Leveling a Wizard 1-70 in the new season

Wizard
1

Thanks to TinneOnnMuin for the initial build. I’ve made a few tweaks to accommodate the latest Etched Sigil.

With the Etched Sigil, I finally have a solo build that can consistently get under 90 minutes 1-70, and with a little luck, under 75 minutes.

Active Skills:

Electrocute: Forked Lightning (Level 33+, Chain Lightning otherwise)
Disintegrate: Convergence
Energy Twister: Gale Force
Teleport: Wormhole
Energy Armor: Force Armor
Magic Weapon: Force Weapon

Passive Skills:

Blur
Astral Presence
Illusionist

As most guides will have it, it’s mainly Temple of the Firstborn, with a few exceptions.

Start: Set your pet (F1 to quickly get it). Teleport to Act 1. Craft a Level 5 Axe and a Level 8 Two Handed Axe. Hire your Templar. Buy gear from the vendor. If lucky, they can have a weapon that does more damage than what your Templar can have. Plus, it usually has +xp to it.

Levels 1-5+: Start with Eternal Woods on Master. This zone will be the most useful for gaining the quickest levels, but is also somewhat dangerous. If lucky, and can keep your streak, you can hit Level 10 in roughly 3-4 minutes. Once your streak ends, if you’re higher than Level 5, move onto the next step, otherwise, continue running this zone.

Level 5±10: Temple of the Firstborn on Master/T1. Just run quickly to the end. Wave of Force will be useful here (and will be your main damage dealer until you get Disintegrate: Convergence).

At Level 10, buy +dmg jewelry (ring/amulet) from the ring vendors. To get to the Act 1 ring vendor quickly, teleport to Weeping Hollow and enter that way rather than teleporting to New Tristram.

Level 10-22: Temple of the Firstborn on T1. At Level 21, switch Ray of Frost to Disintegrate.

Level 22+: Grab the Horadric Cube on Master Difficulty. The Elder Sanctum is a great place for massacre bonuses, whereas Ruins of Sescheron is an area you want to get through as quickly as possible. We wait until 22, so that you will have teleport available.

Level 22±33: Temple of the Firstborn on T1.

Level 33: Gamble the Etched Sigil here. It’s imperative that you gamble it exactly at Level 33. It’s a Level 33 source, so you can’t gamble earlier. At Level 33, there are only two sources available in the pool, so you’ll have a 73% chance of getting it. Should you hit Level 34, there are now 5 sources in the pool, dropping the odds to 34%.

Level 33±Level Reduce Weapon: Temple of Firstborn on T4. Once you get past 37, you might need to start to drop the difficulty.

Level Reduce Weapon-66: Difficulty set at T6. If below Level 45, The Elder Sanctum. Once above Level 45+ Temple of the Firstborn.

Level 66-70: Temple of the Firstborn on T5.

Other tips:

For your Level Reduce Weapon, you’re looking for primarily Life on Hit, and then Vitality, followed by Intelligence. Not only is Life on Hit useful for helping roll Level Reduce, but it’s a must for keeping you alive. You will be taking damage, so this can heal you, allowing you to survive more, and play a difficulty or two higher than you typically could. Vitality is mostly useful pre Level 54 (Energy Armor: Force Armor). Once you’re 54, Intelligence will be of greater help.

Avoid the Cursed Chest in TotFB, unless it is a bounty. When trying to incorporate it, I have yet to beat 90 minutes. This is just a huge time sink, and the XP is not worth it.

At Level 61, craft as many Level 61s as you can still afford. Fortunately, TotFB is great for finding yellows, so you should be able to craft a full set. But if it’s a Level 58 piece of gear, the upgrade won’t be as important as if you’re still using a Level 20 piece of gear.

Only reroll your Level 70 weapon for Level Reduce 10x to save gold. And remember, you can convert one Arcane Dust, and one Reusable Part, once, to get you an extra 200 yellows to work with for crafting.

For the most part, you’re just going to buy gear from vendors between runs. To save time, just do this at the start of the run. Act 5 is pretty easy to get a couple quick vendors, including jewelry.

Demonstration from 1-70 in roughly 1h17m. I did use a prerolled Level Reduce weapon at 40. For every level above (until around Level 48), add about 1 minute to your run. No legendaries were used, nor was a Ruby for XP used.

