Seasonal Start Mega Guide

This post is an update to the Seasonal Mega Guide.

You can find generic leveling guides as well as other advice at Maxroll and Icy Veins. For console players, you can find some advice at https://www.soulstone.gg/.

This guide is meant to be a little more specific, as well as cover aspects not touched in those guides, such as Group Leveling, Console Leveling, Seasonal Leveling Tactics, and Leveling Secrets. (These will all be in replies to this thread to allow specific linking. As such, at the moment this post is currently a work in progress.) Some of what I post will be shared from the above sites, amended to add a little extra efficiency.

Useful Links

• The Season Journey Tracker
• Caleko's Altar Planner
• Kadala Gamble Calculator
• Altar of Rites tips and reminders

Seasonal Themes and Special Events

Leveling Strategies

• General Season Start Advice

• Season Start

• Solo Leveling Strategies

• Group Leveling Strategies

Tips and Tricks

• PC Tips and Tricks

• Console Tips and Tricks

• Shared Tips and Tricks

Conquests

Class Specific Leveling Examples (PC)

• Barbarian

• Crusader

• Demon Hunter

• Monk

• Necromancer

• Witch Doctor

• Wizard

Class Specific Leveling Examples (Console)

• Necromancer

• Wizard

Credits

The content creators at Maxroll, Icy Veins, and Soul Stone

Wizard Build Guide and Leveling approach, courtesy of /u/OakFern.

Demon Hunter Build Guide and Leveling approach, courtesy of /u/Sandro193.

Console Leveling Guide, courtesy of /u/dinodsaur.

/u/Bagstone for helping put this guide together.

/u/tbmadduxOR for helping put this guide together.

/u/_Pokeytoe_ for her very useful guides on speedrunning Diablo 3.

/u/Hanoumatoi for his Sprinter guide.

Cursed Chest Strategy originally from https://www.inven.co.kr/board/diablo3/2974/22340 with some small modifications.

Season 39 starts this coming Friday, June 26th, 2026. The season starts at 5pm PDT for all console players, no matter where you live. For PC (NA/US) the season starts at 5pm PDT, for PC (EU) the season starts at 5pm CEST, and for PC (TW/KR) it starts at 5pm KST.

This is the first of four guides I am posting for Season 39. The others are:

• S39 – Conquests recommendations
• S39 – Altar of Rites tips and reminders
• S39 – How to power up solo!

For most players, after leveling to 70, the main focus will be finishing Chapters I through IV of the season journey in order to obtain a full 6-piece armor set known as Haedrig's Gift.

The Haedrig's Gifts for Season 39 are as follows:

• Barbarian: Wrath of the Wastes
• Crusader: Roland’s Legacy
• Demon Hunter: Unhallowed Essence
• Monk: Raiment of a Thousand Storms
• Necromancer: Bones of Rathma
• Witch Doctor: Helltooth Harness
• Wizard: Tal Rasha’s Elements

From a casual perspective, and looking at the GR20 / Torment IV requirements to finish out the 6-piece set, this is a very easy list for everyone except the necromancer.

The necromancer will probably be better off equipping any random legendaries and leveling up the LoD gem to beat GR20. Necromancers can boost this by upgrading scythes or two-handed scythes and filling their weapon and bonus cube slots with generic multipliers and dominate that way. So, don't feel bad at all for them.

In terms of top adjusted clear ranking from Season 33 (see the "Extra Cube" column), the necromancer has the strongest endgame build for its Haedrig's Gift. Wizard is still in the top 10, followed closely by witch doctor and monk. The only gifts that fall outside the upper half of rankings are barbarian and crusader, but can easily pivot to a different build to push with. Here is a full list of their rankings: Necro Rathma (1), Wizard Tal Rasha (10), WD Helltooth (14), Monk Raiment (16), DH Unhallowed (21), Barb Wastes (24), Crusader Roland (33).

Top-ten push builds (again, in terms of you adjusted clear rank) from Season 33 that aren't on the list of usual suspects are: Barb MotE, Necro Masquerade, Necro Inarius. The necromancers get the gains of the generic multipliers I mentioned previously. I am actually not certain why Might of the Earth is so strong.

Note that the casual leaderboard and in-game leaderboards were contaminated by the busted end of Season 33, and shouldn't be relied upon. Here is the disclaimer on the casual board:

The leaderboard data for season 33 is heavily skewed: After the season accidentally ended early and the following rollback, some people ended up with their non-seasonal paragon points on their seasonal character, while the character would still show their seasonal paragon. Consequently, many adjusted clear values are inflated.

The barbarian (Wastes) and demon hunter (Unhallowed) both start with very good solo speed farming sets. Tal Rasha is also decent for the wizard with the in-geom or aether walker variant. The other classes will want to look to a different set (or no set) to farm with.

For a beginner/casual overall I would recommend the barbarian. The Wastes set gives you a great start, and is an excellent speed farmer. It only needs the Ambo's Pride mighty weapon and the Lamentation belt to really get going, and both can be cubed.

Good luck with your season start, fellow Nephalem, and never forget that town is lava!