D4 S2 Seasonal Leveling Guide for ALL CLASSES

Here's the two main points here: the "best" overall METHOD / PROCESS on how to Level up in Diablo 4 - applicable for EVERY CLASS. Typically you'd use this when leveling up every season. Secondly, there's great D4 leveling protips (seasonal or otherwise) that should boost your leveling speed as a whole.

Need class-specific leveling guides and builds? guides:
D4 Leveling Guides & Builds for: Barbarian | Druid | Necromancer | Rogue | Sorcerer

If you're done with this part, generally meaning done with the main campaign) - you'll want to check out the Fresh Level 50 Guide. Or, maybe you're doing the D4 Main Campaign?


S3 Seasonal Leveling: The best ways to Get XP!

How about the S3 specific mechanic? Since this is still preseason, I can't really say how good the ACTIVITIES are for leveling up. I'll update asap. The construct will SURELY be a boost, no matter how weak it might start out as.

Generally speaking, the best way to level up is to do Tree of Whispers spamming. Don't "overfill" it if you can avoid it. Just a really basic cycle of Get 10, submit, rinse and repeat.

I would suggest prioritizing dungeons that are part of the Tree of Whispers (they give 5), and the enemies inside actually give good EXP! You may also not have the Codex yet. Be very mindful of the "timer", do not entire Tree of Whispers dungeons without much time left.

After that, just straight up do whatever tasks that will fill up your tree quickly without going over. The more you do this, the more familiar you'll get with the various objectives.

Use a good leveling build!

Have a balanced build "template" You want a build with all the most "impactful" and synergistic skill point investments first. Good damage, and small but meaningful investments into survivability and mobility are hallmarks of a great generalist leveling build. Thankfully, that is exactly how I setup the leveling builds in each class-specific leveling guide.

SEE OUR D4 LEVELING BUILDS FOR EACH CLASS!:
D4 Leveling Guides & Builds for: Barbarian | Druid | Necromancer | Rogue | Sorcerer

Respec as you need it. This is "optional", but a few adjustments to your build can really cover your weakspots. Got too much DPS but are dying? Invest into some defense. Steamrolling? Get some speed. Boss getting the best of you? ADJUST!

In the class-specific leveling guides I talk about options you can have with your build. A little experimentation goes a long way, since I can't know your exact situation. Same goes with respeccing, for example, Sorc Enchantments, Rogue Specialization, or Druid Boons are another thing you can change to help out where you're lacking.


The two things above account for a VAST MAJORITY of your leveling efficiency.
The LEVELING PROCESS (IE what to DO in-game generally), and your LEVELING BUILD.

Discussed below are just various little odds and ends that will improve your game knowledge about the early game, and might give you some insights about the seaosnal leveling process.


D4 Leveling Notes per Level

Welcome to D4! I suppose I can some important things here in the future, but for now - get hyped for your journey!

Very important systems! both of these priority quests are available in Kyovashad. Potion Upgrading requires herbs you find lying around so try to pick them up when you can. If it wasn't obvious already, the potion upgrade gives you more HP per pot, and it's a pretty impactful upgrade.

In case you haven't noticed, gems now drop for you! Socketing these into gear gives you various bonus stats depending on the gem type and where you socket it into. Sounds familiar right?

Both in Kyovashad as well, Gem "Crafting" allows you to combine gems into higher tiers.

By now you'd have gotten some Obols. Spend them whenever you're about to be capped! Use them to gamble on gear upgrades (usually weapon), or buy keys!

(I have a feeling this is tied to the Campaign Quest Lost Arts instead of level...) The quest Mount: Donan's Favor at Kyovashad will unlock Mounts. Finally. Press Z to get on, Space to speed up, and each class has a special mounted attack.

You might not get the materials for this ASAP, but check the alchemist every so often...

Around this time, depending on Renown levels, you'll be getting your Key Passive. It's an extremely powerful point to spend. You can even consider completely respeccing your build to fit around it. Experiment!

Expecting it at 40, weren't ya?

This is the max level (for now). Grats! Thankfully, the road ain't over yet. Paragon, refining your build... these guides will come soon as well!


Other imporant thing while leveling up in D4?

This is a big one. Look, there's many valid ways to play the game and It's easy to get caught up in what's "best". But this is truly unique to each individuals goals. I'll try to give my bit of wisdom on this topic, but I feel I should have a separate guide on this alltogether...

