Solo XP Farming Character?

[Tyrean]

Background:

I play seasonal HC.
I don't group (very erratic schedule, computer cannot handle groups).
I mainly play crusader, but have a WD speed build for farming DBs on T8.
My crusader is in the mid 50s GRift right now (Rank 97, GRift 55) and to push higher I need paragons! (sub 500 right now)

So my initial idea was to make a barbarian that I can spin to win and just speed farm like Grift 40 or something that I can do while wearing XP gear. That would probably be efficient until I get into like paragon 800? So I am thinking of a wastes build with BK weapons, leoric helm with ruby, and kitting out my follower with hellfire ring as well.

I would need to cube/wear unity, RoRG, and Zodiac. So no hellfire ring there. The main reason I like this build is that I think it will give me 90% bonus XP which works as intended in GRifts, and this will be the simplest build to play so I can watch netflix or something and not have to pay sooo much attention since it is HC.

Thoughts? Is there something better on another class that allows me to wear more XP gear?

[tibben]

Unfortunately solo XP farming is ridiculously far behind group right now. I've tried the solo WW barb and at paragon 600+ it starts taking multiple grifts to level up whereas with a group build with only two people with xp gear you can still gain 1 or more paragon levels in a single 50 grift and still finish in 5ish minutes. But the WW barb build speed rifting 40ish grifts is probably about as fast as you can go solo.

[Coldkil]

I play SC, with my monk i speedfarm GR50 with a ruby on head only and gain around 1 level or mopre each rift (560ish now, check in sig).

I'm sure there's a breakpoint where running higher GR wins over running lower ones with XP gear - but the issue is that playing solo brings you up to a certain point only. Once you get in the 600+ ground grouping up looks more and more reliable or at least doable than farming solo (i get my xpo gear on and do GR60 speed in public, and the amoutn of xp gain is on a complete different scale).

Grouping up lets both a) running with support/xp char and b) running higher GR easier. The group XP bonus has in fact a very small impact on the actual XP gains.

[Tyrean]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I have actually been having more fun just gearing up the barb than I thought, even though I don't have tons of time to play. Still farming out wastes set pieces.

I have to say that I have tried playing in groups and I just don't think the game supports people like me very well right now. The issues for me are that I prefer to play HC which changes the way I approach things, my computer is kinda eh, and I have sporadic playtime. So what that means for me is that I can't commit to a regular group which also means it is difficult to find regular friends at my level. The HC part means it is extremely risky to do public games. The few times I have tried this I was either lagging badly or the group was just not setup correctly. People playing bad builds, etc. My computer also makes it difficult to play groups as my load times are long and sometimes that means death.

I will say though, that I am perfectly fine just being behind and playing my pace. I haven't gotten to play in a week or so, but my last clear still puts me at 104. My goal is to end the season in the top 100.

Thanks again for the input, and even if playing the WW barb solo only nets me 100 paragon levels before it starts to teeter out, it has been really fun so far so it is for sure worth it.

[Tyrean]

So thought I would report back on my progress for anyone else thinking of this...

I have my barb geared up with the basics, only ancient piece is mainhand wep. I was playing Grift 40s with leorics crown (ruby) and RoRG and I could clear rifts from 4 minutes to 6 minutes depending on rift. It was doing what I wanted as I would get roughly a paragon level a rift from 500 to about 560 which is where I am now.

It started to slow down though, and I have since switched my focus on the guy to a gem leveler. So I dropped RoRG to pick up CoE and the ruby in helm for a diamond and I clear GR48 in 5 minutes average now. So I have been leveling gems to 50 this way and getting shards super fast. Paragons still come, just slower. I think the tradeoff to level gems is worth it though.

So while I think it has been a wash, I wanted to be able to farm GR 50s in 5 minute times with RoRG and Ruby Leorics and I just don't think it is possible to do on an alt. The problem is you just don't have enough damage without CoE. I could drop Unity and just rely on WW 40% reduction and pain 50% reduction, but since I play HC it is not worth it for me. Of course I may try that when I get a full replacement set farmed up and then I won't care so much about this dude.

The initial idea was good though, WW barb is so much easier to play than hammer crusader. Hammer crusader is a constant CD spam fest where you die if you mess up. WW barb just rolls though everything with just me holding the mouse button down. So much easier. Been catching up on iZombie on netflix while playing.

[Thelxi]

It's not a great idea. Unfortunately Blizzard has made their position very clear on the matter, not only don't they mind much higher efficiency in groups they actually considerably increased the gap between solo and group xp gain this season.

[Tyrean]

It's not a great idea. Unfortunately Blizzard has made their position very clear on the matter, not only don't they mind much higher efficiency in groups they actually considerably increased the gap between solo and group xp gain this season.

That is extremely common knowledge, but as is pointed out when these types of threads pop up and everyone seems to ignore, not everyone can group. Either you can't group for a myriad of reasons (including you just don't want to) or you just can't group all the time and you want your time to be as efficient as possible.

The thread was not created to ask the most efficient method of paragon farming, that is already widely known. The thread was discussing the best way to farm solo.