Alternate top 10 D2 items (not unique/rw): 1. ethereal fools cruel weapon of quickness 2os/2sk - any melee or bow (non eth) 2. 2 skills 3class skill 2os visionary helm - barb and druid 3. 15 dex fcr 40+ life crafted/rare ring - paladin 4. 20+ strength 50+ life dual leech crafted ring - any melee 5. 20fcr 3 skill magic diadem - sorc, paladin, necro, assa, warcry barb 6. jmod - ranged builds 7. 2sk 20fcr amulet - any caster 8. 3 class skill 2sk 2os necro shield - poison/ bone/ summon 9. 20fcr 20frw 2sk rare diadem - paladin , amazon 10. 30 frw 30+ fire light cold res 10fhr boots - any class honorable mention 6/40 javelins trang gloves, tal rasha armour, 6skill helm, 3/20 gloves I wouldve put arreat face and stormshield into llamas top 20 uniques, remove COH nobody uses it by the time you can afford COH you make something like enigma instead also remove Hoto as it does get outclassed in most builds that use it eventually I can only think of an ele druid that is forced to use a shield would be the only class to get best use of it. arreat face is probably the most used and most value unique in the entire game
Mosaic not being up there is a crime. Litterally spawned the best build in the game upon its conception. Can do players 400+ with miminal risk. I get that its just for one build and a lot of these are general, but come on. Its insane how good it is. You litterally said it did insane dps even before infinity. Its probably the best item in the game right now, but because of how your list works, it definitely belongs in the 11 to 20.
llama cut some of the prediscussion, we didnt count mosaic because it wasnt the item itself that was overtuned, it was more just the build has a lot of fundamental issues that was highlighted by an attempted balance fix of mosaic. mosaic just isnt a d2 item in all honesty with a mechanical change for a skill on an item.
Mosaic is not even close to being the best build in the game. Those are still Novasorc and Javazon, and with some distance, Hammerdin+Blizz Sorc. Cast+Attack frames matter much more than raw throughput in realistic farming scenarios. Besides, what tarrantwalter said. The power is in the whole build, not the item itself.
@polkhigh_33 I mean I do believe mosaic is the number 1 build in the game but yeah the character is overtuned and broken with the item. I just feel like it isn't meant for this list so much... just an item/build that needs to be fixed lol
Not trying to be offensive, but what a build does in a theoretical P32 - P128 setting doesnt really determine its power. What matters is how fast and efficient the build performs in the most common situations. Which are p3, p5 and p7 splits for the most part. Really gotta have a gg sin to get ahead of an average hammerdin or javazon, your own footage verified that. And for some reason Novasorc was missing, we can just assume why ;-) @@MrLlamaSC
I feel that Blizzard should spend a little programming time balancing out some of the least often used Rune words. Especially the ones that require one or more high runes to craft, but are weaker than other, easier to make rune words, or even some unique items.
The lack of stealth here seems wild. Basically every character makes it at some point, and even though it gets replaced pretty quickly, it’s easily the best piece of gear for most characters for a significant portion of the early game.
For sorc, I run that in a dusk shroud the whole time. Until I find Ormus' Robes, vipermagi, or que-hegan's. I've never been able to afford an enigma, I just don't play enough or have the patience to run LK or travincal 1000 times.
I'd love to see you rank uniques in a way that assumes runewords don't exist and where they fit when you are levelling up. I know you have videos of them all ranked but they don't seem specific to levelling up, eg Grandfather is great but what are you using before you can equip that to get you through normal, nightmare. I also think the problem with Grief is if you removed it it makes Last Wish viable but that still obsoletes every other item in the game (which is less of a problem due to the cost of Last Wish). I often play builds to try and make use of unfancied items eg a Barb that only uses 2 x 2h unique swords.
this will only make sense if he does a no runes run. Or less strict, no runewords. Then you could still potentially do the tir tir, ral ral and tal tal tal etc.
In general I agree with your list (though perhaps I would change the order of some of the items a bit, like putting Enigma at #1) except for Griffon's. Yes, it is really good but it is only useful for lightning-based builds. All of the other items in the top 10 (and even in the top 20) do not have this element-based restriction. I would put either COH, or Fortitude, or Maras, in its place.
