Playable Heroes can also be purchased with in-game gold but earning it in substantial amounts can be a very time-consuming process, something which the game has been quite criticized about.

If you’re a new player and don’t have any heroes unlocked, you are restricted to playing 5 characters which rotate every week (or 7 with certain account-wide levels). Permanently unlocking a Hero will require either Gold or real-world money, and unsurprisingly most players much prefer the free option.

How to get Gold

There are four different ways you can get Gold in Heroes:

• Reach certain account level thresholds – a total of 16,000 gold for level 40
• Win a game – 10 gold for every match you win against bots, 30g in competitive modes
• Reach level 5 with any Hero – 500 gold for every one
• Daily quests – 300-800 gold per quest

In the guide below we’ll take a look and provide more insight into how each of these ways works and how you can maximize your gold gains!

Account experience and leveling

Simply by playing games, your HotS account also receives experience and levels. It’s referred to as “Player Progression”, and there are a total of 40 levels your account can achieve. Each level will require progressively more experience. An average “Cooperative” game (against A.I. controlled bots) will net you around 60,000 experience, and it will take hundreds of matches played to reach level 40.

Leveling your account is essentially done passively just by playing lots of matches, but certain levels are very important to achieve. On level 6 you will unlock daily quests, which are the bread and butter of gold-gains in this game. At level 10 you get a free 7-day Stimpack, boosting your experience and gold gain substantially for every match you play.

Considering this is the first and only free Stimpack you will get it’s very important to use it wisely. Meaning, for the next 7 days you will want to play as many matches as you possibly can.

Cooperative game wins will net you 25 Gold instead of the usual 10 (150% increase), and while it doesn’t seem like much it adds up after a few dozen (or hundred) games during that week.

Furthermore, the experience your Heroes get for playing a match is doubled, so this is the perfect opportunity to play as many different characters as you possibly can and get them to level 5, therefore getting 500 extra Gold each time.

It will take about 8 matches played with every Hero to bring them up to level 5 with an active Stimpack, so try to play every hero available during the weekly free-to-play rotation, even if you don’t like their playstyle. With “only” ten level 5 Heroes you could get extra 5,000 gold!

Playing games

There’s not much to talk about here: just by playing and winning games you gain more gold. This is a passive way to get gold, and just by playing a few matches per day you can eventually get enough gold for some cheaper champions, though it will take quite awhile.

For new players and even others who play certain Heroes for the first time, Cooperative games are a great way to quickly grab a few wins and more experience. The matches will rarely last longer than 20 minutes, and it’s highly unlikely you will lose any of them. For Co-Op games you gain 10 gold per win, and for competitive Quick-Match mode you get 30 gold per win or 20 per defeat.

Leveling Heroes

As mentioned above, leveling every Hero in the game to level 5 will give you a one-time boost of 500 gold. At the time of writing this there are 35 Heroes in total in Heroes of the Storm, which means you can get 17,500 gold just for reaching level 5 with each of them. Reaching level 2 requires 100,000 XP, reaching level 3 and 4 the same, and from level 4 to level 5 you will need 475,000 XP.

So, a total of 775,000 XP is needed to get a Hero to level 5, which equals to an average of 6 Cooperative games with an active Stimpack, or 12 games without. Losing against bots in Co-op mode is unlikely to happen so this is a great way to learn the basics of new Heroes, unlock all of their Talents, and get some experience and gold in the process.

Below is a list of all Hero unlocks you get by leveling them:

• Level 2 – second Heroic ability
• Level 3 – Advanced talents
• Level 4 – Expert (all) Talents
• Level 5 – 500 Gold
• Level 6 – mount variation and Hero portrait
• Level 7 – skin variation
• Level 8 – second skin variation
• Level 9 – second mount variation and Master profile Portrait
• Level 10 – Master skin
• Level 15 – 1250 gold
• Level 20 – 2500 gold

At Hero levels 15 and 20 you also gain gold rewards: 1250 and 2500 gold, respectively. Though it will take a bit longer to reach those levels, when you truly fall in love with a particular Hero you will have no trouble reaching it eventually.

Daily quests

The most important and easiest way to farm gold in HotS is by doing daily quests. Simply by logging in every day and playing a few games you can get really good amounts of gold, and the game really loves to award you for doing it. There are 9 different Daily Quests you can get:

1. 200g – Play 2 games as a Warcraft Hero
2. 200g – Play 2 games as a Diablo Hero
3. 200g – Play 2 game as a Starcraft Hero
4. 300g – Play 3 games as Assassin
5. 300g – Play 3 games as Specialist
6. 300g – Play 3 game as Support
7. 300g – Play 3 games as Warrior
8. 600g – Win 3 games
9. 800g – Play 8 games

You can have up to 3 daily quests active at any given time: even if you don’t complete the quest today, it will remain in your Daily Quest log until you do. I love this system as I don’t necessarily have to “force” myself to play every day if I can’t find the time,  I can just log in to grab the quest and complete it some other time. On average you get 355 gold per quest, which require you to play an average of 3,5 games (assuming you always win).

Note: you may need the level 12 and 15 Hero Rotation Slots unlocked, otherwise certain Hero archetypes will not be available to you in the weekly free-to-play hero rotation.

If you played for a month every day just to complete your Daily Quests, it would take 105 games and net you 10,650 gold. As you can see objectives of some quests also overlap, so if you keep 2-3 quests in your log all the time you would play even less, averaging to about 3 games a day.

For casual players who only want to play for about an hour every day, this is an amazing system and will allow you to purchase at least one Hero a month (prices vary from 2,000 to 10,000 gold per Hero).

That of course doesn’t take into account gold bonuses from leveling your account or certain Heroes! Playing 105 Cooperative games would give you another 1,050 gold, and assuming my calculation about an average of 6 co-op wins needed to reach champion level 5, you would have 17 level 5 Heroes each awarding you with 500g, or in other words another 8,500 gold.

TL;DR: Playing Co-op games for 30 days every day and completing daily quests with different free-to-play Heroes would get you 20,200 gold.

Depressing fact: 35 currently available champions to purchase cost a total of 223,000 gold. That’s 11 months of daily quests and 1150 matches played! Assuming an average match time of 18 minutes, it’s 345 hours or just over 14 days spent playing.

Recommended Ranked play Heroes

You don’t need all Heroes unlocked to play ranked. In fact just buying a dozen of them is enough to jump into competitive play. Below is a quick list of viable heroes and their prices!

Warriors:

• Stitches -7,000g
• Tyrael -7,000g
• Arthas -7,000g

Assassins:

• Thrall – 10,000g
• Valla – 2,000g
• Tychus – 4,000g
• Zerathul – 10,000g

Supports:

• Brightwing – 10,000g
• Uther – 7,000g
• Tassadar – 4,000g
• Li Li – 2,000g

Specialist:

• Nazeebo – 10,000g

This is by no means a must-have list, rather a good starting point for new players with current top-tier heroes. Note that hero viability may change with various patches and nerfs.

Purchasing all of the above heroes would cost a grand total of 80,000g.

Final tips and thoughts

• Consider purchasing a Stimpack early on. 7-day Stimpack costs $3,99, and 30-day Stimpack is $9,99. For the price equivalent of a 30-day Stimpack you can purchase only one 10,000 gold Hero, making Stimpacks a much better investment if you intend to play a lot during that month. You will probably make up most of the gold to purchase said hero, but also gain double the usual experience.
• Grouping up with other players gives you a 50% XP bonus. If you don’t have any, just add a few good ones after a match and queue together with them. 50% XP is a fixed bonus regardless of party size.
• Don’t purchase champions before you try them at least once. Their abilities or theme may seem appealing at first, but you may end up disliking their gameplay after awhile. Try to level them up to level 4 at least and see all of their talents before you make the purchase.
• You cannot have 2 identical quests at the same time. An interesting tactic is to try and avoid completing low-value quests (like “Play 2 games as a Warcraft hero” for 200g) for as long as you can, making sure your quest log always has 2 low-value quests. This increases your chances of getting a higher value quest (600g or 800g ones). It can total to about 45 extra gold per day.
• Never buy heroes the first two weeks after release. Their initial release prices are set to 15,000g, but are reduced to 10,000g after two weeks. They may seem awesome and fun, but a bit of patience can easily save you a substantial amount of gold.

