Leveling advice needed (Version 2.5.4+)

[Ogmok]

I got a few questions regarding leveling up efficiently since I normally struggle (speedwise) in the early levels and start steamrolling later (maybe at level 80-100).

I know that it's mostly about "having a good killspeed in a difficulty that's comfortable" (aka "if you 1-shot everything and don't die, then then you might try a higher difficulty").

--> Can you influence the probability to get a strong item (especially a weapon) at the very beginning? Does playing the first level of the last act over and over (without killing the boss unless you 1-shot stuff) for example improve the probability to get a good weapon? And would you rather do it on normal for the killspeed or on higher difficulties?
Or should I just follow the campaign on normal (starting at act 1), collect relicts and maybe doing the act bosses over and over?
Does the act or the difficulty influence the "base stats" or is it just superstition from my side?

Right now I play act 7 very early (singleplayer) and try to get better equipment to "feel stronger". I increase the difficulty slightly asap and got the ingame settings at "show rare+ items only" and "4-stars+ runes" until I got proper equipment (then I increase the slider, depending on my equipment).

The reason why I do this is that in the very old versions I had extremely bad item drops in act 1 normal and this method gave me some extellent weapons early on (like 10 damage vs 8k damage iirc). It feels pretty outdated though and I want to speed up things when I start playing a Plague Doctor (which will be released in 2 days).

[Eddie]

Step one: Play Destruction when Able to. Always test your ability to play in destruction. Reason being is that you can get Satanics in Destruction. Even at Level 1. Also Destruction gear far outstrips any other gear and will help you continue to do destruction which will be best Exp if you continue to get relavent gear.

Step Two: If you're not comfortable with Destruction I'd go no lower then Inferno. It's a good mid point and will possibly keep your gear relavent to go up to Destruction.

Step Three: Each act boss drops a specific gear type. For instance A1 Gurag drops Helms and Chest over all other gear. (You may still get other gear but mainly helm and chest) Use this to your advantage to farm for specifc gear that's lower.

Step Four: This step should be higher but I'm just adding them as I think about it :P. Find Black sheep and Jefre's Subscription Relics. The Sheeponia boss will most of the time drop Mythics. This will greatly increase your strength as you level.

Step Five: Keep it fun~ Don't do anything that feels Tedious. It's at these times that it'll always feel slow no matter how fast it's going.

[Ogmok]

thanks for the advice; I'm glad that I was not completely wrong with my thoughts about high difficulty in early game (if doable).

edit: does the act influence the loot quality? (would a weapon from an act 7 champ have the same stats as a weapon from an act 1 champ if I play on Desctruction?)