Should definitely have a SC section vs HC section as well. For hardcore some gear is absolutely necessary until you find or finally make that next level item.
Not seeing Stealth and Lore in the top 20 is wild. Literally the starter runewords everyone uses. 2/20 circlets, trangs/magefist, war travs are knocking on the door. Would love to see blizz give us a usage chart
they are not the BEST runewords, they are starter runewords even if they are as powerfull as stealth is. u always replace them sooner or later. if mr llama makes a list on early runewords they will be in
Would love if you'd show the item/runeword you are talking about be it from your game or just a picture of it. That'd be awesome for us who don't have every item memorized! Otherwise love the content and your style! Laid-back, conversational and easygoing. Keep it up, man 🤘
I can buy the reasoning for the list. Don't really know what else to say. There are just so few unique that feels valuable compared to runewords. I love runewords, but I would also love to see more uniques being able to see more play in the late game.
I'm gonna disagree with CTA being #1. I've played a lot of late game meta builds without it and you can honestly ABSOLUTELY wreck high player counts without it using other S-tier items. Compare it to build-enablers infinity/enigma there are a TON of builds that simply wouldn't exist and wouldn't clear/farm even remotely as fast. Sure - CTA is amazing, but you don't NEED to go from 1.2k life to 2k life to farm on P8 mostly due to just having super high damage and great resistances.
Shako isn't just have lots of MF. Skako has everything. DR, life, mana, skills.... And MF on the top, yea. Literally any class and any build will feel good wearing Shako. It might be not be absolutely best in slot for any class (because Griffin, Nightwing, Arreat, Jalal and others exist), but it is 2nd or 3rd best in slot for any class for sure. Generally I agree with the list.
It’s funny, for weeks I was waiting for a Shako to drop. Never did, in all the ~10 characters I leveled up to 80’s/90’s. When it FINALLY dropped for me this week, I realized there were actually very few characters that it would be BiS for considering everything I already had: Face for pally, Jalal’s for druid, Griffon for javazon… I didn’t really have a place for it. Had to level up a poisonmancer just to find a use for it. (single player of course, so no trading)
Hey man could you do a series of very small video about all unique and set and runeword where you describe the item and on what situation you would use it !?
Not many, but all of them honestly. Even for coldsorces which get a ton of additional damage through +3 mainskill and 20% colddamage through ormus enigma is prefered as a whole package, since it offers a ton of str saved, a good amount of magic find, life after kill which is adds so much survivability to casters, some life and dr and that 45% move speed which will reduce your idle time while towning.
The real problem about enigma really is, there isn't a really a competition to it - every other option for tele is charge based. The game needs either some other good sources for tele or other movement based skills even if it's a +1 pointer on an item.
Not that it's new information, but I can attest to the strength of Grief. When I got my first Lo on plugy pre-D2R, I started to play Zealot, Smiter, Zerker, Fury, it didn't matter. Suddenly I could build any melee class and tear through Hell.
The skill proc uniques and some of the runewords too would probably make up most of my list. Those and some of the cooler ones like ribcracker and witchwild string. Always liked the ones with +1 to a skill of a different class to play around with too
Wait, what? Ribcracker and witchwild are interesting/cool, but in what world are they even in the discussion for best item? Witchwild isn't even close to BiS even for bowazon.
Has Llama played Grim Dawn? I've been playing it since January and I'm still having a blast with it. Every time I get to a certain level and go through the constellations I think of another build I want to try.
Magefist/trangs should be up there. You cant really hit any of the high fcr builds without them. Plus you get fire skills and mana gen etc. Top tier caster gloves that can be found in normal mode...which is a prime example of why d4 itemization sucks so bad, there will never be an item found at level 20 that is still useful at level 70
@@game_jinx no shit lol ...did you read anything after that? Or do you honestly not understand the point of highlighting those 2 items? Im happy to elaborate if my post didn't make sense
Blizzard can easily add interest in the game by making some obvious changes to uniques and runewords. Have you ever wondered why no one uses certain uniques and runewords even though they have great stats? For example the Death runeword. Very powerful, can match Grief but it is too slow. Add some speed. Doom runeword, add indestructible. Bul Kathos ring, no one uses it, throw the stamina stat right out of the window and add some mana steal. So many uniques although promising are completely useless.
