Diablo II Rushing

[TBSN]

I've played D2:LOD for a long time, but mostly SP or by myself in MP. I have tried rushing a new character with some friends, but the thing is this; the character doesn't level up!

I get the waypoints and all the quests done, but I really don't level up much if at all, even when I'm in a party with the people who are rushing me...

So, am I doing something wrong, or is the sole purpose of rushing to get the quests and waypoints done, and you still have to level up the 'good old fashion way,' i.e. slashing through monsters for hours...

This game is SO far from dead, and although most of the posts here are about the new and upcoming games, I'm sure a fair amount of people here play D2 still from time to time. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Drift3r]

Originally posted by: TBSN
I've played D2:LOD for a long time, but mostly SP or by myself in MP. I have tried rushing a new character with some friends, but the thing is this; the character doesn't level up!

I get the waypoints and all the quests done, but I really don't level up much if at all, even when I'm in a party with the people who are rushing me...

So, am I doing something wrong, or is the sole purpose of rushing to get the quests and waypoints done, and you still have to level up the 'good old fashion way,' i.e. slashing through monsters for hours...

This game is SO far from dead, and although most of the posts here are about the new and upcoming games, I'm sure a fair amount of people here play D2 still from time to time. Any help would be appreciated!

The way I did it when I played was to rush through all the acts in the modes of play and then mainly level via cow rushes via the not so secret cow level. I don't know if they have changed the mechanic so that lower levels can't gain any xp or not. If they have done so then that sucks big time.

 

[Zenoth]

Since patch 1.10 leveling characters has been controlled and limited to certain Acts and Difficulties at certain Levels. Starting in Act 1 Normal to Act V Normal, you can reach Level 45 or so. Starting in Act 1 Nightmare to Act V Nightmare, you can reach Level 70 or so (with patience and lots of Baal runs). And, you guess it, in Hell, Act V, you'll be able to reach Level 99 (again, with patience and lots of Baal runs).

So, for example, Act 1 Normal can only Level you up to ... say ... around Level 20. Then Act II Normal can give you perhaps five to seven new Levels. Then in Act III Normal, perhaps up to Level 32 or 34. Then Act IV, will give you maybe enough Levels to reach around 40. And then in Act V up to 45 before it slows down so much that you have to go to the next difficulty level, Nightmare. And then in Nightmare the same story goes on, up to Hell where finally you can go up to Level 99.

Back in the days during patch 1.09 and prior to it you can basically Level up to around 50 in Normal (Act V), up to around 80 in Nightmare Act V, and then from around 75 or 80, to 99, in Act V Hell or Hell Cows, or the famous "Bloody Runs" (Bloody Foothills in Avt 5). Most of my characters in patch 1.08 and patch 1.09 reached Level 97 or 98 in around two or three months, playing manually, no automatic bots, just playing by myself in ONE players, private games (not 8-players games). Anyone could Level extremely fast in Hell Cow runs (it was the most popular Leveling activity back then, and also for Magic Find runs, since those Bovine monsters could drop anything in the game.

But Blizzard changed a lot about Leveling, Monsters and Items drops in patch 1.10. But they haven't constrained anything. The real difference now is that if you want to Level "fast", you'll have to do it properly, in the right Act orders at the right character Levels, and it will Level up fast, to a certain point. Starting from Level 90 exactly is where it slows down much. Starting from Level 92 you'll need lots of patience. Starting from 96 you basically need an automatic bot to Level to 97 and beyond. And going from 98 to 99, playing ALONE, manually and completely legit even with a 10% Extra Experience Annihilus Small Charm it's virtually impossible to do (it is technically possible, but it takes around half a year or more, I'd personally say around two years if you keep playing by yourself without any party games).

Hope it helps.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
Since patch 1.10 leveling characters has been controlled and limited to certain Acts and Difficulties at certain Levels. Starting in Act 1 Normal to Act V Normal, you can reach Level 45 or so. Starting in Act 1 Nightmare to Act V Nightmare, you can reach Level 70 or so (with patience and lots of Baal runs). And, you guess it, in Hell, Act V, you'll be able to reach Level 99 (again, with patience and lots of Baal runs).

