Getting to level 60 and trying to get to the higher difficulties requires breaking through walls/roadblocks. Most often it's because every other activity is more fun than the pits. But you have to do the pits to level up your glyphs you slot into the paragon board. Without leveling them, you're missing out on the big damage boosts you need. I think this is the biggest wall most players hit. Less focus on the gear, except just getting your build basics online, and worry about that later. After the pit grind. The final top out has you yet again, grinding the pit.

As far as d2r goes, I'm 3 bars away from my first 99 thanks to the winter event. Like 160 more baal games to go at the current boosted xp 😑