5. PreparationSo, this section will be extremely brief. There are just a few things you need to do in order to set up for this fun little ride you're about to embark on. First of all, the lvler should be rushed to act 5 normal. You can do this by yourself, or have a friend do it for you. It just saves a lot of time to be rushed
before hand. You also won't have to leave a good game you were lucky enough to get into if you do it this way. So, that is my recommendation to you.
In addition to being rushed, the lvler should be given the following waypoints.
Dark Woods, Black Marsh, Catacombs, Far Oasis, Arcane Sanctuary, Canyon of Magi, Travincal. You likely won't even be using all of these waypoints, but you'll definitely be using some of them. Again, it saves a lot of time to have these before hand, and will save you from having to leave a game when you don't have what you need.
On the chanter, you should have a Horadric Cube, and fetch a wirt's leg BEFORE you start the lvling. Again, this only saves you time and makes for the best experience. This way your chanter can open a cow portal for your lvler, without having to stop what you're doing, which is bothersome.
The lvler should have all of the lvler equipment in his inventory before hand. Although this can be a little risky, since you don't to die with equipment in your inventory (non lootable), it's still a HUGE time saver, and if you're careful you PROBABLY won't die. If you're feeling really anxious about that, just have your Chanter hold it in her stash.. although that will take extra time to transfer it as you lvl up...
Lastly, the lvler must be bought a bow and arrows from charsi. All characters can use short bow with base strength. The reason we use a bow is that it's much safer. You kill the enemies at a distance, without the risk of being hit by them. DO NOT FORGET THIS PREPARATION! Your lvler will
need bow and arrows before you begin.
6. Step-by-StepAt last. This is how we will level a character up from level 1 to 40+ in less than an hour. (With practice and luck! Don't expect to be this good on your first few trial runs!)
First, you will want to find the right game. My suggestion is a Perm Game! This is a game that people "park" their mules in so that the characters become permanent. Perm Games (untapped by other chanters, that is) are by far and away the best choice for us. Ideally, this will give us an 8 player game (max experience) with most of the other players just sitting around afk and thus not disturbing you in any way. It can take a little patience and luck to find the right perm game. You'll want one with 6 people, so both your lvler and your chanter will have room to join the game. It's best to do this late at night, when Perm games are common. How can you tell a Perm game?
It will usually have the word "perm" or "park" somewhere in the game name If you cannot find a Perm Game, then try your luck with any fullish quest/walk game. Although you're more apt to be bugged by people in those.
The following are NOT good choices of games to use: Trist runs. Tomb runs. Baal runs. Public Chant games. Any game where either all the other players are likely to exit very shortly from, or games where you will attract much rage and PK attempts. Never bring your chanter and lvler into someone else's public chant game. If you do that, you'll be competing with other lvlers who will be looking to milk the same areas you are, as well as wanting to shoot you for not sharing your chant, or for upstaging their own chanter.
So, you've found the right game to lvl in. NOW WHAT?
Step One. Chant your lvler, either just outside of town, or at the Dark Woods Waypoint. Work your way around the Dark Woods, killing everything in your path. Fight your way to Treehead Woodfist, and kill him. Remember, at this early stage, shoot and run. Don't let any of the monsters get in your face and hit you. At lvl 1 and 2 you'll have a somewhat low attack rating even with Enchant, but you'll kill
anything with only one hit. Be quick on your feet and you'll be fine. By the time Treehead is dead, you should be level 6 or higher. You can now wear Death's gloves + belt. This increases your IAS by 30% (Elapsed time: Less than 5 minutes)
Step Two. Work your way to the Black Marsh and the Forgotten Tower. We go to the Forgotten Tower, because there is guaranteed a unique or champion enemy on each of its 5 levels. This makes for excellent experience. Just be careful when going through the stairs, as sometimes they are camped. With the death's set on, you shouldn't have to worry about much. You should be speed shooting arrows like a fiend. Clear everything (or at least the unique/champ mobs) on the way to Countess. By the time you killed the Countess you should be level 12 and can now wear Angelic Rings and Amulet. This should give your health a big boost. (Elapsed time: ~5 minutes)
