the follown guide was inspired by madam
Terror Zones (tz) is a new and effective way to level up in d2r especially for higher levels (94+)
What used to take multple months of grinding baal/chaos/nith and trying top top 2 the 3 bosses for the best way to get exp in the game, has been reduced to easily running certain zones when the serves changes the active terror zone. Undoubtedly this has brought a new meta for leveling. In this guide I will discuss the top 3, and some side ones as well, and how to best approach them, as well as what each character class can use.
Quickly, lets talk about each character & the best build for them
amazon
Javazon is still the top ranked pvm build, massive light dmg & aoe with charged strike + light fury. It is important to have fcr on this build as most terror zones require you to constantly teleport to keep up and do the maximum runs per hour. It is a good idea have some leech, max your resist, and even have a wiz spike & spirit on switch for 163 fcr.
sorceress
Nova sorc is probably the best due to max static for aoe & nova being that much stronger now. Lightning sorc can still do well, but nova just has more aoe dmg overall that it is more effective. Thanks to sunder a fire sorc with meteor could also do well in baal waves or fb due to the splash dmg. You need sunder though & massive -enemy fire res (flicker flame, facets, phoenix)
assassin
Assassin is now the easiset character in the game to level , thanks to mosaic. Read a guide on mosaic, but a mosaic sin can get the most exp per game/hour since mosaic does massive aoe dmg, basically always killing every monster. Anyone with a sin at levle 94+ and not respecing to this build for terror zones is a fool, leech, and just bad player to be around, and being purely disrepectful to anyone else in the runs but not using this cheap & effective build to clear the game.
druid
thanks to reect patch updates, fire druids are now very effective in pvm and can clear. using tornado is not as good anymore, as fire is dual dmg (fire and physical). use infinity & enermy fire res items (facets, phoenix, ravnelore). also this allow druid to clear some other areas very easy (stony tombs tz for example)
necromancer
psn nova & amp ce is pretty similar to mosaic build but takes a bit more time to set up and nec is a bit more squishy, but definately since tz has been made, nec has gained in benefit from weaker monsters being higher level. bone nec is not good for pvm as magic dmg cant be increased by negative magic resist.
paladin
hammer, nuff said always been good. makes leveling zealer & smiter very ez
barbarian
this is the only char who doenst have good build sadly, so it is hardest to level. but some effective ways are if you want to solo your self, go 105 max wc (wc gcs, sojs, wc amulet, wc helm, hotos) with reapers merc with decrep or eth rare pole arm with high ed and amp. on switch you have grief pb + ss or phoenix for zerk to hit bosses before you clear the pack. if you teleport into a unique back, cast warcry & battle cry, then switch to zerk on the boss, then kill the minions they are weaker and faster to kill with warcry. this is prob a better build for most tzone than frenzy or ww, as you have dual dmg (magic & physical) along with aoe (warcry). if you don't use this build, then if you leech in any other run, its best to use 1 point war cry (not leap) to stun monsters so the dps char(s) can kill everything fast since the monsters dont move.
terror zones worth clear
the #1 terror zone is baal for sure. some strategies to make them better is if your private running, have 1 player pre-tele on a second window with a barb or sorc. also clearing w1 before ppl arrive is good too, as w2-w5 give the most exp. also it is good to have a character that can stun the w3 monsters so hydras dont come and waste time in the run (warcry on barb, shockwave on druid, light fury on java zon, meteor or glacial spike on sorc, mosaic on sin are the best ways)
also if you do pub tz baal, sometimes it can be better for you to just clear worldstone keep lvl 1-3 packs as you will be by yourself and get way more exp while the rest of the game does waves. typically do 40-50 pre tele runs per hour is the most you can do.
the #2 terror zone is chaos for sure. some strategies to maek them better is it do infector seal first, so that if someone pops the fake seals, this best exp isnt lost to all the seal openings. also it is important to clear venom lord packs as you go through chaos, they give the best exp of all monsters in chaos. typically you do 60-70 fast chaos runs per hour, depending upon how fast teler is and how effective dps is. static is also very helpful in chaos to weaken all monstersi in chaos so that aoe dmg clears them for more group exp
the #3 terror is tal-rasha tomb for sure. some stratgies to make them better is free for all in tombs. very much no reason to have all players in all tombs each game, as it gives less exp per person. similar to chaos, aoe dmg with static is the best as you are clearing packs of uniques. typically you do 15-20 split tomb runs per hour if not 25 if your gruop is fast enough.
other good terror zones include:
flayer jungle (lots of packs)
river of flame (lots of packs)
stony tomb (quick ease of acess)
ancient ways (lots of packs)
hope this guide helps people get better at tzone, too many leech stick ondals stealing drops these days
hope my good buddies and approve
what you think?
D2:R