  • Priority Quests: These unlock usually by level. Get them done asap as they introduce and unlock new systems and content for you! They're called priority for a reason.
  • Renown: This is related to the next point about pacing. I highly suggest NOT going full ham completion mode for Renown farming on your first go. TLDR: Get high impact things like Lilith Statues, Strongholds, and good Aspects from some dungeons - save the completion for another "task".
  • Pace? Completionist, or Rush to Endgame?: This is another huge discussion. I'll try to summarize my thoughts here. Do the most impactful things as you level up - and this might be different per person! Get the good aspects from a dungeon here and there, get Strongholds that have waypoints. Honestly prioritize your fun. Going full on completionist on your first ever character is something I DO NOT RECOMMEND - but don't let me stop you. Full on race to endgame is a little iffy as well. Somewhere in between is where most people will be happy!

Best Aspects for Leveling

The codex of power, gives us access to quite a few aspects. While a little more useful for alts, your first character can even benefit from these.

The holy trinity of general all-class Aspects Okay, so there's a concept I have that everyone should follow. Have"three of your best generic aspects, on Amulet > Ring > Ring - and You can share them on all characters you'll level up" . Let's disect this a bit. Which aspects am I talking about, and why on Amulet and Rings?

So what are the three best generic aspects for leveling up? (these are in the Codex!)

  • Edgemaster's Aspect: Skills deal up to X% more damage based on how much primary resouerce you have when cast. Max benefit when it's full.
  • Aspect of the Expectant: Basic skills increase the damage of your next Core skill by X%, stacks 5 times.
  • Rapid Aspect: Basic skill gain X% more attack speed. (This is the most replaceable one I suppose)

These three synergize amongst themselves amazingly. I can name a few more, but these three stand out by being useful for ALMOST all builds out there while leveling up. I'd struggle to imagine a setup that wouldn't want these three, at such a low cost of accessory slot stats!

Why amulet and rings?(and possibly gloves) Two main reasons:

  • Can be used on all classes: Amulets and rings have no class restrictions!
  • Negligible stat loss: Rings, "basically" give intrinsic resists, and the usual stats. It's not like you're losing huge chunks of armor or weapon damage by using low level accessories. Yeah, resists are important, but having these while leveling up is probably better.

Basically, always try to have your best aspects (that can be imprinted on Amulet / Rings) on them at all times. It may not always be X on Amulet and Y/Z on rings for all classes and builds, but you always want your best one on the amulet, and your next best 2 on your pair of rings. If all else fails, falling back to the "holy trinity" of leveling aspects will always be giga value of heavens.

Class Specific aspects? Of course every class may have a few general aspects (or the SPECIFIC build you're on) that might beat out the above mentioned trio. Feel free to use those as a replacement or ON TOP OF the trinity! I don't go into it here, but it's something I talk about in the class-specific leveling guides.

Gloves - the possible 4th slot: You can fit another offensive aspect on a non-weapon slot, and that's gloves. Although the stat-loss is a little heavier. I honestly cannot recommend any general power from the codex right now as the 4th, but there are almost endless possibilities for a great class-specific aspect for this slot.


Leveling Stats and Gear? What's important?

You'll be getting a bunch of gear upgrades in your leveling journey - but how do you know when to change gear?

Armor and Weapon Damage - the big ones: These are your most important stats, and they impact your general power the most. If a weapon has higher damage, it's USUALLY better (check the damage on your skills to be sure). Higher armor value on armor is USUALLY better. If the difference is big, just switch gear right away. If it's a small increase, then you have to look at SUBSTATS.

Substats - good to have: Each class and build combo has substats that are amazing. Don't replace gear as easily if they have a ton of great substats. For example, a +10 weapon damage won't overcome +25% melee damage if you're a melee build. However, don't spend too much time and get bogged down over all the substats. Sometimes you just have to make a decision between replacing a piece of gear or not. If you make a "wrong" decision, who cares - you'll get a new upgrade soon anyway.

Legendaries and Aspects: some aspects are too good to have even if the gear gets old. Sometimes you just have to suck it up, or extract / imprint. This gets rough when your amazing aspect is on your main weapon (which is why you should avoid this scenario by imprinting onto smaller items).

While gear is important and you'll see a lot of it, you shouldn't stress out over choosing the best upgrades each time. Don't unnecessarily stress yourself over it as you're still leveling up anyway!


Summary & Closing

Hopefully our guide about leveling up any class in Diablo 4 gave you some (or hopefully a lot) of useful knowledge. This guide covers quite a bit of info regarding leveling up, but thankfully it's not something you need to read often! Learn the ways once and check back every so often for new tidbits!

Done with D4 General Leveling Guide? Other useful related Links:

This guide is meant to be used WITH the D4 Class specific Leveling Guides:

Finished the leveling process? See:
Transitioning to endgame (Fresh Level 50 character) guide.

That's about it for now, I'll add more to this as time goes by, but here's hoping you find this useful! GL leveling up in Sanctuary!