With the addition of Season 2, leveling could not be easier in Diablo 4. The new patch introduced double Experience Points from completing Whispers. We also got new Seasonal Content that makes the early leveling much easier.
Our goal in this guide is to get all the way from Level 1 to 100 by focusing our time on the right content, optimizing our gear and build for better clear speeds, how to avoid time wasters with proper time management, and also how to farm the best equipment in the game.
Start Season 2
Starting a new season, you’ll need to make a new seasonal character. Make sure to skip the campaign, hit the Seasonal Realm, and choose World Tier 1.
As soon as you land in Ked Bardu, start doing your seasonal quests to unlock the new Vampiric Powers. All throughout the leveling process, you’ll want to continue doing these quests because:
- You’ll get access to powerful legendary aspects through the seasonal journey.
- You’ll get Vampiric Powers that are only obtainable through specific quests.
- You’ll get Smoldering Ashes, which will be used to get a 20% increase in experience points.
Level 1-50 XP Farm
After that, your main focus for leveling is Blood Harvest.
Blood Harvest is everything we wanted Helltide to be and more. Similar to Helltide, a random region will be selected, which will be invaded by vampires. The mob density in this region can be intense, which is great for fast leveling.
It’ll also give us tons of Potent Blood to level up our Vampiric Powers. And Blood Harvest constantly drops equipment, so you’ll always be well geared throughout the leveling process.
Here’s how to get the most out of Blood Harvest:
Never stop going from group to group of enemies. You’ll need to clear everything along the way for optimal experience points.
Don’t forget to complete your whispers. Blood Harvest came with its own special whispers. In the recent patch, whispers received a 100% buff in experience points depending on the tier.
As soon as you hit the cap on Grim Favors, turn them in at the Tree of Whispers. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on the extra experience points.
Don’t skip Vampiric Altars. Touching an Altar will tether it to you, draining your health over time. Waves and waves of enemies will spawn continuously until you leave the bounds indicator on the ground.
A new special item will drop in Blood Harvest called Blood Lures. Instead of using 15 of these on Sanguine Altars, head to the icon for Blood Harvest on the map, where you’ll find 3 Blood Lure Pedestals. Each of these Pedestals will cost 50 Blood Lures to activate, so you’ll need 150 in total to activate the event.
Starting this event will spawn waves of enemies and will end with a boss fight. This event is one of my favorite ways to level. It encourages you to team up for doing this because each Pedestal can be activated by a different player, which means you can share the cost.
Legion Events are another great source of experience. Anytime you see an upcoming Legion Event on the map, you’ll want to head over.
Be sure to invite nearby players to your party and interact with the campfire before the event starts. In total, this will give us a 25% boost in experience points.
When the Legion Event starts, you’ll need to defeat a predetermined path of enemies and complete objectives before the timer runs out. Normally, a lot of players come to this event, so you should be able to clear it easily.
Leveling Example
Here’s a real example of how effective this exactly is.
I’m level 46 and keep in mind, leveling gets harder the higher you get to 50. Just by running around Blood Harvest, I completed all 3 whispers, which gave me 110,000 experience points in total. I turned these in at the tree of whispers for an extra 140,000 experience points. I finished off my Blood Harvest by doing the main event that cost me 150 Blood Lures.
After defeating the endless waves of enemies from this event, I had already made 809,000 experience points. I switched over to the Legion Event and invited anyone who showed up. I made sure I interacted with the Campfire for the extra 15% Experience Points Bonus.
After I finished, I received a bonus 30,000 experience points for completing the event. Legion events can also spawn as a whisper, which would’ve given me an extra 40,000 experience points and 3 Grim Favors.
Just from completing Blood Harvest, turning in my Grim Favors and doing a Legion Event, I gained a total of 1,042,000 experience points.
How To Get Stronger?
Increasing your clear times means more experience points.
To play efficiently, I recommend trying out a leveling build found on any of these websites - Mobalytics, Icyveins & Maxroll. They’ll give you an outline of which skills and passives to choose, which legendary aspects synergize with what builds, and tips on how to play the class.
Don’t forget to do your class quests. Most class quests are at level 15, while Necromancer is at level 25. These offer bonuses that will improve your class or change your playstyle.
