Just finished first run - very confused

I just did my first run (with all DLC installed) on normal mode. Finished with a lvl 54 Inquisitor/shaman which I did not love. I liked inquisitor+long range weapon and had most of my points invested into that, with only savagery from Shaman at the end.

I was under the false impression that I would unlock the next lvl of difficulty for all characters/new characters,and I could just start a new character that I liked better with the harder difficulty. I can’t seem to do that. I tried to make a new character but only normal difficulty was available again. I could switch up to veteran on my old character but that restarted the game with my current character and I barely like playing it…

Are these my only options?

I’m also torn on what other builds to try - I want one with a lot of pets since I felt alone a lot of the time, and I also want to play an elementalist since I was really enjoying the stormbox and ice runes from inquisitor. I also have a lot of good swords and heavy armor drops stored up so i was thinking soldier…idk im very torn.

I’m a mom so I dont have a ton of time to play, just an hour or so a day. What is the most time efficient way to have the most fun I guess haha.

You need to beat Elite first with one character before other characters can do Elite right away. It’s the same for Ultimate. There’s a NPC in the Conclave of the Three (near blacksmith) that sells difficulty skipping tokens.

Thank you so much! knowing that exists will help me power though it again. I assume I only have to do the main plot quest right? Or is it worth it to do side quests as well?

Some side quests award skill points and attribute points. You’ll want those at a minimum. But the extra XP is nice too while building a new toon.

Welcome to the forum. :slightly_smiling_face:

The way it works is this; you must get one character at least into the Forgotten Gods expansion content to be able to buy Merit Tokens. There’s a Champion’s Merit which will unlock Elite difficulty for other characters and a Savior’s Merit which does the same for Ultimate. You must get a character into either of these difficulties to be able to buy the relevant Token, i.e. Elite to get the Champion’s and Ultimate to get the Savior’s. You buy these Merit Tokens and then place them in the transfer stash for new characters to be able to access once they can get inside the DC prison. Or, if you have the Crucible add on, you can exit back to the character selection screen, choose the Crucible add on there, jump into the Crucible to access the smuggler there to get whichever Token you want to use from L1.

Here’ a transcript and video link where Zantai showed off how the Tokens work.

As for which builds to try next, have a look at the Beginner’s Compendium

and for pets have a look here.

While these are endgame set ups there are some links in there to budget/beginner builds you can use as well.

2 Likes

Many side quests give a lot of XP (and as Skelemental said, some give extra skill/attribute points) so I’d say yes they are worth it.
But if you wanna do only the main quest and still level up at a decent rate, I highly recommend using XP potions. You can unlock them by becoming revered with the Malmouth resistance faction. That takes some time though, not sure if you wanna invest your limited time each day to gain reputation when you could level up a 2nd character instead. But if you plan on leveling up even more characters, unlocking XP pots is absolutely worth it imho.

Ok im kinda on track. I figured out I could go back to normal difficulty which put me back at the end of the game instead of restarting so I am making my way to malmouth which is struggle lol. I will look at the suggested builds soon and that should help me not struggle so hard haha.

I also made a nightblade/soldier and necromancer/occultist who is going to be my bad guy that i am having a lot of fun with starting the game over! Thanks everyone!!

1 Like