One area of the game I was looking to get down to spending a lot of time in was Nightmare dungeons. I was still having a bit of an issue getting caught up to where I felt I should have been. There were at least some exciting moments along the way.

The biggest issue I was having at the start that I'm still facing is only having tier 1 sigils dropping. I would not be able to progress until I had at least finished tier three. I then could at least salvage any lower tiers I had acquired and crafted hoping for better.

This bad luck trend kept up for a couple of more runs till I finally got the break I needed. I ended up looting a tier 2 sigil for Tomb of the Saints. On that same run, I ended up looting tier 3 as well.

These were quite needed as I was already three or so levels higher than I'd like to be just for the base level of the Nightmare dungeon I was running. I was also about to level up as well. At the very least the Nightmare dungeon was scaling the base level to match my own otherwise the experience would have been dreadful.

In an ideal situation, I feel rather comfortable running Nightmare dungeons at least four or more levels behind. This meant I should be on tier 7 at the very least by now. It did not help all the grinding I did to finish off the campaign and renown. I feel that put me even further behind where I was hoping to be by now. The issue is compounded further by some bad luck not getting any higher sigil drops.

Not that I needed to, but I decided I'd just run these dungeons in order. I’d hate to just run my tier 3 right away and not have any sigils drop. I was rather shocked I had a few more sigils drop in the tier 2 run that was tier four or higher. This started to pave a path forward for me to get caught up.

I also got at the end of that dungeon run my first natural sacred unique drop. It was for an amulet that I had zero use for. At the very least it sells nicely. At the time I was looking to boost my gold up to at least 5 million if not 10 million before I hit my next cycle of upgrades. I was already doing quite well on crafting materials at that time.

Next up was my first tier-three run. I was easy not a single death or anything as I would expect. This most importantly unlocked sigil crafting and salvaging. I even lucked out and looted a tier 6 sigil of all things. Putting quite a smile on my face that my bad luck and getting stuck at the lower tier was starting to end.

I had quite a few low-level sigils and decided just to salvage them. I felt since I had a lot more Nightmare dungeon grinding to do anyway now would be the time to craft a couple more sigils to ensure I could be working on the next tier range of levels.

I ended up lucking out and getting myself a tier 8, 9, and another 8. After that I decided to hold onto any remaining material, I had in case I needed it in the future due to bad luck. Thankfully that ended up not being the case. Almost every run for quite some time afterward always dropped at least one sigil of that tier if not one higher.

It was not before long I was not fighting creatures that were higher level than me. My experience gains started to boost. While sure I'm a solo player and it takes me a bit longer than groups to clear out these Nightmare dungeons. I was having quite a blast, the higher the level gap was between me and what I was fighting.

There also came a point where I was speed-running the best I could in these Nightmare dungeons. That included reducing the amount of time I spent dealing with what I was looting. I ended up pulling the same trick I use on Helltides on Nightmare dungeons. That is not looting the legendary that drop and emptying my storage once I get to nine or ten. There were also quite a few rare items I was looting but knew better than to check since I just did not need many different slots now for a few levels.

Before I even knew it, I was already in tier 12 almost at the tier pace I wanted to be for my level. While I was looking to run them fast, I still stopped for any events I'd find within. There always seemed to be a decent chance of getting a sigil to drop anyway so I was willing to spend the time.

Along the way I was also getting Nightmare dungeons in quite a few dungeons I've yet to run. At this point, I did not need the aspects I was unlocking even more so since most of the time they were not for my class. They were, however, a nice little bonus at the end.

Things then started to slow down a lot once I reached tier 15. I must have run at least half a dozen of these before moving on to the next tier. While I had higher tiers to run, I was looting a lot of tier 15. It seemed almost a waste to not run them.

I even lucked out on one of my tier 15 runs and acquired sacred unique boots I've been wanting for my build for quite a few levels now. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled. This ended up prompting after a few more levels some changes to the skills I was using to better fit the aspect of these boots.

There finally came a point where I felt I was clearing out Nightmare dungeons fast enough it was time to up the difficulty to torment for world tier IV. This would also require me to craft a level 21 ancestral sigil. Since you are not going to get those to drop while in World Tier III running Nightmare dungeons.

I had quite a few sigils in my constable's tab to salvage at that point anyway. I was somewhat welcoming to having more space in that tab again anyway.

Thankfully I only needed to craft one sigil. It ended up rolling as a tier 21 and I ended up looting further ones on my first run in world tier IV.

I even lucked out and my first couple of runs at this higher world tier dropped some amazing ancestral items that rolled decent enough stats for me to take them. Including this sword that I'd end up using for quite a lot of levels. It ended up being three hundred or more pure damage of an upgrade on top of having a lot better stats.

Final Thoughts

I’d end up grinding away Nightmare dungeons into many late nights for quite a few days. Picking up lots of paragon points along the way and unlocking some powerful nodes. I did, however, feel I was a bit slacking on my glyph levels and I had yet to have a level 15 despite how many of these I had already run since I had such a slow start to progressing into higher-tier Nightmares.

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Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Diablo IV.