I have a friend up to Normal Act 3 in his own game, but I'd like to bring him into Nightmare Act 1 with me. He says he wouldn't be able to join my Nightmare party, though we haven't tried this yet. (I would suppose this extends for all inter-difficulty parties.) Is he right?
Does he need to play through certain events to join my Nightmare party, or is it possible to rush him through Diablo (last Act 4 quest) to unlock Nightmare for him? Does it depend on level restrictions, as well? Is there a simple workaround? What do I need to do to push him into Nightmare?
Best Answer
Actually, you may still skip entire acts. I am not sure what the update did in 1.0.2b regarding "...no longer skip entire acts in multiplayer", but nothing stops you from joining a friend's game as long as the game you are joining was created in a difficulty level that you have already unlocked. To date the latest patch is 1.0.5b. To get your friend to nightmare your friend needs to reach level 25. To do this you will just need a little gold to gear up the low level character in the Auction House.
"Rushing" someone in Diablo III is a bit different than it was in Diablo II. I have not found a quick way to accomplish this, but I have managed to shave quite a bit of time off of the process. The process I have been using involves locating the best places to gather experience and skipping mostly all of the quests. Please comment on this post if you can provide further insight.
The places I go to farm experience are:
When the character being rushed begins gathering experience at any given place the blue items dropping on the ground should be too high level for the char to use. When the char reaches the level where he or she can actually use the blue items which are dropping that is a pretty good indicator that it is time to stop, gear up at the auction house and move to the next act. Another indicator is when the char stops getting good experience.
Auction House Tip - Make sure to get socketed items whenever possible. Also, get items with the character's prime stat, vitality, and + experience. Try and maximize the DPS for the weapons as well. Put rubies in the weapons to increase damage, and dex/prime stat gems in everything else.
Here is a step by step set of more detailed instructions:
Now then, from here on out:
...rinse, repeat.