Conclusion

For casual players Heroes of the Storm has a lot to offer. Grinding gold by playing countless matches is viable, but Daily Quests are your main source of gold gain. Despite players being very vocal about stingy gold gains in HotS, the game’s main competitor League of Legends requires far more matches (which are also far more frustrating, and last twice as long) if you wanted to unlock every Hero.

Of course, you absolutely don’t need to unlock every hero to play Heroes of the Storm, even if you intend to play Ranked games exclusively. The ranked Hero League game mode requires you to have at least 10 heroes unlocked to even play it, and some of the most popular and powerful ones aren’t in the most expensive 10,000 gold price tier. In fact you’d need only about 70,000 – 80,000 gold to unlock viable ranked heroes, which you can farm in just 4 months of very casual play time.

Here’s some general advice on racing I picked up. Not all applies to Descent Champions or Endless Ledge, but I hope you’ll find some of it useful.

1. Try to get early health regen. Easiest way is to buy a white Coral Amulet from Nessa in the first camp; it costs 1 Orb of Transmutation, but you may not find one until Ledge if you’re unlucky. Also buy a Coral ring, it will help prevent stuns from Rhoas in Mud Flats (and overall survivability).
2. Check the other vendor in the same time for boots with bonus movement speed, they can speed up leveling a lot early on.
3. Always stay on the move. Whether killing monsters, or equipping or identifying items you should always try to move forward to the next monster pack, area or objective.
4. Learn zone layouts. Even though zones are generated (somewhat) randomly every time, they do follow a certain pattern. You will usually see 3-4 or less layouts repeating all the time, which you can learn by simply continuously creating an instance of the same area over and over again in a non-race league.
   — in Coast you’ll usually want to follow the wall to the far right side
   — Mud Flats glyphs are connected via small “rivers”, and the three glyphs are generally in a triangular pattern
   — Lower Submerged Passage doesn’t really have a particular layout (as far as I know), the entrance to Upper and the Cave can be in either direction.
   — exit to Ledge in Upper Submerged Passage is either far northeast or northwest — opposite of where you started. It’s never in the southern part of the zone.
5. Don’t skip magic (blue) monsters. They give you the most experience and are worth killing almost every time. Rare (yellow) or Unique monsters on the other hand are generally best skipped, they usually take too long to kill considering the rewards.
6. Only kill large monster packs. If you come across one or two monsters it’s best to simply skip them. Try to find larger packs with 4-5 monsters at least and use your AoE abilities to clear them, in the end you’ll spend the same time killing 10 monsters as you would 2. Don’t backtrack to finish off any leftover monsters, always keep moving forward.
7. Learn when to back to town. You don’t need to pick up quest rewards or talk to NPCs every time something pops up, you can save valuable time by simply continuing ahead.
8. Don’t reset instances and farm. It’s generally not worth it in short-term races and you will fall behind if you do it. Instead move to the next area even if you’re behind in levels: at least you’ll be getting bonus experience and make up for it fast.
9. Learn quest rewards. Not very important, but Tidal Island side quest with the Medicine Chest for example rewards a Quicksilver Flask, it can be hugely beneficial to have it. Also particular skill gems are more useful than others — see Path of Exile Wiki for gem rewards to see when you should back and pick up gems.
10. Plan your character build. For 1 hour races it doesn’t really make sense to plan a build with 50 skill points, but do make sure to plan beforehand. You don’t want to waste any time thinking where to put a skillpoint, just decide on it before the race starts and spend as little time as you possibly can to allocate points. A tip you may find useful is to hold CTRL while left-clicking on a skill point, you won’t see a confirmation message and points will get instantly allocated.
11. Use a decent build. This race season I’ve only been leveling with a Spectral Throw Scion. It’s fast and has great AoE damage, and you can just pick up an early 2-handed weapon and pretty much one-shot white packs. You can also cast ST and keep moving, when the “weapon” comes back to you you’ll finish off the remaining mobs. Takes just a few races to get used to it, I’d really recommend it if you’re new. I believe Ice Nova and Ground Slam builds are fairly popular now as well, but I haven’t tried either of those. Try to keep using the same build over and over again in multiple races, it will save you time in the long run.

Hopefully some of this is useful for you. You usually get better and better every time you run these races, so don’t sweat it at first and set some realistic goals. I for one only want the Andvarius this season, it takes measly 135 points to get it. Simply participating in one race a day and not dying is enough to get it. Unless you’re extremely serious about racing don’t count on getting any of the most expensive rewards like Ming’s Heart or Void Battery — even the best of racers will likely have trouble getting those. Do races to have fun and get better at the game. With time I’m sure you’ll improve.

Might be useful:
A beginner’s guide to racing
Nugiyen’s racing videos
– Try watching some popular streamers on Twitch.tv while they’re racing, you may pick up a few things.

Just in time for ArcheAge’s headstart we have access to a completely free and very detailed leveling guide. Created by Meliran, this guide details every quest on your path from level 1 to 50, and has every race and zone covered. Completing quests is the easiest and likely the fastest way to level up in ArcheAge so a step-by-step walkthrough is definitely helpful for anyone looking to get to the endgame as fast as possible.

These leveling guides will help you reach the level cap faster by showing you exactly where you need to go and where the quest objectives are. Best of all this leveling guide is completely free so you don’t have to worry about having to pay for anything!

COMPLETE LEVELING GUIDES:

The guides below include complete leveling guides for every zone and race: Nuian, Elf, Harani, and Firran.

• The Complete Nuian Levelling Guide
• The Complete Elven Levelling Guide
• The Complete Harani Levelling Guide
• The Complete Firran Levelling Guide

NUIAN LEVELING GUIDES

• Level 1-10 – Solzreed Peninsula
• Level 11-14 – Liyut Hills
• Level 15-19 – Dewstone Plains
• Level 20-23 – White Arden
• Level 24-26 – Marianople
• Level 27-29 – Two Crowns

ELF LEVELING GUIDES

• Level 1-10 – Gweonid Forest
• Level 11-14 – Liyut Hills
• Level 15-19 – Dewstone Plains
• Level 20-23 – White Arden
• Level 24-26 – Marianople
• Level 27-29 – Two Crowns

HARANI LEVELING GUIDES

• Level 1-10 – Arcum Isis
• Level 11-14 – Tigerspine Mountains
• Level 15-19 – Mahadevi
• Level 20-23 – Solis Headlands
• Level 24-26 – Villanelle
• Level 27-29 – Silent Forest

FIRRAN LEVELING GUIDES

• Level 1-10 – Falcorth Plains
• Level 11-14 – Tigerspine Mountains
• Level 15-19 – Mahadevi
• Level 20-23 – Solis Headlands
• Level 24-26 – Villanelle
• Level 27-29 – Silent Forest

SHARED GUIDES:

• Nuian/Elf: Level 30-32 – Cinderstone Moore
• Harani/Firran: Level 30-32 – Ynstere

ALL RACES SHARED GUIDES:

• Level 33-34 – Halcyona
• Level 35-37 – Hellswamp
• Level 38-40 – Sanddeep
• Level 41-42 – Rookborne Basin
• Level 43-44 – Windscour Savannah
• Level 45-46 – Perinoor Ruins
• Level 47-48 – Hasla
• Level 49-50 – Karkasse Ridgelands

You can download the complete guides for either of the 4 races and get a complete overview of their 1-50 leveling path, or if you only require help with a specific area you can save yourself some bandwidth and download only the guides you need.

Either way we hope you find these guides helpful.

ArcheAge has a very extensive and immersive crafting system. Being a sandbox game many aspects of ArcheAge are player-driven, including the economy and crafting. With 21 different professions to choose from players have many resources available to them, from crafting equipment, building houses and ships, and even growing plants and trees or taking care of animals.

The following ArcheAge crafting guide will give you a basic list of all tradeskills (also called Proficiencies or Crafting Skills) in this game and explain what they’re all about. You can also learn a bit more about the Labor system and get some tips for leveling your professions.

