Collaborative list of v1.10 Ladder "keepers"

[Crystalion]

From workshop poster's studies of v1.10 changes it is apparent to me that some drops in the upcoming new v1.10 Ladder economy are quite valuable but probably not obvious to many people. It seems a pity to me, but I'm sure even Lurkers will let some of these drops die (doh!--you mean that old piece of junk is valuable?!).

Also, by posting here, I'm sure others will mention some drops that have slipped my mind or that I'm not aware of their v1.10 special utility. I am focusing here primarily on pre-hell non-elite drops (as it is probably pretty obvious to anyone that elite unique drops are valuable) that might occur early on in Ladder play.

Here goes, off the top of my head...

Items with "new" v1.10 uses:

Serpent Lord unique staff. 100% mana steal is now valuable for two reasons: One, assassins can use kick skill with it, ignoring its weenie damage; Two, double upgrading it to elite makes it a generally interesting weapon.

Any exploding arrow or bolt unique bow or crossbow. As of v1.10s Enchant is an uber skill, and these bows are ideally suited to carry Enchant fire damage. Especially valuable are the bows, as Rogue hirelings can use them.

Boneslayer unique axe. As of v1.10s Paladin Holy Bolt is an uber skill and this axe allows a Paly with a Blessed Hammer build to get a Holy Bolt build basically for free. Additionally the healing properties of Holy Bolt from this axe aren't bad.

Any staff for the Runeword Leaf (TirRal -- non-magic, needs two sockets or possible) with +3 Enchant. Severe bonus points if it also has any plus to Fire Mastery. Leaf will add +3 fire skills, making this a great (easy to acquire, relatively speaking) item for an Enchantress.

All "flawed" weapons with some nice attributes that can be "fixed" by an assassin using them for Blade Fury or a kicking skill. If this isn't clear, take a look, for example, at the attributes on many of the unique daggers and imagine that either their damage output is fixed (kicking) or that you get to rapidly throw unlimited numbers of them (Blade Fury).

Helms and Body Armor with knockback, flee, poison and open wounds are now more interesting for hirelings, as crowd control and regen prevention are more important in v1.10.

...

Items that fizzled out before, that are now potentially good:

Ribcracker, unique staff. An interesting weapon/defense aid which assumes new value because of the unique upgrade recipes.

Guardian Angel unique plate. The +15% max resist all on this is very very nice and the upgrade to elite recipe makes it a world class Hell difficulty armor (especially good for shield users).

...

I should also like to mention, since the economy is reset, that rushing will be a big deal at least at first, for runes and imbues. This means that lots of "weenie set" items, like Hsarus and Sigons and Artic and Angelic are actually very very good. Those Hsarus boots, for example, are the lowest clvl req way to speed up your rushee's travel time (+20% run/walk speed). Whereas now you might react to such drops with contempt, at least early on in the Ladder you should give some thought to muling them, if you know or trade with someone who rushes.

This also means that Jewels of Envy (20 poison/2 secs, no clvl req) are very worthwhile. Similarly, if you get "decent" +poison damage charms, I'd save them.

Since no one has any items, I'd also recommend hording all 1x1 +cold damage charms you find, as these are very valuable in quantity to Freezing Arrow Bowazons.

Right now you probably consider Tir runes (+2 mana/kill) to be common and worthless. For some rushing builds, however, having half a dozen of those early on in the Ladder would be a godsend.

...

I know I'm neglecting a lot of things/items here, but that's what the thread is for, so post away...

[librarian]

Heiho,

because I don't like rushes and runs, I have spent about half a year in 1.09 playing only in Normal and Nightmare difficulty. I took the time to check out all the low Sets for their usage, and I'm pretty sure that every piece of that stuff is worth to be kept. From what I've seen in my short period of actually playing the 1.10beta, this won't change.

And I don't talk about the obvious things like Cathan Rings or the Death or Sigon Sets.

