Collaborative list of v1.10 Ladder "keepers"

[Crystalion]

Keep an eye on the RuneMaster.

270ed + 5 sockets = potential 520ed, giving a 10 base 1h weapon with something like 300 avg phys damage.

Rune Master indeed looks quite appealing, but I have to assume that, as it is an elite unique, one is not terribly likely to get one anytime soon.

Eld runes are rather common, so any "normal" weapon with three sockets becomes a very nice vs. undead weapon (clvl 11 req, +225% damage, +AR). My HolyFist themed character convinced me, with location rushing, just how easy it is to find level appropriate undead to slaughter.

Hmm, I just realized I don't know if +% vs. undead/demons works for Blade Sentinel/Fury.

...

For ladder start up Holy Thunder looks pretty good to me (lots of lightning, poison, some fire), until I realized how unlikely you are to get the four socket scepter (white) to put the runeword in to. But, in case you find yourself in early nightmare and a plain 4 socket scepter drops, keep it (for a twink or trade). The runes are Eth (easy) and Ral, Ort and Tal (super easy, because of act 5 reward), so it really is only the normal 3 slot on shop/drops restriction that keeps this from being a clvl 21 entitlement weapon. IIRC you need at least ilvl 25 on the weapon to be able to get up to 5 sockets (non-normal) which means rushing a character to nightmare won't work either, as a shopper, because scepters of that high an ilvl won't be plain (afaik, from Ruvanal et al's explanations). However, if I'm reading d2data correctly, early on in Ladder play, I think you could probably get a 4 socket war scepter in or "near" the stony field in nightmare without too much time lost.

At clvl 21 (req) a Holy Thunder war scepter in the hands of a (one skill point) Blade Fury Assassin would work wonders.