LIST OF PROFESSIONS

	Alchemy	Alchemy is used to create potions to restore health and mana or add other buffs. Also creates enhancements, other crafting materials, dyes, Lunadrops, Lunastones, Archeum Dust, and talismans.
	Cooking	Cooking is a tradeskill which creates various edible food which gives temporary effects to your character, such as increased regeneration or stat boosts.
	Weaponry	Weaponry or weapon smithing enables you to craft metal-based weapons such as daggers, swords or axes. It also allows you to craft shields and explosives with various Ingots.
	Carpentry	A crafting skill focused on woodworking and crafting wood-based weapons (bows and staves), as well as furniture.
	Metalwork	Metalworking allows you to refine raw materials and ore into ingots, and allows players to craft heavy armor equipment and diving suits.
	Leatherwork	Crafting skill which focuses on tanning of hides and production of leather armour.
	Tailoring	Tailoring allows players to use various cloth and fabric to create cloth goods and armor.
	Handicrafts	Handicrafting enables players to craft jewelry such as rings, necklaces and earrings. Also enables you to create chests for clothes, musical instruments for bards, racing car parts, fishing tools and home decoration items.
	Mining	Mining allows you to gather different ores and stones from various nodes found throughout the world. By mining you can also gather usable crystals and gems.
	Machining	This profession produces various devices and vehicles such as tanks, gliders, tracors, submarines, and ships. Also allows you to upgrade machines.
	Commerce	Commerce allows you to craft trade packs (commercial boxes) and Auction House sales.
	Farming	Enables the growing, watering and harvesting of crops, fruits, vegetables and grains.
	Husbandry	Husbandry is a cultivation skill focusing on the development of livestock: butchering, milking, plucking, mount breeding, and more.
	Masonry	Masonry is a crafting skill devoted to stone work, and is required for producing different types of bricks out of stone. It also enables you to create Teleport Stones.
	Gathering	Gathering is a cultivation skill that covers both planting and harvesting herbs and flowering plants. Materials gathered are used for Alchemy.
	Logging	Logging is a gathering and cultivation enabling you to grow trees and gather wood logs.
	Printing	Printing profession is used for the creation of books, scrolls for improving equipment, and music papers.
	Construction	Construction is a crafting profession focused specifically on building structures, such as houses and ships. It allows you to spend less Labor when building houses and ships.
	Fishing	A gathering skill centered on fresh and saltwater fishing.
	Larceny	Larceny allows your character to steal easier, and is non-production skill that is leveled by stealing crops from player farms that haven’t been taxed or from “at risk” farms.
	Composition	This skill is centered on writing and composing music, and enables you to play music for longer with the advancement of the skill.

Last 4 professions (Construction, Fishing, Larceny and Composition) don’t actually create any items.

Majority of the professions in ArcheAge are done in such a way that you need to either combine several of them to be able to craft specific items, or trade with other players. As such if you intend to take up Alchemy, you should also consider leveling Gathering.

LABOR SYSTEM

Something that is commonly mentioned when talking about crafting in ArcheAge is the Labor System — and for good reason. Every crafting-related action you do whether it’s production or gathering will require a certain amount of Labor Points (LP). This does limit the amount of crafting work you can do, as once your Labor Points are depleted you can’t do further crafting, harvesting, planting, building or anything else. While the system is limiting your crafting efforts, it also allows for better economy where you can essentially trade with other players for their LP if you require any crafting work done and can’t do it yourself.

Labor Points recover on their own at a rate of 1 point every 5 minutes spent in-game (equals to 288 per day at most). Players with premium account can recover 10 points every 5 minutes while online and 5 points every 5 minutes while offline (1440-2880 LP a day). At first you will likely find yourself with plenty of LP, but more difficult crafting tasks later on in the game take up more and more LP, and you will eventually find yourself with depleted Labor. For example a simple task such as picking a herb takes 1-2 points, while building something more complex can take dozens of LP.

PROFESSION TIERS & LEVELING

Each profession in ArcheAge has 5 different skill levels: Basic, Novice, Veteran, Expert and Master. Leveling your professions takes time, and of course — Labor Points. Once you spend 10,000 LP in a given tradeskill you will advance from Basic to Novice. The table below gives you a more accurate overview of advancement:

All characters start with the “Basic” skill tier in all professions. The “Max Professions” column indicates the maximum number of professions you can have at that skill tier; essentially you can only upgrade 2 skills to the Master level. Increasing your proficiency in crafting skills reduces some labor costs, increase the amount or quality of items you can produce, and has several other benefits, so it’s certainly worth it.

In addition to gaining experience and skill by crafting and gathering you can also gain Vocation Points. Vocation Points can be redeemed like currency at the Blue Salt Brotherhood, which is a global partnership of gatherers and crafters who provide support to each other via training quests and specialty goods bought with Vocation Points.

SUMMARY

With 21 different Proficiencies, ArcheAge offers plenty of enjoyment for players dedicated to crafting. While you can engage in all of them, many professions are tied with one another and it’s best to focus on 2-3 of them at first and getting them to the Master rank. It’s especially important considering all crafting-related tasks use Labor Points which you have a limited amount of.

Leveling these crafting skills isn’t overly difficult but does take time. You can simply mine ore nodes to level up Mining, or cook food to level Cooking. Most actions that spend your Labor also give your character experience, and while it would take quite awhile you could technically level up your character to the level cap simply by crafting and never engaging in any combat.

We hope this basic guide of ArcheAge crafting and gathering skills will be of some help — if you have any questions or comments be sure to voice them below!

In Path of Exile grinding experience in Normal (easiest) difficulty is pretty pointless. You’re gaining levels extremely fast and can finish it quite easily without any item or level grinding required. By the time you get to Cruel (second) difficulty you should be over level 30 and you can start farming the first few areas of Act I without much trouble.

Afterwards, you should always try to be at the very least the same level as monsters in a particular area otherwise progression might get difficult, especially if you prefer playing solo and not in groups. Some skill tree builds also aren’t as strong until level 50 or so (dual totems or Freezing Pulse for example) so it’s highly recommended to stay a few levels above the mobs in the zone you’re in. You can take a look at the table below for a quick overview of the monster levels in every zone.

Another note, if you’re looking for specific quest walkthroughs read this article.

Where to grind levels?

Below are my absolutely favorite areas to grind experience, so if you’re looking to gain some quick levels I suggest you do it here.

Act I best leveling area: The Ledge

Probably the best of all areas, The Ledge is really straightforward. Monsters include mostly Skeletons which are slow and really easy to mow down either one by one or with AoE skills. There’s also a waypoint in the middle of the zone so you don’t have to spend too many Portal Scrolls if you wish to clear your inventory.

Tip: the “sharp” tip of the waypoint always points towards Kuduku and the next area (Rocky Climb).

In The Ledge I recommend you simply run from one end to another and clear everything along the way. Reset the instance and repeat. Really easy, fast, and like everything else in Path of Exile best done in groups.

Act II best leveling area: Fellshrine Ruins

There are actually a few areas which are equally good for grinding levels in Act II, but Fellshrine Ruins is probably my favorite zone. Take a waypoint to Church Dungeon Level 1, and take the exit to Fellshrine Ruins immediately next to it. In Fellshrine I found it best to simply follow the road, and once you get to Crossroads exit just reset the instance. Rinse and repeat. If you don’t have Church Dungeon waypoints go to Crossroads and just follow the road east.

Monsters in Fellshrine mostly include skeletons and zombies which are both extremely easy to kill, and when you come across Hulking Titans you can easily skip them if you find them hard to kill.

Alternatively Church Dungeon, Western Forest, Pools and Streams and Pyramid are all just as good for farming, so take your pick.

Act III best leveling area: The Docks

Without a doubt The Docks is the best area for experience grinds in Act III on any difficulty. Another area littered with skeletons and zombies who won’t cause you any trouble. There’s plenty of room for kiting, and ranged classes will certainly enjoy killing monsters from safe spots over ledges.

If you’re level 30 or so after finishing Act II, press the magic “S” button and find a group for The Docks. You’ll be level 35 in just a bit over an hour, making progression through early Cruel difficulty much easier. If you’re trying to go on Merciless, you can easily farm this zone until level 60 if you wish and still get plenty of experience.