Have a look at
- Hsaru's complete (already mentioned, but only very few people these days know that it is beside Death's one of the few low items you can get CBF from)
- Infernal Tools complete (well, I'm Necro Player from first day of D2C release on, and you can hardly find any more useful stuff for Necros - and because of the very good damage of the Wand it is also nice in close combat, even for those who think a Necro is of no use here)
- Cleglaw complete (it is with some care and the right build Hell viable in 1.09, shouldn't be that bad in 1.10, eh?)
- Civerb's Amulet gives 40% Mana regeneration, shouldn't be that bad for those who will spend their skillpoints in low Skills to profit later on from synergies
- Iratha's is one of the best sources for resistancies
- along with Arctic Furs
- even Isenhart's is maybe not as bad as you might think because you found it too often, considered it's a lvl8 Set
- more or less all of that Sets have a bit of MF inbuilt, so maybe some more useful stuff drops right at your feet

Also have a look at some completely underrated stuff, which nowadays mostly the D2C players still know - they're probably worth one or two upgrades
- Undead Crown
- Heavenly Garb
- The Ward
- Bloodfist
- Tearhaunch
- Spectral Shard
- Bonesnap
- Steeldriver
- Battle Branch
- Blood Crescent

If you ever played a physical oriented Dagger Necro, you'll like me probably drool while looking at the new unique Fanged Knife. But watch out for some Spine Ripper and upgrade it ... Heart Carver isn't that bad either :-9

Surely in 1.10 ladder some of the low Cube Recipes should also come more to attention, like the Leech Sword and the Savage Polearms ones, also pushing the resistancies via tha appropriate jewelry recipes will certainly be more useful than just right now.

Helms and Body Armor with knockback, flee, poison and open wounds are now more interesting for hirelings, as crowd control and regen prevention are more important in v1.10.

I'd suggest HBT as useful, too. Time will show if blizzpeople will fix the slow bug, if they do so, I'd also add slow target items. Certainly in Single Player.

[Occhidiangela]

I am awaiting the correct rune to upgrade my Bonesnap to elite for my Druid, it already has a Shael Rune for speed.

At the higher end, a much under appreciated item is:

Kelpie Snare Fuscina (78-86) - (141-156) Dmg
77 Str Required 25 Dex Required
Clvl Req: 33
+140-180% Enhanced Damage
Adds 30-50 damage
Slows Target by 75%
Fire Resist +50%
+1.25 Life per clvl
+10 to Strength

That is a merc weapon that any melee character might enjoy. As I recall, it even slows Baal down.


For a Bashing Barbarian waiting for other skills, a pair of Tir Socketed in the Hat, and one or two in the armor, make for a lot of Bashing at little to no charge. Add two to a shield and you have +12 mana per kill with Bash. :)

Alternately, a barbarian with some vulpine Jewels in 4 sockets and a two handed weapon will do OK with even modest life leech, such as Cathan's ring, since he will take some hits.

Skewer of Krinzit is ITD, level req is 10. Handy for Blade Traps, particularly if you socket those Envy Jewels in hat, shield, and armor. :) Its resists are just that much mo bettah.

Blood Crescent might me an interesting Kicker or Trapper weapon for the extra resistances and Open Wounds.

Crush Flange
Knell Striker
Rixot's Keen

33, 25 and 25 % Crushing Blow. Handy for Blade Trap or Kick attackers. I have already found at least one of each in Normal diff, in Act I or 2, during 1.10s.

Cleg's Gloves on anyone with a ranged attack, of course.

Death's gloves and belt combo: With just those two, you have 30IAS, 15% res all, and can laugh at Andariel's Poison attacks, as well as all of the Poison in Act II beyond.

Isengard's Hat and Breast plate is a good two item DR increase.

Arctic Furs and belt: Sweet pair.

Angelic: While the full set has a nice mana boost, and the MF and +75 to life make it a great HC twink, the clvl of 12 might be a bit high.

