Speeding up Campaign for Char 2, 3, 4 etc

OP: here are some ways to speed up Act playthroughs on your second, third, etc builds. None of these work for SSF, but the entire concept of SSF runs counter to your suggestion anyway so I'm assuming you play in one of the trade leagues. If you're an SSF player asking for this, you seem to be missing the point and would probably be happier in a trade league. Anyway:

1 - Get a rush. You can buy these for under an exalt if you don't have friends/guild to give you waypoints, and you can easily powerlevel in Delve until you're ready to start maps. I can usually get a build from 1-70 in under an hour this way with guildmate assistance, it's by far the best option time wise.

2 - Join public parties. There are always public parties to join, so look for ones in or past the areas you need to get to. Even if they've already completed quests you need, you can blink onto them, grab the waypoints, then leave the party and/or re-instance.

3 - Get Twinked-A-F. I'm not talking, "Wanderlust and a Tabula." Dropping some proper currency on some speed-levelling gear is 100% worth the investment, if you're someone like me that makes 10+ builds per league. I'm talking Seven League Step, Astramentis, +1 Tabula, two Gryphons, double Bloodboil+Hotfooted.
As a general rule: if you're bored, it's because you're going too slow. I never get bored on my own playing through the acts, mostly because I'm pushing the monster slaughtering past the breaking point. I only get bored when there are slow people with me dragging my clearspeed down XD

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ARealLifeCaribbeanPirate wrote:

As a general rule: if you're bored, it's because you're going too slow. I never get bored on my own playing through the acts, mostly because I'm pushing the monster slaughtering past the breaking point. I only get bored when there are slow people with me dragging my clearspeed down XD

Im bored because the campaign sucks after the first char.
Doing it once "yay, new content, masters, mechanics, whatever" but the real fun comes after the tutorial acts 1-10 ended.

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MrsDeath_ wrote:

there are races based around speed levelling.
these can be driving force to play ssf or hc for many players.
its important for every player to be equal while playing their first, 2nd or 3rd character.
so no. this aint no pvp this is a pve game. you dont get an easy campaign just cuz you made a broke a$$ character.

Nothing would stop you from playing it slow. (and everyone has to do the whole campaign on the first char anyway)

Oh my...campaign is not hard, never said that.
It's BORING and REPETITIVE.

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Xavathos wrote:

It was a metaphor, mate. You can't control the weather as much as you can't control having to go through the story to get to end-game in PoE. You can like it or not, it's a fact for everyone, so make your choice accordingly, like all of us do.

I can't control the game, GGG could. Your metaphor was bad.

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MrsDeath_ wrote:

there are races based around speed levelling.
these can be driving force to play ssf or hc for many players.
its important for every player to be equal while playing their first, 2nd or 3rd character.
so no. this aint no pvp this is a pve game. you dont get an easy campaign just cuz you made a broke a$$ character.

Yeah, that's why it should be optional after all.
You can therefore choose AFTER your first character at a specific stage to have them unlocked.

This would keep the racing intact while providing the ability for those wo absolutely detest running through the acts to skip them to a small degree. Not entirely... but at least not making it the same monotonous 'run from objective A to B as quickly as possible on autopilot' they feel.

Repeating map after map feels quite different from Act 1-10 after all, the mob density is higher, you can keep the flasks up nearly permanent and you don't have to switch around with skills at times or remember the vendor recipes to create specific items just to speed up the progress a little bit further.

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Fruz wrote:

a) nice numbers pulled out of your magic hat.

b) 10-20 -> 5-10 ?

No, unless being very,very inefficient, which is likely the case of somebody that has either not actually been through the acts "over and over", or somebody that isn't even trying to put any effort in being quicker .

First of all... 5 hours already is close to a starter at speed-running who does follow the basic concepts for it. Without remembering all the layouts completely and hence backtracking quite a bit at times this is a common number.
Doubling that is the number for someone who isn't interested in speed-running (not everyone wants to rush on 'autopilot' as quickly as possible, that's actually boring for a sizable portion of the player-base) but has done it a few times already. 20 is the casual player who has played 2-3 times through it. Hence I derived it from those numbers. That's why I simply halved the numbers for them respectively with the waypoints unlocked.