Diablo 3 Wizard 1-70 (Etched Sigil) SSF, Season Start Conditions - YouTube

So, why just the Etched Sigil, and not wands? Remember, it’s not about just getting 1-70, it’s about being able to go from Level 1 to Haedrig’s Gift. I’m willing to sacrifice a little time if it saves time once you reach 70.

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Nice! I’ve been stubbornly around 1hr30-1hr45 (1hr30 assuming a good weapon craft and Etched Sigil, 1hr45 with a bad weapon/no source), but I knew someone who could execute better than me could get that time down.

I should probably do some practice runs before next season. I was looking over my conquest ranks and I’ve been top 10 for every conquest in HC but only 6 of 10 conquests in SC. The other 4 I’ve only been top 100 for.

New goal: get top 10 for the remaining 4 SC conquests at some point.

HC Conquests

Conquest PB Rank
Avaritia 3
Worlds Apart 1
Stars Align 5
Lionhearted 2
Master of Sets 2
I Can’t Stop 1
Need For Speed 8*
Speed Racer 1
Super Human 4
Dynasty 2

* should actually be 3, but not officially. In season 9 I was part of the rank 3 group (second ground to complete), but it was bugged and I didn’t get credit. Saw it pop off for my friends and didn’t realize I didn’t get credit for some reason, despite clearing the rift with them. Didn’t notice until the next day.

SC Conquests

Conquest PB Rank
Avarice 23
Boss Mode 5
Curses! 25
Divinity 89
Master of the Universe 1
On a Good Day 10
Speed Demon 43
Sprinter 1
The Thrill 7
Years of War 2

So I need top 10 for Avarice, Curses!, Divinity, and Speed Demon. Looks like 3 of those are actually on the list this season! Avarice, Divinity, and Speed Demon.

Speed Demon and Avarice are both significantly more likely in a 4p party though.

4p party means you have a better chance of getting a puzzle ring sooner, so Boon of the Hoarder sooner. Running solo or 2p makes getting Avarice early a bit less likely on average. Could change strategy if I get an early puzzle ring drop though.

Speed Demon is also more likely for a 4p party, faster bounties for 6p set, more likely at least one party member has a decent supporting item drop, faster map clears with 4p, need less ideal map. Less likely to get Speed Demon solo or 2p, need more gear luck and a better map.

DIvinity seems like the best one to tackle without an organized 4p speed conquest party. It’s also my lowest rank, so it’s where I’ll see the biggest gain even if I don’t realize my top 10 goal.

Starting set should be DMO, but it looks like adding the new 6p set caused the rotation to skip a step, starter set is Tal’s on PTR.

Either way though, both those sets can play Twisters, so an Etched Sigil at 33 and then DMO/Tal Twisters at 70 should be a viable start strategy to work for Divinity.

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Just brainstorming here, but unless I get lucky, I’m not sure Twisters are the optimal strategy for the earliest possible GR75.

Potentially optimal as a fresh 70 though. Nice thing about doing 33 sources is you get either Winter Flurry or Etched Sigil with high probability. WInter Flurry is pretty useless for levelling, but for a fresh 70 you can either do Hydra or Twisters depending on which source you get.

Not sure Twisters are the fastest path to GR75 though, unless you get lucky. I’m going to do some minimum viable GR75 testing for Tal’s builds and I’ll report back.

But Tal’s can play any of Twisters, Hydras, and Frozen Orb.

Twisters has the most difficult gearing path I think. AND it has the least overlap with Hydras/Orbs. If you go the Hydra/Orb route, you can do both at the same time, and then branch off once you get closer to one or the other.

Twisters
Twisted Sword 1 in 15 upgrading rares
Deathwish 1 in 15 upgrading rares
Valthek’s 1 in 7 upgrading rares
Ranslor’s 1 in 10 gambling
Etched Sigil 1 in 12 gambling

Note: Can only have 2 of the 3 weapons + the source. Twisted Sword has by far the biggest multiplier, so ideally that one is in the mix with one of Deathwish/Valthek’s. But GR75 should be possible with the Valthek’s + Deathwish instead of Twisted Sword. Ideally you probably just go swords tough, and target Twisted Sword + Deathwish and forget about Valthek’s entirely. One less item type to worry about.