With just two items, +75 life on the amulet is a real looker for sorceresses and Necromancers, albeit at an investment into Strength that you might want to use a two socketed Hat with amethysts for. (Adds 12.)

Diggler: ITD and resists are quite nice.

Now, as to the silly items.

Arioc's Needle Hyperion Spear 218.4-257.4 Dmg 2H
100.8-118.8 - 336-396
155 Str Required
120 Dex Required
Clvl Req: 84 +
(180-230)% Enhanced Damage
50% Chance of Deadly Strike
Ignores Target's Defense
+(2-4) to All Skills
+30% Increased Attack Speed
+390 Poison Damage over 10 Seconds
Weapon Speed: -10

What regen problem? :D

[whereagles]

Arioc's with Shael seems to be a pretty kicky whirlwind weapon. Max whirl speed, always hits, 80% chance double damage when coupled with Highlord's amulet... neato.

Too bad tomb reaver cryptic axe and IK maul still pwn that lol.

[whyBish]

Still don't get what all the fuss is over serpent lord. 100% mana leech is overkill. I've run a couple of kickers through from a1, and usually you can get a decent dual leech (6-8%) rare wand or dagger reasonably early, and as long as you continue upgrading boots and str, that is plenty leech (even in hell 4% was doing me fine). Remember, the kick assn can pretty much have max DT by time she encounters andariel for 200-300 odd(?) damage (depending on str, and some chain boots, check gambling and the shops if drops are poor).

But you are right, pretty much any weapon is good for an assassin, regardless of dmg.

Most of the normal uniques are worth above their face value due to upgrade potential (but exc->Elite is too costly to be considered an overlooked option)

As always -DR items are valuable in HC, especially those of -25, or 20+ with a prefix (they can only be magical, and hence are often overlooked)

[Crystalion]

Still don't get what all the fuss is over serpent lord.  100% mana leech is overkill.  I've run a couple of kickers through from a1

It isn't *for* kickers, it's for trappers. AKA mana hogs, i.e. WoF spammers, etc. Kicking is merely the skill that enables the 100% mana leech to fill your globe up instantly (although upgrading the SL staff later in life would allow Blade Fury to take over that function).

[AtomicKitKat]

Razortine is the low level equivalent of the Kelpie Snare. Worth keeping/upgrading for its HST 25% and +% damage. I think I have about 5 or so, among my characters' and my brother's mercs. LOL.

[Deadpan]

I don't see the attraction of Isenhart's hat and armour. Replace them with Cathan's mask and mail and throw in a couple of rings for life leech, damage reduction, +20 strength, better resists and added fire damage.

Weapon: The Gnasher has 20% Crushing Blow, 50% Open Wounds, usable at level 5.

Jewels: I've seen of Envy mentioned a lot but I also like jewels that add to minimum/maximum damage especially when used on a merc: Scarlet, Carbuncle, of Ire, of Wrath and of Joyfulness are all pretty decent early in the game. If you socket them in hat and armour, you can pass them across from rogue to town guard and they make even ordinary javelins viable weapons for your Act 2 merc. And you can get some pretty decent mods on shop-bought throwing weapons...

[MadScientist]

Another class it items to look out for would be socketed items to make runewords. Of course, you would want almost all of them to be eilte ones, there's nothing wrong with an ethereal partisan with 2 sockets to make a "Steel" or "Strength" for an Act 2 Desert Guard or a 2-socket Leather Armor to make a "Stealth" for your Hammerdin.
I don't know how long I was searching for a 3-socketed Dusk Shroud to make a "Lionheart" out of. If you think about the runewords you want to make you know at least what you are looking for.

The Mad Scientist

[Occhidiangela]

Isenhart is level 8, and I have found is good Merc Armor for all of normal.

I agree, though, that with three items you have a nice boost in a lot of areas for a "young" character.