Using the Codex of Power is an easy way to boost your damage. Browse the offensive tab in the Codex to see if any of these options will complement your build. Imprinting at the Occultist will be available at Level 25.
For Vampiric Powers, you’ll want to go Hemomancy, Sanguine Brace, and Anticipation. Hemomancy offers incredible early wave clearing. Sanguine Brace is our best defensive option but requires Hunters’ Acclaim to unlock. And Anticipation gives us a 20% cooldown reduction to our ultimates.
Capstone Dungeon Word Tier 3
At level 48, you’ll get the priority quest to complete your capstone dungeon to get into World Tier 3. However, I don’t recommend doing this until level 50.
To complete this quest, you’ll need to move into World Tier 2 and go to the Cathedral of Light in Kyovashad. The Cathedral of Light basically has 2 dungeons in one, each one with their own boss. But it can be difficult if you’re new to the game or if you’re under geared. An easy way to do this is to have a friend carry you through it.
The problem is transitioning into World Tier 3 too soon can hinder your leveling. Enemies in World Tier 3 give double the experience points. But if you struggle to stay alive, it just isn’t worth it.
Transition Easily
Here’s how to smoothly transition into World Tier 3.
First, you’ll need to switch out your non sacred gear for Sacred gear. The difference between sacred and non-sacred is pretty big. An easy way to do this in Season 2 is by using your Seeker Keys from doing Blood Harvest.
Head over to a Blood Harvest and open these chests, which will pop up on the mini map. I did this by opening a ton of chests in Blood Harvest and storing it in my storage.
Scan your equipment for at least 2 affixes that compliment your build. You’ll want anything defensive, like max life, total armor, or damage reduction on body, legs, and helms. Ranks to Core Skill, Crit Chance, or Attack Speed on gloves.
For Weapons, you’re looking for high base damage and any affixes that compliment your damage types, and for accessories, it just really just depends on your build.
Hopefully, by this point, you’ve stored some legendary aspects for imprinting in your stash. Imprint these aspects at the Occultist. To save on Upgrade Materials, I recommend only upgrading your weapon at the Blacksmith.
To finish things off, you’ll want to add sockets to your new equipment if you need it. Craft Rubies for max life for your armor. Craft Diamonds for all resistance for your accessories. And most classes go either Emeralds for builds that apply vulnerable, Rubies for Overpower builds, and Amethyst for Damage Over Time builds. We will repeat this process in World Tier 4 but with Ancestral Gear later on.
The way Resistances work changed in Season 2. Now, every resistance bonus is additive instead of using inverse multiplication. There is a cap of 70% to all resistances, and elixirs can now be used to raise the cap but not past 85%.
World Tier 3 and World Tier 4 will lower your resistances by 25% and 50%. Keeping these high will help you avoid getting one shot by Elites with elemental affixes and surviving the new endgame bosses.
Nightmare Dungeons
World Tier 3 will introduce two new types of content: Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides.
Nightmare Dungeons can be done by activating a Nightmare Sigil in the consumables tab. You can obtain these by turning in Grim Favors at the Tree of Whispers.
Nightmare Sigils have 3 parts: the dungeon, the tier, and the affixes. The tier will determine the level of enemies in the Nightmare Dungeons.
There are 2 kinds of affixes, a benefit to you, and buffs to the monsters or dungeon itself.
Healing Wells, Shrines, and Chests have a chance of being cursed in Nightmare Dungeons that will spawn endless enemies for a minute.
Nightmare Dungeons are currently the only way to level glyphs, which are used in your Paragon Board.
Finishing a Nightmare Dungeon will give you 4 Diablo 4 Items, 2 of which are potentially legendary items.
Helltides
You can see a Helltide by looking for a region with a red glow. This event will be up for an hour and down for an hour.
While inside the region, you’ll see your Aberrant Cinders in the top right. You’ll need these to unlock special chests within Helltide.
Aberrant Cinders will have a chance of dropping from enemies. With each new Helltide, your Abberant Cinders will start and will not carry over.
Helltides are the only events that drop Forgotten Souls and Fiend Roses needed to upgrade gear. You’ll need Forgotten Souls to upgrade equipment at the Blacksmith and Jeweler. And you’ll need Fiend Roses to enchant items at the Occultist.
Dying in a Helltide will reduce your current cinders by half, so be careful.
