Worldstone Keep and Baal Farming Guide

The Worldstone Keep and Baal provide the most challenging farming experience in Diablo 2 Resurrected. The amount of Elite Packs you encounter in Worldstone 2 + 3, as well as the Throne Room and Baal himself nets you large amounts of Experience, Uniques, Sets, Runes, and Bases!
Many builds are going to face challenges in these areas. But if you're willing to customize your gear and playstyle, you can reap the rewards that even surpass The Chaos Sanctuary!

Why farm Worldstone Keep and Baal?

Worldstone Keep and Baal are fantastic to farm for Experience, Runes, Bases, Set and Unique Items. The Worldstone Keep is an Area Level (alvl) 85 zone. Elite Packs in this area can drop every Set and Unique item in the game, making them incredibly valuable to farm. Hunting for Unique and Champion packs can net you tons of items that are Magic quality or higher. This is super relevant for Holy Grailing, collecting every item in the game!

Items

Here are some examples of what you can find in Hell. Check out our drop calculator for all possible drops.

Looting Strategies

1. Prioritize Magic Find and mobility while only killing the main boss of the Elite packs on Players 1. This is to guarantee a drop and be able to move on quickly to the next pack.
2. For Runes and Bases use a well-rounded build, ideally farming Players 7, to kill all Elites and their Minions. You don't need to stack Magic Find if you use this strategy.
3. You can full clear the 3 Worldstone Keep levels to maximize killing monster density on higher Player Settings. Another avenue is to rush to the Throne of Destruction and prioritize the Waves before killing Baal for drops.

Experience

Normal / Nightmare

Leveling to 40 in Normal Baal runs is a sure fire way to prepare for your Nightmare progression. You need 8 players in game or Player 8 Settings in single player to make this strategy worthwhile. Leveling to 65+ in Nightmare is also very viable. This also requires full party XP bonus to be worthwhile. For your Nightmare leveling section, you will see a massive drop-off by 60. When your Character's gear reaches a point that you can push on, you should.

• While the runner is getting to the Throne of Destruction, take the Waypoint to Frigid Highlands and quickly kill Eldritch for some extra XP.
• If the game-maker has completed the Anya quest, killing Pindleskin is also a great source of extra XP and drops.

Level x-96

Worldstone Keep and the Throne of Destruction are the best places to gain Experience. A solid strategy that works until ~Level 97 is to kill all the Elites and their minions which grant large amounts of Experience. The higher the Player Count, the better.

Level 97+

At Level 97 and above, Baal becomes a main focus for Experience gain due to his high monster level (99). He is 1 of 3 enemies in the game that grant significant Experience, with Diablo (94) and Nihlathak (95) being the others. Due to the way that Experience works, Players 3 with a maximum of 3 actual players in that area is the best for this strategy. Read our detailed post on Experience for more information.

How do I find Worldstone Keep & Baal?

Location and Mechanics

To access the Worldstone Keep, you must first complete the Ancients Quest in Act 5 Harrogath. You must be Character Level 60 when the quest is completed on Hell difficulty to actually finish it. Then find your way to Worldstone Keep 2 and collect the Waypoint there. Our farming strategies always start from here.

Worldstone Keep 2 + 3 From Waypoint

The Exit to Worldstone Keep 3 is always to the right of the Waypoint tile in Worldstone Keep 2. These two tiles can be directly connected, as you see in the example to the right. The Waypoint and exit tile features a thin bridge in the center surrounded by the red marked areas. When you enter a new hallway, these are dead giveaways that you're on the right track.

In Worldstone Keep 3, the location of the Throne of Destruction is completely random. You can travel in any direction from the central tile and potentially come across the exit. Try to acquaint yourself with the common dead-end tile shapes to save yourself time. The most common is the closed off rectangle without the bridge. If you're only farming Worldstone Keep, explore every room to maximize the Elite packs you encounter.

Throne of Destruction

The Throne of Destruction is often slept on, but it's another powerful Area Level 85 spot to farm as well. The top left, middle, and bottom right set of hallways feature large densities of Elite packs. Farming these spots before entering the Throne itself nets you tons of extra drops per run.

Worldstone Chamber

In the Throne of Destruction, Baal summons 5 waves of powerful Super Unique monsters. You need to kill all 5 waves to enter the Worldstone Chamber and farm Baal. Colenzo, Achmel, Bartuc, Ventar, and Lister all spawn with minions which are great sources of Experience. Clearing this area is the age-old XP strat known as the "Baal Run".

Beware of Lister and his minions as they are unique demons called Minions of Destruction. They have high damage, Knockback, and Stun you on hit. They have high resistances, with Lister being Immune to Fire and often Immune to Cold as well.

Baal

After you clear the Throne Room, Baal retreats into the Worldstone Chamber. You enter on the bottom right side of this area with Baal being front and center on the bridge leading to the Worldstone. Face down the last of the three Brothers and end their demonic machinations.