[GenericKen]

Keep an eye on the RuneMaster.

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

I guess a gf might still beat it.

[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.

[Zath]

Where's Malice? This is one of the easiest runewords to assemble, and my Assassin is still using one in Hell at level 70+ even though she's cubed some Cruel Runic Talons of Piercing. The Prevent Monster Heal and Open Wounds mods are a necessity for survival since it's practically impossible to kill high life monsters without them. I think any melee character will want to have a Malice on weapons switch. Even ranged characters should consider armors like Boneflesh (25% OW), Crow Caw (35% OW), Toothrow (40% OW), or Goreriders (15% OW), and the least you could do is put some Open Wounds on your merc. The A1 Rogues are exceptional in this role since they can apply Open Wounds from a distance and survive much better than melee mercs. Crafted Blood belts can provide some additional Open Wounds too.

[MongoJerry]

Any exploding arrow or bolt unique bow or crossbow. As of v1.10s Enchant is an uber skill, and these bows are ideally suited to carry Enchant fire damage. Especially valuable are the bows, as Rogue hirelings can use them.

Darn it, I'll bite, and sorry for the brief change of subject. But could someone please explain to me in simple terms how Enchant is an uber skill? I took a melee enchantress through 1-player hell, and the only reason she made it was because of her 'Delirium' helm. By no means was the damage she or her merc was doing uber powerful. In fact, even though she was using Zeal off a 'Passion' blade, she wasn't doing that much damage and had to retreat often.

But, there are some smart people here, so maybe there was something about Enchant that I didn't realize before. So, could someone explain to me how Enchant is uber powerful? However, the following arguments are not valid:

1. If a person has every elite item and runeword to choose from and can fill their their inventories with +1 fire skills charms, then Enchant would be way uber powerful. This argument is not valid, because that's true of almost any skill. And anyway, I did that while I was fooling around and Enchant only gave like 3600 fire damage, which is small compared to a similarly equiped character of any cookie-cutter type. A reasonable estimate of Enchant's added fire damage with reasonable equipment is about 1000 fire damage.

2. If the enchantress casts it on a party designed explicitly to maximize the damage output of the enchantress and all the enchantress does is babysit her partymembers, then Enchant could be uber powered. Oh, come on, how often is this going to happen in a bnet game? I've seen some people in other forums doing calculations assuming Enchant gets cast on a full army of necromancer skeletons, but I can say from experience that trying to keep it up on the whole army is almost impossible. Skeletons move around so much, you can't figure out which ones have been enchanted or not, and necromancers are always losing skeletons and making new ones. Unless the enchantress decides to be purely a servant to the necromancer and watches constantly for new skeletons to be born, this is a completely crazy idea. And anyway, that still wouldn't be uber powerful, because necromancer skeletons with good use of amp curse can do 1000 points of damage per hit anyway. So, the enchantress being a slave to the necromancer can only manage to double the damage output. Big deal. There are two characters, so that should be expected.

But I'm willing to listen to arguments that I haven't heard before. Is there some way for the enchantress herself to take advantage of Enchant and do lots of damage? The quote above indicates that Enchant gets carried by exploding arrows. That's cool. To me, that just makes Enchant useful instead of grossly underpowered when the enchantress herself uses it. Is there some way to use Enchant that actually makes it powerful to the point of unbalancing? Keep in mind that there are a *lot* of fire immunes in hell. And also keep in mind that other character classes have very powerful party skills, too. (War cries, necromancer curses, paladin auras, druid spirits, slow missles).

[Crystalion]

Darn it, I'll bite, and sorry for the brief change of subject.  But could someone please explain to me in simple terms how Enchant is an uber skill?

The simple answer, without forcing you to look up the relevant threads, is that you're off slightly in your details and creatively in application. Here are some highlights (I'm short on time so I'll be brief)...