Endgame Leveling

If you really wanted to you can finish Merciless by the time you hit level 50, although there’s not much point. You can just open up Docks and farm there until you’re level 74 with ease. It’s the easiest area to farm, has decent drops so you can upgrade your equipment, and you can even get quite a few maps there to get you started. If you’re around level 62 you should still be getting almost 20% of your level by doing just one full Docks run which takes no longer than 10 minutes in the worst of groups. At level 73 if I remember correctly you’ll get about 8% of your level with one full run which is still a decent amount.

Before doing level 66 maps I would recommend you try and hit at least the same level in Docks: it’s extremely easy and even though it’s a grind, that’s what Path of Exile endgame looks like so you might as well get used to it. As for equipment and defenses you should try and max your elemental resistances and get at least 2,000 health (or 3,000 energy shield), otherwise you might end up dying far too often to continuously get experience.

Leveling really slows down after you hit 75, in which case you’ll want to do maps at least level 67, or find a group for Lunaris Temple. By the time you hit level 80 I’m sure you’ll already know what your preferred way of leveling is. Realistically you shouldn’t expect to hit level 100 anytime soon as it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, but in case you’re planning your character skill tree build you can expect to be level 90 at most.

General leveling tips:

1. Try grouping up with other players if you’re having trouble progressing, or find a group that just grinds the same area over and over again and farm experience. Once you’re 3-4 levels above the monster’s level in a particular area you should have no problems clearing it alone.
2. Farming experience in groups for a couple of hours may be boring, but it’s definitely better than dying constantly. Remember that dying on Cruel and Merciless difficulty levels will decrease your experience by 5% and 10% respectively, meaning you’ll eventually have to farm that XP anyway.
3. Also it doesn’t really matter what level you decide to go grind for experience, you will have to catch up in levels sooner or later. Simply progressing through quests in harder difficulties won’t give you enough experience points and you WILL have to grind. I suggest you do it early while you’re about the same level as monsters in order to maximize your experience gain and loot.
4. On Cruel and Merciless difficulties try not to have a full XP bar before you engage bosses. In fact I recommend you go attempt to kill bosses just after you gained a level to make sure you lose as little as possible if (or rather when) you die.
5. It’s always best, fastest and safest to do maps with a full group. If your defenses or damage is lacking don’t be afraid to run in and out of fights and play more passively and safely. Once you figure out you gain 1-3% XP for a full 66 map run dying and losing 10% of your experience is a significant amount of farming.

I do hope this post helps you at least a little bit to powerlevel your characters as quickly as possible, or at the very least make sure you know where to catch up with levels. If you have any other great areas for farming you like or other leveling tips be sure to post them in the comments below.

1. Trading

For a game based so much on loot making trading with other players so inconvenient is a mysterious move in my opinion. It’s becoming increasingly annoying for me to try and trade currencies to other players. Usually it involves me spamming at least five different trade channels only to be replied by players who are just trying to take advantage of me, which amounts to borderline scam. For some reason everyone expects a 30% or higher profit yield in currency exchanges and even refuse to negotiate for a reasonable ratio. I often spend an hour or two just sitting idly in Sarn just waiting for someone to offer a regular trade ratio.

And I shouldn’t even mention trading items. Unless you have a valuable Unique or a GG item chances are you won’t sell it. Again even with somewhat valuable items that are worth a few GCPs you’ll spend hours spamming channels only to be replied by offers of 1 Alchemy and such. It’s no surprise that the public parties window is laden with people selling and buying items and currency, when there’s no alternative system in place to facilitate more convenient trades between players.

Furthermore making forum topics with shops and/or relying on 3rd party services to help you sell items is just ridiculous for any game. GGG has mentioned that some kind of a trading system will be put in place before the game’s release, and that can’t come any sooner. For those hardass players who are in favor of the current trading system, all I can say is Diablo II was released over a decade ago and it’s time for you to move on. Trading via forums or chat doesn’t make trading impossible, just inconvenient. GGG should encourage trades rather than hinder them, but that’s just my 2c.

The best solution would be to add an auction house, at least for the casual Standard league. It’s a proven system for trading in online games and it’s unlikely it would be a difficult implementation.

2. Dependance on Kaom’s Heart

Edit: fixed in patch 1.0.0. Base character health increased, Kaom’s Heart down to 500 health.

Currently my build doesn’t provide much room to remove Kaom’s. By significantly nerfing health bonuses from the passive skill tree in a recent patch GGG has in my opinion made a huge mistake. Before you could have insanely high health and truth be told it needed to be reduced, but by reducing health nodes in the skill tree I am now even more dependent on using Kaom’s Heart. By removing it with my current gear I’m left with 2,700 health which is hardly enough for high-level map farming. And there’s no alternative: with the old health values in my passive I could have 4,000 HP fairly easily and using Kaom at that point wouldn’t be mandatory, in fact I’d gladly remove it.

It doesn’t seem okay that an entire playstyle is viable only because of one item. Anyone who plays melee builds very likely has to get Kaom’s or risk dying far too often. One solution would be to reduce Kaom’s bonus health by half but increase health nodes in the passive tree to the previous amounts. Likelihood of that happening though is extremely slim.

3. RNG

This might come off the wrong way but I’ll include it anyway since it frustrates me beyond belief at times. First of all I don’t mind farming and grinding, in fact I believe it’s one aspect of the game that keeps me going. I’m always hopeful to get a valuable item or at the very least farm enough currency to buy one. However when you’re farming 30 hours a week and get nothing out of it but some low-value currency you start to get increasingly vexed by the futility of the time invested. Looting an amazing item is fun, it keeps me playing, but farming currency to hopefully be able to afford one some day kind of puts me off.

If you could get currency more consistently then playing for hours on end would feel more rewarding. A possible solution would be to make sure that for (example) every 5 thousand mobs you kill in maps your chances of getting an Exalted Orb increase exponentially up to the point where a drop is almost guaranteed. It would make farming more consistent in terms of value gained and make it at least a bit more bearable. Just this past week I did well over 100 68+ map runs and got nothing out of it; the most valuable loot I got is a couple of Regret and Chaos Orbs. Vendoring hundreds of rare items for Alterations and picking up every single Chromatic won’t get me near Soul Taker anytime soon.

Here’s something to put things into perspective for you. I have 40 days played (that’s 960 hours spent in game) and all I got to show for it is a total net value of 50 Exalted Orbs (half of which is due to one lucky drop). Barely enough to buy two GG Unique items for my build, Kaom’s Heart and Soul Taker. Is that a reasonable reward for the time invested?

Path of Exile has numerous character builds I’d love to try out but it’s so damn expensive. It’s not enough to simply level a character to 80+, you need to spend hours upon hours farming maps for specific items to make it viable. Farming hundreds of maps also brings me to my next two points.

4. Leveling past 85

Don’t get me wrong, leveling to 100 should be nearly impossible and unattainable to only but a few who can dedicate a gigantic amount of time and effort it takes. But getting stuck at level 85 or so (or 87 in my case) feels like I’ve yet to reach “high-level”. I like the fact that levels are always the carrot on a stick and it’s just one of the reasons why I keep logging in. But unless you have access to 73+ maps  leveling past 87 is nearly impossible. I get less than 1% of my level for a full map run, and chances are every 10-15 runs I’ll do something dumb and die only to lose 3-4 hours of gameplay, experience wise. Getting to those maps requires either a huge amount of currency or friends with huge amounts of currency, neither of which I’m in abundance.

Getting plenty of 72+ maps to be able to farm consistently is an entirely different problem.

5. Sustaining map pools

The only maps I always managed to have plenty of are 66s. A couple of weeks ago I spent an Exalted to buy sixty 68 maps just to try and get a bit closer to higher level maps, again. I managed to turn those 60 maps into about a hundred total but right now I’m almost out of 68s. I did get about fifteen 69s and six 70s but I quickly ran out of those. Sustaining a high-level map pool to me seems impossible if RNG isn’t in your favor. Frankly, spending 4 Chisels and a few Scouring + Alchemy Orbs to get 80+ quantity is a noticeable investment and then not getting a single map drop is irritating. Just yesterday I was in some public group doing blue 70 maps for an hour or so and the guy always got 1-2 level 70 maps in every single run despite extremely low quantity (usually about 20%).