So, for example, Act 1 Normal can only Level you up to ... say ... around Level 20. Then Act II Normal can give you perhaps five to seven new Levels. Then in Act III Normal, perhaps up to Level 32 or 34. Then Act IV, will give you maybe enough Levels to reach around 40. And then in Act V up to 45 before it slows down so much that you have to go to the next difficulty level, Nightmare. And then in Nightmare the same story goes on, up to Hell where finally you can go up to Level 99.

Back in the days during patch 1.09 and prior to it you can basically Level up to around 50 in Normal (Act V), up to around 80 in Nightmare Act V, and then from around 75 or 80, to 99, in Act V Hell or Hell Cows, or the famous "Bloody Runs" (Bloody Foothills in Avt 5). Most of my characters in patch 1.08 and patch 1.09 reached Level 97 or 98 in around two or three months, playing manually, no automatic bots, just playing by myself in ONE players, private games (not 8-players games). Anyone could Level extremely fast in Hell Cow runs (it was the most popular Leveling activity back then, and also for Magic Find runs, since those Bovine monsters could drop anything in the game.

But Blizzard changed a lot about Leveling, Monsters and Items drops in patch 1.10. But they haven't constrained anything. The real difference now is that if you want to Level "fast", you'll have to do it properly, in the right Act orders at the right character Levels, and it will Level up fast, to a certain point. Starting from Level 90 exactly is where it slows down much. Starting from Level 92 you'll need lots of patience. Starting from 96 you basically need an automatic bot to Level to 97 and beyond. And going from 98 to 99, playing ALONE, manually and completely legit even with a 10% Extra Experienced Annihilus Small Charm it's virtually impossible to do (it is technically possible, but it takes around half a year or more, I'd personally say around two years if you keep playing by yourself without any party games).
Hope it helps.

I used to play this quite a bit, and the highest I ever got was a barbarian at level 65 or something. It is just insane to me that there were SO many people with characters in the upper 90's, not to mention hardcore players in the 90's. It's just nuts.

 

[Dumac]

Here is the level schedule of what you do.

1-15 Screw around in Act I and do Tristram runs.
15-20 Tomb runs in Act II
20-25 Cow Level runs
25-40 Ancients/Baal's Minions

Then, switch to Nightmare. From now on, just try to get to Baal's Minions and do runs there.

I only got my Sorc up to 87, but it took less than a week using that schedule IIRC.

 

[SexyK]

I may just have to go find my Diablo II disc now, thanks! ;-)

 

[TBSN]

wow, thanks for all the info.

So, what I assumed was that if you were partied with people who were killing monsters above my level, you would get a cut of the exp. Apparently you have to kill the monsters yourself to get the exp., so what you suggest is rushing to get the quests done (I've played through the game a billion times, I don't need to concern myself with the storyline then just go to a place where I can comfortably level up, like Tristram in Act I for example, then go to the next Act and rush that...

The confusion I had was that I thought rushing actually got you experience. Needless to say I was quite disappointed when I didn't even get to level 2 when my friend killed Andariel while rushing me...

 

[CottonRabbit]

You don't have to kill anything yourself. There are simply level breakpoints that determine how much exp you'll get when a party member kills someone. For example, you'll leech negligible exp from Baal until your level hits 25 and no exp from tomb runs until level 15. Similarly, you won't get much exp off Andy at level 2. If you follow Dumac's guide, you can leech your way to 80 in no time.

An even faster way to level would be to bug rush from level one all the way to Hell Act 4 and do Chaos runs until you hit lvl 65. Hell Chaos doesn't seem to have a big penalty for people leeching at low levels.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1

Originally posted by: Zenoth
Since patch 1.10 leveling characters has been controlled and limited to certain Acts and Difficulties at certain Levels. Starting in Act 1 Normal to Act V Normal, you can reach Level 45 or so. Starting in Act 1 Nightmare to Act V Nightmare, you can reach Level 70 or so (with patience and lots of Baal runs). And, you guess it, in Hell, Act V, you'll be able to reach Level 99 (again, with patience and lots of Baal runs).

So, for example, Act 1 Normal can only Level you up to ... say ... around Level 20. Then Act II Normal can give you perhaps five to seven new Levels. Then in Act III Normal, perhaps up to Level 32 or 34. Then Act IV, will give you maybe enough Levels to reach around 40. And then in Act V up to 45 before it slows down so much that you have to go to the next difficulty level, Nightmare. And then in Nightmare the same story goes on, up to Hell where finally you can go up to Level 99.