I built an enchantress out of cheap or gambled parts in v1.10s. She doesn't have a single uber item or charm +fire skill. She has slvl 30 warmth, 30 Enchant, 32 Fire mastery. The build completed in the 50s (clvl). This is not a hard character to create.

She can grant a huge boost to AR and ~1400-1700 fire for ~12 minutes. She can do this to all friendly players, hirelings, minions (expect some, like Ravens etc. that aren't targetable). She does not have to be an active player or leech xp to offer this benefit.

Exploding Arrows have a *separate* (no to-hit) fire blast that the Enchant adds to... the Enchant also adds to the physical arrow damage (assuming that part hits and gets past block). This means a hireling or player using such a bow is guaranteed a substantial hit with a strong (+AR remember) chance at a similar substantial hit on the main target. With enough AR and my Enchantress enchanting you using a Kuko you might actually average over 3000 fire damage per shot on the primary target.

Enchanting a bunch of minions is very attractive. Particularly when you can teleport them all adjacent to a particular enemy (their AI is likely to make them all stay concentrated at one point, attacking one target... major hurt, if not insta-death for that target). I see no reason why a necro couldn't reasonably plan on exceeding 20k fire damage a second to a single target. Once two such targets are dead, the necro can CE the entire rest of the screen into death in under a second.

Enchanting, when it lasts 12 minutes, is not a problem. You do it in town, touching the town healer if you need mana, and you just spam the blessing (repeat castings or occasionally missing a minion is not a deal breaker).

There is absolutely nothing saying that the minions can't also do their normal damage. If their normal damage is already overkill, then obviously you don't need to enchant. However the AR bonus, as mentioned, will up the normal damage delivery as well.

Lastly, there is no level requirement on the recipient. This is a similar phenomenon to Envy jewel usage. Until you get to hell difficulty, the enchantress I outlined is going to grant any char/hire/minion a healthy dose of 1 hit kill power. This is, of course, quite uber, even if the skill weren't also still valuable in hell.

Out of time. Hope that clears it up a bit.

[Crystalion]

Where's Malice? This is one of the easiest runewords to assemble, and my Assassin is still using one in Hell at level 70+ even though she's cubed some Cruel Runic Talons of Piercing.

Yes. Yes. What else can I say? Yes.

There are quite a few good low level runes and rune words. My focus in this thread was to help people thing about the value of drops in a fresh v1.10 economy, so as not to miss oportunities. Definitely one should educate oneself as to the value of low level runes and rune words, as well as knowing how long it might take doing Countess runs to get a low to mid level rune you are missing.

Speaking of "easy to assemble"... if you are going to start a new Ladder character and don't have any other characters you can still take a moment to twink yourself: start the game with a new amazon, drop her javelin stack, exit the game, and enter the game with your new character (and pick them up and use them--they're effective, and can be repaired for $1 or even free via sell/rebuy).

There is no need to wait 5 minutes. If you get back into the game within one minute of game creation the game will still be live. If bnet problems lag you past that limit, no biggee (you only lose your time and effort, as the javs are "free").

If you are really a freeloader you can drop the TP and ID scrolls as well. :D

[|_ord]

One armor i'm gonna look after is the normal armor Iceblink. It has the wonderful mod; Freezes Target. This is something my throw barb can use at low lvl. And when i'm done with it, i can use it on an act1 merc :)
Any other ranged player might find this armor useful too :)

(Arreat summit)

Iceblink:
Defense: 163.2-172.8 (varies)(Base Defense: 96)
Required Level: 22
Required Strength: 51
Durability: 30
+70-80% Enhanced Defense (varies)
Freezes Target*
Cold Resist +30%
Magic Damage Reduced By 1
+4 To Light Radius

Ice Blink has a 13-50% Chance to work. Ice Blink works with Ranged Weapons. This is not displayed on the item.
Freeze Time in seconds = (100 + CharacterLevel*2)/25
The minimum Freeze Duration (at Character Level 1) would be 4.08 seconds, and maximum (at level 99) would be 11.92 seconds. Freeze Length is reduced to 1/2 and 1/4 on Nightmare and Hell.

