Disclaimer: Most on the forum would know that I'm a long-term casual player, with relatively low/moderate aim for ANB. So while I haven't been among the high rankings, I have recently been able to consistently reached TL 90 for the Celestial Transform, so thought I just post my template for doing so. Things are likely to change in the future, and if this no longer works, I'll archive/delete it...


Preface:

In general, I've found that 3 things determine the outcome of your ANB run:
  1. Knowing your class: which gear, abilities & stats to focus on
  2. Knowing your path: how to level, when to upgrade what, etc.
  3. Luck: gear drops, crafting, trial maps


1. Knowing your class

Obviously, I'm running a Warrior, and while it may not be optimal, the "end goal gear" are - still streamlining the stats a bit...
  • 6x Fury => Ephemeral Epics: Experience, Ability Rate, Movement Speed/Power
  • Integralas Mantle => Legendary: Experience, Gold, Ability Rate, Power
  • Ephemeral Jewelries: Experience, Gold, Ability Rate, Vitality
  • Bladestorm Armaments => Legendary: Experience, Gold, Haste, Power
  • normal Bracers & Belt of the Whirling Storm => Legendary: Experience, Gold, +Physical, Life on Hit
  • Trinkets: Fire Lily, Talisman of Power => Legendary: Experience, +Physical, Life on Hit, Ability Rate
Abilities
  • Frenzy, Cleave
  • Charge, Leap, Whirlwind
  • Fleet Footed, Celerity, Power Infusion
As you can see, these gear are very lacking to be called proper Push gear, or even Farming gear for that matter. But they served me well (aside from the ongoing tweaking of Ability Rate vs Vitality...) and they also remove the stress of trying to get a complete Legendary set...

Also, please note that the build requires you to have the following unlocked:
  • Fire Lily - 100 Glory
  • Vial of the Wind Spirit
  • Talisman of Power
  • Belt of the Whirling Storm
  • Integralas Mantle recipe
  • Bladestorm Armaments recipes
Fury set you're going to use the Epic Ephemeral boxes for, so you don't need to unlock any of them - alternatively, you could unlock 1 and craft that and use the box for the Mantle, do NOT use the Epic boxes for the weapons, craft Legendary for higher damage. The key to the build is Fire Lily, since that is what gives you the constant damage boost. Still kinda works without it, but things will obviously take longer... make sure you understand and follow (with minor tweaks if you want) the path described below...

Without Recipes
If you don't have any of the above unlocked, then TL 90 is technically still possible, provided you follow the proper strategy for leveling below.





2. Knowing your path

I reckon this is the most important point, while the above are the end goal for the gear, working your way there in the proper order is important. To follow the steps below, you're looking at needing roughly 2,000 Gems - can be a bit less if you

a) Gold conversion: For the initial ability levels boost, and crafting.
I just convert as I need, via the lower 5 Gems => 2,500 Gold one... Actual Gold needed will depends on how long you wait for abilities to upgrade before playing... I just tend to play whenever I have time, so don't actually wait on purpose...

b) Unlocking: I always unlock everything, except the 3rd upgrade slot - can't really justify the 900 Gems for it, but highly recommend the 400 for the 2nd slot.
This will cost you a total of 645 Gems.

c) Gemming initial Ability levels: I boost all abilities to level 4 as soon as there's an empty upgrade slot, then focus back on the main abilities.
Initial boost from Synergy helps to survive and obviously the increased damage helps to clear quicker. If you're patient, and have the real time for it, then you can obviously wait to save the gems...
Boosting to level 4 costs 18 Gems per Ability, so for Warrior, that's a total of 378 Gems.
Can go to level 5 for extra initial boost, but will cost you another 525 Gems, so depends on your budget...

d) Initial Crafting, as soon as you get to Hometown:
  • Buy Crafter's Crates: 450 Gems total
    • All 3 Apprentices (3x 50 Gems)
    • 1 Expert (100 Gems)
    • 1 Master (200 Gems)
  • Craft level 1/2 Legendary Fire Lily and Vial of the Wind Spirit
    • I stick to the stats above, but they're going to be so small that what you choose won't actually matter, purely using for the special abilities. I keep these all the way to level 70, switching them out last, see below...
    • While a lower grade/quality may cost less, you'll get lower boost from them, and you should have enough mats from the above crates anyway.
    • If not unlocked, just craft Epic normal ones with Exp, +Physical & Life On Hit
  • Craft normal Epic gear for everything else, don't waste your mats on Legendary/Set/Unique, you'll be switching these out too often for the cost to be worth the boost...
    • Bracer/Belt: Experience, +Physical, Life on Hit
    • Others: Experience, Power, Haste/Movement Speed - doesn't matter which weapons you craft...
  • Use Gems to craft Experience Uncommon Jewelries
  • Repeat the above 2 crafting roughly every 15 levels
    • So that's the Epic normal gear and Uncommon Jewelries; craft the weapons first, just in case you're low on mats... Include the normal Trinkets, if you didn't craft the unique ones
    • the Jewelries will end up costing you about 265 Gems, 153 of it for the Exp/Gold pieces at level 70, give or take depending on which specific level you craft them at...
  • If you have the mats, you could also consider crafting new Weapon as soon as they "turn grey" - ie. 10+ levels lower than your char. This will help keep your damage up as you level...
e) Levelling to 70
Once Whirlwind unlocks, keep upgrading it until it get to level 10. I upgrade Frenzy in the other slot, but you can upgrade what ever you want, I purely use Charge & Leap to trigger Storm of Swords, so their level doesn't really matter to me...


