Seasonal Leveling Guide (2024)

Seasons are 3-4 month fresh restarts of the Diablo 3 meta, always (so far)accompanied by a rebalancing patch with some measure of new content, be itsets, items, Season-exclusive mechanics, or simple numeric tweaks. The journeyalways starts with creating a new character, and this guide will take you throughthe most efficient steps to get this character to an endgame-worthy state.

At the very start of the Season, your first job is, naturally, to create anew seasonal hero. While this first choice does not lock you down too terribly,note that the Seasonal Journey rewards youonce per Season — only for the character that completes the chapters first.Bearing that in mind, either create a new Seasonal hero or "rebirth" one of yourold ones (this way, you get to keep the playtime). Always double check that yourcurrently selected character is a Seasonal one, because it is important for thenext step — you do not want to waste your Challenge Rift cache.

With your Seasonal character currently selected, you should go into theChallenge Rifts from the main menu and start the current weekly run. Note thatyou have to have completed at least one Greater Rift on your account (either innon-seasonal or previous seasons) to have Challenge Rifts unlocked.

Challenge Rifts are a weekly challenge that provides a fixed character and abuild (usually using quirky skills and/or heavily unoptimized stats and items),and challenges you to beat the GreaterRift completion time of its original owner.

The completion of the Challenge Rift is usually trivial and can be completedeither solo or in a group, and will net you a Challenge Rift Reward cache. Openit up in-game with your brand new seasonal character and claim its contents: 35 Death's Breaths, a couple hundred of each of the base crafting materials(128 Veiled Crystals, 354 Arcane Dust, and 364 Reusable Parts), 475 Blood Shards, 5.1 million Gold, and 15 eachof the Act-specific bounty cache materials. With your newfound riches, upgradeboth your Blacksmith and your Mystic craftsmen in town to their maximum rank.

Challenge Rifts reset on Mondays for the NA server and Tuesday for EU, whileSeasons traditionally start on Friday, so you will need to save the week'sChallenge Rift ahead of time. There's usually no reason to complete one onOff-season, and it is important not to waste those valuable materials on thefirst weekend of progression.

While in town, approach one of the followers that most closely matches yourclass (Templar for Barbarians, Monks and Crusaders,Scoundrel for Demon Hunters, and Enchantress for WitchDoctors, Necromancers and Wizards), select the "Inventory & Skills" option,take their weapon and equip it yourself — it is a significant upgrade overthe base weapon that you start with.

Note that once you reach Level 6, vendors in all towns — the ones withthe nickname "the Fence" in their names — will start selling Rings under anew "Trinkets" tab in their inventory. Each of them has a chance to sell Ringsthat increase your Average Damage (i.e. 2-4 Damage), which is a massive DPS boostearly on. At Level 10, you want to do the same check for vendor jewelry, sincethey start selling Amulets as well.

In general, you do not want to neglect vendor offerings and crafting yourselflevel-appropriate gear for your weakest slots every couple of runs or every otherlevel you gain, regardless of your chosen leveling strategy. This is an easy wayto maintain relevant gear even if RNG is not favorable from drops.

Your next important step is to acquireKanai's Cube. Kanai's Cube is found inThe Ruins of Sescheron — the waypoint in the top right corner of the ActIII map. From that waypoint, run left towards the city and make your way aroundthe ruins; one of its far corners (typically upper right, lower right, or lowerleft) will have the entrance to the next zone, the Elder Sanctum. Once in theElder Sanctum, make your way through the zone, practically to its other end.When you find the Cube and click it, it automatically transports itself back totown.

While you can grab Kanai's Cube at any level, we strongly recommend that youdo it right away at Level 1. That being said:

• If you want to immediately make use of a crafted or gambled legendary in theCube, you can do so by getting the Cube at Level 1.
• If you want to wait to grab the Cube as quickly as possible, you can do soby doing it once your class has its movement ability; one issue to note withthis is that, as you gain levels, you may find mobs more difficult to deal withdue to the lack of appropriate gear for that level when compared with doing itat Level 1 with bought items from vendors.
• If you are leveling in Rifts, you can do it in parts while waiting for Riftsto close. It is important that you do not overwrite your teleport spot from theRuins, otherwise you will need to run through everything again.

