Collaborative list of v1.10 Ladder "keepers"

[Raziel]

IMO, Langer Briser crossbow is a keeper.

[whyBish]

And clegs sword for 50% chance deadly strike... gues what my HC kick asn just found ;)

[Brista]

Nearly all of the low level sets absolutely rock in Normal and many last well into NM. Iratha's is probably the only one with end game use

One thing that I would say however, slightly counter to the idea behind this thread (basically to look for more stuff to keep) is that right now time is valuable and muling (and burning in ladder mules) is a huge time sink

Further stuff drops all over the place. The general drop quality (ie chance of an item to be unique, set, rare etc) has been significantly increased and this seems to be cumulative with the increased chance that Act bosses have always had to drop uniques, sets etc

So while magic find no longer works you still get what looks like a high mf% drop when you kill Act bosses. This is true even after you do the boss for the quest (which gives an even higher chance of high quality)

So keeping all these low level items needs to be put in the context of taking 2 hours out of your Ladder playing to burn a mule and of the fact that pretty decent uniques like Duskdeep and Steeldriver can be gotten fairly easily.

[GenericKen]

Just leave on in a game during dinner & stuff.

Goin out to a movie? Why not burn a mule?

Just make sure the game stays up for 5-20 minutes, and I'm pretty sure you're golden.

[Crystalion]

One thing that I would say however, slightly counter to the idea behind this thread (basically to look for more stuff to keep) is that right now time is valuable and muling (and burning in ladder mules) is a huge time sink.

I agree with this, if one is racing the clock for some reason (and many are). In my case, however, I'm playing for my own enjoyment, so, despite what my "great RACE" thread might seem to imply, I'm not in any super hurry.

I have enjoyed seeing that, when you're perusing drops for lowbie twink utility, regardless of (it being unsuited for your own) class, the game really does drop lots of good stuff. While it is probably not very time efficient to hand along (via intermediate muling) these items for one time short lived use, you get an efficiency bonus if you're doing the rushing races repeatedly (i.e. for quest rewards) in series, handing off the stuff for rinse and repeat. For clvl 20 and 40 rushing I think this is well worth the (initial) muling time.

Depends on how key the item is, however. Certainly a Khalim's Will is a great twink (especially for Druids). But if I don't have one, it is far far easier to go get a hellforge hammer for the twinkee than to get a KW. This means I have to plan ahead (thus this thread) so that I grab an extra KW the first time I'm forced to spend the time effort anyway.

Another purpose of this thread is that I expect, after a short time, Lurkers will be more than happy to trade or give some of these items to each other. This strikes me as a friendly conveniece (as opposed, say, to using diabloii.net trading).

Just for reference (I've not been playing the last couple of days, and my top char is only clvl 26 in act 4) I've gotten:
ethereal Deathspade axe (unique)
Venom Ward breast plate (unique)
Death's sash belt (set, notably: can't be frozen)
Infernal tools cap (set)
Cathan's seal mask (set)

In addition I've kept every charm and jewel so far (very cluttery, but I wanted to survey them after a while).

I've kept a lot of class specific +skills items (druid/barb headgear, necro shield) and sorc/necro weapons, most with clvl 6 or lower req.

I have yet to spend any time on item runs or MF equip (i.e. from topazes I've scored). I'm definitely having fun. :)

edit: p.s. I've had no technical trouble (taking afk breaks) to log enough time to make my mules "permanent".

[Freepaperclips]

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.

Another great use is on Hirelings: they don't get the 5 drain life attribute, PMH helps against any Hell monster, and can get it in A1 Normal from the countess.

[Brista]

There seems to be a new feature: when I'm alt tabbed for any length of time I come back to find the character at the join screen

Still point taken - it just happened and I just put him back in a game while I type this :)

[Ruvanal]

    Another great use is on Hirelings: they don't get the 5 drain life attribute, PMH helps against any Hell monster, and can get it in A1 Normal from the countess.

Oh they do get the 5 drain life attribute. It is just that their natural healing rate is greater than this and you will not normally notice the reduced effect fo their normal life recovery.

Example a level 3 Rogue wold be recovering her life at a rate of 11/256 point per frame. A 5 drain life would be -5/256 points per frame. Since these are summed the net effect would be 11/256-5/256=+6/256 life per frame. At higher levels and more hit points the rate of natural recovery will be even higher and therfore even less noticable.

[Nadreck]

when I'm alt tabbed for any length of time I come back to find the character at the join screen

I've just tested the length of time after which the game disappears if you don't do anything, it seems to be 30 minutes. (after 29 minutes, 30 seconds, game was still on, after 31 minutes, back in lobby; these were separate tests as I moved* the character after the 29 minute 30 seconds test)
This is more than enough time to be able to "burn in" mules while doing other things at home, though perhaps not enough to conveniently burn them in while going out or while sleeping.

*what I actually did was I exited/reentered the gambling screen
and btw, I was alt tabbed the entire time (except briefly at the beginning and the end of course). I doubt that whether you're alt tabbed or not has any effect though.

[Brista]

Useful to know, thank Nadreck :)

[GenericKen]

I do believe that timer is solely if you're the only player in that game and not moving.

I was able to burn in mules for 2 hours without movement by hanigng out in another player's long exp game.

[Crystalion]

I do believe that timer is solely if you're the only player in that game and not moving.

I was able to burn in mules for 2 hours without movement by hanigng out in another player's long exp game.

This matches my experience as well. I've also been able to "burn in" a mule when I was out to dinner by the weighted keyboard shift-attack method (fortunately the durability of the Khalim's Will I was swinging was not adversely affected ;) ).

Got a drop of a Snoutnail today. That's a keeper for a rusher, as it allows +10 thorns damage 1h to be combined with +24 thorns (3 flawed skulls) in a shield at a clvl req of only 5. Doing 34+ thorns damage on a necro with bone armor up, running through crowds (to give them auto-hit) is one of the very fast early "great race" leveling tricks, for sure. Sadly I've already cubed up my 3 flawed skulls to a regular, so my remaining flawed and chipped skull need some company before I implement this "cunning plan that can not fail".

A bit of shopping advice for sorc/necro staff/wand acquisition by shopping: clvl 11 shopping at Akara is nice because the clvl 12 req stuff you want to buy is tinted red, making your shop scan much faster. (ditto principle for other levels and for Drognan). I've picked up a plain (and thus 2 socketable by Larzuk for Leaf) +3 fireball short staff quite easily this way, for, iirc, less than 40k.

[Ferengi]

After it dropped for me in a ladder game, I realized what a "keeper" Death's Sash is.

Wow, another memory out of the past. There was a time when you could get a SOJ for that sash. PvP players "had to have it" against sorcs.