When does Diablo 4 Season of the Construct start?
Diablo 3 Season of the Construct kicks off January 23 at 1 p.m. EST, 10 a.m. PST, and 6 p.m. GMT, accompanied by the significant balancing patch 1.3.0. A new season signifies a clean slate for those eager to conquer their seasonal battle pass and claim its rewards.
Whether you're a seasoned player or just emerging from Season of Blood, you're probably here because you want to speed up your leveling process. While I personally relish the leveling journey and the thrill of every loot drop potentially being an upgrade, many aim to swiftly reach level 50 or even 100 to dive into end-game activities. This season introduces the anticipated mid-season release of the Gauntlet leaderboards, requiring players to reach World Tier 4 for completion—adding more incentive to reach top level as soon as you can. Whether you're flying solo or teaming up with friends, mastering the best strategies, activities, and builds is crucial for effortlessly navigating the Season Journey and Battle Pass. So, without further delay, let's delve into my tips for leveling up swiftly in Diablo 4 Season 3, the Season of the Construct.
Please note that this guide will undergo updates as we familiarize ourselves with season-specific activities and their respective XP rewards.
Pick a decent levelling build
Selecting an efficient leveling build is a key factor in determining your speed during the leveling process. While experimenting with various builds and playstyles is always an option, if your goal is to level up quickly, it's advisable to adhere to a build guide tailored to your chosen class. Such guides optimize your damage output, survivability, and mobility for an expedited progression
For instance, if you've chosen the Rogue class, an excellent and user-friendly build for leveling is the Twisting Blades build. This setup prioritizes high single-target and AoE damage, employing a combination of melee and ranged skills. Additionally, comprehensive guides for other Diablo 4 classes and builds are available for your reference.
Skip the campaign
If you've completed the story mode previously, there's no need to replay it to level up your seasonal character. By opting to skip the campaign when creating your character, you can immediately dive into open-world activities that provide more XP.
As of Season 2, we no longer need to farm Renown which we have already acquired in previous seasons or the Eternal Realm. The Renown system monitors your exploration and completion of various tasks within each region, such as discovering waypoints, Altars of Lilith, strongholds, side quests, and dungeons. If you've unlocked the map and waypoints on an Eternal Realm character or previous Seasonal character you can promptly claim Renown points for discovering new areas and activating waypoints. This ensures a quick boost in Gold, Skill Points, Potion Charges, Murmuring Obol capacity, and Paragon Points.
You will need to claim them by going to the Map tab and clicking 'View Rewards'. It will look like this, as you can see the 2nd reward for each section of Renown points is for 'all chracters on a realm' and should have a tick next to it to indicate it's applied to your character.
If you're going solo, opt for leveling up on World Tier 1. In a group? World Tier 2.
One of the key decisions you’ll have to make when leveling up is what World Tier to play on. World Tiers are difficulty settings that affect the strength of enemies, the quality and quantity of loot drops, and the availability of endgame features. There are four World Tiers in Diablo 4: Adventurer, Veteran, Nightmare, and Torment.
My advice is to stick to World Tier 1 if you want to level up fast and efficiently. While World Tier 2 gives you a 20% XP and 15% gold bonus, it also makes enemies and bosses much tougher, which can slow down your progress significantly. World Tier 1 allows you to breeze through quests and strongholds that reward you with Renown, which in turn gives you extra stat points and paragon points.
This advice changes if you’re playing in a group, though. With more players to share the damage and aggro, you can handle World Tier 2 much easier and benefit from the increased rewards.
Progress the Season of the Construct quest
Initiate the Season of the Construct quest early with a level 1 character to jumpstart your journey. Prioritize completing this quest swiftly to unlock your Seneschal Companion, adding a helpful robot ally to your leveling journey. The Season option at the top of your menu screen will guide you to the starting point of these quests, and their locations will be highlighted on the World Map.
