Necro vs Demon Hunter for leveling up 2.6.9

I tried to level up both of them. With the DH with no paragon, only Karlei’s point in the cube, it was a struggle on Master-T1 levels. Then I started a new Necro with only the Grasp of essence gloves in cube. He struggled until he got corpse explosion at lvl 4, then it was off to the races in T1. I was shooting for GOD build DH but now I’m thinking to start with Necro and then build DH GOD gear through blood shards. Is anyone else thinking the same thing. Corpse explosion is just to good.

Probably better to just get a group of dh and share loot. After you get to 70 on dh you can get shadow almost right away… shadow isn’t really good for t16 but it’s better than what most other classes get. (Monk is good start too)… with a decent strategy you can probably get to 70 within 1 1/2hr. Either by cursed chests or blades with a group or solo… you can use necro in group but then the dhs are going to have to power level you afterwards…

DH is the weakest leveling class, there’s no comparison to the recently buffed Corpse Explosion Necro.

Not like leveling matters much though, since you can do it in under an hour (experienced group) to under two hours (experienced but weak start solo). Even just rifting with a bunch of randos should be done in ~3 hours.

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With my team we are going to do a mix: level up with two necros and two DHs.

dh has at least two guaranteed daggers that at least buff their damage up. Greenstones is even a decent joice for leveling. Wizards for example have absolutely nothing and need to be lucky to roll something for the cube.

Dh has the fastest start into paragons and gear. Also has way better speedbuilds in general if you ask me. God and multishot are incredible.
The hour and a half that it needs to level the demon hunter is easily worth it because shadow can almost instantly clear high grifts. Inarius will struggle hard on higher grifts early on.

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Oh sure
Shadow 4 pc
(2) Set:
While equipped with a melee weapon, your damage is increased by 6000%.
(4) Set:
Shadow Power gains the effect of every rune and lasts forever.
With Greenstone cubed (50% chance cube rare to legendary) and fan of blades, you can do serious damage to elites.

Then shadow can try higher GR’s very quickly get missing items for the build.

And if you don’t get Lord Greenstone’s Fan, you get a Karlei’s Point, the primary weapon for Shadow.

DH has incredible post-level 70 start, I’m not refuting that. Shadow 6 is one of the fastest sets in the game to get to high Torment and GR 70.

I said that DH is the weakest leveling (1-70) class. I’ve played a lot of season starts as both DH and Wiz, and Wiz has stronger core skills, and can usually get a damage multiplier somewhere. Although DH has a guaranteed dagger, on average, I’ve had smoother leveling experiences with a Wizard.

You absolutely explode if you have S6 or UE as your seasonal journey reward once you hit 70, though, sure.

And a Necromancer’s guaranteed scythe multiplier + much stronger gambling choices for a multiplier + much stronger core skills makes DH look like a newly born babe in comparison for the 1-70 leveling.

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thanks Raxxanterax for “I made a WD at the start to craft bows so I without getting max discipline. This is what allowed me to get -26 reduced levels without much effort.”

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basically everyone does look like a toy, if you compare them leveling to a necro.

Wd once was a solid choice with killstreaks and dots but he already vanished before the CE buff.

Ive always felt like i had harder times as wizard. But i have to admit that i basically never level solo on a seasonstart. I always felt like with dh you either had greenstones and pushed the grp or had karleis and killed at least the elites and the rg real quick.
As a wizard you basically can only be the exp-buffer if you just gamble helm + ring at lvl 1. And thats it. Or you scrap that and hope for a manald. And if you dont get manald you being carried by the others until you have at least archon (which is a strong core skill definitly).

Not even talking about firebirds in headrigs this season :rofl:

New to 2.6.9 - D3 Planner data lvl 34 The Ninth Cirri Satchel (Hungering arrow 450% to 600% damage) if you are lucky will drop during 1-70.

This is one of those tricky subjects, because a lot relies upon the item you upgrade.

As others said, nothing comes close to a necromancer. Several streamers already have a mid 30 minute 1-70, and that’s playing hardcore. I’ve found that with just Grasps of Essence (the gloves), I’m averaging about 45 minutes to hit 70, whereas prior to this patch’s buffs, it was taking me about 70 minutes.

As far as the DH, yes, it is possible to solo to 70 in roughly an hour. Sandro193 just posted a new video of using Lord Greenstone’s Fan and running 1-70 in 1h7m, and that’s with no season buffs. (While he doesn’t natively speak English, his guide is probably the best I’ve seen for actual efficiency for leveling the Demon Hunter.)