I like to get Robin first, and still sticking to full map clears, just because...
Also, running without boosters, not even the free ones <= while boosters definitely help, I've found that I tend to out level my gears too quickly with them, and end up with not enough mats to craft the next set; plus the boosts are low until you get to level 70, so it's probably more economical to save the boosters until then. If you have the Gems, then use boosters to speed things up...

Run Misty Island whenever you have keys... no point saving them up, the exp boost and potential Books of Learning drops are helpful.

Once I got Robin, I switch to Trials - only move up the trial if you're within 10 levels of it. Initial trial mobs level is TL x 10 - Fire Lily will boost your damage so you can end up in a situation where you're level 40 and have cleared TL 5 unlocking TL 6, for example. Repeat TL 5 until you're around level 50, then go to TL 6 - in my opinion, the added difficulty of facing mobs 10+ levels than you is not worth the potential experience gain...

Once I get to Trial 7, I continue moving up if I cleared the trial in less than 2 minutes, continue this until level 70. The 60-90 seconds guideline comes into play AFTER reaching level 70, which then allows you to skip trials based on your clear time.

I simply salvage all picked up gear whenever my inventory fills up, or before crafting the next set... For the treasure chests, open whenever you don't have enough mats for crafting, when you reach level 70, open and salvage any that are left.


f) Exp farming:
At 70, craft Rare Exp/Gold jewelries (I do 2 exp + 1 gold uncommon for each fuse)
Activate your +200% Gold & +100% Exp boosters
Then slowly fill out the rest of your items as you get enough mats, just craft normal version of the items if you don't have the recipe unlocked:
  • Craft Normal Legendary Bracers: Exp, Gold, Physical & Life on Hit
  • Switch to Fury Epic (Exp, AR, MS/P) & Legendary Jewelries (Exp, Gold, AR, V) Ephemerals as they come.
  • Craft initial Axes: Exp, Gold, Haste & Power
  • IM: Exp, Gold, AR, P
  • Belt Whrling Storm: Exp, Physical, Life on Hit, Gold - if you got a level 75+ for your +Gold weapon, put AR here instead
  • Trinkets: Exp, Physical, Life on Hit, AR
  • If you're not trying to craft anything for your main, then recraft weapons to try for 75+ (Exp, AR, Haste, Power)
Here I usually jump to the highest unlocked Kara-trial, those ending with 0 or 5, unless that's the highest one unlocked - eg. if TL 25 is the highest, I go up to TL 20; but if TL 26 is unlocked, then I go to 25. The first goal is to get all the Ephemeral gears, which is at TL70, and I've found that the boosts I get from each new piece is usually enough to keep going. (For reference, usually can do this within 1 hour of game time)

Then switch back to farming mode: only moving up 5 trials when cleared in less than 60 seconds... And I just keep doing this until the end of the event - if close enough to next milestone then I do it near the end...

I also like to get my other abilities to level 6, for more Synergy boosts, and since level 6 takes 3 hours, it works well for an instant upgrade with the Greater Book of Learning once whatever I'm currently upgrading completes.


End Notes

The above steps have consistently got me to TL 90 in the last few ANBs very quickly (2 hours or so of game time), with an average Gems spending of almost 2,000 - sometimes I spent more on socketing in the past. I tend to stop there, and just continue every now and then when I get time, so my experience above that is limited...

Bronze run without Recipes
Latest Silver run


There are a few things that you can do to improve your ranking:
  • Craft a separate +Gold gear and do dedicated Gold farming runs
  • Craft full Legendary Exp gear
  • Craft proper push gear for the final push
  • use more Gems: boosters, crates, etc...
I just find those extra planning adds too much stress, and repeated farming runs numb the whole gaming experience for me... I'm happy with the 1 CT, anything else is a bonus...


Hope that helps some of the new players get a better idea of the "ANB process" - I think the steps can be translated over to other classes/builds easily enough, this is just what worked/simplest for me.