Benefits: potential gearing jumpstart from level 33 source. Will gamble bracers after sources, so does double duty for getting Blood Bracers for a toughness boost, as Tal’s is squishy and I can’t count on getting a Karini/Arlyse in time to run GR75.

Downsides: swords are rare. There’s two you can target, so you go 2/15 on upgrades, but it’s still bad compared to the wand route with Hydras/Orbs.

Orbs
Unstable Scepter 1 in 9.75 upgrading rares
Wizardspike 1 in 3 upgrading rares
Triumvirate 1 in 12 gambling

Benefits: fewest items required (3 instead of 4). Easiest upgrade rare multiplier, you get 1/3 on daggers. Biggest multiplier on source compared to Etched Sigil and Winter Flurry, so viable earlier if you get the Triumvirate. And going shards to sources + DBs to wands does double duty with Hydras, which would use the same strategy.

Downside: don’t get jumpstarted by a level 33 source (Triumvirate isn’t until 60).

Hydras
Serpent’s Sparker 1 in 9.75 upgrading rares
Fragment of Destiny 1 in 9.75 upgrading rares
Winter Flurry 1 in 12 gambling
Magistrate 1 in 7 wizard hats, 1 in 18 helms+wizard hats

Benefits: requires two wands, so you go 2/9.75 on wand upgrades. Potential jumpstart on gearing path from level 33 source. And going shards to sources + DBs to wands does double duty with Orbs, which would use the same strategy.

Downside: helm pool is big with helms + wizard hats, so gambling for Magistrate isn’t ideal. Upgrading rares improves the odds, but DBs are extremely precious early season and are better saved for weapons unless you get lucky and get both wands right off the bat.

I think going Orbs is the most likely route. Benefit is the big overlap with slots (wand, source) for hydras, so you can target both. If you get an early Triumvirate at level 70, then it’s off to the races for Orbs. Pretty sure 6p Tal’s + Triumvirate + Wizardspike is a viable GR75 build even without Unstable Scepter, so if I gamble a Triumvirate I can upgrade daggers at 1/3 and then I should be GR75 viable.

I’ll do some minimum viable gear testing for GR75 to see what the minimum multipliers I can get away with for each build.

Some other thoughts: full solo seems like a possibly viable strategy with the follower updates. Cheat death at level 20 helps levelling on higher torments. Sage’s emanate also helps with gearing. Craft Sage’s at 70, wear it on yourself until you get your 6p done, then pass it to your follower for double DBs. Should significantly speed up early season SSF gearing.

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As mentioned in the original post, one key aspect that could be improved upon from your runs is to avoid the cursed chest in Temple of the Firstborn. You can start it for a few extra monsters, but don’t try to complete it. It’s a time sink, and by just removing that part, I was leveling up roughly 10 minutes faster. It’s useful for necromancers, but not really any other class. The exceptions are if you can pull off 100+ kills (typically only a necromancer, or if you’re around Level 40 with a great weapon), or you’re already in a 250+ chain, or it’s a bounty.

So this is where the above strategy needs to be modified, if you’re after conquests.

I use to think the bounties were not worth completing in the leveling process, but I’ve changed my mind on that, after a few seasons of testing. Now, don’t run all 5 bounties, but try to get a couple out of the way. The HF Amulet pattern counts as 3 jewelry recipes. The rings count as 1 each. And with this season, the follower being able to wear gear, it might actually make sense to start off running a bounty set. Granted, you’re only going to get 2-5%, but that’s still like 5 minutes off your leveling time. And with Cain’s, it took me from Level 22-40 in roughly 12 minutes when testing, vs 20 minutes without it.

And the same with the bosses. Chapter 1 can be accomplished at any level, and Chapter 2 can be accomplished at Level 60+. Get them done in your leveling process, rather than post 70.

The post 70 process is one area I’ve been trying to improve upon, because almost every guide only focuses on the 1-70. The top 10 1-70 people usually hit 1 hour on season start, but end up taking another 90-120 minutes just to complete Haedrig’s Gift. I’ve gotten it down to about 60 minutes, while being 10-15 minutes slower to 70.

Now, if in a group, or pure speed, I’d just scrap all of this completely.

