In this level guide for Season 21 in Diablo 3, we will show you how to quickly level up to Max Level 70 (speed leveling). We will show you the individual steps and why a Challenge Rift is worthwhile.
What kind of guide is this? In this article, we want to show you how to quickly get your new seasonal character in Season 21 of Diablo 3 to level 70.
This guide is less aimed at beginners. Rather, it addresses experienced players and returning players who have already accumulated several hours of experience in Diablo 3.
So decide now on a class and get started.
Here you will find everything you need to know in advance about Season 21 and Patch 2.6.9 in Diablo 3.
Quick leveling in Season 21 of Diablo 3
Over the course of the last seasons, the leveling methods in D3 have hardly changed. We had good experiences with the method that uses a Challenge Portal in combination with Kanai’s Cube at the start. Right from the beginning, you can get strong bonuses with luck.
Starting with the Challenge Portal
The preparation: You should not have completed the Challenge Rift this week yet. If you have, you can skip this part. The rewards are only available once a week and are needed for this tactic.
Create a seasonal character after the start of Season 21. So during character creation, mark the option “Seasonal Hero.” If you are still unsure which class you want to play, just ask our Wheel of Fortune.
Now, enter the game with the character and exit back to the main menu immediately. Open the game settings and select the Challenge Portal. Now complete this. It is important that you have selected your Seasonal Hero first before starting the portal.
Note: This only works if you have completed a Greater Nephalem Rift in Diablo 3 before. If you haven’t done that with your account yet, skip this step.
Why do this? The advantage of the Challenge Rift is the reward. You will receive bounty materials (15 each), 35 Death’s Breath, 475 Blood Shards, crafting materials, and 4.6 million gold. This makes leveling much easier for you.
What comes next?
- Now you start a game in adventure mode on the difficulty level “Master”
- In the game, open the pouch you received as a reward for completing the Challenge Portal
- Now equip the weapon of the Templar (or another companion)
- Optional – Complete a bounty. Maghda, Zoltun Kull, Belial, or the Skeleton King are particularly suitable for this. However, do this only if one of these bosses has a bounty – as this yields strong items.
- Next, visit Act 3 and unlock Kanai’s Cube there – This is an important step if you are following the method with the Challenge Portal – This is how you unlock Kanai’s Cube in Diablo 3
Obtain important item: After you unlock Kanai’s Cube, visit the city and fully upgrade your blacksmith there. Depending on your class, build a yellow armor or weapon for level 70 with him. (The following table shows what is worth it for your class)
In Kanai’s Cube, you upgrade this level 70 item to a legendary item and extract its power in the cube to unlock it passively. This gives you the advantage of using the legendary power of the level 70 weapon even at level 1.
You need to be lucky that the right item is created when upgrading the weapon or armor.
Reddit user Rattlez explains from which level you should exchange Blood Shards with Kadala or upgrade an item in the cube to obtain a strong legendary trait for leveling and what the chances are of getting it.
| Class | Blood Shards | Cube Upgrade |
| Barbarian | Bracers (lvl 1) | Powerful 1H Weapon – 6/8 Powerful 2H Weapon – 3/6 |
| Crusader | Shield / Bracers (lvl 1) | 2H Mace – 6/8 1H Mace – 4/7 |
| Demon Hunter | Bracers (lvl 1) | Dagger – 2/2 |
| Monk | Shoes / Bracers (lvl 1) | Fist Weapon – 8/12 Daibo – 4/8 |
| Necromancer | Gloves (lvl 1) – Rings = risky | 2H Scythe – 4/4 |
| Witch Doctor | Mojo (lvl 1), Voodoo Mask (lvl 34) | Ceremonial Knife – 8/12 |
| Wizard | Source (lvl 33) – Rings (lvl 28) = risky | 1H Staff – 6/10 |
Depending on your chosen class, there are certain items available at level 1 that you can exchange with Kadala in the city. From the reward pouch, you received Blood Shards. You will find out from which level which items drop for you on D3planner.com.
Level 1 – 24
If you have extracted a strong power with Kanai’s Cube using the method, leveling up will now be much faster or more effective for you. Now the actual leveling begins.
You decide: Depending on your preferred playstyle, you level up either with massacre bonuses in the Halls of Agony at levels 1-3 or clear Nephalem Rifts and complete them. Solo players should progress quickly with massacre bonuses. Group players can do this until level 30 but should then switch to regular Nephalem Rifts to progress faster.
Until level 24, you will level up with these methods.
- Every 8-10 levels, visit your blacksmith and try to craft a better weapon there
- Regularly check with the merchants in the city. They might sell you rings or amulets that provide the affix “+ damage”. These are great for leveling
- If you loot a head item with a socket, put a red gem in there, which then provides you with more experience points. If you have weapons with socket slots, red gems are also suitable there. They provide more damage directly.
Level 24 – 40
If you haven’t done so earlier, you should now adjust the difficulty of your game. It is important that mobs die quickly but not too quickly. Trash mobs should fall with 1-3 hits. If this goes significantly faster for you and everything dies in one hit, then increase the difficulty further.
You should level best in Nephalem Rifts from this point on.
- As a solo player, make sure to complete these quickly.
- Groups designate a player who immediately closes the portal after the death of the Rift Boss – after that, they teleport back to the group to continue killing mobs with their group in the remaining 30 seconds until the portal closes.
Level 40 – 70
Upon reaching level 40, you will now fully train your mystic in the city.
- Now craft a yellow 2H weapon for level 70 at the blacksmith. Create this until one of them has a %-affix (% chance to freeze, stun, etc.).
- Once you have crafted a weapon with such an affix, go to the mystic and roll the other secondary bonus. You want to achieve a level reduction that comes as close to 30 levels as possible.
- As soon as you can carry this weapon, you will turn the difficulty level up high. First to torment level 6 and then slowly test downwards if torment level 6 is too difficult. Because the weapon has such an enormous damage output, you will progress quickly with it.
If everything went according to plan, you now have a powerful level 70 weapon while you have only just reached level 40. Additionally, there is the legendary property from Kanai’s Cube and, depending on your class, further equipment through exchanging Blood Shards with Kadala.
The way to level 70: Now it’s back into the Nephalem Rifts. With the level 70 weapon, we recommend a high torment level for lots of XP and loot. Without this weapon, look for a difficulty of your choice on which you can quickly complete the rift.
Until you reach level 70, grind the Nephalem Rifts on torment 3 to 6. In the higher levels, you may need to reduce the difficulty again, as the enemies hit hard there.
What comes next? The build you play now and how you go about the seasonal journey depends heavily on what items you were able to acquire during the leveling phase. It’s worth focusing on strong builds to reach the higher levels of the Greater Nephalem Rifts.
In our tier list for Season 20 in Diablo 3, we show you the three strongest builds for all classes.