The Seneschal Companion obtained through Season of the Construct can be enhanced with Governing and Tuning stones to align with your playstyle. You will start the game in Gea Kul, right next to the quest marker for your first Season of the Construct quest. You should head there and follow through the steps until you are gifted your Seneschal Companion (I started this quest at level 1 and got the companion in less than 10 minutes.)
No quests in Season 3 are restricted behind completing Seasonal Chapters as they were with prior seasons. Therefore, you should be able to progress through the story quest rapidly, making it a worthwhile and efficient endeavor.
TOWN IS LAVA
In the world of Diablo 4, the town is akin to lava and time spent there is time wasted. Yes I know you can pet the dog in town but you don't need to stop to do that every time. To expedite your leveling, minimize the moments dedicated to managing your inventory, selling or salvaging items, and scrutinizing gear stats.
Focus solely on the item power number, representing the strength of an item. If you stumble upon an item with a higher power than what you currently have equipped, make the switch and continue your journey. Abundant upgrades await in boss fights and dungeons, so there's no need to fret about optimizing your gear until you reach the endgame activities. Keep the momentum and prioritize efficient progression over meticulous gear management and min-maxing during the leveling phase.
The exception to this rule is movement speed stats. A significant factor influencing your leveling speed. Swift travel between objectives and enemies can save considerable time and enhance overall efficiency.
While secondary stats on your gear might not be a primary concern during leveling, prioritize jewels and boots with movement speed. When faced with the choice between a marginal item power upgrade and retaining your movement speed, always opt for the latter. The ability to navigate the world swiftly is a valuable asset that can significantly contribute to an efficient leveling experience.
Complete your class quest as soon as it is available
Class-specific quests are essential to unlocking the full power of your build, and once you hit level 15 on your character (apart from Necro which is 25) you'll get a quest populate in your log to go and do your quest. These are:
- Barbarian - Level 15 - Master of Battle - unlocks Technique slot in Arsenal
- Druid - Level 15 - Spirits of the Lost Grove - unlocks all Spirit Boons
- Necromancer - Level 25 - Call of The Underworld - unlocks your Golem
- Rogue - Level 15 - True Potential - unlocks 3 specializations
- Sorcerer - Level 15 - Legacy of the Magi - unlocks Enchantments
Use Gems for easy stat boosts
I've a full guide to Gems and what they can be used for, but in essence, socketing Gems into your gear provides valuable stat improvements as you progress. Here's a quick tip: don't spend money unnecessarily on removing Gems at the jeweler. If you salvage gear with a gem in it, the gem automatically returns to your stash.. Rule of thumb for most classes when leveling:
- Armor sockets - Ruby (red) for LIFE will increase your survivability
- Jewelry - Skulls - increase your armor stat
- Weapon - Emerald (vulnerable damage)
Pick which makes sense with your chosen skills and build. The weapon gem is interchangeable depending on what build and skills you are using:
- Ruby (overpower damage)
- Amethyst (damage over time)
- Topaz (basic skill damage)
- Sapphire (crowd control damage)
Equip aspects selectively
When it comes to equipping aspects for substantial improvements to your build, be selective, especially considering the frequent gear changes during the climb to level 50. Imprinting aspects can be costly, and given the regular gear upgrades, it's wise not to invest too heavily in this early on.
However, some aspects can significantly ease your leveling process, depending on your class and build. Prioritize these aspects and imprint them onto your amulet, as this gear slot tends to be upgraded less frequently. Notably, imprinting an aspect onto an amulet enhances its effect by 50%.
To find the aspects you need, consult your codex of power, which provides a comprehensive list of available aspects and their unlock locations. Pinning the aspect's location to your map for easy navigation. This strategic approach ensures you benefit from valuable aspects without overspending on frequent gear changes.
Complete quests for the Tree of Whispers, and World events
Without yet knowing the precise XP rewards for the seasonal activities, I can say pretty confidently that the best way to level up early on is to complete Whispers for the Tree of Whispers. Identify these quests with a red border around the dungeon icon, as shown here:
Efficiently tackle Whispers of the Dead by selecting areas with a concentration of them. Look for zones where multiple objectives can be completed simultaneously within a short timeframe. For instance, find an area with a dungeon quest that coincides with a whisper task, such as defeating enemies or locating an item in the same zone.
