What a difference a day makes...

[jdirks]

Friday, my then 27th lvl swd/swd Barb, found sufficient runes to create 2 Malice swords. Not a 'great' weapon, but a substantial kick upward at that level from any two 'conventional' magic swords. (ActIV norm btw.) This was accomplished in maybe 2 hours of gaming. Thought, hey...this is cool!

Sunday, an entire day for D2. Wife knew I wasnt addressing ANYTHING on the 'honey-dew' list. This day was MINE! *evil cackle* 8 hrs later....3 EL runes. Thats it! *sigh*

Anyway, Barb is now 37th or so lvl and has completed ActV norm. Onto the 'real deal' of the game. NM, decreased resistance, increased monster stats....been a very long time since I've been in NM. Going to be painful, I have no doubts.

[Brista]

Make sure you go to town if the phone rings or you get distracted some other way, that dual drain life has gotta hurt ;)

I have been making a succession of swords for my no-twink dual sword barb and have used the 3 chips -> blue sword with 3 sockets recipe a lot

I have managed to get to a battlesword with 39% ed and 6% leech as the magic mods and I put 3 ITHs in for +27 max damage

Other sword is a King's Grace Dacian Falx

Look for cubeable exceptional swords, don't use cutlasses or gladii (2 socket limit) and say woot when you see an Ith rune drop :)