The necromancer is just the way to level and complete the first 4 chapters. With a little practice, I was able to get the leveling time down to an average of 45 minutes with just Grasps of Essence. Complete the first 4 chapters, and grab a HF Ring + Amulet + LoD, and can level up your alternate(/main) character in roughly 25 to 35 minutes. It’s roughly 3 hours to have two characters to 70 with Haedrig’s Gift, rather than 3 hours for just your one character.

But group play is where it really shines. Grasps of Essence are so strong now, that they can carry a player of any other class, on T6, all the way to 70 in roughly an hour. The other player doesn’t even need to touch their challenge cache, allowing for all 475 blood shards and 25 DB and all the yellows available the second they hit 70. This gets you Reapers Wraps, one piece Sage, and a legendary weapon immediately, and once you have LoD, that’s a huge power increase. Typically, if you’re trying to contribute, when you hit 70, you’ll be very short on yellows, and you need at least 150 to get all those materials, so it’s a bit of farming until you have all 3 of those.

As for the bounties, the non necro will run a few bounties for the group at key moments, when it’s best for the necro to go alone. Plus, your level 70 boss kills still count even if you’re not level 70. So it’s a combination of getting the chapters knocked out of the way while you’re leveling. On the bounty running for the group, run the most annoying ones, trying to make sure they include a Chapter 1 or 2 boss, to get those out of the way, preferably trying to focus on the more annoying Acts (3 & 5). You can complete the third Act (2) when the necro hits 70, and is running a rift & GR for the Bain of the Powerful. It takes roughly 9 bounties on T6, which the necro can do with 3 legendaries + LoD to level up the remaining character from 40-70, which is the remaining 2 acts you’ll need for Chapter 3. And 1+ 4 are the fastest.

By taking this route in Season 22, on Europe, I would have completed Divinity at roughly the 2.5 hour mark into the season. At this point in time on EU, the highest 4 player clear was GR58, and the second highest solo clear of any class was 47.

People end up so fixated on getting to 70 so quickly, that they blow all their materials to get to 70 quickly, at the expense of the post 70 process.

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Yeah I noticed that part. I sort of noticed that in my runs, sometimes I get hardly any kills off the chest because I struggle to kill the bigger guys or I die to one of them and it’s just a time sink.

I think there’s stages where it’s worth it, but I guess if it is worth it, it probably means you are running on too low of a torment. If it was all scarabs it would be better, but those big guys are hard to kill and hit like trucks on higher torments. So on high torments you just don’t get enough kills to really justify it I guess.

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If you can, Eternal Woods. You get roughly 4x the XP per monster one difficulty down in Eternal Woods than you do in Temple of the Firstborn. Fewer kills, so a lower kill streak, but much more XP. The troublesome spot comes with elites. At Level 1, they’re fine. Higher levels though, they present a survivability issue. I just make one pass at it until I die as a gamble when I get my Level Reduce Weapon. If you get lucky and can avoid elites, you can push from 40-55ish in roughly 5 minutes. But there are quite a few elites here, so I just take the few quick levels until I change back to TotFB.

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Thank you guys.

I had not noticed this change to Sigil and many other Orbs. I’ve kept a text file called “Low level item hunt list.txt”. In this file I’ve kept the important items per class and the item levels so I can refer to it. I got tired of starting a season and the game guide wasn’t working so its easier to just refer to the file. I created the file back in season 13 or 14 I think. It was definitely before Sigil was changed. Sigil, Mykens, and Light of Grace Orbs use to be level 37. Now they are level 34 with Sigil at 33. I definitely shoot to grab pox faulds pants very early. The pants work on followers.

Also: I find the easiest spots for yellows and early gems, is the chest at the end of level 2 side dungeons, like the cave in Weeping Hollow.

Make that 2 questions:

  • How come you guys don’t use bubble at level 16 to control the movement of mobs?
  • What are your thoughts on zerging Necro to 70 fast, getting the Haedrig bags (don’t open them), grab one or two leg gems, zoom up Wiz faster with better options, and then pop the bags on Wiz for free set?
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So, I tend to avoid this for a couple reasons. Yes, it will help keep your streak alive. Remember though, you’re not guaranteed to get the Etched Sigil, so every blood shard you spend now is a blood shard you won’t be able to gamble for the Etched Sigil.