While you are at it, make sure to consult our Kanai's Cube guide foradditional details on its use — it is an incredibly important part of yourcharacter progression at any point of the game, so make sure to acquaint yourselfthoroughly with its properties.

One of the strongest early game boosts that you can obtain while leveling isto craft a yellow (rare) Level 70 item at the blacksmith, then try to upgrade itinto a valuable legendary at Kanai's Cube, and finally extract its property forone of the Kanai's Cube legendary power slots. Note that this strategy isstronger for some classes over others, particularly favoring Demon Hunters,Necromancers, and to a lesser degree Barbarians and Monks. The remaining classescan skip this step and directly go to gambling, sparing themselves somedisappointment and saving some materials for Level 70, since you can do thisrecipe exactly once at the Season's start (you only have so many Death'sBreaths).

When choosing which rare item to craft, keep in mind that you are looking toupgrade them into a legendary that provides some form of skill damage multiplierthat will skyrocket your leveling efficiency. Every class has a different set ofvaluable items to attempt for:

• Barbarian: Craft a rare Level 70 Two-Handed Mighty Weapon, and use theUpgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain Fury of the Vanished Peak, The Gavel of Judgment, Blade of the Tribes or Bastion's Revered(4/6 possibilities are good). Alternatively, you can craft Spears to obtaineither Arreat's Law or The Three Hundredth Spear (100% chance).
• Crusader: The first option is to craft a Level 70 One-Handed Flail, and usethe Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to try to obtain either a Darklight, Gyrfalcon's Foote or Johanna's Argument (3/7 possibilities are good).The other is to craft a Level 70 Two-Handed Flails for an Akkhan's Leniency, Fate of the Fell, or a Golden Flense (3/8 possibilities are good).
• Demon Hunter: Craft a rare Level 70 Dagger, and use the Upgrade Rare recipein the Cube to obtain either a Karlei's Point or a Lord Greenstone's Fan. Demon Hunters are excellent at this strategy sincethey only have 2 daggers, and they are both great for leveling.
• Monk: Craft a rare Level 70 Daibo, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in theCube to try to obtain Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, Balance, Flying Dragon or The Flow of Eternity (4/8 possibilities are good).
• Necromancer: Craft a rare Level 70 Two-Handed Scythe, and use the UpgradeRare recipe in the Cube to obtain either a Bloodtide Blade, Maltorius' Petrified Spike, Nayr's Black Death or Reilena's Shadowhook. Necromancers are excellent at this strategy sincethey only have 4 Two-Handed Scythes, and they are all great for leveling.
• Witch Doctor: The first option is to craft a rare Level 70 Spear, and usethe Upgrade Rare recipe in the Cube to get a Scrimshaw (100% chance).The other is to craft a Level 70 Ceremonial Knife andupgrade rare for The Barber, The Dagger of Darts, or The Spider Queen's Grasp (3/12 possibilities are good).
• Wizard: Craft a rare Level 70 Wand, and use the Upgrade Rare recipe in theCube to try to obtain either a Fragment of Destiny, Serpent's Sparker, Unstable Scepter or Wand of Woh.

Note that this part of the leveling strategy requires some amount of luck fornon-DH and non-Necromancer players. Leveling in a group minimizes the risk ofRNG screwing everyone over, but sometimes you will be unlucky; this is nothingto be bothered by, as leveling in Diablo is still a fairly easy andstraightforward process.

If you are lucky, however, and obtain one of the items outlined above, youwill have just about enough Death's Breaths to use the Extract Legendary Powerrecipe in Kanai's Cube. Do that, and then slot the (now maximized) legendarypower of the item in the Cube, netting yourself a considerable leveling bonus.Needless to say, adjust your build accordingly to the legendary power, i.e. ifyou get Guard of Johanna as a Crusader, make Blessed Hammer yourmain damage dealing skill throughout leveling.

Your next step is to try and gamble for valuable items from Kadala at Level 1.Since not every legendary is available right from the start, the legendary itempools for some classes are restricted in a beneficial way to obtain anotherstrong damage multiplier right from the start. If you do not consider thelegendaries listed for your class particularly attractive, you can always gamblefor Helms for a considerable chance at obtaining Leoric's Crown (extractingits power and socketing rubies in your helmets throughout leveling will net youa hefty amount of extra experience), or Pants for Pox Faulds (the damageproc of this item is fairly good for leveling).