By successfully completing Whispers of the Dead, you reap multiple benefits, including a finished quest, a dungeon aspect, renown, and Grim Favors. Accumulating 10 Grim Favors allows you to obtain new gear from the Tree of Whispers. This method stands out as the most efficient way to level up and gear your character in the early stages of the game.
If you feel strong enough to at least stay alive, always go and complete Legion and World Boss events as they become available on the map. These are indicated with a marker and countdown bar.
Upgrade your Health Potion as soon as you are able
Pay attention to your health potions and when the upgrades are available from the vendor in town. If you are struggling for crafting materials to do this there is a nice easy herb cache you can get from doing a quest in Kyovoshad. Go to the North of the city by the World Tier statue and pick up the quest Raising Spirits.
To complete this quest, simply stand by the soldiers and select Cheer on your emoticon wheel and a cache of handy herbs will drop for you which should be enough for you to upgrade your potion.
Once you hit level 50 - change it up
Congratulations, if you followed the above tips you should have got to level 50 much quicker than you did completing the campaign. At this point, you'll want to change up to more efficient activities for grinding out experience points..These are:
Nightmare Dungeons
You should have gathered Sigils to access Nightmare Dungeons by farming the Whispers of The Dead up until level 50. So you'll want to switch to these as soon as you are comfortable completing them as you can start leveling up your Glyphs on the paragon board ASAP. When completing a Nightmare Dungeon you must remember to rush the objective and ignore trash mobs as much as you can manage. For example, if the dungeon's objective is to 'Collect Animus from Collectors' rush to the collectors on the map and don't waste time fighting small fry. The quicker you can reach the Dungeon boss, complete the dungeon, and open a new one, the quicker you will be gaining XP.
Helltides
Helltides will be active every hour as part of Patch 1.3.0, and will be a great source of gear and most importantly, Living Steel which you will need to complete the Boss Ladder for sweet uniques. Helltides.com is a great resource that shows you a map of where all the Helltide events are which earn you shards, and you can simply run between them.
World Bosses
The next spawn time for a Worldboss can also be found at Helltides.com. You'll want to fight these as soon as they are available as they drop guaranteed high level gear.
Complete the capstone dungeon for accessing World Tier 3 as soon as you feel ready. This can be anywhere between level 50 and level 70
Always have an Elixir active
Once you are over the hurdle of hitting level 50, you'll want to make sure you are getting the 5% buff to XP from your Elixirs. These are in your bag in the consumable tab and last 30 minutes a pop. You can use them prior to level 50 but you may run out and find it difficult to gather crafting materials, whereas they drop plentifully post-level 50 so there's no excuse to not always have one equipped.
The mind-numbingly boring but very effective method
For those seeking an exceptionally effective but admittedly monotonous leveling method, enter the "Dopamine Tunnels" – a term coined by the popular YouTuber and Maxroll.gg writer Raxxanterax. The key location for this strategy is the Domhainne Tunnels, situated just north of the Cerrigar waypoint. This dungeon boasts an extraordinary XP yield, making it a go-to choice for rapid leveling.
It's important to note that this method, while incredibly efficient in terms of leveling speed, lacks the variety of rewards found in other activities. Engaging in the Dopamine Tunnels won't grant you the same gold, gear, or overall satisfaction derived from actively playing the game.
To execute this method, simply run through the first section of the Domhainne Tunnels, then exit and reset the dungeon (on Xbox, this is done by pressing left on the D-pad while in the map and holding X to reset all dungeons). Repeat this process until reaching level 48. After hitting this milestone, complete the capstone dungeon to progress into World Tier 3, and then continue the cycle. While it may not offer the most engaging gameplay experience, this repetitive strategy proves remarkably effective for those solely focused on swift level progression.