Speaking of upgrades that feel good and make the difference, here's one that's missing: stealth. So easy to get, yet it's so powerful and almost everyone uses from early normal to a late hell even.
I feel like insight should have been a bit higher on the list. It basically goes on every Act 2 merc, even well into end game. Between that and how accessible it is, yeah I think it deserves maybe #7?
Eh. I think that so many low level uniques are tragically overlooked because they aren't endgame gear or insight/spirit. Ribcracker(op tbh), bloodletter, rixot's keen, peasant crown, bloodfist, treads, etc are all things I'm happy to see when just playing the game.
Seriously Enigma, Grief, and Spirit should be nerfed so they no longer dominate the game as much. Just reduce the added skill to +1 for Enigma and Spirit. Then change the flat damage on Grief to half of what it is today.
The fact i did try between Death and Grief against Baal so many runs for science, and yeah Death is much quicker killing him. i prefer Death all over Grief even through both are extremely strong.
I'd even argue that Aldur's Rhythm, with the right combination of jewels, gems, and/or runes (if you'd like), would make for a versatile mace. Make one with high CB% and IAS, and maybe one with IAS and magic damage also, maybe find a rare jewel with decent affixes. I've managed to roll on 2 of these, both 3-socket, and upped them to devil stars. They're fun on a dual-wield Barb, though I wonder if it would be the case for the a5 merc too......
I would definitely like to see your top MF ten and your max dmg top ten also. Btw, I would put ATMA's very high at the list. Would also like to see your top 10 on switch
Good list, its annoying how hard the high runes are to come by though, I got a Cham before I got a Ber and that took far too long! Lore has always been a staple for my early builds, Ort Sol is easy and its usually my first +1 to all skills...
oh btw i wanted to thank you for droping remmoded in the last few videos... been playing it for the past 2 days its epic love to increase in mobs and less floors xD high fives all around
So I think part of the question is also "What are the top 10 most used items" and "What are the top 10 best stats items" and that's why Maras could either be in Top 10 or not even be Top 20
I find Insight more important than Spirit. Especially for Sorc you can play with many weapons(Tal,Oculus,Death F etc) and a Rhyme shield , but most of the time you cant do anything without Insight merc mana regen. The exception is only when you use Infinity.
Reaper's toll is a fantastic polearm for your merc between insight and infinity. Once your gear and call to arms has your mana regen high enough reaper's toll gives your merc so much survivability when paired with vgaze or andy's. spam decrep from it is the nuts for keeping you both alive.
@@BunnyHoppin- Everything dies with Spells as long as you can spam them. Even using perfect CTA and having some points to energy and Warmth 10+ , you cant spam your spells you run out of mana. Using CTA + Warmth + Insight you have almost infinite mana without potions .
stormshield and tal armour should definitely be in there tho, storm’s dr is bis in pvp and widely used in hc, the mdr res and mf on tal armour is king in pvm
Thing is, PvP is at best a small niche in D2R, just like hc gaming, and while Tal Armor is solid, it always gets replaced by enigma in endgame, even on sorces once they get their hands on arach and a suitable neck.
@@polkhigh_33 i disagree, pvp is what kept the game alive but besides that, the set bonus of tal arm amu and belt definitely beats enigma arach in a pvm setup on sorc unless you absolutely need 105/117 fcr
Alive to that ridiculously small buble of pvp players maybe. I'd eat my own shorts if among those 20k average d2 players daily even 10% are pvp players. And for pvm, the Tal 3 piece never beats enigma+arach+x since you always wanna reach the 105/117 fcr breakpoints for farming efficiency, even on builds which dont benefit from fcr directly like fo/blizzard or hydra. D2 pvm endgame is all about minimizing idle times and enigma is the definition of it.@@jordil5469
The way I would judge Top 10 would be on how common they are used across the board in end game builds in combination with their power. IMO, if that's the case Shako and Insight fall out for me and would be replaced by Andy's and SOJ. Every single Act 2 Merc I own rocks and Andy's. And at least 1, usually 2 SOJs are on each and every caster build I have and even some "Melee" / Non Caster like my Auradin, Tesladin and Javzon.