I tried buying 70 maps, I rolled mazes and 100%+ quantity and whatnot and if the RNG doesn’t favor you it makes absolutely no difference. Sooner or later I fall back to farming 66 maps, hoping to get a few 67s or 68s, all the while spending currency to roll them which barely gets back my investment. From what I can gather most players start having problems with sustaining their 72+ map pools; I can’t seem to get even near that level. Considering I don’t gain any experience from < 72 maps farming them also feels completely futile, and I might as well farm Docks or Lunaris.

Basically, it doesn’t feel right that unless you have friends in high places you’re getting denied the full endgame experience.

6. Magic Find

I feel it’s unfair that having Increased Item Quantity & Rarity is exclusive to practically one build in the game. If this trend continues Sporkers are soon going to be played by half of the population, and the builds popularity is in no way surprising. It’s cheap to get started with and requires practically no defensive stats all the while yielding currency at a consistent rate. With every other skill tree build your gear must focus on defensive and offensive stats, and Sporkers only have to get IIQ/IIR and they’re more than ready for Merciless Docks. I hate to bring another game into the discussion, especially one so hated by the PoE community, but Diablo III had an interesting system implemented in a later patch where Magic Find was a base character stat depending on level rather than being exclusively gained through equipment.

Considering some of the other points I outlined above perhaps such a system wouldn’t be entirely wrong in Path of Exile either, because getting gear with health, resistances and damage is hard enough without having to think about IIQ & IIR as well.

7. Item Filtering

If you ever did Coward’s Trial you know why there’s a need for item filtering options. Sometimes there’s so much loot that you literally can’t even see or pick it up because it goes over your screen boundaries. Even in regular maps there are often dozens of monsters and a boss at the same place and you have to spend a minute just looking at the loot and see if there’s anything you missed.

I probably picked up more 6-socket items because someone missed it in the giant blob of text rather than having them actually drop for me. Before loot allocation options were implemented you could at least filter out white items, now it’s either all or nothing. A customizable item filter for white and blue items would definitely be a welcome addition to the game and I can’t possibly see anyone complaining about it.

In-game passive skill tree planning, more gem choices, useless currencies (Glassblower’s, Transmutation, Augmentation), accuracy stat (awful mechanic), clearer wording (“More” and “Increased”)… Those are just some of the other minor issues that may or may not be fixed, improved or implemented with time. The game is still in beta and GGG has said multiple times Path of Exile is aimed at “hardcore” gamers, but I can’t help but whine about some of the things that irk me on a daily basis. The 7 outlined issues I have with the game are more of a quality of life change rather than making the game overly casual, at least that’s how I feel about it.

A couple of years ago I asked Chris from GGG for a small favor and although he had no reason he was very forthcoming. For someone as busy as I’m sure he is to take the time of the day to accommodate me is unprecedented and just one of the reasons why I don’t feel bad at all when buying weapon effects and stash tab bundles. I’ve observed the way he and the rest of the company interacts with the community and I’ve grown very fond of the way they do business. I admire their patience and envy their well-deserved success. I’m not their targeted audience though: I’m a casual player and I’m sure some of my opinions differ from what the majority of the community feels.

It’s the small things that make a game great and Path of Exile is already there. But there’s always room for improvement and I’m certainly hoping that some of the peeves I have will be eventually addressed.

What annoys you in Path of Exile?

It contains very detailed information on pretty much everything you want to know about ArcheAge: world, combat, classes, leveling, ships/vehicles/mounts, PvP/factions/sieges, crafting, housing, trading, piracy, economy, PvE content, gliding, exploration, user interface and addons, and graphics.

The most important game features you should definitely read in the review are those about the classes and the skill system: there’s basically 120 class combinations and there’s bound to be some interesting discoveries to be made even now.

The leveling part basically explains how questing is more rewarding than grinding in ArcheAge, and further in the review it mentions some leveling instances which are apparently insanely hard.

Furthermore there’s a decent chunk of content about various vehicles and mounts as well as ships, included of course are excellent screenshots and videos so you can see it all in action.

Many players are of course looking forward to PvP combat as well and a review of the system is included. It explains the basics of the player versus player battle and shows off several PvP Warzones and areas. ArcheAge also has battlegrounds which are 5v5 instances areas which you can enter every 2 hours. PvP also rewards you with Honor Points which can be used to purchase equipment, mounts and other special rewards.

Another hugely popular game feature is of course crafting. As the author mentions it’s currently a controversial topic as it used to be a system aimed at hardcore players who love crafting, but after recent changes it became overly simplified. Worth noting is that the best equipment you can get in ArcheAge can still only be obtained by crafting which gives you more than enough reasons to delve into it.

There are of course also professions in this game which include Fishing, Mining, Composing (as in composing music, believe it or not: see video of player-made songs), and also trading, harvesting and construction which further add depth to the game.

Trading is basically farming or harvesting various materials which you craft into packages and are required to deliver to certain trading outposts for profits. On the other side of the coin is Piracy which is a huge factor in the game: other players can attack you while delivering packages and steal them from you. Pirating isn’t easy but you have to admit it’s one of the most fun systems that exists in any MMORPG and will certainly get your blood pumping.

A feature often missing in many MMORPGs is player housing and ArcheAge doesn’t disappoint in this aspect: it boasts a pretty powerful and customizable housing system that has benefits other than vanity.

Overall it’s a lengthy read so I recommend you take the largest cup of your favorite drink and be prepared to spend an hour amazed at the amount of information provided in the review. It also includes tons of beautiful screenshots and some useful gameplay videos to provide you with more context.

Do remember that ArcheAge is still not released and many things are subject to change, but judging by this and other early previews this might very well turn out the best MMORPG you’ve played in years. It has amazing potential and it’s up to XL Games to make the most out of it.

Be sure to check out the post and share your thoughts about the review or the game below. Did it meet your expectations, and are you looking forward to playing ArcheAge? Let us know!

1. Follow a skill tree build

The first thing you should do when you make your first character (or preferably just before) is to find a good skill tree build and follow it. I know we all want more damage but in Path of Exile building a glass-cannon character simply doesn’t work in endgame. A majority of your points usually need to be in defensive talents, because simply put a dead character isn’t dealing any damage.

If you’re confused with picking a class you can take this as a basis:

• If you want to play a ranged caster mage pick a Witch
• If you want a ranged archer pick a Marauder or Duelist
• If you want a tank pick a Marauder or Templar
• If you want melee DPS pick a Marauder, Templar or Duelist
• If you want a melee caster pick a Shadow
• If you want a dual-wielding melee beast pick a Duelist

Also worth noting is that having good weapons will increase your DPS more than having a majority of damaging skill points in your passive tree, so once again, focus on building defense via the skill tree. Additionally having 3 or more support gems linked to your main damaging ability will immensely increase your DPS.

2. Don’t throw away skill gems with +Quality

They are valuable and can be traded to other players, or even vendors in bulk for very valuable currency items called Gemcutter’s Prism. Most gems with less than +12% quality are best to simply sell to vendors (in bulk for Prism, not single!). The recipe works the same way as other +quality items: sell gems with a combined quality of 40% and you’ll get a Prism. Anything over 12% quality should be either used by you or traded to other players.

3. Don’t spend currency on low-level items

And by low-level I mean anything below 60. I know it’s tempting to turn those “useless” white items into rare (yellow) ones when you’re level 30 or 40 but you will out-level them very quickly. Orbs of Alchemy and Chaos Orbs are much better used for high-end items so save them, you will need every single one.

Blacksmith’s Whetstone and Armorer’s Scraps on the other hand are fairly easy to come by and if you find a decent piece of gear you will use for awhile feel free to improve its stats, but don’t go overboard. Just remember you’ll replace those items pretty quickly.

4. If you don’t know the value of an item, don’t trade it

I still don’t know the value of a lot of items and sometimes it’s hard to determine it, but if you think something is really good don’t just sell it for an Alchemy Orb. A good example is the aforementioned +Quality gems: high-level characters often prey on lowbies in Normal difficulty and try to buy out their gems for Alchemy Orbs. If a gem is 6% quality or less you can trade it away for an Alchemy Orb, but anything above that is more valuable (look above at tip #2).

Once you hit the endgame knowing the value of items becomes even more important. Check out some of the trading sites like poe.xyz.is or poexplorer.com and search for an item with similar stats to yours to get an idea of how much it could be worth.

