The arrival of Lord of Hatred alongside Season 13 marks one of the biggest content drops Diablo 4 has ever seen. Reworked skill trees, a brand-new charm and talisman system, refreshed uniques, and two playable classes have reshaped how players approach progression from level 1 to the deep end-game.
With the level cap now sitting at 70, a full campaign that takes between eight and ten hours, and a redesigned route into Torment difficulties, having a clear plan matters more than ever. The sections below cover a complete fast leveling strategy that works for every class, followed by detailed leveling builds for each class so you can pick whichever style fits your taste and start blasting on day one.
Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred & Season 13 Fast 1-70 Leveling Strategy For All Classes
Before jumping into class-specific builds, it helps to lock down the universal leveling flow that applies to every character this season. The route below takes you from character creation all the way to Torment 1, with timing tips and key checkpoints along the way.
Step 1: Pick a Seasonal Character with the Correct Campaign
When creating your character, you must select the Lord of Hatred expansion campaign as your starting point, not the base game or Vessel of Hatred. The end-game option will be locked since the new content gates progression behind the new story. Choosing the wrong campaign will cost you hours of redo time.
The season launches roughly 30 minutes after the expansion goes live, so wait until that delay passes before clicking the seasonal toggle.
Step 2: Choose the Right Difficulty
Stick with Normal difficulty during the campaign. The story includes some boss fights that hit hard, and bumping up to Hard or Expert will mostly inflate enemy HP without giving you better XP from quest turn-ins. Speed beats challenge here. Once you finish the campaign, you can swap to Hard for Hell Tide farming, which awards a 75% XP bonus.
Step 3: Equip Your Pet and Grab a Mercenary
As soon as you load in, open your inventory and equip your pet for automatic gold and material pickups. If you can reach Nahantu through the new map flow, recruit a mercenary at the Den of Nahantu for added utility during solo play.
Step 4: Push the Main Campaign
Follow the yellow main quest icon. The route takes you from Hawezar across the sea to the Skoval Islands, where the new city houses the Horadric Cube and end-game systems. Reviewers report finishing the campaign at level 40-50, depending on cutscene viewing and side content. The story is genuinely well-made, so consider watching the cinematics rather than skipping them.
Step 5: Complete the Class Quest
The class quest gives you a meaningful power spike. Warlock players will do this for the first time, while returning class players may have it auto-completed at level 15 if done previously on the account.
Step 6: First Capstone Dungeon
After the campaign, head to the first capstone dungeon located in the top-left of Hawezar. At level 45+, you should one-shot it on Hard difficulty, granting extra skill points and reward boxes.
Step 7: Hell Tide Grinding to Level 60-70
Hell Tides remain the fastest XP source in the open world. Run them on Hard difficulty for the 75% XP boost, and prioritize the Hell Tide zones that overlap with Whisper grim favor objectives. Group play boosts efficiency, but solo farming works well since Hell Tide zones naturally pull other players in. Use the 5-minute downtime between cycles for salvaging gear and stacking aspects.
Step 8: Second Capstone and the Pit
At level 60, attempt the Hellish Ascent capstone at the top of the Skoval region. This gates access to the Pit, which is the strongest XP source for the final push from 60 to 70. Run a low-tier Pit (around tier 5) first, then climb to Pit 10 to access Torment 1 once you reach level 70.
Step 9: Boss Targeting and Capstone Climb
Once at 70, target endgame bosses based on the loot table for your class. Continue with capstone dungeons three through five to push paragon progression, with the fourth around paragon 50 and the fifth around paragon 75.
Quick Tips for Faster Leveling
Group up during Hell Tides for the Maiden event and shared XP gains.
Salvage frequently to keep gear up to date with juggernaut and offensive aspects.
Save your skill point allocations for after each level to take advantage of newly available modifier nodes.
The new skill tree gives 15 ranks per skill, so dumping points into your main damage skill pays off later.
Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred & Season 13 Best Leveling Builds for Each Class
With the leveling route locked in, the next piece of the puzzle is picking the right build for your class. Each of the eight classes has a clear front-runner for fast leveling this season, and the breakdown below covers skill priority, gear targets, and play style notes so you can hit the ground running on day one.
Best Warlock Leveling Build - Dread Claws / Abyssal Minions Warlock
The Warlock launches as the strongest class of the expansion, and the Dread Claws core skill is the standout leveling pick. The build leans on hex application for free crit chance, shadow form stacks for stealth burst windows, and Nether Step for traversal that doubles as a damage combo tool.