I think someone could definitely argue soj/bk up there. I just think the impact they have compared to raven is a little smaller. Also Shako is still used by tons of characters.
The Titke is “BEST” items, as in, items that have the most game-breaking affect, not “MOST POPULAR” item. I disagree with CTA, it should be bottom of list or not on, it’s just a stat boost of like +30% life/mana that’s it, it does nothing to break the game just a buff. Your hammerdin or summon necrobor Windy or w/e could easily grind without it with no noticeable difference. I hate when ppl do this where they make a top 10 list but Equivocate on language. Best =/= popular
I have only played D2R for a couple months so I only have Sorc+Pally experience, but I put CTA as best weapon + runeword in the game. I got CTA without even really knowing what it did, but because the guides and everyone said it was mandatory I saved for it. Before CTA I would die on occasion to random things or maybe not paying attention or focusing, but after I got CTA I literally haven't died again. I only have a couple months played but to go from being able to die to never dying was just such a massive and unexpected difference that I have to put it as #1 because it's the item that has had the most impact on me. I have Enigma on my pally but it's different...it's hard to say...but it feels more like a QOL/time saver...I dunno...I just think CTA is more impactful.
Running a Werebear with Fury in an Ogre Maul is fun. Niche use-case, but fun. He clears in Hell against immunes, surprisingly without sunders. Still, use-case.......
CTA would be well down the list for me. Yes everyone uses it but if you took it out of the game today, everyone's build would more or less be the same. Spirit and Enigma top 2 for sure.
Solid list besides COH being rank 13, im such a hater of that runeword lol so expensive for what it does its crazy, and almost no builds use that over enigma or other options also it would be nice to see that same 10 or 20 best items without runewords, basically just uniques and sets, and some magics even
I think Runewords were the biggest mistake in D2 history. Runes could have had much cooler uses in D2, than just the braindead idea of "put these runes in order in a socketed item and you get exactly this extremely good item that will put all unique items to shame". Teleport was too good to only be on sorc and needed to be on a runeword? Then nerf/remove TP from sorc, or add TP to some unique items. Runewords suck as a gameplay mechanic.
agreed. i think runewords are a great concept, but the idea they tried to fit was awful. runewords shouldve been cheap simple items to cover slots that you hadnt found a good item for yet, like a build-your-own-item cheaply as a temp kind of thing. its fine if some of them are strong enough to become meta slots. but when they released all those op runewords in 1.10, they also massively buffed monster hp too to counteract the power creep, which is why melee is so far behind, because now theyre gated behind op runewords while caster builds arent.
Ive never used cta on any barbarian and been playing D2 since early 2000s why on earth would you use it and not 2x alibaba? And if you are not magic finding then using 2x lacerator or a weapon with decrepify on switch is sooo much better bo sticks and hoto/cta is only for people joining baal runs in a public queue, i said it
Shako could be compared to enigma in that i find nearly all my builds end up wearing it right to the end. Should be higher than Griffons eye which is a nichey helm.
with grief i would argue, actually two handed death is stronger and has more of a use..still there are like half of melee builds that would not use grief..its basically rw for shield paladin zealers and barbs, thats it, shapeshift druids use death or ebotd, amazon use ebotd, avenger use ebotd...
I know many will disagree, but I think you have Call to Arms too high. I rarely run it on my builds. So far, in Single Player, I've made about 25 Runewords, including Engima, Infinity, Grief, etc. but have not yet made a CtA. I much prefer magic find items on switch, skill buffs, or even Harmony for FRW in town. I find CtA more useful on builds that struggle with Mana compared to life, especially once you've switched Merc from Insight to Infinity.
Maybe anyone playing D2 in 2023 should already know every item by heart... maybe not. But this video would have been a lot better if you pulled up the in-game stats while talking about the items.
Then your calculations seem to be the issue. Even the worst possible grief beats any godlike non-grief weapon hands down. Feel free to share your d2planner though, I'd love to inspect it.
