What to do after beating campaign?

[MrWitz]

Newish player here. Beat the campaign + all DLC's on Veteran. I'm lvl 52, and I'm just not sure where I'm supposed to go from here. What's the "endgame" loop, so to speak?

Thanks for your help!

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

jump to Elite or Ultimate and clear the campaign there for hardest difficulty, maxing out rep etc
get gear, grind Crucible and or Shattered Realm, kill Celestials are the main 3 end challenge + farm loops

or start over make an alt try new things if you're not interested in the above ofc

[MrWitz]

Originally posted by gNuff!~©~gNom3™:

jump to Elite or Ultimate and clear the campaign there for hardest difficulty, maxing out rep etc
get gear, grind Crucible and or Shattered Realm, kill Celestials are the main 3 end challenge + farm loops

or start over make an alt try new things if you're not interested in the above ofc :ccthumbsup:

With the recent changes to difficulty settings, is there any reason to do elite/veteran besides the added challenge? Do higher difficulties increase loot drops and quality?

[Andy]

if you're bored at the game, play hardcore mode lol

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by MrWitz:

With the recent changes to difficulty settings, is there any reason to do elite/veteran besides the added challenge? Do higher difficulties increase loot drops and quality?

aeh depends what you like/want?
higher difficulty always gave more loot
and the only reason to play veteran was always only for optional challenge
you can play on Ultimate or Elite from level 1 if you wish, some like that, you can jump from normal direct in to Ultimate if you wish, some don't like that
there is no 1 fits all, doing the old way of Normal->Elite->Ultimate will probably be the slowest approach, but might also be a smoother curve
if you either want more challenge, or reach end fast etc etc, then just jump straight into Ultimate, the option was added for it to be used if people wanted.

[Sverr]

Does the difficulty affect the loot drops? Of course. You are only lvl 52, which means only now you have started seeing legendary items. And most legendaries are lvl 94. And legendary armor sets. This will be the moment where you'll be shaping up your build. Ultimate difficulty gives you more quests that reward you with skillpoints. So, technically, the game only starts at lvl 100. But only if you are okay with ARPG gameplay, which is grinding, grinding and more grinding) If you are only interested in a story, the rest of the game won't be as exciting.

[MrWitz]

Originally posted by Andy:

if you're bored at the game, play hardcore mode lol

I'm not bored at all. Just needing guidance as to what to do. And my knowledge of the game isn't at the level where I can play HC yet. One of these days I'm sure I will.

[MrWitz]

Originally posted by Sverr:

Does the difficulty affect the loot drops? Of course.

In what way though? Now that we can lvl all the way to 100 in any difficulty, can't you farm all gear in normal/vet now?

I guess what I'm asking is, In what precise ways does difficulty affect loot?

Are the stat rolls on the pieces of loot themselves higher if dropped from higher difficulty? Is the quantity of loot drops increased? Is there anything (world drops, vendor loot, blueprints, components, etc) that is locked behind higher difficulties?

Originally posted by Sverr:

Ultimate difficulty gives you more quests that reward you with skillpoints.

Really? What quests? And is this still true after 1.2?

[Sverr]

More drops and better chance for a better loot. Besides, the higher difficulty gives you more experience so you'll be leveling faster and harder difficulty also makes the game more dynamic. Walking around and killing enemies just by looking at them isn't all too fun.

[gNuff!~©~gNom3™]

Originally posted by Crusader (Banned4x):

Originally posted by Sverr:

And most legendaries are lvl 94.

Guess I'm screwed only being able to get to level 85 on base game without any DLC. Wonder how many legendary items I can get.

you can still get legendaries, there's still lots of them, they just wont be the expansion legends

Base Game ofc still had legendaries before expansions got introduced later, they were just lower level, 50-80 range, some of those then got upgraded and got a Mythical version in expansion, and new "only high level" legends got put in, but the old original legendaries still exist just isn't used for expansion endgame: but would still be used for basegame endgame
unsure if spoiler? but you can see all the basegame legendaries on grimtools https://www.grimtools.com/db/advsearch?query=N4IgTghmCWAuCeIBcoAyBTA5ugdgEykSVjAFd0BfAGhAAcAbCedMDAN3XuVAFsIAPZAA4AzNRB56AY24g2EHNHqNkJchQpA

[Gilver Redgrave]

Originally posted by Crusader (Banned4x):

Guess I'm screwed only being able to get to level 85 on base game without any DLC. Wonder how many legendary items I can get.

I leave normal difficulty (after doing EVERYTHING) around Lv65-68 and start Elite. How do you guys get on that high level jus in the base game i never understood that. O.o

[Tsel13]

Originally posted by Gilver Redgrave:

Originally posted by Crusader (Banned4x):

Guess I'm screwed only being able to get to level 85 on base game without any DLC. Wonder how many legendary items I can get.

I leave normal difficulty (after doing EVERYTHING) around Lv65-68 and start Elite. How do you guys get on that high level jus in the base game i never understood that. O.o

The latest 1.2 patch has changed the creature scaling.
Regrind the higher areas and do a boat load of totems.

[phenir]

Originally posted by MrWitz:

Originally posted by Sverr:

Does the difficulty affect the loot drops? Of course.

In what way though? Now that we can lvl all the way to 100 in any difficulty, can't you farm all gear in normal/vet now?

I guess what I'm asking is, In what precise ways does difficulty affect loot?

Are the stat rolls on the pieces of loot themselves higher if dropped from higher difficulty? Is the quantity of loot drops increased? Is there anything (world drops, vendor loot, blueprints, components, etc) that is locked behind higher difficulties?

Stat rolls won't be higher but I believe you get more drops and it's more likely they will have rare affixes. Also there are some items that can only be gotten on ultimate. A good example is Alkamos, the boss of the Arkovian key dungeon. He only drops his legendary scythe and rings on ultimate. Also, higher difficulties give you another chance at "one shot chests". These are chests that can only be opened once and always drop a legendary (epic at sub 50).

Originally posted by MrWitz:

Originally posted by Sverr:

Ultimate difficulty gives you more quests that reward you with skillpoints.

Really? What quests? And is this still true after 1.2?

Any quest that gave skill points on normal also give skill points on elite and ultimate. 1.2 just made it so if you complete the quest on a higher difficulty, you also get the skill point (or attribute point) reward from lower difficulty. One of those quests is one from Kasparov, the guy next to the inventor in devil's crossing. Right after you defeat the reanimator (the boss in the cave), he has a quest to bring him like 3 aether crystals and gives you a skill point in return. You can see them all here: https://www.grimtools.com/checklist/quests/ultimate

[Sverr]

Quests that give you skillpoints:
Kasparov's experiment (all difficulties)
The Hidden Path (all difficulties)
The other you (Ultimate only, Ashes of Malmouth)
Tomb of the Eldritch Sun (Ultimate only, Forgotten Gods)
Entering\Exploring\Conquering the Shattered Realm (Ultimate only, Forgotten Gods, 3 points in total)

[Rikkore]

If you're blasting hard you finish everything on normal around 50. Basically just do everything or try to get all factions. You move on to elite to get more loot to prep yourself for ult. Which is basically managing all your resistances so you dont die in ultimate. Leveling gets super easy once you get the exp pot from malmouth

[MrWitz]

On average, around what level is usually a good time to start thinking of moving over to ultimate?