Skill Tree Priority:
Helian Sting as your starting basic skill at level 1 for its 5% bleed eviscerate proc, which shines against bosses and elites during the campaign.
Dread Claws at level 3 as your core. Take the Damage Dread Claws modifier for stacking damage between casts and the Ambush modifier for big AoE bursts when triggered from stealth.
Nether Step at level 4 for fast travel. Pick the Extra Charge modifier first, then Recall Shadows at level 34 to drag minions along and extend their durations by 3 seconds.
Rampage at level 8 as your single-target source. Grab the Elite Hit Chance modifier at level 17 to guarantee eviscerate procs against elites, then upgrade to Abyssal Titan variant at 20 to make Rampage an Abyss recast skill.
Cascading Dread variant for Dread Claws at level 15, this is the biggest single damage upgrade for the build, firing more claws per cast.
Command Fallen replaces Helian Sting at level 20. Take the Wrath and Dominance modifiers plus Fallen Rush variant for constant resource generation.
Terror Swarm ultimate at level 19, eventually swapped to Fiend of Abaddon (Abyssal Colossus) at 34, then Metamorphosis (Terror Demon) in the late game for 4 shadow form stacks per second and unbroken stealth.
Soul Shard pick: Mastermind early, then Blasphemous Fragment at level 30 for hex application via recast skills.
Gear Targets:
Litany of Sable unique for direct Dread Claws scaling and shadow form synergy.
Inevitable Fate legendary aspect to amplify bleed and eviscerate scaling.
Insidious aspect for huge damage during stealth windows.
Recursive Touch aspect once you swap off Terror Swarm to keep vulnerable application up.
Play Style Notes:
The combo loop is simple - Nether Step into a pack, gain shadow form stacks, dump Dread Claws while stealthed for the Ambush bonus, and let Rampage handle elites and bosses. Once Metamorphosis comes online, you become a near-permanent damage machine while teleporting your minion army around the map.
Best Paladin Leveling Build - Hammerdin
With the Thorn Shield Throw setup nerfed across multiple uniques and skill nodes, Hammerdin has become the cleaner leveling choice this season. The build pairs reliable AoE clear with strong aura support that benefits both solo runs and party play.
Skill Tree Priority:
Brandish as your basic skill at level 1, taking the Faith Generation passive at level 5 for resource uptime and Cast Speed at level 9.
Blessed Hammer at level 3 as your spammable core. The hammer orbits around you, hitting everything in melee range while you reposition with mobility skills.
Defiance Aura for armor and resistance scaling, plus Fanaticism Aura for attack speed and crit. Both can take 15 points now thanks to the new skill tree.
Condemn at level 13 as your gather and stun tool. Take the size and movement speed passives for better mob herding.
Falling Star as a disciple skill for Arbiter form maintenance.
Disciple as your passive class mechanic to keep Arbiter form rolling.
Gear Targets:
Aspect of Arbiter's Zephyr on boots for evade slam cooldown reduction, letting you constantly leap into packs.
Aspect of Ascension on the amulet for stacking damage the longer you stay in Arbiter form.
Sundered Knight axe (or charm form) for 160-200% aura potency while standing in consecration.
Light's Epiphany charm set as your end-game target. The 5-piece triggers all ultimates at once when casting Arbiter of Justice and grants 500% increased disciple skill damage during the duration.
Play Style Notes:
You play this build by jumping into packs with Arbiter evade slams, surrounding yourself with hammers, and refreshing buffs through condemn and falling star. The aura uptime makes you a walking buff station for your team, and the survivability from Defiance Aura plus consecration healing means you almost never need to back off during Helltide events.
Best Sorcerer Leveling - Burning Incinerate Sorc
Burn builds have always been one of the strongest Sorcerer leveling routes, and Lord of Hatred pushes them even further with reworked uniques and a fire-converted Frozen Orb option. This build scales smoothly from low-gear starts into a brutal end-game burn machine.
Skill Tree Priority:
Spark as your starter basic for resource generation.
Incinerate at level 3 as your core, with the Healthy Damage passive and the Flamethrower variant later for two extra beams and faster burn application.
Fire Frozen Orb once unlockedtake the Great Orb of Fire variant to make it a pyromancy skill that burns and interacts with overpower.
Firewall as a cooldown skill, eventually upgraded to Ring of Fire for AoE burn application.
Frost Nova for vulnerable application and crowd control during boss fights.
Fire Teleport for mobility that also feeds your fire skill scaling.
