Better doing Red worm or Dark aether rift?

Hey, been playing for a few days and loving the game so far.

Me and my two buddies (playing as a 3-stack) are now comfortable running T3.

We wanted to try something harder, specifically the red worm, but from what I understood it's better to grab the golden armor plates first.

Anyone got a guide for doing that as fast as possible? I've been going through videos/guides online for like an hour now but it seems like the guides changed depending on the season.

I know you need to do Act 4, but I'm not sure if everything's clearly laid out in the missions?

Should we start with the red worm or go for the dark aether rifts first? Thx