The realms have been wiped clean. As of this morning the Ladder has reset across every Battle.net gateway (USEast, USWest, Europe and Asia), and the climb to level 99 starts over for us all. Whether you favor Hardcore or Softcore, your old Ladder heroes have been retired to Non-Ladder, and a brand new season is open here on the Internet Gaming Zone.

Why stay up all night for a reset? A fresh economy. When the Ladder rolls over, every stash starts empty. There are no hoarded High Runes, no traded-away Stones of Jordan, no godly rares changing hands. For a few precious weeks the World of Sanctuary belongs to whoever grinds hardest and trades smartest.

The opening days look the same for every class:

1. Roll your character: Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin or Sorceress, plus the Assassin and Druid added by Lord of Destruction.
2. Push through all five Acts, from the Rogue Encampment to Harrogath, felling Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, Diablo and at last Baal.
3. Then run the endgame over and over for experience and loot.

Speed is everything. A well-built Sorceress can teleport a party straight to the bosses, while a Barbarian's Find Item skill pries extra drops from the dead. Seasoned racers know the fast tracks by heart:

• Baal runs through the Throne of Destruction in Act V, the richest experience in the game.
• Mephisto and Diablo runs for early gear and gambling gold.
• The Secret Cow Level, opened by transmuting Wirt's Leg and a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube.

This season, keep an eye on Runewords. Slot the right runes into a socketed item in the correct order and you forge gear that no shop or drop can match, and several of the best recipes are Ladder-only. Add gems, charms and a hired mercenary at your side, and even a fresh level-one hero grows dangerous fast.

The rankings track the top players of each class by experience, so the first to 99 earns real bragging rights. Hardcore duelists, remember: out here death is forever, and a hostile click in an eight-player game is all the warning you get. Good luck on the new Ladder. We will see you in Sanctuary.