But the main issue is that it’s a very difficult leveling tactic. Bagstone from diablofans made a statement awhile back that, while the leveling tactic was known, he knew few people who were able to get below 2 hours. wujido, one of the best dh’s in the game, even mentions in his guide that this is a tactic you really need to practice ahead of time. Thus, if you just watch streamers doing these insane times, and walk into the season cold, never having practiced, you might come away disappointed, noticing that just rifting may have been better for you.

As far as the bow/crossbow with level reduce for the 1-70 process, try the following. Create both a monk & a witch doctor/wizard (for some reason the necro won’t work here). Craft the bow with the monk, which sometimes can roll without discipline being an option. Reroll the secondary with the Witch Doctor/Wizard. Even if it says Discipline & a CC, the Discipline will never return once rolled as the WD/Wiz. It’s not as great odds as just crafting with a Witch Doctor, but better odds than rolling as a Demon Hunter. And you’ll end up with a bow that can have Dexterity, Vitality, and Life on Hit, rather than just Vitality and Life on Hit.

Now, for the early levels, try the following. DO NOT go immediately for Kanai’s Cube nor should you fight bosses like Zoltan Kulle. You’re wasting time trying to do this. Instead:

Buy vendor gear. You’ll get 4 pieces of armor.

Necromancer: Run Temple of the Firstborn on T2 until Level 10.
Every other class but Necromancer & DH: Run Temple of the Firstborn on T1.
Demon Hunter (Softcore), fastest approach: Halls of Agony 1 Traps until Level 12.
Demon Hunter (Softcore), faster approach: Run Eternal Woods/Halls of Agony on Master until level 7/8. Then run Halls of Agony 1 Traps until Level 12.
Demon Hunter (Hardcore): Run Eternal Woods/Halls of Agony on Master until 7/8. Then run the campaign (yes, you heard that right) until you kill Haedrig’s wife, Mira. Don’t turn in the quest. Exit the game and change the difficulty to T6, enter the game, and turn in the quest. If you are still not 12, repeat that quest (remember to set the difficulty back).

Once you hit level 10 (or 12 for the Demon Hunter), then proceed to grab the cube. This way, most of the classes have some movement ability, plus you can have rings + an amulet to help bump up the difficulty, allowing you to get past Elder Sanctum faster. And Elder Sanctum is an amazing spot for massacre bonuses. You can’t help but end up level 15+ if you start off at level 12.

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yep, but its rather uninteresting to gamble for it.

If you get greenstones, its better to just roll for bracers > leorics helm > leorics ring.
And if you get karleis its either wait for lvl 31 quivers (HPS) or just go with the two leorics too

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Etched Sigil is a way better option. You have a 62% chance to get an Etched Sigil on 475 shards, but only a 37% chance to get a Manald Heal (rings cost 50 shards instead of 25 to gamble). And Etched Sigil is a more effective damage multiplier at low levels.

Manald Heal scales with attack speed. Attack speed both gives you a better chance to proc Manald Heal, and more Manald Heal procs within each proc window. At low attack speed, Manald Heal honestly isn’t very good. And levelling, you’ll probably be running a 2-hander, which means your attack speed will be quite low. Like 1.1 APS maybe.

At 1.1 APS, I think you’ll find you have far more consistent results with Etched Sigil. Plus you’re significantly more likely to gamble one.

EDIT: Going for Manald Heal made more sense back in like S9-S11 when it was the top build post-70. Getting one at low levels was a lot easier than getting one at level 70 early in a season. But now that it’s fallen out of use, it’s not really valuable strictly as a levelling tool. It only really made sense to go for Manald when it was part of an endgame build.

Disintegrate (unlocked at 21) is the skill you want for levelling on a wizard. It’s quite strong. Way better than waiting 2 minutes for Archon to come off cooldown.

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Yes his twitch video was great for techniques. All good advice you furnished. The odds of rolling a bow with a WD and getting level reduction something in the 20’s is very easy. The monk took about 5-6 try’s to get a bow with damage and the same three rollable stats. I’ve now practice the VI play so should save a bit of time with early leveling. :slightly_smiling_face:

Leveling with a DH makes me think that this game is so flawed from the ground up :smiley:

If you try the Halls of Agony 1 Trap at VI twice you get to 15 or a bit higher. Just kit your wearables from the merchants.

Planning on playing both Necro and DH this season… my thoughts:

-Necro is undeniably faster LEVEL 1-70, but…

-DH will be undeniably faster GRIFT 1-70… As nearly every non terrible necro build requires Legacy Gem

  1. Push DH first, build shadow to get primals unlocked…

  2. Farm to GoD build, then speed farm like a madman to gear up and boost gems.

  3. Push necro lvl 70 with 25+ gem of ease, max ruby in helm, pre-gambled Corpse Ex gloves, Leorics helm/ring, and a leveled Legacy Gem ready to go.

  4. Play both characters as needed/wanted.