Back in the days during patch 1.09 and prior to it you can basically Level up to around 50 in Normal (Act V), up to around 80 in Nightmare Act V, and then from around 75 or 80, to 99, in Act V Hell or Hell Cows, or the famous "Bloody Runs" (Bloody Foothills in Avt 5). Most of my characters in patch 1.08 and patch 1.09 reached Level 97 or 98 in around two or three months, playing manually, no automatic bots, just playing by myself in ONE players, private games (not 8-players games). Anyone could Level extremely fast in Hell Cow runs (it was the most popular Leveling activity back then, and also for Magic Find runs, since those Bovine monsters could drop anything in the game.

But Blizzard changed a lot about Leveling, Monsters and Items drops in patch 1.10. But they haven't constrained anything. The real difference now is that if you want to Level "fast", you'll have to do it properly, in the right Act orders at the right character Levels, and it will Level up fast, to a certain point. Starting from Level 90 exactly is where it slows down much. Starting from Level 92 you'll need lots of patience. Starting from 96 you basically need an automatic bot to Level to 97 and beyond. And going from 98 to 99, playing ALONE, manually and completely legit even with a 10% Extra Experienced Annihilus Small Charm it's virtually impossible to do (it is technically possible, but it takes around half a year or more, I'd personally say around two years if you keep playing by yourself without any party games).
Hope it helps.

I used to play this quite a bit, and the highest I ever got was a barbarian at level 65 or something. It is just insane to me that there were SO many people with characters in the upper 90's, not to mention hardcore players in the 90's. It's just nuts.

i stopped playing a few years ago cant remember what patach 1.13? anyway i had 4 chars on ECHCL over 90, you coudl rush one at that point to 85 in a day, i used to rush people all the time on my Hammerdin

 

[TBSN]

well I think things have changed with the latest patches, 1.10 and 1.11, because getting to lvl 85 in one day is definitely not possible anymore...

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: TBSN
well I think things have changed with the latest patches, 1.10 and 1.11, because getting to lvl 85 in one day is definitely not possible anymore...

I'm not sure; it took me about a week to get to 87, but I didn't play that long each day. Also, I wasn't going for extreme efficiency; I stayed in Normal Baals runs until around 50 or so and messed around in other games while looking for loot.

Done correctly, it could be done in one day I think. It would take a large portion of the day, however. At the very most, two days is enough time.

 

[TBSN]

it took you a week, playing by yourself? Wow...

 

[Jeeebus]

Originally posted by: TBSN
well I think things have changed with the latest patches, 1.10 and 1.11, because getting to lvl 85 in one day is definitely not possible anymore...

Umm, you can hit lvl 80 in about an hour if done right.

If you want to fast level, most people "glitch" rush whereby you get a lvl 1 in Hell difficulty. Normally you shouldn't be able to do this because to do Ancients quest you need to be lvl 24 and 40 (normal and nightmare, respectively). However, if you rush a character to Act 5, sit in town, and join a party that is killing Baal for the quest, you will get the quest as well and move on to the next difficulty - bypassing the Ancients quest.

So now you're in Hell difficulty at level 1. You can't join Hell Baal games because you need to be level 60 to get the Hell Ancients quest. Two choices:

1. The slower option:

Hell Chaos Sanctuary runs. Usually led by a hammerdin, a lvl 1 in the Chaos Sanctuary will level to lvl 60 very quickly, usually 4-5 levels per run. At lvl 60, you can then start doing Hell Baal runs.

2. The MUCH faster option:

Uber Tristam leveling. Instead of killing ubers for the torch, the purpose here is to trap Mephisto in a house while a couple hammerdins keep killing Meph's endless waves of spawns. Group of leechers (low level characters) just sit in a corner and reap the experience.

Happy to provide you a rush and/or explain any of this in game (assuming you play east sc ladder). PM me here is probably best way to get in touch with me, or you can whisper me in game /w *jeeebus_5

 

[TBSN]

sweet! thanks for the info... Once I get my main computer up and running again I'll try all that...

 

[potato28]

If your a Pally, you can rush with your party and still gain XP through the auras. I got to level 35 in 2 hours from rushing as a Pally, just make sure not to get lost and die too much. I never really played any other classes, other than a level 11 Necro that bored the hell out of me after a while.