Leveling as DH with cr cache and item level unlock

Demon Hunter
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As s27 winds down and I’ve met all my progression goals, I decided to mess around with some of what we may experience with s28.

My plan is to open my cr cache, unlock the first two nodes with a necro and then level as a DH with level 70 items.

Obviously, some of it will depend on what you get while on the necro, but you will be quite limited by cr cache’s paltry ~125 veiled crystals. This will allow you to craft about 8 level 70 yellows or 4 of them + 1 level 70 legendary dagger. As you kill stuff you’ll of course get more resources to craft additional level 70 yellows. If you level your necro with bounties you’ll have even more to work with.

Without the altar node I can’t actually equip my level 1 DH with this gear right now, so I simulated it by using paragon points. I had Lord Greenstone’s in the cube and a level 70 crossbow (with the easy gem) as my only equipped gear, and then I added a few thousand dex and vit with paragon and about 120 points in each other category to simulate other stats the gear might have. I also had WoC in the cube, though apparently that was cheating because you can’t gamble them until level 16 or something.

It was quite interesting. I started on T6 and blew through about 40 levels very quickly. This was super nice because within a couple minutes I had all of the skills and most runes (Vengeance excluded of course) to choose from. I used Strafe with MS and Bolas to keep up my kill streaks and FoK to wipe large groups or elites. Tactical Advantage and Blood Vengeance to keep up movement and resources. It was super smooth and I can only imagine it being even more smooth with the 1st altar node unlocked. I was disappointed that I didn’t get any legendaries until I think level 60 I got an amulet.

Around level 50-55 things started to get rough. I was stubborn and didn’t lower the difficulty. While I nearly died many times, the power of a level 70 yellow crossbow and a Greenstone pumped FoK was enough to usually 1-shot everything. It might have been more efficient to drop to T4 so I wouldn’t have to worry about dying as much, but damage wise there was no problem.

To sum up, it was a lot of fun and the leveling went much more quickly than normal. I’d highly recommend it unless you’re deadset on having that cr cache for the later node unlock. (I’m still fingers crossed that tomorrow they tell us they took the cr cache off the list of sacrifices, but I’m rather doubtful.)

Either way, spend your VCs wisely.

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Run the cube on your necro. You should be 18 (or close to) by the time you get there.

Then you can convert 100 parts and 100 dust to 200 crystals (buy 2x yellows from a vendor, don’t waste mats crafting yellows to convert). That’ll give you ~260-280/250-260/320-330 parts/dust/crystals (plus whatever you loot along the way). Which is enough to craft a weapon upgrade plus fill all armor slots, you can actually do all 4 pieces of sage’s (you get the plan for level 70 sage’s automatically on a level 12 blacksmith) and 5x yellows.

10 parts for node 1, 15 parts + 20 dust for node 2, 65/65/65 for weapon upgrade, 15/15/15 for quiver/chest/pants/shoulders/bracers, 20/20/30 for each piece of sage’s = 245/240/260 parts/dust/crystals. Converting 100 parts and 100 dust to 200 yellow gives you enough to do that.

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I think it’s worth to just clear the first 4 chapters with the necro and just blast with the DH with full GoD set.
I could never enjoy FoK leveling. You’re just avoiding death until it fully charges.

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Great tip. I actually thought about doing that after. I suppose I should have given my level 1 DH a bit more dex and vit.

That’s another approach obviously. I’m not a big enough fan of necro though.

It’s a bit different when you’re geared with 70s. As I mentioned, you aren’t in much danger until level 55 or so and then you can lower the difficulty 2 or 3 levels to keep yourself quite safe.

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I’ve been practicing the “running to the cube with a necromancer part”. I’ve gotten a gem goblin twice while doing that (out of about a hundred runs or so). That really helps a lot.

Also, I’ve been able to get as high as Level 20 just running the cube, especially if that cursed chest spawns on level 2. I’ve also crafted two extra weapons beyond what Raxx put in his video and the first craft from a blue axe to a yellow 1 handed scythe and yellow phylactery.

So it looks like this:
Yellow Scythe and Phylactery (Level 5)
Blue Dagger (Level 10)
Blue one handed Sword (Level 12)
Yellow 2 handed Swords (Level 15 and 19)
Yellow Staff (Level 22)

I also ran it at Torment 1.

At any rate it’s a much smoother run with these adjustments. I also lower the difficulty from T1 to Hard for the Boss runs after running to the cube.

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If you don’t talk to the Enchantress until level 11, she’ll upgrade from a white dagger to a blue staff. The blue staff will be around 37-38 dps, it’s extremely strong at level 11. Better than what you can craft at that level. Might as well save the materials and steal her staff.

Just don’t talk to her in the beginning, wait until you are level 11 and she upgrades to the staff. If you talk to her before level 11, she’ll have the level 1 white dagger instead.