Second, it’s not just about the 1-70 run. If you run massacre bonuses to 70, you’re not going to have many yellows. Crafting and upgrading a weapon when you hit 70 is super useful, and that’s 65 yellow (15 to craft, 50 to upgrade). Each piece of Sage Gear will be 50 yellows, and every piece of level 70 gear will be either 25 blood shards or 15 yellows. Plus, the blood shards can get you legendaries. If I have extra blood shards, I prefer to use them post 70 to help with that, as that’s actually slower than the leveling process.

Now, as for your two questions:

  1. I’m after speeding through the zone. I don’t want them slowed down.
  2. I don’t really have any spare skill slots at Level 16.
  3. Frost Nova is really more of an emergency skill that Slow Time can’t replace. Until you get Disintegrate at 21, your main damage is going to be Wave of Force. Frost Nova can also help here as a non emergency skill, as you can freeze enemies close to you, so that you’ll have tons of enemies close by you, rather than just in a bubble and spread out, outside the range of Wave of Force.

That’s what I typically do. And it is faster. This itself comes down to a question of how efficient do you want to be at season start, and your end goal. Being the first person on the leaderboard or the first person to GR75 is going to require a different strategy. But for many, I’m going to assume they don’t care about the leaderboard. They’re going to want to play a wizard, and while it might take them 2.5 hours running the above strategy, it hopefully will be an improvement over their normal 4 hours.

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Thanks for the info. I’ve considered trying the necro first then rush Wiz up faster, all SSF, but I’ve always talked myself out of it. Its not until a bit later after season start that the benefits of having materials, gold, shards, paragons, and gem levels makes rushing the 2nd char so much easier/faster. Its even harder to then throw away char #1 that was just to gain access to level cap benefits.

Also, the one thing I think I would do different is T-1 Magda or Zolton as my very first target. It usually gets me to level 5 or 6.

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This is an old video I made, and my strategy has changed, but it’s pretty much the same for any class:

Diablo 3 Necromancer Season Start Comparison - YouTube

It compares Maghda and Zoltun Kulle, and in the end it’s just better to start off just buying gear from the nearest vendor and immediately going into massacre bonuses.

My current leveling start with a necro:

Diablo 3 Necromancer First 10 Levels Demonstration - YouTube

By the 3 minute mark, regardless of the map layout, I want to be level 10 or above with a necro. With every other class, my goal is sub 6 minutes. Trying to go for a boss at the start is just inefficient for just a couple yellows that are going to be outdated on the vendor after 5 minutes.

The nice thing about the necro switching over to the wizard is that you have int gear and legendaries on the switch. And you’re going to have a HF Ring + Amulet for your wizard. Will they be replaced? Yes. But for those early levels, just having those legendaries will be better than random yellows. (Plus, if you ever wanted to go after the 8 set dungeon conquest, the necro set dungeons are all super easy).

While this was a DH, I ran solo last season on Asia, though I started with a necro, and switched over, and was the 15th player to complete Boss Mode. And only two others possibly leveled up solo.

[Boss Mode - Rankings - Diablo III (blizzard.com)]
(https://ap.diablo3.blizzard.com/en-us/rankings/season/22/74987248831502)

Paragon wise, I was only 166, which was lower than the others, but that’s the downfall of SSF. On EU, where I ran in a group, I had nearly 3x the paragon by this point. Solo just cannot compete with groups.

And assuming Wizard doesn’t get nerfed into the ground, there probably are going to be a lot of wizards in the upcoming season, and a lot of them in groups. If you’re after an early leaderboard spot, this will probably not be the season to try for that.

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Wow. How does the massacre bonus game compare to just running rifts?

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Rifts are just going to be slower. The top groups that rift barely break 2 hours. And we’re talking people who are extremely organized and are barely ever in town. When it comes to massacre bonuses, every class can SSF level 1-70 in under 90 minutes in SC, and under 2 hours in HC.

The difference now becomes group play. Because massacre bonuses with groups are extremely difficult to pull off. You have to make sure every player can land a hit, while at the same time, being coordinated enough to move together. That’s where rifts work better.

What changed was the introduction of the necromancer, and the introduction of the Challenge Rift in Season 13. Because someone was intelligent enough to come up with the Cursed Chest method, which is now the leveling method of choice for most top tier groups. Not only do you get massacre bonuses, but they’re super quick, often getting you 200+ kills in 2-3 minutes, vs having to chain kills for minutes on end in large maps where there’s a high probability of losing the bonus if you take a wrong turn, or just slip up for one second. And the necromancer is so unbelievably powerful in the early stages, they can play T6 all the way up to level 70, as their damage scales with the number of monsters on the screen.