5. Pick up all orbs

I must admit I haven’t made this mistake myself (I still pick up most Wisdom scrolls even though they are pretty much useless), but don’t skip picking up any orbs that drop for you. All of them can be traded for higher valued currency items and once you figure out what their value is you’ll start probably need as many as you can get your hands on. In fact even Wisdom Scrolls can be traded, but if you’re building a high MF character you might even need to buy them off of other players.

Even common currency items such as Orbs of Alteration and Chromatic Orbs are worth picking up. Once you get your hands on a 6-linked item you might end up spending hundreds of Chromatic Orbs to get the socket colors you want. Even lower-value orbs like Chance can be used much more efficiently at endgame so don’t skip picking them up.

Another thing I’d like to say is that you should never use Divine or Exalted orbs before endgame. They are extremely valuable and hard to come by and best used on the highest quality gear, or even traded for decent items.

6. Pick up items with linked 3-color sockets

If you see an item drop that has 3 LINKED gem sockets of different colors pick it up and sell it to a vendor for a Chromatic Orb. Even though Chromatics are fairly easy to come by chances are you will need a lot of them, and of course you can trade them for something more useful if you have extra. If you don’t pick them up, you won’t have any extra.

Once you approach level 50 or so and start grinding Merciless be sure to re-read this loot guide and remember all items you need to pick up. Never forget to pick up items with 6 sockets (even white ones), and you better click like a madman when you see one with 5 or 6 linked sockets. They are extremely valuable.

7. Grind experience in groups

You get more items, more experience and you’ll kill monsters quicker. Path of Exile was built for playing in groups so take advantage of it. If you need advice on where to grind experience read my leveling guide. If you’re having trouble picking up your own loot in groups and hate ninjas just find a group with Permanent loot allocation, or create your own.

Grinding in groups is also helpful when you’re undergeared or underleveled for a particular area so just hit up that Social panel if you’re having trouble.

8. Be prepared to spend money

Although it’s admittedly not a very helpful tip, I’d just like to point out that you will need to spend a few bucks on this game after awhile. You can’t buy items or anything like that, but you will need stash tabs. If you intend on leveling multiple characters you will run out of inventory space in your stash fairly quickly so be prepared to spend about $20. I know a couple of people who loathe spending money on online games and this is a deal breaker for them, which I honestly think is sad, but to each its own.

I currently have about 80 stash tabs — it’s way, way above what an average player will ever need but I’m a hoarder. 20 stash tabs should be more than enough for an average player, but fortunately it’s not overly expensive.

9. Not all areas have waypoints

Before you search the same area three times looking for a waypoint, you might want to take a look at my list of zones which have waypoints, it might just save you some unnecessary searching. In most cases you don’t even need to bother finding waypoints (in Normal and Cruel difficulties) as you’ll simply progress further quite fast and won’t really have a use or need for them later on. Just remember to always try and get to a waypoint before you finish playing as it’s the only way to save progress.

For the completionists out there who always want to fully clear an area before moving on, remember to use the /remaining command in chat. It will show you how many monsters are left in a particular area before you move on to the next. Also you can type /help for a full list of slash commands.

10. Trade low-value currencies with a vendor

Vendors are more than just bots where you dump your trash. They can actually exchange (some) currencies for you so you don’t have to bother spamming the trade channel if you’re missing a few Fusings. You can take a look at the table below for some of the trading ratios:

This is actually one of the basic ways how low and mid value orb prices are determined on the market. If a vendor exchanges 2 Orbs of Scouring for 1 Orb of Regret it’s a reasonable assumption players won’t exchange them for a different ratio, unless someone is trying to take advantage of your lack of knowledge about the pricing system.

As you may notice some trades are definitely not worth doing at vendors since you can trade with players with a better ratio, but if (or rather when) you find yourself with hundreds of Alterations rather than bothering with finding a player to trade with for something more valuable you can exchange them at vendors for Jeweller’s or Orb of Fusing: they are also more sought after and thus easier to find players to trade with, not to mention you might need them yourself as well.

You can take a look at my other post for the currency values to get a better understanding of them, but do note that the in-game prices among players vary often and can be either higher or lower, so it’s more of a guideline than a rule.

11. Check vendors for items

Vendors sometimes sell items that can be sold back for Chromatic Orbs (see tip #6) for a measly Orb of Augmentation which has a much lower value. Even though a Chromatic isn’t a very valuable orb, it’s still a good trade. Also pay attention to items with 6 sockets and as previously mentioned more importantly 5 and 6 linked sockets, as you can trade them to other players for a whole lot more than they cost. Do note that vendors sell these rarely, but if you check it every once in awhile you may come across one.

Other resources:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/wiki/faq – really helpful and organized general information about the game
• Item mods spreadsheet – probably better for more experienced players, you don’t need to pay attention to this until endgame
• Accuracy and Evasion table – how much hit percentage you have with a certain amount of Accuracy (quick tip: consider Resolute Technique passive node and you’ll never miss)
• Currency values – current trade ratios for various forms of currency in Path of Exile
• Official forums – you might want to take a look at it from time to time, there’s often useful information you can find or even ask other players
• PoExplorer – if you ever want to buy an item this is the place. Also useful for determining prices in case you want to sell something.
• ExaltingPoE – when adding additional stats to an item with Exalted Orb this helps you figure out what mods you can get

If you have any of your own tips or resources, by all means you’re welcome to share them in the comments below.

Afterwards, you should always try to be at the very least the same level as monsters in a particular area otherwise progression might get difficult, especially if you prefer playing solo and not in groups. Some skill tree builds also aren’t as strong until level 50 or so (dual totems or Freezing Pulse for example) so it’s highly recommended to stay a few levels above the mobs in the zone you’re in. You can take a look at the table below for a quick overview of the monster levels in every zone.

I included the waypoint information just in case you need to know which zones have them. If you’re looking for specific quest walkthroughs read this article.

Where to grind levels?

Below are my absolutely favorite areas to grind experience, so if you’re looking to gain some quick levels I suggest you do it here.

Act I: The Ledge

Probably the best of all areas, The Ledge is really straightforward. Monsters include mostly Skeletons which are slow and really easy to mow down either one by one or with AoE skills. There’s also a waypoint in the middle of the zone so you don’t have to spend too many Portal Scrolls if you wish to clear your inventory.

Tip: the “sharp” tip of the waypoint always points towards Kuduku and the next area (Rocky Climb).

In The Ledge I recommend you simply run from one end to another and clear everything along the way. Reset the instance and repeat. Really easy, fast, and like everything else in Path of Exile best done in groups.

Act II: Fellshrine Ruins

There are actually a few areas which are equally good for grinding levels in Act II, but Fellshrine Ruins is probably my favorite zone. Take a waypoint to Church Dungeon Level 1, and take the exit to Fellshrine Ruins immediately next to it. In Fellshrine I found it best to simply follow the road, and once you get to Crossroads exit just reset the instance. Rinse and repeat. If you don’t have Church Dungeon waypoints go to Crossroads and just follow the road east.

Monsters in Fellshrine mostly include skeletons and zombies which are both extremely easy to kill, and when you come across Hulking Titans you can easily skip them if you find them hard to kill.

Alternatively Church Dungeon, Western Forest, Pools and Streams and Pyramid are all just as good for farming, so take your pick.

Act III: The Docks

Without a doubt The Docks is the best area for experience grinds in Act III on any difficulty. Another area littered with skeletons and zombies who won’t cause you any trouble. There’s plenty of room for kiting, and ranged classes will certainly enjoy killing monsters from safe spots over ledges.

If you’re level 30 or so after finishing Act II, press the magic “S” button and find a group for The Docks. You’ll be level 35 in just a bit over an hour, making progression through early Cruel difficulty much easier. If you’re trying to go on Merciless, you can easily farm this zone until level 60 if you wish and still get plenty of experience.

Docks may be my favorite Act III grinding spot, though it isn’t the most optimal. The typical progression players do (especially in Merciless) is City of Sarn > Catacombs > Library > Lunaris. In Cruel and Normal difficulties I tend to over-farm in Act I & II so I can completely skip XP grinding in Act III.