[Ferengi]

... the normal armor Iceblink. It has the wonderful mod; Freezes Target.

Ah, yes, the good old days.

Unless they "fixed" Iceblink, don't hold your breath. Go over to the Basin, track down the CubeMod and make sure your effort will pay off. Otherwise, you should notice the total absence of Iceblink in any guide since before LOD appeared, and think about WHY no one mentions it.

[Crystalion]

Unless they "fixed" Iceblink, don't hold your breath.  Go over to the Basin, track down the CubeMod and make sure your effort will pay off.  Otherwise, you should notice the total absence of Iceblink in any guide since before LOD appeared, and think about WHY no one mentions it.

Good advice in general (check out things, not necessarily with cubemod, before investing time/effort).

As a theoretician, I have to say I find the preponderence of guides to be rather narrow in focus. But your specific point is well taken: freezes target +1 (ala Iceblink) was heavily nerfed. Utterly hopeless for solo xp gain via ranged freezing.

But it is all determined by the numbers and the desired purpose (for wanting to freeze)...

Iceblink is still quite "effective" when slumming. If one is slumming enormously you can even have fun with it (note I don't claim you'll increase your effectiveness, though you might) with ranged attacks. Potentially one could even use weenie damage attacks while slumming to grant a rushee a forest of frozen targets (barehanded Iceblink WW barb image comes hilariously to mind). Naturally there are far better ways to accomplish much the same thing.

An Axe of Fechmar, OTOH, is a wonderful "keeper" drop, because, at +3, you can reliably freeze melee xp level appropriate stuff. This means that a kick assassin can make very good use of one. The +3 is really not enough of a bonus to make Blades of Fury work (xp level appropo) however.

But it is definitely all numbers. I had some (testing, not real) success lately with Iceblink for a range 3 WW barb with 2 frame ITD hits. Basically the concept was to provide safety (i.e. the freeze doesn't have to last long at all) as you're WWing through. If the monsters were much higher level than my test barb, then the Iceblink doesn't cut it (because too little freezing is triggered, not because the duration is short). XP level appropriate monsters, however, were indeed prevented from touching me. So the low AC on Iceblink wasn't relevant, except when (un-taunted) ranged attackers were dinking me (ouch).

I've started playing Ladder, and my first unique drop (for my WoF assassin) was a Deathspade Axe. I was excited, because it has Hit Blinds Target. Alas I then noticed it was ethereal (and thus doomed to break if I melee with it to blind things). Before I threw it away, however, I realized that, for clvl req (9), it has really high damage. I then proceeded to use it with Blade Sentry with great success (and have used it just a little with Blade Fury--I'm a WoF 'sin, so as good as BF is, my use of it is situational, i.e. when WoF has problems).

I bring this up because 1h ethereal weapons are potential "keepers" for v1.10 Assassins, but most people would scowl and let them rot on the ground (Blade Fury and Blade Sentry use % weapon damage without using up the weapon's durability--2h weapons suffer an additional halving penalty for this damage and prevent you from using a shield).

edit: Gillias over on the Basin wrote:

For what it's worth : frozen Beetles do not emit lightning until they die.

which seems like a nice situational plus for melee freezers, even if the duration is piddly.

[Olon97]

After it dropped for me in a ladder game, I realized what a "keeper" Death's Sash is. With cold enchanted bosses' minions doing cold damage, and low cold resists (untwinked) - the slow from a ranged attack bosspack was very hard to deal with. If I hadn't found it, I think I would have started carying around thawing potions much more regularly as a general habit.

We all know how nice "cannot be frozen" is for a melee character, and it will be a while before raven frosts are commonly found / traded for on the ladder. Not to mention it is nice to have "cannot be frozen" before one reaches the level required for raven frost or duriel's shell.