Where rifts help though are when it comes to materials. Because you’re going to get nothing with massacre bonuses. You’ll hit Level 70 in 90 minutes, and probably have just enough materials left to craft 3-4 Level 70 pieces of gear.

And that’s one of the areas I think many people haven’t really taken into consideration, especially with the new follower having new gear slots. That’s fewer yellows you’re going to have now when you hit 70. And to just get them those 3 Sage pieces for the extra Death Breath are going to require 150 yellows. It’s probably going to take 20 or 30 minutes just to get that.

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So very organized group running cursed chests for massacre bonus is the most efficient. Got it.

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Thank you and @TinneOnnMuin for posting this information. From my little testing that I’ve done so far it shows that I’m horribly out of practice with Necro. I haven’t played Necro since season 13 I think. I’m not sure if I will have the patience to Necro boost to 70 with friends/clan mates and then zerg a Wiz to 70. I have BBQ baked chicken Wizard to work on. :wink:

What will be the starter set for necro next season?

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Their starter set is Rathma. While people have said it might be A or S tier, it requires a very specific set of gear, probably the worst of any starting set next season to actually be useful. And it’s not an easy playstyle.

And as far as cursed chests, it’s not actually the most efficient. It’s just very easy to pull off for a low leveling time. (But, it’s a necromancer only approach.)

And it really comes down to you. I usually only play until the season completion. And when I come back to Diablo and run my necro practice, the first practice run is closer to two hours than 45 minutes. It takes a few runs to get the muscle memory back.

That’s one of the things you have to be careful about when watching any guide on how to play. They’re just that, guides. You have to take into consideration that it might be a cherry picked video, or that the person already has muscle memory down that you might not have. Just because I might be running T6 with a Wizard at Level 66, does not mean that’s right for you.

Bottom line, don’t play something you don’t want too.

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I was considering the Necro boost method because it could get me to level cap faster potentially while solo but could also be used as a pseudo-taxi for a group of friends. Once at level cap the necro is used for early farming up some gold, materials, leg. gems, Haedrig’s, etc. to give wiz a faster leveling process without using power leveling or have a friend boost my Wiz. The Haedrig’s bag would be passed to the Wiz. If I ran Necro first with a group, it would be just to help myself and clan mates get to the finish line faster. The Necro might be a throw away or could be used as a zDPS perhaps. I’ll still have to farm up Firebird since Tal Rasha is the Haedrig’s next season.

I see what you mean about Rathma. I’m not sure if the revised set is going to be fun. The shock after watching Bluudshed’s video of it in action, hasn’t passed yet.

18

OK, so this is my necro duo leveling method. This uses specific mechanics of the game that some might consider an exploit though (as you’re using a lower level player to help boost up the massacre bonus and corpse count, while later on, when the enemies become your level as the second player levels up, you now have enough corpses to kill them).

Diablo 3 Level Testing as a duo, Season Start Conditions (Update) - YouTube

Necro skills:

Active:

Corpse Explosion: Close Quarters
Blood Rush: Potency
Command Golem: Flesh Golem
Bone Armor: Vengeful Armaments
Bone Spikes: Sudden Impact
Land of the Dead: Frozen Lands/Shallow Graves

Passive:

Stand Alone
Commander of the Risen Dead
Final Service

Two players, Necro and Player 2. Player 2 can be any class here.

Necro gambles for Grasps of Essence (86% chance)
Player 2 doesn’t touch their Challenge Cache

The Necro levels up to 10 in Temple of the Firstborn.
Player 2 is searching for one of 3 Cursed Chest Bounties: Spire, Peat, and Bellows, in that order of preference on T6 difficulty. They want to stay at Level 1 (this is crucial).

At Level 10, the necro buys +dmg jewelry, and joins a session Player 1 joins. If Player 1 has found Spire, they’ll just wait in town then, if not, they’ll continue searching for a better Cursed Chest. The Necro will run to grab the Cube. The Cube at this point doesn’t matter for Player 2.

