I’ve been playing Veteran exclusively on the 6 characters I’ve made so far. From hwat I’ve heard it has more enemies (normal & heroes) and they have increased OA + DA, but you get more loot and experience due to this increased density.
I’ve been wondering whether it would be more efficient to blaze through the first difficulty on Normal? Veteran is always a bit annoying because your build takes a while to get rolling, you have no movement speed or lack either AoE or single target… once you reach lv50 and can start equipping some of the good blues & purples, and also have enough skill and devotion points that your builds starts working well and you only need to flesh out a bit, the game becomes a lot more fun.
Is it a good idea to just play through normal to get your build rolling more quickly, once you have some gear stashed from other characters and you’re basically leveling to equip it?
It can be a little slower starting vet, depending on the build. Higher dps builds, like NB tend to have an easier time clearing mobs in vet starting out while others may take a bit more to get in the groove. You also have to be a bit more careful with the squishy builds if you want to tackle DS and the like early on.
If you want a faster clear speed thru Normal diff then just stay on Normal. You can always toggle it on/off if you want to see how your build is stacking up in preparation for Elite or turn it on if you want more Heroes and their loot orbs.
Overall you should come out of Normal a few to several levels difference below what you would with a full Vet clear (not factoring in if you are doing excess farming). But again, you can always toggle it on if you need.
Normal will definitely feel like a fast stroll for you if you are solely used to vet.
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For softcore I always go Veteran, untill/ unless I hit a wall where it just takes to long to clear a boss (either from hp regen or just lack of dps) than I switch to normal. Hardcore chars I always go normal instead of veteran since you only have one life.
Turning on Veteran after the Warden used to be a thing, too. Idk if people still do that.
Normal is best kill fast and be done with first difficulty quicker and if you need levels before elite just do BOC few times
There is nothing worth doing Vet for
Except for “fun”, which is the only reason we’re playing the game anyway. For any game, if the meat of the game isn’t fun then I don’t play it: when rushing to the endgame is the only way to get to the good parts then the devs need to cut out everything else.
I used to only play normal, as a casual player. But when i started a saboteur duel wield fire strike build i thought id give veteran a try. And im glad i did. Its much more fun, because its a little bit more challenging. With more mobs and hero monsters. But as someone mentioned earlier its easier with a high dps build, like saboteur, spellbreaker or blademaster. I tried a ranged cadence build, also blademaster. I had to switch back to normal because it took to long time to kill any monster. But then again a ranged cadence build is probably not viable in any difficulty.
The thing is , I don’t find it very fun to play with a quarter of a build, which is usually the case during Veteran. I usually have the most fun on Elite when my build starts to get rolling thanks to more avalable skill points, devotion ad high-level gear with procs and strong affixes. I’m no longer just spamming a single skill for leveling, for example.
Yeah, “fun” is a relative term. I personally find it “fun” to work a build from the beginning and watch the parts come together as it helps me understand it better. For that reason, I like veteran as it also provide more challenge along the way to test the build.
But you’re asking about efficiency, and I feel normal is definitely be more efficient to get you to Elite as the clear speeds are so much quicker. As others said, you can always switch to veteran at the end to get some more levels and farm for some gear in BoC if you’re not quite up to strength yet for elite.