Endgame Leveling

If you really wanted to you can finish Merciless by the time you hit level 50, although there’s not much point. You can just open up Docks and farm there until you’re level 74 with ease. It’s one of the easiest area to farm, has decent drops so you can upgrade your equipment, and you can even get quite a few maps there to get you started. If you’re around level 62 you should still be getting almost 20% of your level by doing just one full Docks run which takes no longer than 10 minutes in the worst of groups. At level 73 if I remember correctly you’ll get about 8% of your level with one full run which is still a decent amount.

Before doing level 66 maps I would recommend you try and hit at least the same level in non-map areas: it’s extremely easy and even though it’s a grind, that’s what Path of Exile endgame looks like so you might as well get used to it. As for equipment and defenses you should try and max your elemental resistances and get at least 2,000 health (or 3,000 energy shield), otherwise you might end up dying far too often to continuously get experience.

Leveling really slows down after you hit 75, in which case you’ll want to do maps at least level 67, or find a group for Lunaris Temple. By the time you hit level 80 I’m sure you’ll already know what your preferred way of leveling is. Realistically you shouldn’t expect to hit level 100 anytime soon as it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, but in case you’re planning your character skill tree build you can expect to be level 90 at most.

General leveling tips:

1. Try grouping up with other players if you’re having trouble progressing, or find a group that just grinds the same area over and over again and farm experience. Once you’re 3-4 levels above the monster’s level in a particular area you should have no problems clearing it alone.
2. Farming experience in groups for a couple of hours may be boring, but it’s definitely better than dying constantly. Remember that dying on Cruel and Merciless difficulty levels will decrease your experience by 5% and 10% respectively, meaning you’ll eventually have to farm that XP anyway.
3. Also it doesn’t really matter what level you decide to go grind for experience, you will have to catch up in levels sooner or later. Simply progressing through quests in harder difficulties won’t give you enough experience points and you WILL have to grind. I suggest you do it early while you’re about the same level as monsters in order to maximize your experience gain and loot.
4. On Cruel and Merciless difficulties try not to have a full XP bar before you engage bosses. In fact I recommend you go attempt to kill bosses just after you gained a level to make sure you lose as little as possible if (or rather when) you die.
5. It’s always best, fastest and safest to do maps with a full group. If your defenses or damage is lacking don’t be afraid to run in and out of fights and play more passively and safely. Once you figure out you gain 1-3% XP for a full 66 map run dying and losing 10% of your experience is a significant amount of farming.

I do hope this post helps you at least a little bit to powerlevel your characters as quickly as possible, or at the very least make sure you know where to catch up with levels. If you have any other great areas for farming you like or other leveling tips be sure to post them in the comments below.

Act I

Enemy at the Gate

• This quest is given to you upon meeting Hillock at the end of Twilight Strand; Defeating him will grant you access to Lioneye’s Watch (first NPC hub).
• Talk to Tarkleigh in Lioneye’s Watch to claim your first skill gem as reward.

Mercy Mission

• This quest log is given to you by Bestel in Lioneye’s Watch.
• It requires you to travel to Tidal Island (entrance located in Terraces -> Tidal Island) and locate then kill Hailrake the Scavenger
• His corpse will contain the quest item Medicine Chest.
• Return to the Lioneye’s Watch and talk to Nessa to receive a (difficulty based) unidentified magical flask as well as Tarkleigh for a skill gem as your reward.
• This is an optional quest and you might want to skip it in Cruel and Merciless difficulties until you get a few more levels.

Breaking Some Eggs

• This quest is given to you upon discovering your first Glyph within one of the three Rhoa Nest (appearing a bright green dot on your map) located within the Mud Flats (entrance located in Terraces -> Mud Flats).
• Once you have collected all three Glyph proceed to the Strange Glyph Wall which will open up the way for you to progress to the Submerged Passage LvL1.
• Tip: All three glyph locations are connected by the same water stream.
• Talk to Tarkleigh in the Lioneye’s Watch to claim your skill gem reward.

A Dirty Job

• This mission is given to you upon meeting with the unique necromancer boss Kadavrus the Defiler within the Fetid pool (entrance located in Terraces -> Mud Flat) -> Fetid Pool).
• Defeat him in order for your quest log to be updated ; You will now be requested to eliminate all monsters within the area.
• Once you have done so, retun to the Lioneye’s Watch and talk to Tarkleigh to receive 2 respec points.
• Optional quest which is pretty hard in Cruel and Merciless — you can skip it and come back later when you gain a few more levels.

The Dweller of the Deep

• This quest is given to you by Tarkleigh after completing the previous quest Breaking some Eggs.
  It requires you to travel to the Flooded Depths (entrance located within the Submerged Passage) then kill The Deep Dweller (unique giant crab).
• Retun to the Lioneye’s Watch and talk to Tarkleigh to receive 1 free skill point as reward.
• Optional quest, although not hard to complete. Be sure to pick up the waypoint in Submerged Passage if you intend to go back!

The Caged Brute

• This quest is given to you by Tarkleigh upon accessing The Ledge (entrance located at the exit of the Submerged Passage LvL 2) or alternatively by meeting with Brutus in the Upper Prison
• This is one of the longest quest to complete as in order to get to Brutus and slay him, you will have to travel all the way from The Ledge, then to the Rocky Climb, the Lower Prison, The Prison proper and finally the Upper Prison (which is thankfully empty otherwise).
• In Upper Prison just follow the blood trail to get to Brutus.
• Once you have defeated him, proceed further and exit the dungeon through the Prisoner’s Gate (The waypoint will always be just outside, down from the stairway).
• Retun to the Shore Encampment and talk to Tarkleigh to receive a skill gem as your reward.

The Marooned Mariner

• This quest is given to you upon finding the corpse of the Slave Girl (containing the Allflame quest item and appearing as a large green dot on your map) while traveling in the Ships Graveyard (entrance located at the end of the Prisoner’s Gate ).
• Once the AllFlame within your inventory, travel to the lower part of the Ships Graveyard to find the wrecked ship of Captain Fairgraves.
• Tip: if you’re in a group you don’t need to have the All Flame to kill Fairgraves and finish the quest.
• Upon starting a dialog with him he will turn into a unique undead and spawn several skeletons that will immediately attack you.
• Once he has been defeated, return to the Lioneye’s Watch and talk to Bestel to receive your reward of 1 free skill point.
• This is an optional quest!

The Siren’s Last Cadence

• This quest is given to you by talking to Nessa in Lioneye’s Watch after entering the Cavern of Wrath or alternatively upon entering Merveil’s Lair and requires you to kill Merveil (entrance from Ship Graveyard -> The Cove -> Cavern of Wrath -> Cavern of Anger -> Merveil’s Lair.
• Note that Merveil can be somewhat hard to kill if you encounter her unprepared as she use both melee & ranged attacks while in siren’s form (her ranged attack include both Fireball & Cold Snap).
• If necessary equip gear with cold resistance for this fight.
• Once you have defeated her for the first time, she will then transform into her real form and spawn several monsters to assist her.
• Kill her again and proceed further to Act II.

Act II

Contrary to Act 1 where progression is quite linear, Act 2 requires you to complete quests at several locations starting on either side of the Forest Encampment (Old Fields & River Crossings respectively).

The Great White Beast

• Upon reaching the Forest Encampment for the first time, speak with Yeena to learn about a beast inhabiting The Cave located in the Old Fields.
• Find the entrance of the cave (appearing as an orange dot on your map, fairly random location in Old Fields) and make your way through it until you encounter The Great White Beast ; slay it then return to the Forest Encampment and claim an unidentified rare ring as reward from Yena.
• This quest is optional!

Deal with the Bandits

There are 3 different bandit leaders which you can either side with or kill in order to get different rewards. You will get this quest after you finish Through Sacred Ground and Intruders in Black quests.