Estimated Time/Level: 12m/N:21+, P2: 1

By the time the Necro has found the cube, Player 2 should have found one of the 3 chests. The Necro buys new gear at a vendor. Player 2 will wait at the waypoint (this helps get the marker of where to go up, so they can direct the Necro) . The Necro will run the Cursed Chest.

Estimated Time/Level: 18m/N:30+, P2: 20+

The Necro buys new gear. Player 2 buys some gear and searches for one of the following Cursed Chests while this is happening:

Act 1:

Cursed Court (Fifth Best)
Cursed Cellar ( Fourth Best)
Cursed Bellows (Third Best)

Act 2:

Cursed Temple (Sixth Best)
Cursed Spire (Best. Two T6 Cursed Spires can take you from 20-41)

Act 5:

Cursed Peat (Second Best)

Run the Cursed Chest again. This time, Player 2 will try to stay alive, grabbing massacre bonuses. They won’t do damage, but all they have to do is tag for the massacre bonus.

Estimated Time/Level: 22m/N:37+, P2: 28+

The Necro then continues to run solo on T4/T3 difficulty until they can use their Level Reduce Weapon. Life on Hit is a MUST. Then you want Vitality, followed by Intelligence. While they’re waiting, Player 2 can grab the cube at this point if they don’t have it.

From this point, it’s T6 Cursed Chests (from the list above) all the way to Level 68, and then T5. The Necro will search, and invite Player 2 when they find one, and then run both of them to 70.

This should take no longer than 75 minutes to get both players to 70.

When searching for Cursed Chests, press ‘M’ and then Right Click on the map to bring up the World Map. Your goal right here is to spend no longer than 3 seconds looking to see if one of the Cursed Chests exist. Most of the time in this leveling process is the looking. The difference between taking an average of 5 seconds per instance, and 10 seconds per instance, is roughly 10 minutes in your leveling process. It’s like the Sprinter/Speed Racer conquest. Every second counts, and can add up to a tremendous amount of time, even if each individual sequence is only a few seconds and seems miniscule.

So, what is good about this method? It’s not the fastest, but it only takes 1 person to learn to benefit both players.

I was within 10 minutes of the first player to reach Level 70. But where it shines is that the second player has all 35 Death Breath, and all 475 Blood Shards at their disposal. This gives a tremendous boost for them post 70. Oh, and it also works in hardcore. It’s just somewhat scary the first time, because you’re going to be surrounded by enemies. And it requires Life on Hit on the weapon to heal you faster than you’re taking damage, so ping spikes can be dangerous.

At this point, complete Haedrig’s Gift, and they can level up your real character. It will be about 3 hours total to complete this.

Now, if you have more players, the goal will be for Players 3 & 4 to run bounties while the Necro and Player 2 are leveling. This will get the bounty portion of Chapter 3 out of the way, which typically runs people 30+ minutes on Opening Day. Most people forget how much of a slog bounties are with barebones Level 70 gear on Season Start. They will also help get to the Chapter 1 & 2 Bosses, so that you won’t have to run them yourselves. This shaves off another 5-10 minutes.

Just having them do the bounties and boss search will shave off 40 minutes from Chapters 1-4, while it only takes roughly 20-25 minutes to level them up to 70.

19

Very cool and well-explained 1-70 process you use for wizard. Thank you for the write-up. It made me briefly re-think my method…

Step 1: Login Friday night and make my new seasonal character.
Step 2: Do the challenge rift and get the free goodies.
Step 3: Log off and go watch a cool movie. I’m thinking Gladiator, this season.
Step 4: Go to bed.
Step 5: Get up, have a nutritious breakfast (very important).
Step 6: Login to Diablo 3 and open the power-leveling community channel.
Step 7: Ask for a power-level on Clan and PL Community channel.
Step 8: Thank my new friend profusely for saving me the awful 1-70 grind.
Step 9: Start my season journey…

4 Likes
20

The necro boost is quite interesting for shaving off some time. As for the Rathma rework it don’t look like it would be fun.

21

Some good approaches to the season start, and they might work well for trial runs now. But keep in mind how bogged down the servers get on opening night the last few seasons. I would strongly recommend NOT leaving game to restart for a chance at cursed chests because you might not be able to get back into game. This is important to factor in, and it can significantly impact your approach (value of rifting over other methods).