01-22-2004, 06:56 PM
Because there is an abundance of undead in D2, and because mace class weapons get a 50% dmg bonus against Undead, it made a lot of sense to me (as a solo player) to wield mace class weapons. Following the "one weapon good, two weapons better" philosophy (please leave the shield advantages for a different discussion) it made sense (to me) to wield two mace class weapons. Now I say mace class weapons because I actually tend to favor the flails, scepters and war scepters over all other mace class weapons because of their faster weapon speed, and because despite their smaller size (compared to 2H-Swords and Mauls) they still do a reasonable amount of base damage.
Now sometimes I play on Bnet but I tend to solo when I do and rarely, if ever, get together with a group, so my dual mace wielding Barb is more concerned with beating up monsters and surviving on his own, than assisting a party or dueling with other Barbs.
My Barb's weapons, as I mentioned, tend to be flails or scepters, and I generally go for the tripled socketed flails or triple socketed war scepters when I can find them or buy them, as it's much easier to get triple socketed weapons than find that ultra-rare Holy Scepter of Smashing or whatever the latest uber-weapon is. Originally I used to drop a Perfect Skull (or as good as I could get) into each weapon, then drop a ruby & sapphire into one weapon, and an emerald & topaz into the other. But now I have LOD (yes, I only just bought it for myself for Christmas) I'm discovering Jewels & Runes that can do what my perfect gems used to do, and more. Now why should I drop in a topaz for lightning dmg when a cool jewel might do lightning dmg AND increase the To Hit %; or it might dish out lightning dmg AND has a 5% chance to cast chain lightning, OR...well, you get the idea. Then there are the Runes, but oddly enough a lot of the runes I find seem to work better on their own than if I try to make a rune word with them, as most rune words for mace class weapons tend to help Paladins more than any other class, and I'm not a Paladin; I'm a Barb who likes smashing things.
So now that I have runes & jewels to pick through, what goes in my weapons sockets is no longer a no brainer, now it's too damn confusing. There's too many choices! Can anyone help a poor Barbarian?
Please bear in mind that I don't do magic runs, and I don't do cow runs, and I don't have 10,000 SOJs sitting on a Mule somewhere, so ultra-rare jewels and runes won't help me. What will help is the experience I know you guys (& gals) out there have from playing LOD. What runes and jewels should I be looking for to go in my triple socketed flails and war scepters?
Thank you.
Capn John
Now sometimes I play on Bnet but I tend to solo when I do and rarely, if ever, get together with a group, so my dual mace wielding Barb is more concerned with beating up monsters and surviving on his own, than assisting a party or dueling with other Barbs.
My Barb's weapons, as I mentioned, tend to be flails or scepters, and I generally go for the tripled socketed flails or triple socketed war scepters when I can find them or buy them, as it's much easier to get triple socketed weapons than find that ultra-rare Holy Scepter of Smashing or whatever the latest uber-weapon is. Originally I used to drop a Perfect Skull (or as good as I could get) into each weapon, then drop a ruby & sapphire into one weapon, and an emerald & topaz into the other. But now I have LOD (yes, I only just bought it for myself for Christmas) I'm discovering Jewels & Runes that can do what my perfect gems used to do, and more. Now why should I drop in a topaz for lightning dmg when a cool jewel might do lightning dmg AND increase the To Hit %; or it might dish out lightning dmg AND has a 5% chance to cast chain lightning, OR...well, you get the idea. Then there are the Runes, but oddly enough a lot of the runes I find seem to work better on their own than if I try to make a rune word with them, as most rune words for mace class weapons tend to help Paladins more than any other class, and I'm not a Paladin; I'm a Barb who likes smashing things.
So now that I have runes & jewels to pick through, what goes in my weapons sockets is no longer a no brainer, now it's too damn confusing. There's too many choices! Can anyone help a poor Barbarian?
Please bear in mind that I don't do magic runs, and I don't do cow runs, and I don't have 10,000 SOJs sitting on a Mule somewhere, so ultra-rare jewels and runes won't help me. What will help is the experience I know you guys (& gals) out there have from playing LOD. What runes and jewels should I be looking for to go in my triple socketed flails and war scepters?
Thank you.
Capn John