• Kraityn: Located in Broken Bridge (entrance located in Old Fields -> Crossroads -> Broken Bridge)
  • Reward for siding with him is a permanent increase of +8 to all elemental resists (excluding chaos resistance).
  • Cruel and Merciless difficulty rewards are 8% attack speed and 1 maximum Frenzy charge, respectively.
  • To get to Kraityn’s location you can just follow the road. He’s far east or northeast of the map.
• Alira: Located in Alira’s Camp (entrance located in River Crossings -> Western Forest -> Alira’s Camp).
  • Fairly easy to kill bandit, summons zombies and uses Corpse Explosion.
  • Reward for siding with her is a permanent increase of 30 Mana.
  • Cruel and Merciless difficulty rewards are 4% cast speed and 1 maximum Power charge, respectively.
  • To get to her just follow the road until you get to a torch, which marks the start of a mud road that leads directly to her camp.
• Oak: Located in Pools & Streams (entrance located in River Crossings -> Vaal Ruins LvL-1 -> Vaal Ruins LvL-2 -> Pools & Streams).
  • Note that access to Vaal Ruins require completion of ‘The Weaver’s Needle’ and ‘Delving into Sin’ side quests.
  • Reward for siding with him is a permanent increase of 40 Life
  • Cruel difficulty reward is 18% physical damage,  and 1 max Endurance charge on Merciless.
  • Following the river in Pools and Streams will lead you to the waypoint and Oak’s camp.

And finally you can choose not to side with any of the bandit leaders and simply kill each of them. If you choose to do so, simply turn-in the 3 amulets pieces to Eramir in the Forest Encampment. Reward for killing the three bandit leaders is a free skill point (on all difficulties). My recommendation is to take the free passive skill point if you’re in a dilemma as it’s usually the most valuable reward, at least on normal difficulty. At this time there’s no way to change bandit quest rewards later on, but GGG has mentioned it will be available in the future.

No matter if you’ve sided with one of the bandit leader or if you’ve killed them all, completion of this quest will provide you with the quest item Apex which you will use on the Dark Altar in Pyramid to summon the last boss Vaal Oversoul and open the gateway leading to Act 3 (note: be sure to exit the Vaal’s chamber through the exit once you’re done, not through a portal, or you will have to kill him again).

The Weaver’s Needle

• This quest is given by Silk in Forest Encampment.
• It requires you to venture into The Weaver’s Chambers (entrance located in River Crossings -> Dark Forest -> The Weaver’s Chambers) and kill The Weaver (a unique giant spider) in order to retrieve the quest item Maligaro’s Spike.
• The reward for completing this quest is a skill gem.

Intruders in Black

• This quest given to you by Greust in Forest Encampment requires you to travel to Chamber of Sins LvL2 (entrance located in Old Fields -> Crossroads -> Chamber of Sins LvL1 -> Chamber of Sins LvL2 -> Chamber of Sins LvL3), save a pretty girl and locate the Strange Device containing the quest item Mysterious Skill Gem.
• It is guarded by a unique boss-type monster named Fidelita the Mourning whom you are not required to kill in order to complete the mission.
• Return to the Forest Encampment and talk with Greust to receive a skill gem as reward.

The Cathedral of Bones

• This quest is given upon discovering the entrance of Vaal Ruins in River Crossing; completion requires you to complete both previous quest The Weaver’s Needle & Through Sacred Ground.
• Talk to Greust, Silk & Yeena in Forest Encampment.
• Once you have Maligaro’s Spike & the Mysterious Skill Gem in you possession, roots (in River Crossing) preventing access to Vaal Ruins will be cleared allowing you to progress further.

Through Sacred Ground

• This quest is given to you by Yeena in Forest Encampment and requires you to travel to Church Dungeon Lvl 2 (entrance located in Crossroad -> Fellshrine Ruins -> Church Dungeon Lvl 1) and locate the Altar containing the quest item Golden Hand.
• Once you have acquired the Golden Hand simply return to Yeena to receive 2 free respec points.

Root of the Problem

• Go to River Crossings and find an entrance to Vaal Ruins. It’s guarded by magic roots for which you will need a specific item obtained with other quests.
• If you intend to do any XP grinding I recommend you do it before you start this quest, as it turns day into night in every area which makes it harder to farm (less sight radius).
• You can find the entrance to Vaal Ruins by following the road in River Crossings; once you find two pillars/stones follow the dirt road and you’ll reach the roots.

Shadow of the Vaal

• The quest requires you to kill Vaal Oversoul. From Pools and Streams go to Waterfall Cave through which you need to proceed to the Pyramid. After combating countless skeletons you’ll meet up with Vaal himself, for whom a bit of lightning resistance is recommended.
• He also spawns additional monsters and has a nasty melee punch that may one-shot you instantly so group up if necessary. After you’re done take the exit to City of Sarn (if you use a Portal back to Forest Encampment you might have kill Vaal again).

Act III

Lost In Love

• Upon arriving to the encampment of Sarn, speak with Maramoa to receive this quest; Clarissa & Tolman have gone missing and you must investigate Sarn Slums to find more of their whereabouts.
• You’ll know your nearing your objective when you’ll be attacked by a group of Guards and their commander. Talk to Clarissa and learn that Tolman has been captured by Piety and taken to the Crematorium.
• Locate the waypoint within Sarn Slums and enter the nearby Crematorium. Proceed to the level 2 and at the very end you’ll meet with Piety and her remaining guard escort.
• Note that Piety delivers quite a nasty jolt with her lightning abilities and that you should probably get some resistances before you fight her on your first playthrough.
• Once you have damaged Piety to half of her health bar she will escape.
• Investigate Tolman corpse to obtain his Bracelet, talk to Helena nearby and head back to Sarn to claim a skill gem as your reward from Maramoa.

Victario’s Secret

• Upon completion of the quest Lost In Love, talk to Clarissa who has now returned to Sarn and she will exchange you the Bracelet for the Sewer keys.
• Once you have the keys in your possession, you will be able to open the sewer grate and access the sewers located in the Slums, the Warehouse or the Marketplace. It is not important which one you access first as all sewers are interconnected. I recommend you start in Slums Sewers and continue from there (entrance is roughly in the middle of the zone).
• Your next task consist in finding a large room containing a Stash (appearing as a green square on your map) which will contain a Golden Bust in each of the 3 locations listed above.
• Once you have acquired all 3 Busts return to Sarn and speak to Hargan to receive 2 free respec points as well as 1 passive skill point.
• Progression basically looks like: Sarn Slums > Slums Sewers > Warehouse Sewers > Marketplace > Marketplace Sewers. Before you leave Warehouse Sewers be sure to take the waypoint, you will need it later.

The Gemling Queen

• You receive this quest from Grigor in Sarn immediately after completing Crematorium (Lost in Love).
• Quest requires you to find Lady Dialla in Solaris Temple. You’ll have to fight through 3 levels of carpets and/or window blinds to get to her, but it’s well worth it in terms of rewards and necessary to progress as she will give you the following two quests as well.

Fiery Dust

• Fiery Dust requires you to use the Infernal Talc to get past the Undying blockage in the Warehouse Sewers (just west of the waypoint).
• You can obtain it in Docks (if you don’t have a waypoint just join a public group, there’s always at least one).
• Bring the quest item from Docks to Lady Dialla.

The Ribbon Spool

• Lady Dialla wants you to grab her a Ribbon Spool. You’ll find it in Battlefront next to a named boss (roughly the center/southwest of the zone).
• You don’t have to kill the boss if you find it too difficult, simply loot the chest, take the Spool and run.

Sever the Right Hand

• This quest requires you to kill General Gravicius, a nasty boss located in Barracks for which you may want to get your fire resistance up a bit.

Piety’s Pets

• Take a waypoint to Barracks and find an exit to Lunaris Temple.
• Lunaris Temple has a waypoint at level 2, and it’s quite long so be prepared.
• Piety might be hard to kill on Cruel and Merciless so group up with other players if necessary.
• Reward for killing Piety are 2 skill points.

A Swig of Hope

• Given to you by Captain Fairgraves in Docks (next to the waypoint)
• You need to find Decanter Spiritus and Chitus’ Plum in Imperial Gardens and The Hedge Maze
• Reward is a rare item

A Fixture of Fate

• Given to you by Siosa in The Library (ghost right next to the waypoint)
• Find the entrance to Archives in The Library and look for four Golden Pages
• Return to Siosa and receive support skill gems as a rewards

Sceptre of God

• Find and kill Dominus, the last Act III boss

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Be sure to check out this article to find out the locations of all waypoints throughout Wraeclast.