Gear Targets:
Drognan's Anguish amulet - burns you for 5% of your max life over 10 seconds but grants up to 250% multiplicative more burning damage.
Flame Scar wand (newly buffed) - channeling Incinerate at max charge grants 300% multiplicative more damage at the cost of 50 mana per second.
Vision of the Firestorm ring for 100% multiplicative Firewall damage with doubled size overcap.
Onyx Soul for Fire Frozen Orb scaling during the leveling phase.
Play Style Notes:
Start with basic Incinerate and Firewall during the campaign. Once Fire Frozen Orb unlocks, drop it in for huge AoE burn application that stacks with your Incinerate damage over time. Manage your mana and life carefully in the late game — both Drognan's Anguish and Flame Scar drain resources hard, so prioritize life regen and mana sustain on gear. The end-game burst is brutal, but you need to survive your own kit to enjoy it.
Best Barbarian Leveling Build - Whirlwind Barb
The Diablo 4 dev team specifically reworked Whirlwind to be a viable spin-to-win option this season, and it shows. The build offers smooth AoE clear, great mobility, and scales hard with the new shrapnel bleed mechanics.
Skill Tree Priority:
Lunging Strike at level 1 as your basic, with the fury generation modifier at level 5.
Whirlwind at level 3 as your core spammable. Take the Channel Damage Bonus passive for stacking multiplier up to 25% during channel.
Ground Stomp at level 4 for crowd control and stagger building.
Winding variant at higher levels, build stacks with another skill, then dump them into Whirlwind for huge damage and movement speed bursts plus shrapnel bleed application.
Wrath of the Berserker ultimate with the fire aura variant adds burn damage on top of your physical output and grants one stack of overpower per second during wrath.
Shouts (War Cry, Challenging Shout, Rallying Cry) for buffs and cooldown rotation.
Gear Targets:
Grandfather two-handed sword with 150% crit damage as a held slot weapon.
Elderin mythic one-handed sword, reduces all skill cooldowns by 10 seconds for 12 seconds after defeating elite packs, plus all damage as a multiplier and +4 to all skills.
Whirlwind-specific aspects for damage taken reduction and fury efficiency.
Bleed scaling affixes to feed the shrapnel damage-over-time component.
Play Style Notes:
Stack fury through Lunging Strike and shouts, then keep Whirlwind active as long as your fury allows. Use Ground Stomp to gather mobs into tight clusters, then spin through them. Wrath of the Berserker on cooldown gives you constant overpower stacks, which now scale Whirlwind damage directly. The shouts provide buff uptime that boosts both you and any group you run with.
Best Druid Leveling Build - Trample / Pulverize Druid
Druid skill trees now offer wolf, human, and bear path variants for each skill, opening up new build identities. Trample is the leveling standout this season thanks to a heavily buffed unique that turns it into a spammable damage source.
Skill Tree Priority:
Maul or Claw as your basic depending on whether you go bear or wolf form.
Trample at level 3 as your core mobility and damage skill. Take the bear form variant for the highest damage output.
Pulverize as a secondary AoE option, with the Purified Lightbringer upgrade for double damage against unstoppable enemies and bosses.
Earthen Bulwark for defense, scaled by the new shrapnel mechanics.
Debilitating Roar or Petrify as your ultimate depending on group needs.
Gear Targets:
Insatiable Fury unique chest, after casting Trample, you may cast it again without incurring the cooldown, plus up to 200% multiplicative increased damage.
Stepwalkers boots for free Bulwark shrapnel scaling, letting you grab both Bulwark upgrades.
Greatstaff of the Crone for Claw builds, gains all variants and up to 40% multiplicative bonus damage.
New bear companion charm set, the 5-piece adds a second bear plus all companion side upgrades for free.
Play Style Notes:
Trample spam becomes the core gameplay loop. With Insatiable Fury, you bypass the cooldown and chain Trample casts through entire packs. Pulverize handles single-target boss damage with the Purified Lightbringer variant. The bear companion set turns you into a one-druid army with free buffs and damage reduction during tough content.
Best Necromancer Leveling Build - Summoner / Mage Necro
Necromancers finally get direct minion control this expansion, which was long overdue. The leveling build leans into a hybrid summoner setup that keeps minions active even during sacrifice bonuses and uses the new mage core skill for sustained damage.
Skill Tree Priority:
Bone Splinters or Reap as your starter basic for essence generation.
Skeleton Mages at level 3, now a core skill that consumes essence to summon permanent mages. Upgrade to the super mage variant later that consumes all essence to spawn one massive mage with scaled stats.
