Never played diablo 3 before. One thing I would like to do is to play story for the first time on highest possible difficulty. How would I go about that?
I don’t want to play through story as a weak character and on low levels, I would like to grind, get good gear and play story on a proper difficulty for my level/gear.
In diablo 4, you can ignore story, level up your character but then story becomes a joke bc you are overleveled + you cannot access WT3 without completing a story.
So basically, my question is, what is the highest difficulty I can start to do the story on for the first time playing? And how would I go about doing that?
As @MadTom stated, the highest Difficulty you can start with a new Character is Torment VI (Torment 6). Once your Character reaches Level 70 you can play any Difficulty. The highest is Torment XVI (Torment 16).
And what content is there for me to do before starting the campaign? Is any content locked for me and will only be available after the campaign?
Mainly, what would/could I do to gear up/level up to torment 6 and then go after campaign?
It has been a very long time since my first time, but if I remember it correctly you have to do the story at least one time to unlock adventure mode. That being the case there is really nothing you can do to prep beforehand. As was mentioned earlier doing it without the cube on T6 would be very difficult already. Good Luck.
This requirement was removed many months ago. It’s now possible to start in Adventure Mode without ever having had a hero play through the Campaign, including on non-seasonal heroes.
Thanks for the update, I missed hearing of that change. In which case the OP could do adventure mode until fully geared at which point playing the story on T6 would be so easy as to be no challenge whatsoever. They could also upon reaching lvl 70 play on T16 but even then when fully geared would not be much of a challenge.
Well, if you wanted to play content outside of Campaign Mode, then play in Adventure Mode. You can go anywhere you want in any Act, leveling up and gearing your Character. You can play non-Season Adventure Mode if you choose. The only restriction(s) I know of is (are):
Maximum Torment 6 until you reach Level 70. (As I already mentioned).
Challenge Rift: You must have a Level 70 Character that has successfully completed any Level Greater Rift. (Nephalem Rifts do not count).
In the OP you did say:
And playing the story would be in Campaign Mode. End-game content and Seasons are Adventure Mode.
Note: In Adventure Mode you can use Kanai’s Cube, once you find it, to extract Legendary Powers and equip them for your Character to use. You can equip one Weapon, one Armor and one Jewelry Power. Kanai’s Cube does not exist in Campaign Mode. But, any Powers you equipped using the Cube goes with your Character if you switch from Adventure Mode to Campaign Mode.
There are multiple ways you could do this. I would:
Start in Season 30 Adventure Mode.
Complete the first four Chapters and earn a full free Set for your Class.
At this point you could switch to Campaign Mode, increase the Game Difficulty to Torment 6 or higher if you’re Level 70 and play through the main story line. (As @StarElven stated).
Easiest way is:
Make a seasonal character
do the challenge rift
complete the 2nd node on the Altar (remove item character level requirements)
upgrade Haedrig to level 12
craft level 70 gear (all will say level one. use the top yellow ones “sovereign”)
profit
Maybe I’m remembering wrong. But, unless you have a Level 70 Character that has successfully completed a Greater Rift, any Level, Season or non-Season, isn’t the Challenge Rift locked?
If you play adventure mode (preferably seasonal character) and reach level 70, do the seasonal journey quests and you will earn a free set. Now, all of a sudden your character is thousands times stronger, just by having a full set. Farm the other items (rings, weapon, offhand, bracers, legendary gems, etc.) to finish the build. Optionally, use it to farm another set of your preference or something else stronger than your current set. Currently any set of any class can play in Torment 16 which is the highest difficulty. Then start campaign in Torment 16 but expect things to die in one shot. The most challenging content that D3 has is greater rifts. They can go all the way up to GR150. Campaign is just for the story in D3 there isn’t anything rewarding there. The same content that campaign has to offer, is also in adventure mode and every fast travel point is unlocked from the start. So if you enjoy killing a boss time and time again do it in adventure, by doing bounties or something like that.