Step Three. Take Far Oasis Waypoint and see if there are beetles. If there are beetles. If there are beetles, then shoot them until you are level 15. If there are no beetles, run outside act2 town and search for beetles there. If there aren't any beetles there either, then you ran out of luck and have to go to Arcane Sanctuary. Dung Beetles will be the most exp and fastest lvl from 12 to 15. Arcane Sanctuary will be your next fastest option. As soon as you hit level 15, put on Raven Claw and go to Canyon of Magi waypoint! (Elapsed Time less than 10 minutes)
Step Four. Go into Canyon of Magi with your Raven Claw, and blast everything between you and a tomb. Now, clear the tombs one by one, skipping the real tomb. Your true goal here is to find the treasure chest of each false tomb so you can kill the Unique/Champion mob that awaits you there. If you can sting the unique groups it will be more efficient and fast than actually clearing the whole tomb. Do this until you are level 20. Don't forget to put on Twitch at lvl 16, this will boost your IAS to the next breakpoint. (Elapsed Time ~10-15 minutes)
Step Five. Go back to act 1. Have your chanter open the cow portal (preferably somewhere in a remote corner of town. Enter the cow portal with your lvler and rain deadly exploding arrows on all the cows there. You should go from lvl 20 to 24 at an insane speed. Do not kill the King unless not being able to open cow portals on that character doesn't bug you. Once you hit lvl 24, you are done with this perm game. (Elapsed Time ~15 minutes)
Step Six. Exit, create a new game with lvler, do his normal ancients and Baal quest. (Or you could take an alternate route, see chapter 7). Your lvler is now in Act 1 Nightmare.
Step seven Bring lvler and rusher to a private nightmare game. Have rusher go and get wirts leg and open a cow portal. Now switch rusher for chanter and chant the lvler. Go in nightmare cow lvl with the chanted lvler and start blasting away. (
NOTE! This recommended
only for such chanters that are fortunate enough to have 2,200 damage or more. However, with the IAS build I have given you here, it is feasible to clear NM cows with much less damage, just do NOT let these cows get near you!) At this point, clear the cow level. You'll notice you are steadily lvling up faster than you would from leeching normal Baals. (Elapsed time ~20-25 minutes)
Step eight Rinse and repeat. Once NM cow lvl is complete, make the next game and do it over again. It should only take you 3 runs maximum to hit lvl 40. If you can get people to sit in the game for you, or load your own duplicates, you can boost exp and go from 25-40 in just two or even ONE game (full game only). It has happened before! HOWEVER, do
NOT, I repeat, absolutely do
NOT do the chanted NM cowing in public games. You are doing so at your own risk, and
begging to get PKed. (Elapsed time ~ 25-30 mins
Can you beat my best record?)
Step nine Profit. You now have a lvl 40 character ready for a NM rush and baals, or a rush to Hell act4 to leech chaos sanctuary. You completely avoided wasting your time in tomb and Baal runs, and you avoided angry PKers who stalk normal. Good for you.
NOTE: This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Don't forget to frequently re-enchant your lvler when he's about to run out of juice! Enchant only lasts for so long! (
Although with the Max Power build it will last for easily 20 minutes plus)
7. Notes.Just some random stuff here that didn't fit anywhere else.
What if I don't meet all the Requirements for soloing?So you can't run two Diablo 2's, or you just don't have a chanter of your own? You have two main options. You could make a thread on the trading board of your realm that you are "ISO a chanter". Usually you can get someone who will agree to tag along with you for a small payment per-game, or to make public games for you. Sometimes you can even get a free chanter out of an ISO thread. Other than that, you can always look for public chant games, (ie Charity Chant 1, Free Chant 5, games like that). These can get much riskier though, as it is bound to not only attract PKers, but also that other chanted lvlers will likely be milking the same areas you want to. No matter which option you select, follow the Step-by-step guide from that point on. Sometimes you have to face reality and realize that you just can't find someone else to chant your character at times. Don't get frustrated and waste hours begging for chant. If you can't get chanted, then you'll have to just lvl the old way. (Trist till 15, tomb till 20, cow till 24, baal till 40) and just pray you won't be pked.
