minutes.
Is it going to be as fast? No. But it’s not that much slower.
Rather than trying to do the full 1-18 in one run, you break it up into two, and play on a slightly lesser difficulty. This way you can grab the enchantress’s staff which should help with dps.
As far as other classes, if you’re trying to save your cache, yeah, start as a Necro, and transfer your gear over to your new character at level 1. This way you can also save on having to worry about snapshotting.
When I’m talking about not needing to start as a Necro, I’m assuming you’re using your cache, as the OP had stated they were going to. And yes, it’s slower. But you need to take into consideration that 1-18 will take roughly 2 minutes. And it will probably still going to be slower than the dual class approach by a couple minutes, but there are reasons you might want to start as your class if using the cache.
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Given that Necro will gain the most benefit from the next seasonal theme, it’s valid to use one for the initial 1-18 push. I plan to main DH as I do every season, however once I have completed the season journey I will be moving back to my starter Necro to get some use out of the season theme. I wish they were doing a more combined theme as just the cube stuff alone feels lacking. DH gains almost nothing from the upcoming season theme.
The main difference in my starting tactic will be to run for the cube as the first leg and then do 1 round in ToFB to finish the rest of the way to 18. That way I will have both the cube ready and no level req to blast to 70 on DH.
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Unfortunately, the DH is going to be one of the slowest classes to 70 here.
Going by Season 28:
Necro
Monk
Barb
Witch Doctor
Wizard
DH
Crusader
You’re looking at 46 minutes, give or take, for the first DH to hit 70, and I assume that’s using Lord Greenstone’s. I’m also unsure if they were in a group or solo.
I can tell you though on a practice run, I’ve got the DH down to 30 minutes, but take into account practice runs are never the same as real season start runs. Lots of little stuff adds up, and while it might only seem it’s a few seconds here, and a few seconds there, those few seconds can easily add up to minutes.
Also, such fast runs make it much harder to judge the appropriate way to start the season, when just intangible RNG factors can offset strategy differences.
Cube Run:
Pros-
You have the Cube.
You always have a chance at finding a Gem Goblin/Rainbow Goblin/Blue Goblin for early diamonds. You get lucky here, this will be the fastest approach.
Cons-
It’s going to be slower overall for the vast majority of runs. You can always grab the cube with your real class and gain your first 50 levels on your way to the cube. You don’t need any legendary items to kill T6 enemies when you’re decked out in Level 70 gear.
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DH may be a bit slower to 70, but I am pro with every DH build except for the changed Nat build which I absolutely hate. Gift set this season for DH is UE which I am excellent at. So while getting to 70 may take a few extra minutes, getting to season completed will be hours or even days faster.
What I do is, after getting the cube and unlocking no level on gear. I craft the Sage helm, gloves and boots and two level 70 hand xbows, along with as many other lvl 70 yellows I can afford. I then bump up to T6 and begin working on act 1 bounties and hope to get lucky with a RoRG early. I drop the difficulty as needed and work the massacre bonuses which are boosted by the altar. I continue after completing Act 1 to do the remaining acts and any other necessary bits to gain the first 2 Haedrig gifts. Depending on luck with drops I usually have enough power to do a Solo GR 20 and get the third and from there it’s smooth sailing to the finish line.
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Interesting, I’ve never thought to use 2 yellow 1h xbows while leveling (I usually go with a LGF/Karlei’s + quiver).
What skills/strategies do you use once get to the clvl 50/60 range? Even if I lower to normal difficulty, things slow down quite a bit for me around that range unless I have an upgraded dagger.
What I use depends on what I have found. I use whichever skill I have a weapon cubed (fan or impale). Depending on what other items I have found I may use grenades if I have the belt. If I got really lucky and have a Cirri I destroy everything with HA. Typically by that range I have reduced to around T1 and continue finishing bounties in Act 1. In the early stages it’s more useful to put a ruby into the weapons (if possible) as we don’t have much Crit chance yet.
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many people with many approaches. it appears the most optimal thing is to massacre spam with a absurdly OP necro to 18 and then farm a few boss bounty chests for diamonds then play w/e. I’m a monk lifer and it feels like a betrayal to boost myself with some other class to start, so my plan is pray to RNGeezus, and do what I can to better my odds while not dumping precious time into it. I like to throw a boss bounty in at certain points when my dmg is feeling weak and get a few new yellows. I’ve found that Royal/Cathedral 2 runs will include a skelly king kill along with a couple shots at some gobbies, and I had a few test runs yesterday that hit bandit shrines or reg ol gem hoarder gobbies and my quest for #2 altar slot was over at lvl 7 in 6-7 mins… bad luck takes longer but if you are careful about not wasting time, these runs can both be decent massacre strolls real quick.