• Barbarian: Gamble for Bracers, trying to obtain either Bracers of Destruction or Bracers of the First Men. If you have anyShards left over, or you simply want to make Toughness a non-issue for theentirety of your Barbarian's journey, gamble Rings for an almost guaranteed Band of Might. If your Haedrig's Gift set is Might of the Earth, gambleBoots for almost guaranteed Lut Socks.
• Crusader: Depending on your the success and type of your craft (see above),you will either gamble for Bracers or Shields. If you lucked into Johanna's Argument, you should gamble Bracers for a chance at Gabriel's Vambraces. If you are particularly lucky and get these bracersbefore you run out of Shards, you can also spend on Shields for Guard of Johanna. With some absurd luck, you can complete your Hammerdinat Level 31, when you can gamble for Pants for Hammer Jammers (50%chance). If you went for Two-handers and crafted Golden Flense, youshould directly gamble for Shields in hope of Denial. If you got nothinguseful from your crafts, dump the Shards into Shields and hope for the best. Ifyou crafted Fate of the Fell, you should save your Shards until exactlyLevel 33, where you have a 1/3 chance of gambling Bracer of Fury. If youfavor Cpt. America builds, you can try your 50% chance for Akkhan's Manacles at Level 23.
• Demon Hunter: Not many great options; you can gamble for Belts, trying toobtain the Hellcat Waistguard, although Grenade comes a littlelater in the leveling process. Otherwise, either go for Leoric's Crown orthe damage proc of Pox Faulds. Another gambling strategy you can attemptis saving shards for Level 30, when you can gamble on Quivers for a chance at Sin Seekers, or Level 31 — for the additional chance at Holy Point Shot and Spines of Seething Hatred.
• Monk: Gamble for either boots (hoping to obtain Rivera Dancers or The Crudest Boots) or bracers (hoping to obtain either Pinto's Pride, Cesar's Memento or Gungdo Gear). Adjust your gambling strategy forMonk depending on the item you obtained (if any) on the previous step, Upgradinga Rare Item (i.e. gambling for bracers if you got an Incense Torch of the Grand Temple, hoping to get Pinto's Pride).
• Necromancer: Gamble for Gloves, as it is almost guaranteed that you will get Grasps of Essence. If your result from the crafting session was Reilena's Shadowhook, you can also consider gambling Rings for Circle of Nailuj's Evol. With some great RNG, you can spend leftover Shardsat Level 19 for Razeth's Volition.
• Witch Doctor: Not many great options; you can gamble for Mojos, trying toobtain a Gazing Demise, which is decent if you crafted The Barber.Otherwise, either go for Leoric's Crown or the damage proc of Pox Faulds. If you feel especially lucky and/or crafted The Dagger of Darts, you can try again at Level 34 for Mask of Jeramor Carnevil.
• Wizard: Gamble for Sources for an almost guaranteed Winter Flurry;this will be even better if you crafted yourself a Serpent's Sparker. Ifyou sniped both of these, you might as well try Helm gambling in hopes of The Magistrate at Level 34. Your alternative gambling shot is for Sourcesat exactly Level 33, where Etched Sigil becomes available.

Pick a two-handed weapon category of your choice (2h Axes, Maces, Swords...)and craft a Level 70 weapon of the chosen type. You are looking for a rollwith:

• At least a Crowd Control secondary stat — Chance to Stun, Slow,Fear,.. etc. On Hit;
• Ideally, also a Life per Hit primary stat;

If both these stats are present, you have eliminated a large part of thepossible Secondary stats on the weapon. Thus, you can easily reroll the otherSecondary stat (the one that is NOT the crowd control stat) into Reduced LevelRequirement — making the item wearable up to 30 levels prior to Level 70.This is a tremendous damage increase for a large chunk of your levelingprocess.

Of course, if you are very lucky, the Reduced Level Requirement can roll ontoyour crafted item outright.

An easy early boost to your character in Seasons is to check yourbounties for any easily completed actboss killing bounties — the most famous examples being Zoltun Kulle (atthe Archives of Zoltun Kulle waypoint) and Maghda (down from the Road toAlcarnus waypoint) in Act II.

The boss bounties reward you with a Diabolic Hoard chest that is guaranteedto drop you a couple of rare items; they will boost your overall character powernicely right at the beginning.

