Routine and gear setup for low level characters

Since 1.10 came out I, like most of you, have made many characters. It has been my experience that the hardest and most painful part of D2 is leveling from lvl 1 to lvl 24. Every character class has their drawback and their strong points. Last night I started a 2-sword barb. He is now lvl15 and uses double swing as his main attack. BY FAR the easiest and strongest pvm (maybe even pvp) low level character I have made yet. Pretty much all of my starting characters wear the same equipment from lvl 6 to usually 30 something. The beginning lvls 1-6 I just buy some crap gear from gheed or something and use Khalim's Will as my weapon. Khalim’s is a great low lvl weapon. If need be you could use it thought act1 and most of act2. One thing to remember about Khalim's Will though is to make sure you mule it before you compete act3. Otherwise you lose it and have to make another one (which is a friggen pain).

For charms I have found that the more efficient use of space are large charms with +3 to Str or +3 to Dex. Second mods are nice too, but they shouldn’t have a lvl req past lvl6. Once you get a few levels and more stat points dump those charms back in your inventory to save space. I usually don’t distribute any stat points until lvl6. I aim for at least 45 dex and 71 str to equip death’s touch sword. You will need 4 more str to bring your total str to 75 so you can equip sigon’s shelter but that can be done at lvl7.

Here’s my gear from lvl6+:

Helm: Sigon's Visor
Amulet: lvl2 to lvl15 Magic +3 str +15 life. Lvl15+ 7% Eye of Etlich
Armor: Sigon's Shelter. Lvl22+ Iceblink
Belt: Death's Guard
Gloves: Death's Hand
Weapon: Death's Touch
Shield: Sigon's Guard (barb would use 2x Death's Touch)
Boots: Sigon's Sabot
Rings: x2 Cathan's Seal. Lvl15 change 1 of them for 7% Mandal

This setup is different from most. I know most people use full sigons. Don’t get me wrong, Full Sigons works well, but this setup is superior. The only drawback of this setup is the slots in the belt. You only get 8 total slots, but with the massive life leach in this setup you won’t be needing much pots. Every hit I land pretty much fills my life bulb. I am looking at a (depending on my setup at the time) ~35% ll.

I usually go to the same places to lvl:
1-6 Clear the Den of Evil in an 8ppl Baal run game (1-2 games)
6-15 Clear Tristram in 8ppl game (3 games but less if you are lucky with exp shines)
15-20 Arcane run in a 8ppl game (3 games same deal with the exp shrines)
20-24 Arcane/Tomb/Trav runs (10-34 games)

For lvls 20-24 the best way to lvl is in cow run games. I didn’t list them because they can sometimes be hard to find. It isn’t hard to find a cow game, there are a lot, it’s sometimes hard to find a norm cow game where a high lvl character is there to kill the cows. It isn’t worth your time if you can’t get someone to do the killing for you. I was lucky last time around and Zagggon helped with his lvl92 sorc. I did lvl20-24 in 10 minutes.

I have found it safer to get to lvl6 and equip my low lvl gear first. Then I grab my second PC and rush my new character all the way to act5. Then at lvl24 all I need is ancients and then I can do Baal runs.

There you have it. What do you think of my routine and setup for my low lvl characters? Do you guys do anything different? Do you have any tips or suggestions that I can add to make this routine better or more efficient?

Levelling my WWsin was very easy at low levels. This is my usual strategy:

Levels 1-5: Clear Blood Moor in a full game. (1 game)
Levels 5-7: Do Den of Evil/Blood Raven/Save Cain solo.
Levels 8-14: Clear Black Marsh/Tamoe Highlands in full games. (2-3 games)
Levels 15-20: Sewer Runs in full games. (~.75 games per level)
Levels 20-24: Norm Cow runs.

Yeah, getting a character to level you in cows is kinda rough (if you don't have any friends on).

The gear my Asn wore:

Helm: Sigon's
Weapons: Gemmed Katars
Armor: Greyform
Gloves: Death's
Belt: Death's
Boots: Sigon's
Rings: Whatever (Rare life leechers and manald at appropriate levels)
Ammy: Whatever (Eye of Etlitch at lvl 15+)

Worked out well.

Yeah thats all nice for people who actually care if they can kill stuff at those levels but for me i just run myself thrue all the stuff you guys just talked about except i just use what i find and what i purchase from the npc's. It saves time if you ask me cuzz then you dun have to mule all the shit you put on the char back to a mule.

it takes me 5 hours to lvl to 25 and i just enter baal games and killing in act 1 until i'm lvl 12 then i do act2 in full baal games to lvl 20 then cows 4 the last 5 lvl about 5 hours worth..... i don't know if this is fast or slow who cares...

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Sigons is probably a bad choice for low level chars, costs way to much STR imo...

I'd go with random magics/rares and deaths set.

I always fill my STR/DEX goals before putting points into VIT, so it's kind of moot.

I start with Hsarus boot+sheild gives plus 10 to strength, and then I do sig glove, belt, helm, armor, 2 max damage rings, and a max damage ammy till like level 18.

i do it with low lvl reg str charms

I made a small change to my setup. I switched out Eye of Etlich and the Cathan’s for the Angelic ring and amulet. It gave me almost 1/3rd more hp and a whole lot to atr. I was having trouble hitting this lvl30 pally with my lvl15 barb, then when he landed a hit on me (wasn't very often either) it took roughly half my hp. When I switched out for angelic I ended up hitting 1 out of 3 swings (about every other double swing would hit). At lvl15 I was killing lvl25s to lvl33s left and right. For pvm the only real positive of angelic over eye of Etlich and Cathan’s is the extra hp. All the monsters that are around your lvl and even a few levels over were 95% chance to hit with both setups. Since like Volls, I never put any points into hp the angelic hp bonus makes a big difference. It really shows when you are trying to get through a pack of skele archers and your bulb isn't getting refilled.

What about using the 20 poison damage jewels, wouldn't they be usefull at low lvl cause they have no lvl req.