So I started a new character after my pierce commando proved inadequate for the task and I got to thinking about this subject and how you could do this. So my run through normal took me six and a half hours and mostly was avoiding the mobs stopping to kill the star marked enemies and the bosses. I did hardly any side quests and I got all the shrines. I jumped into elite at low level and got gear checked and level checked.
So the first two things I learned is to do this successfully you would need gear for each interval level, especially when you start elite and ultimate. You also have to have excellent knowledge of the game and the most streamlined way to do things. I found that I ran out of scrap though and had to farm for quite a while to get enough scrap to open bastion (haven’t run it yet on normal.) Then after getting gear and level checked hard I had to spend a few hours farming in normal to try and get what I needed. So I’ve come to the realisation that you need some very specific things to be able to speed run to 85.
So for you guys that do this successfully, what would be your tips for people who would attempt this? Am I right in thinking you need to have some very established characters who have farmed some pretty choice gear to do this effectively?
I never use any leveling any gear except equipping legendaries/dank greens at 70-75
Don’t need to farm anything, waste of time unless you’re desperate for resists going into ultimate though with gear you find+augments you should do fine really. Don’t do bastion or steps until ultimate, better to just go ham on main quest line and faction side quest.
Move speed is op. Always use the boots with most move speed. If your classes have a dash get it asap, if you don’t then equip a riftstone immediately upon hitting level 15.
If you want to be super boss stack a bunch of movespeed/%xp gear
This is the most important part. My current 1-85 record is a hair under 17 hours, but I average 20-24.
If you’re just powerleveling, getting every shrine is not something you do. You get what you can on the way through Normal (while taking the Act 1 skip) and nothing more.
Gear definitely helps but it’s secondary to game knowledge (other than movespeed boots for every major level interval). Even with optimal gear you’ll be underleveled going into Ultimate and will need to survive primarily by your own skill.
I find my biggest issue transitioning between difficulties is getting the resists maxed. I get to the end of elite and I end up having to farm for many hours to get the rep to get the augments to survive in the next higher difficulty.
Not gonna lie, the way I do it is to just wing it and not care about my resists. If they’re really dire I grab an Avatar of Mercy to avoid dying too much but I’d rather level quicker and I’m not upset if my character has 3-4 deaths at the end of Ultimate.
Furthermore I don’t bother using full components or any augments until I can equip my final gear. Components are strictly mark of the traveller/ectoplasm/skill granters until then.
I ignore my resistances until I enter Ultimate. Usually by then I have decent gear that will hold me until I hit 75 for my end game gear, and enough faction rep naturally to be able to buy some OK augments. That said, I DO go out of my way to do all the Outcast’s quests up to Valbury in Elite and Normal. I refuse to do Valbury, but even without that, she’s generally up there by Ultimate, and she’s got great Res augments.
It also helps that I don’t use leveling gear, so I have no qualms about slapping on res components there either, because I don’t mind destroying the gear to get the component back. It wastes iron a bit, but I really don’t care. I usually sell some excess legendary on every character I start, and grab greens until my pack fills up.
I don’t usually speed run though, so my viewpoint is of limited use I’m sure.
So you say you wing it or you don’t care about your resists but for example you go into ultimate, you are underleveled and your resists are not up to scratch. How do you survive the gear and resist checks? Like having to capture the wightmire rift? Usually I get gastrix spawn when I try to capture this point underleveled and under resisted and his poison absolutely destroys you. Or I guess you just bypass these kinds of areas and come back to them?