@Venoom

Which levels that you are struggling with? Do you use LoH gem to help you with higher mob level grinding?

My barb is 46 and I am going to try NM craters until she outgrown them. From your experience is it until level 50-53?

I am at level 53, in Hell Act 3.
Act 1 doesn't give enough experience, Act 3 is a struggle, it seems I need more Resistance/Armor, or significantly more DPS :/

@Venoom

I just saw that your profile is at Europe. I am playing at the US. If you add 1811 at Europe server you could have added the wrong person >-<

no, it is still you, I think. You are able to create characters on the EU server.

Responded to a friend request last night, hopefully it is you lol

@Venoom

Reached lvl54 and I am grinding at Hell VOTA now.

Resistance becomes an important stats. While I am still holding to the Cain's Set for the XP bonus, I bought 2-3 pieces of reduced level armors with high resist (I only bought those cheap ones. Got the chest with str, socket and 60+ resist at 20k), and a reduced level 1H with 8-900 LoH. I am using + movement speed belt and Leap for the extra mobility.

I probablly will try Act 3 at about lvl56.

Ok, FINALLY, I am level 60 on my barb :)
It took 14h or so (I think a little less, I kept playing and didn't pay attention)
it's really tough to get below 10h without the Leoric Signet :(

and I struggled a bit after level 50, to find a good build and gear that's not too expensive to survive Act 3 Hell.

but the last 3 levels were quick.
I just kept doing all the good areas in Act 3.
Everytime I died away from a waypoint, I skipped the area and went to another one.
once they're all done, I reloaded the game.
rince, repeat.

I will check if you're in my friends' list once I log in to my US account :)

@Venoom,

Grats on level 60!

I just hit level57 in VOTA, and when I looked at the time played it is 11 hours 34 minutes.

I am moving to Act 3 next and hopefully attain level60 in a couple of hours. Looks like our timing will be quite similar for this solo powerleveling (without the Leoric Signet).

I enjoy leap pretty much in VOTA. And Run like the wind is OP.

@Venoom,

FINALLY level60 on my Barb too :).

Time shown is 12 hours 47 minutes for me. I think this is still quite a good time considering that I only play solo, and do not have the Leoric Signet. Cost spent = < 5m (I could have overpaid on my weapons (4m total) but oh well)

I should be able to do better next time without initial mistakes/ fooling around.

A summary of my grinding locations:

Act 1 : Festering Wood (2 caves) + Leoric Manor
Act 2 : VOTA
Act 3 : Crater 1 + Keep 1 + Keep 3

In Hell I hit Act II at 54, Act III at 57. Seems to be the sweet spots for the transition.

Key levels in terms of gears seems to be:

Level 15 : sockets on weapons and helm (for +dmg and +XP)
Level 23 : Cain's set (for the bonus XP). I also manage to grab ODYN SON with socket for cheap.
Level 42 : Reduced level 18 weapons (for the DPS & probably vitality). I bought only mainhand.
Level 50+ : 2-3 pieces reduced level armor for resist (for resist & armor & stats). I bought an additional mainhand with +819 LoH.

I also focus on movement speed. Apart from boots, I also bought Pride of Cassius (belt with +11% movement speed). Initially I wanted to buy the Hammer Jammer pants but they are currently overpriced.

Now I will see how to gear my barb at 60 and I have to make a decision if I wanna use her to farm at all. My monk is currently at P22.

congratulations :)
12h, you did really well.
so spending few millions really does speed it up significantly.

Thanks.
I won't mind spending those few millions. Moreover, I am reselling them. I even made profits on some of them:).

I spent a few more millions to gear my 60 barb to 43k DPS. It is much cheaper to gear a barb than a monk! I probably will try to gain a few p levels first.