These are the five most popular strategies for leveling, ranked from fastestto slowest.

This is predominantly a group strategy, where one or more Necromancers areexpected to carry the group in low-ish Torments (1 through 6, depending on luckwith crafting and gambling) with the tremendous power of Corpse Explosionplus Grasps of Essence. The party can either be comprised of Necromancers,or the other characters can assume a pseudo-support role of trying to keep thesquishy Necromancer alive.

As its name would suggest, this tactic involves hunting for Cursed Chestbounties, which spawn waves upon waves of enemies (feeding right into Corpse Explosion's powers). For more efficiency, party members shouldsplit into their own games after a chest's completion and look for new CursedChest events to complete. You will want to find:

• Act I: Old Ruins Waypoint — The Cursed Cellar (Hardcore-unfriendly)
• Act I: Cathedral Level 2 Waypoint — The Cursed Court
• Act I: Halls of Agony Level 3 Waypoint — The Cursed Bellows (Hardcore-unfriendly)
• Act II: Archives of Zoltun Kulle Waypoint — The Cursed Pit
• Act II: Archives of Zoltun Kulle Waypoint — The Cursed Spire
• Act II: Shrouded Moors Waypoint — The Cursed Moors
• Act II: Temple of the Firstborn Waypoint — The Cursed Temple
• Act III: The Battlefields Waypoint — The Cursed Garrison
• Act III: The Ruins of Sescheron Waypoint — The Cursed Bailey
• Act V: Paths of the Drowned Waypoint — The Cursed Peat (Hardcore-unfriendly)

Turn the difficulty up to Torment VI and go to the Halls of Agony Level 1.Run and dodge past monsters that come in your way until you reach the fallingblades traps; they spawn near the exit of the map, and you cannot really missthem. Once you get there, your goal would be to lure the monsters towards thesegiant cleaver traps and see them get slaughtered by their own poor AI, nettingyou tremendous experience. Ideally, you will want to apply any crowd controlskills (as they become available) on the monsters right when they reach thetrap.

This method, while extremely efficient time-wise, is also (arguably) quiteunfun and counter-intuitive, not to mention prone to mishaps. Needless to say,this strategy is not Hardcore-friendly and will result in the (frequent) deathof your character.

This strategy is only available in January, when the Diablo 1 Anniversary Eventbecomes active, accessible via the portal in Act I, Old Tristram waypoint. Thisis essentially one really long dungeon with improved XP gain throughout.

You can also consider leveling via Massacre bonuses — a very potentstrategy in solo play. The Massacre bonus XP system was revised in Patch 2.4.1into a multiplicative experience bonus that rewards you for chaining kills ofmonsters, starting at 15 enemies slain and capping the bonus at 500 (for awhopping x4.5 multiplier). The caveat is this bonus only works outside ofRifts.

To successfully pull of long chains of monster kills, pick highly populatedzones — the Cathedral (Act I), Halls of Agony Level 3 (Act I), Fields ofMisery (Act I), The Eternal Woods (Act III) and, most notably, Temple of theFirstborn (Act II). The tactic is to always be on the move, leading monsterpacks into one another, abusing Cursed Chests for monster spawns, and generallyusing skills with DoTs or high AoE ( Rend for Barbarian, Blessed Hammer for Crusader, Multishot for Demon Hunter, Wave of Light for Monk, Locust Swarm for Witch Doctors, Disintegrate for Wizards).

While Massacre leveling will require frequent restarts of the game (every5-10 minutes), it will result in some of the fastest leveling in Diablo 3,clocking under the 1hr 30min mark when you get the hang of it. Due to itsindividual nature and the level of coordination required to pull it off in amultiplayer game, leveling by Massacre bonuses can only be recommended for 2+players if they are experienced and have voice communication; this ispredominantly a solo leveling technique.

For groups and players that do not stress losing an hour in the 1-70 race,the general recommendation is to stick to rifts for the 1-70 journey. Riftsgrant you increased legendary drop rate, blood shards for gambling, and a hefty"hand-in" bonus at the end. While rifting has a higher degree of randomnessthan bounties (map layout, monster density and composition are all RNG), theremoval of Rift Keystones as a requirement to open them allows you to simplyremake if you get a bad (difficult or slow) rift. In general, stick to adifficulty that will allow you to finish rifts in 5 minutes at most.