Here is my way personal best:
get the stash ready: xp potion, ultimate merit, get scraps, signs for faction quest, royal jelly, dynamite, hp and mana potions, faction mandats
create the hero. Go to the crucible, get all the stuff from the stash
go to normal. use the merit, xp potion. get lore notes in devil crossing, barrowholm, Forgotton god start town. Level 13 circa now.
get all devotions shrine per riftgate
1 hour later -> level 35 circa -> start elite, before craft antivenom solve, silk watch etc…
Elite: Normal questing all content.
5hours later -> level 75 circa -> start ultimate, before again, check your gear and components
Dont know how long it take to Level 94. First time I tried this yesterday and now i am in elite.
— this method is new for me. Before it was: Crucible for 5 devotion points, rush and quest normal difficulty all content. Rush and quest elite difficulty beside aom after the sewers. Ultimate again, everything to the sewers in aom. Last time 13 Hours ingame time till level 94
— anyone else have other methods? Better methods?
That sounds like a very fast method. I have not used merits yet. But I personally play more time at normal, where difficulty level is lower. That allows me to start collecting legendary, valuable epics and have faction items unlocked. Plus until I collect good items and cover resistances, can breeze through content, without fear of dying. Then just do the quests in Elite and Ultimate and job is done.
Acquiring that many lore notes at the start is a waste of time I’d think. Most efficient to rush devotions and get xp along the way so once you hit 55 devo you can focus on xp grind.
6 hours with xp pot to lvl 75 sounds a bit slow but idk what mastery, skills you use or just how fast you intend on zooming up.
I’ve basically been doing the same minus some of the stuff (thanks for the pointers). The only thing I’d add is put on Lokarr Set (if you have it). The lack of armor really hurts the Sentinel I’m leveling now, so you need to get you’re defenses up early when going melee.
I fully explored the map with one character. Copy and paste that into the new character. Pop all my faction mandates, slap on my lokarr set, pull up grimtools checklist and check things off as I go. Nothing speedy about it I just enjoy leveling and full clearing
I usually get quick lvls early by doing this:
-Use a high lvl char in ultimate to have stashed ready the ultimate token from Act 7 (FG town) vendor.
-Start a new char and finish 1st quest so you are granted access to the Devils Crossing.
-Get the ultimate token from the shared stash and use it. Now you can access Elite and Ultimate.
-Now, when you have finished Quest 1 in normal, you can go inside of Devils Crossing in Elite/Ultimate and talk to the gatekeeper and in the corner youll find Sahdina (spirit guide). Speaking to both of the NPCs will give you nice XP, you should maybe hit around lvl 20 now?
If I have time I usually take my lvl 2 toon to Crucible for 4-5 devotions points. You should be around lvl 12-13 when you quit.
Yeah just by talking to these NPCs gives huge xp boost, once you complete that first quest in normal. I do the same thing, before i do anything else. Talking to the gate keeper and sadhina in elite, then ultimate, will instantly gain you tons of XP while an XP pot is active- done this many times and ita the fastest giant burst of XP possible in the early game, since if the quest is completed in normal you wont even have to complete it in elite or ultimate and can just run right into the town and speak to these people.
I’m not after fastest time.
I do everything you do then switch to Ulrimate wearing Lokarr gear and play from then on. At level 40/50 I trade out the Lokarr gear but I play with xp potions every time. I reach level 100 around the Bastion of Chaos area.
This means that I don’t get all the shrines till I practically finish Forgotten Gods content. Sometimes Ancient Grove is too difficult without those last few devotions or end game augments, so I usually finish the content and redo the dungeons that I struggled with originally
update:
8:40 Hours to level 94, without pushing myself to be fast.
Method: Xp potion all the way. Lokkar set till level 50. Get mandats and merit ready. Get all the notes in FG start town and the two in barrowholm. After that you are level 13. Get all the devotion shrines in normal with porting from rift to rift and rush to the shrines.
I started Elite with level 37 and 40min playtime.
Did the main quest and all the quest on the main way, killed the endgame bosses. Did not grind anything and started Ultimate with level 79. And something around 6 hour playtime.
Ultimate the same like elite. Did the main quest and side quest on the way. Now I am level 94, 8:40h playtime and at the necropolis.
Next time I will try this: Get as fast as possible in ultimate content and try to grind a lot of levels in dungeons. As a example: Only the one level of the ashen waste got my nearly 2 Level in a realy short time.
Another thing that i usually do: if you reach a point when low armor of Lokarr make it not safe anymore don’t stash it out, but keep it in your inventory. You can equip it temporarily when you return to NPCs/bounty table to complete the quest and receive the xp boost.
I just did this with my new chaos Sentinel after like 3 month break.
Unlock all difficulties
Get all easily obtainable letters, all including Lokarr set + exp potion -lvl 11
Visit ~30 fastest shrines on Normal + Pine Barrens quests (without tyrant hold boss quest) -lvl 30
Visit 25 fastest shrines on Elite + Pine Barrens quests (without tyrant hold boss quest) -lvl 52, these 4 points takes like 3 hours
Start & enjoy full Ultimate playthrough on lvl 52 with 55/55 devotions which is still pretty challenging but not impossibly annoying.
If i can keep Lokarr set all the time, i reach 94 somewhere in the Blood Grove usually. Otherwise it is somewhere in Gloomwald.
It is squishy but with full devotions it is doable, unless you play melee. Then it needs to throw away Lokarr and get lvl 50 regular stuff. ALso squishy, but much more comfortable.