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The problem with that is having to go back to town to talk to her. I might try that though. But I kinda like being able to make the run without having to back to town before getting the cube.

Crafting the sword makes so I can equip it either right before going to level 2 or right after and it comes at the same time as changing Corpse Explosion to Bloody Mess.

That said, I’ll give that a try and see how it plays out.

Edit:
And equipping the dagger comes at the same time as slotting the passive that increases speed when you use a corpse.

Basically, there’s some synergy with equipping items and changing skills with the way I do it.

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I try to go at the start of level 2 if you’re level 11 by then. Probably will be in S28 with the altar killstreak buff. Quick port to town, grab rings and some random upgrades from vendor, back down and continue on.

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Yeah, just tried that. And the cursed chest on level 2 was the bounty and it spawned pretty close to the beginning of the map. In my other runs, I’d have to skip it, kill other monsters till I got to 15 then come back to it. But with the enchantresses staff, I didn’t have to do that.

Thanks for the heads up, Tinne.

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I’m torn on this.

The necro is going to be faster to 70. That’s not a question. The problem comes down to, is the Necro faster overall, because you also have to level up your DH after?

I ran a 1-70, and it was about 29 minutes to 70 with a DH and LGF. (10 minutes as a Necro 1-18+2 diamonds, 19 minutes 1-70 as a DH). It takes roughly 20 minutes to be power leveled via rifts, and about 10 minutes if power leveling yourself with GoD. (All of this was done on Live).

But if you don’t like leveling via FoK, I guess the Necro also has an advantage that they can go immediately to T4 when they hit 70.

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I tested using the GoD set with rare items for everything else and no cube power. T6 was a breeze at level 70. With the quiver cubed, I was able to bump to T10, but T8 would probably be more efficient.
So I’m pretty confident that the 1-70 time with the DH will be negligible if you have the full GoD set.
The question now is: is it faster to complete chapters 1-4 with the necro or the DH?
As you said, the necro can do everything in T4 post-70 and chapter 4 has a few requirements that have to be done in T4.

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Well, for me personally, I’m saving mine for HC, so it’s pretty obvious which class to go for. Get Haedrig’s done in SC (minus 1 Chapter 1/2 task to keep it available for HC), collect on HC and breeze through the 70 there. No need to worry about aggressive leveling.

So, I’m basing the following off Live times. This will of course go faster in a real season.

Season Start:
I always have to reboot in order to see the Season Start announcement. 5 minutes for the Challenge Cache. (7 minutes into the season).

Necro - Cube + 2 diamonds: ~15 minutes.
Karlei’s: 30 minutes
LGF: 20 minutes
The little things (upgrading, Kadala, etc.): 5 minutes

Time to 70:

57 minutes for Karlei’s
47 minutes for LGF

Necromancer, I would say about 35 minutes.

Necros really only have Blood Rush for movement speed while Demon Hunters have Vault, and Preparation to help speed it up, along with Tactical Advantage + Hot Pursuit.

Chapters 1-2: 20 minutes Necro, 18 minutes DH
Chapter 3: 45 minutes Necro, 40 minutes DH
Chapter 4: 30 minutes Necro, 33 minutes DH

Why Chapter 4 is slower for DHs is that Necros pretty much crush the T4 bosses. 4 piece GoD, and the boss kills are going to take extra time. On my practice runs, it was about 5 minutes to clear a solo GR20 with a Necro, and 10+ minutes with just 4 piece GoD.

Really, for me at least, it comes down to if I get LGF, and was staying SC, starting as the DH would be faster overall. With Karlei’s, the Necro and switching over after Haedrig’s will be faster.

But if you got lucky with 2 Shadow off gambling the blood shards at 70, then DH skyrockets ahead of the Necro.

I would have to say, if you’re going HC, the Necro start makes sense. If you’re SC, I’d just gamble and stay DH to 70. Even worst case, and you get Karlei’s, you’re not losing that much time. Well, unless you wanted to go #1 to the 6 GR55s, at which point, the dual class will shave far more time off.

Now, if you’re saving your Cache, Necro all the way. There’s just no scenario where it won’t save you a ton of time.

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You’ve made it clear for me. I’m definitely going with necro for the first 4 chapters. LGF would be a burden for me and, with my luck, I doubt I would get S2 with less than 500 shards.

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With all Level 70 gear, death really isn’t a problem.

This was on Live. A full run (1-18 as Necro, then switching to DH). Sub 30 minutes using Lord Greenstone’s for the full run. No deaths.

Even if the Necro levels faster, it’s just going to be slower overall.

The key is just making sure you get your real Massacre Bonus at a low 60’s, so that damage dealt and received are tolerable. That is, try to make sure you level from 62-70 in one go. So if you’re Level 59, and have a 200 Massacre going, just drop it immediately so you don’t boost up into danger territory. That way, you can stay on T6 the entire way.

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