Making QuestersThis solo chant lvling guide is excellent for making a quester. All you need to do, if you plan on this, is add giving your lvler the Ancients Way waypoint during the Preparation phase. Now when you hit 24 in cows, instead of making a game for rush, simply take Ancinets Way Waypoint, and kill everything in sight along the path to the Arreat Summit. Considering the quest is available (as it so often is in perm games), kill your own ancients (chant makes it easy) and then clear the worldstone up on your way to Baal. By the time you kill Baal's minions you should easily be lvl 40+. Do not kill Baal though, of course. If you didn't quite hit lvl 40, just find the next Perm game. Considering these games are full/near-full, it shouldn't take any time at all to ding 40 in normal. Just slay in throne of destruction and ancients way. You now have a quester that you can sell or trade for a hell rush, as this can be used in G-Rushes by people. (Please note, you cannot make a thread on JSP offering this quester unless you have a
Trusted tag. You can, however, respond to someone else's ISO)
Help! Something's not right!What if things aren't going your way? What if someone has already cleared an area you were planning to clear? What if you are using someone else's chanter, and thus can't open a cow portal? Here are some solutions to common problems.
First: Alternate Lvling routes
-If someone has already taken Treehead Woodfist, just kill around the Dark Woods and Black Marsh, as long as you can hit lvl 5ish before you enter the Forgotten Tower, you should be fine.
-If someone else has already taken The Forgotten Tower, then just go go to Tamoe Highland and kill there until you're lvl 10ish or so. At 10ish, go to Catacombs and you should get your lvl 12 very quickly there.
-If you can't find any Dung Beetles in Act 2, just clear a few Arcane Sanctuary paths. It may feel slow, but it's gonna be faster than shooting worms and flies.
-Don't go to canyon/tombs before you can use Raven Claw.. that will save you endless headaches.
-
If you can't get cow portal, go to Trav, kill the council, then work your way backwards from trav all the way to flayer jungle. Depending on the fullness of the game, you should hit 24 very quickly. Don't forget to hit up the little dungeons on the passage way between Trav and Upper Kurast, as they both have unique monsters there. (this is what you're hunting for fast lvling) In Upper/Bazaar/Lower always hit the dunegons up for the unique monsters within.
For making Questers, if Baal is already clear, just settle for ancients way and also shenk/eldrich. If all of everything is clear just find a new game
What other tips/advice can you give us?Always play with your automap open. Beware other players. Don't mess around if a known PK is in the game, just move on. Be very careful about leaving your chanter near the entrance of town, as she could get town-killed at the gate! (It's real, it happens). Hide your chanter when not in use. Do not take the Chanter out of town, or she could get killed. Beware about taking common waypoints such as Catacombs, as a PKer might be camping. Use the more obscure waypoints like Dark Woods and Far Oasis, etc. Beware at Canyon of Magi wp, again check player list in the game and beware of a suspicious PKer. Be paranoid!
Do not let the monster get near you. Run and shoot and run some more. This goes DOUBLE for nightmare cows. Do not let them close the distance. If your chant isn't strong enough to kill them in less than 3 shots, you should just exit. Better to be safe than sorry.
And remember, unless you are using a "chant bot" (illegal game scripts), you can only chant other players if THEY are outside of town. YOU, however, do
not need to be outside of town to cast chant on them. So, if you get some random saying he won't go outside unless you come with him, then just invite him to leave and find his chant elsewhere.
This is lame.. Uber Trist is betterJust for those who can't read.. I
already said in the very beginning that Uber Trist is much faster than this. This is only the fastest way to lvl a character by YOURSELF. You can do this solo, something you can't do with Uber Trist. Also for those who don't have godly friends, you usually have to pay to be trist lvled. With this method, you only have to pay once to build your enchanter, and then you'll make it all back and more with the fg you will SAVE by never having to pay to be lvled again.
I like this. What else can I do with my Chanter?You may profit off of your chanter. Remember, although you can't offer the Chanting service unless you are
Trusted-tagged, you
may respond to someone else's ISO! Usually there is almost always people who need to be chanted. Some other fun things you can do is just create normal games and chant random people just for the heck of it. Impress people if you have godly-high chant damage. Show off a bit, have fun.
Also, having a "MAX POWER" Chanter can be useful for purposes other than lvling new chars... like say... secretly chanting your melee PVPer for
massive attack rating boost? (Before the other dueler joins the game of course) Be advised, if you are caught doing this, it's certainly bad manners.
Well, that's pretty much all I've got. If you've enjoyed this guide, feel free to praise.