The Baal fight is fairly straight forward. In addition to his normal attacks and abilities, he often summons a Clone of himself and large groups of Tentacles that attack your Character. In Diablo 2 Resurrected, there are no visual indicators to see which Baal is the correct one. But there are some interesting differences you can pick up on:

• Baal Clone's name is not aligned with the monster type "Demon" on his health bar in legacy graphics mode.
• Baal Clone cannot teleport like Baal can. Moving away once one teleports is an easy way to ignore the Clone.
• If you run ~1 screen away and head back to town for a few seconds, Baal Clone and any summoned Tentacles despawn.

Tips & Tricks

Mega Danger: Black Souls

The most dangerous monster type in this farming area spawns in Worldstone Keep 2 and the Throne of Destruction. Black Souls are a ranged undead monster that lock onto your Character and launch a volley of lightning directly at you. Once they have been triggered, they tend to split up which means the lightning becomes more spread out and easier to survive. But that first volley can spell death for even the strongest Characters. You've been warned!

Mega Danger 2: Death Lords

Second only to the Blacks Souls are the Death Lords. Their massive damage and run speed makes them a devastating force. Make sure you're a screen distance farther away than you "need" to be.

Frenzied Ice Spawn

The Frenzied Ice Spawn are interesting monsters that cast corpseexplosion on themselves as their primary attack. The issue is that they don't award Experience or drop loot when they do. While some builds are able to kill them at a distance, they are quite finicky and not worth your time of trying to kite them for the potential loot.

Monster Immunities

Every monster in Worldstone Keep and the Throne of Destruction is naturally immune to at least 1 damage type. ~50% of them cannot be broken by common sources like infinity's conviction Aura. Builds with multiple damage types are able to full clear most monster combinations, but single damage types need to ignore some monster packs. It is faster to push past packs that are immune to your primary damage type, and hopefully find other monster types on the next level.

Build Recommendations

Worldstone Keep, the Throne of Destruction, and Baal are the epitome of end-game farming in Diablo 2. Builds typically need their best in slot gear to farm here efficiently.

• Amazon - Lightning Fury
  • Do not farm this area without Infinity on this build. Instead, check out our Secret Cow Level Farming Guide, where she destroys cows!
  • Lightning Immunes are the easiest to break in the game, and Worldstone/Throne are no exception. The Amazon can quickly delete the high monster density with little issue. There are Immunes that are not broken by your gear, and in some circumstances you are able to jab these down. Ignore any harder to kill monsters.
• Assassin - Lightning Sentry
  • The Assassin has very high mobility through Burst of Speed especially when paired with a Staff of Teleportation or Enigma.
  • She also can take out any enemy here easily with Lightning Sentry followed by Death sentry. With these Skills you're dealing Lightning, Fire, and Physical Damage, letting you clear any immunities they might have. When you encounter Light + Fire Immune monsters that don't pop to Death sentry, move on.
• Barbarian - Berserk / Whirlwind
  • Berserk Barb is recommended for farming Worldstone Keep Levels 1-2-3. His high Magic and Physical Damage output means he can manage any monster immunities you come across. He suffers in Baal farming because the 2nd wave is naturally Magic Immune, and has high Physical Resistance as well.
  • Whirlwind Barb is better for Baal farming because its high Physical Damage is better suited for clearing waves. It also applies Crushing Blow easier than the Zerker. This drastically speeds up Baal kill time.
• Druid - Hurricane Tornado
  • The Wind Druid can farm Worldstone Keep fairly well. While the Wind Druid is not the fastest clearer, it deals both Physical and Cold Damage allowing you to deal with most immunes. You also have decent clear speed on the Throne Room and Baal, with decrepify from your Mercenary boosting your tornado.
  • Access to cyclonearmor, summongrizzly, and oaksage make this Build incredibly tanky. A safe farmer, is a happy farmer.
• Necromancer - Summoner
  • With his army of undead, the Summoner is a very safe build to take into the Worldstone Keep. Access to high Physical and Fire damage also means he can pop everything on screen, regardless of immunities.
  • With Max Block Chance and full summons, tele-stomping this area is incredibly satisfying. Your Mercenary and any Crushing Blow revives make quick work of Baal.
• Paladin - Fist of the Heavens
  • The FoHdin is the premier Paladin farming build for Worldstone Keep/Throne. Your ridiculous mobility, Max Block, and huge Magic Damage output makes quick work of most monsters in both areas. For Baal kill speed, the Try-Brid Variant lets you quickly smite him into oblivion!
• Sorceress - Lightning
  • Do not farm this area without Infinity on this build.
  • This Sorceress is able to tear apart Worldstone and the Throne Room with the 200 Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint, and the easiest to manage monster immunity. Any monsters that maintain their Lightning Immunity through your conviction should be ignored.

Summary

• Worldstone Keep and Throne of Destruction are some of the best areas in Diablo 2 for Experience, Runes, Bases, Sets and Uniques! These areas require very powerful Character Builds, and end-game Runewords like infinity.
• Load your character up on Lightning Resistance before farming here, so you don't get one-tapped by the Black Souls. Remember to get more distance from Death Lords than you think you need.
• You can farm some or all of these areas in a single run. If you're going into the Throne to include Baal, make sure you can kill every wave.
• Elite packs with amplifydamage, conviction Aura, or fanaticism can spell the death of under-geared Characters.
• Remember that you don’t have to farm alone - grab teammates to do Baal runs and get your chance at his amazing drops!

Credits

Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Raxxanterax