Skeleton Warriors as passive auto-spawns from corpses, with the active button now letting you direct their target.
Bone Storm or Blood Wave as your ultimate for AoE clear and minion buffs.
Corpse Tendrils for mob grouping and vulnerable application.
Book of the Dead sacrifice bonuses are now compatible with active minions, so pick the bonuses that fit your damage focus.
Gear Targets:
Undercrown unique helm, increases warrior and mage caps significantly, letting you field 20+ warriors and 8+ mages at once.
Mendeln ring for explosive minion attacks, especially powerful when focused on a single elite or boss target.
Aspects that scale minion damage based on minion count.
Blood Golem in the golem slot for a damage reduction sacrifice when running tough content.
Play Style Notes:
The new direct control system means you point your skeleton army at specific targets, which fixes the long-standing issue of minions wandering off during boss fights. Mages handle ranged damage, warriors swarm melee threats, and Mendeln explosions chain through dense packs. The build feels complete in a way that necromancer summoners have never quite achieved before.
Best Rogue Leveling Build - Dance of Knives / Grenade Rogue
Dance of Knives is now a core skill, and the Grenade Jumper variant turns it into an AoE grenade tank that scales hard through imbuements. The build offers strong AoE clear and surprisingly potent boss damage thanks to the imbuement explosion uniques.
Skill Tree Priority:
Heartseeker or Puncture as your basic for resource generation and vulnerable application.
Dance of Knives at level 3 as your core. Take the Grenade Jumper variant to convert knife throws into AoE grenades.
Shadow Imbuement or Poison Imbuement as your damage type, depending on which uniques drop first.
Shadow Step or Dash for mobility.
Shadow Clone or Sentry Clones ultimate, the new variants spawn up to three clones that fire piercing shots from different positions.
Gear Targets:
Saboteur's Signet unique, increases grenade size by 50% and deals nearly double damage as a multiplier, plus applies vulnerable or weakened.
Bands of Ichorous Rose gloves, poison or cold imbued skills have a chance to spawn poison traps automatically.
Cowl of the Nameless helm, imbued skills have a chance to pop an explosion dealing 75% of the damage with double-strength imbuement application.
Aspects that scale imbuement damage and refresh imbuement charges.
Play Style Notes:
Imbue Dance of Knives, throw grenades into packs, and let Cowl of the Nameless explosions chain through groups. Saboteur's Signet ensures every grenade hits like a truck, while Bands of Ichorous Rose adds passive trap damage on top. Shadow Clone Sentry variants give you stationary turrets that handle ranged threats while you reposition.
Best Spiritborn Leveling Build - Evade Lightning Spiritborn
With limited public info on Spirit Born, the Evade Lightning build looks like the safest leveling pick this season. The build chains evades into Storm Feather drops for constant AoE lightning damage with high mobility.
Skill Tree Priority:
Quill Volley or basic feather skill for resource generation.
Crackling Earth Stomp, the eagle skill variant that deals lightning damage and electrifies the ground, spawning Storm Feathers on affected enemies.
Soar or evade-based skills to trigger Storm Feather drops via the Aspect of Falling Feathers interaction.
Concussive Stomp or similar gorilla skill for crowd control and stagger.
The Hunter or The Seeker ultimate for burst windows.
Gear Targets:
Aspect of Falling Feathers, using mobility skills or evades spawns Storm Feathers that drop from the sky for lightning damage on impact.
Thunder God's Blessing ring, close enemies affected by lightning damage have a chance to grant resolve and deal up to 300% multiplicative increased damage.
Echo of Quatli amulet, double damage multiplier to vulnerable enemies, plus on-hit healing and vigor generation.
Lightning conversion aspects to scale your full damage profile through one element.
Play Style Notes:
You play this build by constantly evading and stomping, generating Storm Feathers that rain down on enemies as lightning damage. The high mobility makes Hell Tide farming smooth, and Echo of Quatli keeps your health and vigor topped off through constant on-hit triggers. If lightning play falls short at end-game, the classic Payback Thorns build remains a safe fallback for pushing the deepest pit tiers.
Pick the build that matches your play style, follow the leveling route step by step, and you will reach Torment 1 ahead of most of the field. Once you settle in at level 70, swap to a full end-game planner for your class and start the climb through the capstones. Take your time with the new region on your first run, it is one of the best-looking zones Blizzard has ever built, and the campaign rewards the players who slow down enough to enjoy it.
