Untwinked Character Leveling Puzzle Which character class & build can solo through HC normal the fastest? Assume no cheats or hacks or outside help (like waypoints). Assume soloing in 2-3 player games. Assume starting untwinked and only using stuff you find/buy/gamble along the way. Assume doing all quests. Is there a class and build that is faster than all the others? Enquiring minds want to know!
Skelly Mancer is a good one but Dury will take a bit of time solo as he will crunch bones quick when you may be lvl 20 or so. Diablo will be a little tuff if you dont have any +skills to pump Summon Resists for you as he will smoke skellies fast also, but Big D can also be taken down with Spear lvl 1 and Decrep lvl one pretty safely but try and have some decent resists for the occasion as that lightning hose and fire flood can take a Necro fast. Hammerdin flat out smokes anywhere at any lvl and doesnt need much that you cant buy of find. a 2-3 socket helm and some saphs can geive him a lot of mana for hammers early and Mediation as youe main arura with hammers and vigor and BA maxed for lvl at say 24 kills anything in Norm........I get many points in BA,Vigor befroe I work on conc. Lvl 1/1/1 Hammer/vigor/BA smokes in Act 2 and if you just keep adding to these it really doesnt have a weak point except maybe with bosses but it will just take more time as it will still decisively destry him.......Hammerdins are just to simple. Fireball/Met Sorc gets a powerfull skill early and can own.....so can a Blizz/Glacial sorc as Glacial is a nice skill Blizz is 24 u can have it before Act 3 if you want. Java can do fine if you spend a point in Jab.......Jab and a normal Pike can be pretty mean! Babas, its all about auiring a decent weapon and a little leech so this takes a tad bit of luck I suppose... There are actually a good number of builds that can go quickly.
hammerdins is by far the fastest unwinked imo. assuming you save skill points, sink into BA until you get hammers and vigor. then sink your points into vigor/hammers until you run out (make sure you get lvl 1 conc). then sink the rest into hammers. make sure you get the pre-reqs for meditation at level 24 if you want a nice mana regen skill that is usefull at all levels. trappers can be quite good, although they require alot of mana early on if you want to go fast.
I'll be the first to say do not try a hammerdin. As much as they rock the house in most open areas, it will be really tough for you to get through the maggot lair unless you have backup combat skills or a good merc. blessed hammer simply does not work in the maggot lair (and its quite tricky in the arcane sanctuary)
Easy answer to the Pally puzzle, make him a part time Zealot for those areas where you aren't going to be able to cast.
Hm..I guess not least it depends on the skill of the player himself, but when we played a little game of bunny hunt, I was amazed how the assassin just blew everything away..and actually levelled fastest of us all on her way to reaching lv 9, where the hunt began. BTW, she was the bunny and she also killed all the hunters afterwards :lol: So, I vote for an assassin. (ATM my favorite character after taking a Necro, a barb and 3 zons as well as a sorc into hell)
Having Re-Read the initial post and realised that it said HC-Normal, I would agree with DET. You can power through the first 1 1/2 acts without spending any points - and once you get your mitts on CB-Sentry thats pretty much all you need for normal! I have been pleasently suprised how much I have enjoyed my trapper - having never really wanted to play 1 Chill
If it is just normal and if you do not consider too much about hell difficulty, then I would say either a wake of fire assasin or a fissue druid. I have played both and I think the druid is even easier due to the summon tree.
Kickassassin can be really fast in Normal. Just make sure to gamble for good boots to get better ones before they actually start dropping from critters.
if you're doing this solely for normal (not even nm), i would vote for a fireball sorc... couple in warmth, lvl fb with plenty of energy and vit, low str/dex using gems to get mana and resists by a2 you'd be cleaning house (probably buying stock in the company that sells mana pots, but that's ok as long as it's just normal) this way you get your skill early, as i've always found that the only reason a sorc takes any time at all in normal is due to not having enough killing power early on with only lvl 1 skills edit: maybe one in meteor too later on just to use on bosses and take advantage of the synergy