Also... as said, speedrunning (pure efficiency) isn't what everyone follows. You might not guess it being possible... but there are people out there who aren't into the 'speed-meta' and instead decide to lazily progress in a steady manner and simply try to derive as much fun as possible from a game without pushing.

Obviously 5h is already speedrunning with quite some efficiency, which is exactly why saying that somebody taking between 10 and 20 hours would be down to 5 ~ 10 hours with waypoints it pure nonsense, you don't get such speed just from waypoint while being inefficient, that's just not how it works.

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Kulze wrote:

but there are people out there who aren't into the 'speed-meta' and instead decide to lazily progress in a steady manner and simply try to derive as much fun as possible from a game without pushing.

So ... people who just wants many reroll and do not enjoy the story .... would ... "lazily progress" ?

Do you realize that there is something wrong in your reasoning there ?

- "This is super boring, but I'm not even going to get done with it faster, not even a little bit, I'd rather take my time to do this thing that I find very boring"


/s

Having shared sulphite is going to make it more fun to level up secondary characters. You will still have to play the acts to get passive points but you can potentially do a lot between the act content.

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Fruz wrote:

Obviously 5h is already speedrunning with quite some efficiency, which is exactly why saying that somebody taking between 10 and 20 hours would be down to 5 ~ 10 hours with waypoints it pure nonsense, you don't get such speed just from waypoint while being inefficient, that's just not how it works.

Actually yes. Think about the parts you skip along the way with increased mob-density present:

Beach is skipped entirely, only getting the rhoa-stuff at the mud flats. Then then submerged passage for the dweller of the depe quest. Next stop is lower prison for Brutus, then immediately cavern of wrath.

That's saving a lot here. Act 2 is similar in saved progress, you teleport to the broken bridge for the bandit and then to chamber of sins level 1, immediately progressing to the western forest for the weaver and second bandit and then wetlands and third bandit for opening the ruins. Next is already caverns directly.

You skip entire zones completely in each act, and even those you don't skip are cut in half at times or even more. Someone who is speed-running this way would go through the whole campaign in under 2 hours, hence a casual player will be able to cut down the invested time as well by a lot... and the increased density of mobs providing the exp to progress quickly enough as well as sustaining flasks and getting enough drops to build up along the way.

Wut?

no ... you don't have "stops", you kill stuff on the way and that's enough to level up ...

I honestly don't know how people get bored playing through the campaign, except when they have to wait on some slow member of the party (it happens, we've all got That One Noob Friend).

You move forward while killing stuff... it's the exact same as what you do while mapping. Except, arguably, it's less boring because there are fewer boss fights breaking up your rhythm, and less loot to collect which requires collating and disposal. You only have to go to town once per act, to collect all of the skillpoints at the end.

How are you bored during the Acts, if you aren't bored in Maps? I really don't get it.

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Fruz wrote:

Wut?

no ... you don't have "stops", you kill stuff on the way and that's enough to level up ...

You obviously miss the concept of the suggestion:

More density + waypoints unlocked.

Hence you need less time to level up in a zone and don't need to run through the zones the usual way.
This allows 'skipping' zones without being under-leveled in such a system.

That's why the time-investment would be smaller then before.


Also obviously at the CURRENT situation you level up while killing stuff in the way, that's how it was balanced after all, and surprisingly... GGG did a mighty well job in having the EXP being balanced for Act 1-10, you get just the right amount of it for proper progression and being within 1-2 levels of the zones.

Which is why increased mob density is a mandatory thing for a mode where the waypoints are unlocked... so you level up fast enough despite having shorter ways and using less area of the campaign in total.

So yes, the invested time would go down, massively.

You don't seem to have much experience in leveling efficiently huh.

No, it would not change much (including increased density, which would also be a straigth buff of pre maps areas = silly), and it would simply dumb the game down for people who cannot be bothered to even try being efficient, terribad suggestion.