Level 50-70 XP Farm
Even though Blood Harvest and Legion Events are good for xp farming, Nightmare Dungeons will probably always be the best way to level.
When farming Nightmare Dungeons, I recommend keeping within a level range that is easy to complete.
To farm experience points efficiently, you’ll need to clear out groups of enemies quickly. These nightmare dungeons are currently the best nightmare dungeons for experience points:
- Sirocco Caverns
- Flooded Depths
- Light’s Watch
- Belfry Zakara
- Jalal’s Vigil
- Ghoa Ruins
- Carrion Fields
- Buried Halls
- Vault of Forsaken
- Sanguine Chapel
Especially Sirocco Caverns, this Nightmare Dungeon is packed full of mobs and the layout for this Nightmare Dungeon is easy to follow.
I would completely avoid running these Nightmare Dungeons and I would salvage any Nightmare Sigils with these negative affixes.
Worst Nightmare Dungeons:
- Hallowed Ossuary
- Endless Gates
- Heathen’s Keep
- Leviathan’s Maw
Negative Affixes:
- Lightning Storm
- Drifting Shade
- Stormbane’s Wrath
My biggest tip for players looking to get the most out of leveling is to get used to continuously moving forward. You’ll want to defeat at least 90% of the monsters in a group before moving on to the next group.
As soon as I had decent gear in World Tier 3, I completely stopped picking up equipment and even Diablo 4 Gold. I did this to avoid being in my inventory, because this is one of the biggest experience point losses in Diablo 4.
If you’re looking to level fast in World Tier 3, stop talking to NPCs, stop opening menus, and just non stop farm Nightmare Dungeons to level 70. You’ll want to occasionally do Helltide when it’s available to create a healthy supply of Fiend Roses and Forgotten Souls.
Capstone Dungeon World Tier 4
When you’re level 70, you’ll need to complete a new capstone in order to get into World Tier 4.
This dungeon was also pretty easy except for the final boss. You can make as many attempts as you need to. Just learn to dodge his mechanics and you’ll be fine.
Similar to transitioning to World Tier 3, we’ll need to repeat this process again. Except for this time, you’ll be collecting the new Ancestral Gear from Blood Harvest Chests. And when we do our gear upgrades, we’ll be upgrading everything at the Blacksmith and at the Jeweler.
The goal at this point is to find gear that has at least 3 favorable affixes to our build, and we want to have good Legendary Aspects on every piece of equipment.
At this point, you’ll want to make sure your Vampiric Powers are upgraded and you’re using the best Vampiric Powers for your build. If you find 3 out of 4 favorable gear affixes on equipment, enchant this equipment at the Occultist to switch it out for something favorable.
Level 70-100 XP Farm
In World Tier 4, the best way to level is going to be Nightmare Dungeons using the Tier List.
You’ll still need to do Helltides when they’re available to stay stocked up on Forgotten Souls and Fiend Roses.
When you feel your equipment is good, I wouldn’t bother updating your gear until you’re level 90+. Eventually, you’ll want to aim for equipment that is Item Power 925 with 4 out of 4 favorable affixes.
Getting stronger in World Tier 4 is going to be all about leveling your Rare Glyphs, maxing out your resistances, finding high rolls on your legendary aspects, and collecting Unique equipment that makes your build very powerful.
Summoning Guide
To collect specific unique equipment for your build, you’ll want to do the new endgame bosses.
- Varshan will be done by collecting Body Parts from turning in Grim Favors at the Tree of Whispers.
- Grigoire will be done by getting Living Steel from opening Tortured Gifts in Helltides.
- Lord Zir is done by doing Legion Events and World Bosses where you’ll collect Exquisite Blood.
- Ice Beast is done by completing Nightmare Dungeons Tier 30 or higher and collecting Distilled Fear.
- Duriel will have a chance of dropping the extremely powerful Uber Uniques, and will be available by collecting summoning items from defeating Grigoire and Varshan.
To make the most out of your leveling journey, don’t forget about Experience Points Bonuses.
- Having a party member will give you a 10% bonus.
- Elixirs and Incense will both give 5% increases.
- Campfire in Legion Events will give 15%.
- The Seasonal Blessings from spending Smoldering Ashes will give you a 20% bonus.
