I am currently playing on Elite difficulty with my level 77 Pyromancer (just made it to Homestead). I am curious how others approach Elite. Do you buzz through as quickly as you can, so that you can complete the game and restart on Ultimate, or do you take your time to explore everything? I’ve sort of been vacillating between the two, and I really can’t decide which I like better. I love exploring – even when I’ve been through the map already. On the other hand, it’s like “do I really need to visit the Steps of Torment again? I saw enough of that when I was farming rep”.
I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer, but I am curious how others approach replaying at more difficult levels. Is there any difference in how you approach Normal vs Veteran vs Elite vs Ultimate?
Along these lines, and possibly deserving of its own thread, is there life past 100? I’m an old-time altoholic, so I’m not asking about restarting with a new alt (I do plenty of that already). I’m wondering if the game continues to be fun and challenging for your character who has reached the level cap.
Normal and elite - once through all areas and doing all quests (don’t go inside rogue dungeons though) ultimate is where I’ll start rerunning areas to finish off reps./farm loot.
Beyond 100? Yes there is still mote loot to get. Although once you get top notch stuff that drops off too unless you are big into collecting for collectings sake - one of the reasons i loathe playing a build that needs specific legendaries or a set to really function.
I’m not sure how many runs you’ve done, but I personally find it repetitive. What I personally do is I clear normal for the easy devotions, then power my way to Ultimate ASAP.
I’ll even build the bridge leading out of devil’s crossing right off the bat and skip dealing with krieg.
Normal - run forward like an idiot, do every quest, pick one shot chests if you find them, don’t bother about monsters running towards you
Veteran - I don’t play it anymore (else, look “Normal”)
Elite - Normal + if you know where one shot chests are, pick them
Ultimate - I am new to the game, I gotta explore everything twice and search for hidden locations and one shot chests.
Before I became decently good at this game, I used to explore everything on every difficulty.
Now you’ll ask why I don’t care about one shot chests on normal/elite? Imo, epic items (blue) are very weak (not all of them) and they mostly drop from one shot chests in normal and elite.
I’m an explorer through all difficulties normally. Coming from TQIT for many years I’m used to clearing everything while still not hitting the level cap in that game. Although I’ve also been playing GD since early access I only recently got my first L100 toon about halfway through Act 4 Ultimate (this is including doing the AoM expansion). And suddenly I was pretty much demotivated to continue. I’m not a farmer so loot hunting doesn’t add anything to the game for me. My character was done level and devotion wise so I stopped playing that character for a while. But I did want to finish the game too so eventually I went back and pushed through, just doing the quests along the way and not exploring.
At the moment I’m just doing quests through all the difficulties, i.e. no more exploring for the time being, to see if I can get further through the game before hitting L100 with another toon and hoping I don’t get the same feeling again. I could skip playing AoM (and possibly FG) in the lower difficulties, but that goes against the grain for me so don’t really want to resort to that. I’m hoping that it’s just going to be a case of getting used to the fact that in GD I’ll reach the level cap before the end of the game, but I’m also worried that when Forgotten Gods comes out that cap will be hit even sooner.
I pretty much agree with all the answers so far, because it very much depends on my mood, and the character I am playing.
With some I want to rush to certain skills or devotions, so I might skip certain areas to do other first. Pine Barrens + Potion of Clarity for example for fast leveling (the quests yield a ton of experience).
What I usually skip nowadays are the Kymon’s Chosen/Death’s Vigil questline on veteran and elite, and the AoM content (I just run up until Barrowholme, activating the 2 factions, and/or getting the first 2-3 shrines).
Doing the AoM stuff 3 times is just too much. Not my favorite part of the game anyway. :undecided:
Exploring.
Well, after having played 4k+ hours, I kinda know what´s around most corners. Some areas I like more than others. Sometimes I clear everything, I guess it mostly depends on my mood. And the character.
Ultimate.
Oh glorious.
I do everything on ultimate, sometimes a bit out of order, but who cares.
Also: there are “ultimate only” quests.
So ultimate is where it´s at!