RavenFrost caught me wayy off guard. Imo Raven frost is 21-30. Soj sits in 5 cta in 4 Griffons in 3 Grief in 2 and Enigma in 1 Tier zero is obviously Mang Songs Tyreals and A Scroll of Town Portal
Stormshield, Highlords, and Maras 100% deserve to be on the list, get War Travs and Treachery and Facets outta there, jewels shouldn’t be counted anyways. I just feel like Faith/Windforce and some of these staples should show up, too many buff items and mf items
CoH really doesnt deserve being put on any tierlist, exept for the top runeword traps maybe. If youre considering crafting one, its a wrong choice 99% of the time since there are better alternatives. The 1% chance is you being a fully passive travincal barb and letting Emilio or Ragnar do the dirt work. Also clearly, Enigma is the top D2R item. Every single build in the game has enigma as best in slot since its just disturbingly overpowered as a package. Its just as mandatory as CTA is, but offers a mugh bigger power spike in terms of power progression and farming efficiency. Infinity deserves rank 4. Its equally as powerful for its builds as grief is for melees but played in much more endgame builds. Also its a MUCH bigger powerspike than Arach and Griffon combined honestly. Finally, I'd move shaco to the 10-20 category since its good on all builds, but BiS for none, and add Skillers to the Top10. Blank skillers are mandatory for the far majority of builds and offer a great powerspike for their average trade value//drop chance. The rest seems about right.
I more or less agree with everything on the list, I might re-arrange slightly based on preference but you have more or less nailed it. It does beg the question though, would it be good for the health of the game if the top 5 were nerfed? Like, does anyone get any joy out of CTA? Its required for every build in the game but it doesn't do anything interesting, it just gives you higher stats. Its just a tax on every single build. Imo just remove it from the game and increase base stats across the board to reflect the removal of CTA. It would be cool if we could start to think about the weapon slot as something that could be used as part of builds in a tactical way rather than it forever just being: "CTA prebuff slot". Either that or introduce some new buf runewords that could compete with CTA and do different but still powerful things. Engima I think is critical to the game because of the teleport, you couldn't take it away unless you also took away teleport completely but what if +1 teleport was added to some other items too while Engima itself was re-balanced to be less absurdly good. 9 out of 10 times even if another armor is a better choice, I will still take Enigma because of the teleport convenience. The ONLY exception is on shifter druids because Blizzard still won't let us teleport while shifted. And as you say, Spirit makes every singe staff in the game irrelevant. I still remember the patch when spirit was first introduced and in the moment it was so exciting but looking back now, all that item has done is wildly decrease the number of viable "options". Grief is the same, its so powerful it just makes every other melee weapon irrelevant, this is not healthy for the game. Grief should not be absurdly better than BOTD, Last Wish, Death, etc in every situation, always.
I mean the logic for CTA applies for stealth too right? Every single build has it, literally every single one. Nothing else in act 2 normal (or maybe even in the entire game) will give you FCR, FHR and faster walk.
dunnow, cta just for boing should be put really into a top 10? It isn't BiS for building or anything it just buffs. Would definitely swap it out for Hoto because this RW gives so much and could be bit in any caster build.
Hi MrLlama I think Spirit has to be on first place before call of the arms , on 28 lvl you get 25 to 35 fcr + 2 to all skills from Spirit sword snd after 25 - 30 lvs you get the same stats from the Spirit shield + res on top of that , easy runes from normal - nightmare to find over all Sword an Shield Spirit can carry you in mid late end game. My fire druid is like that all game . I even don't bother to make heart of the oak for 1 more skill and 5 fcr and little bit more res to be honest it doesn't worth it . Over all SPIRIT IS META rune word 😅😅😊 😊
grief needs nerf and some elite unique weapons need buff to balance things out and provide more choices for melee characters. Last wish should be the best weapon with its price. Spirit should have its FCR nerfed by half,and some unique staves buffed. Obsession is a cool option now.. But we should get excited finding unique archon staff! And other cool things like that. :)
1 Enigma 2 Spirit 3 Call to arm Not all builds use call to arm. My Shape shift druid dont use CTA, can't cast in wolf or bear form. Too much of a pain in the ass to go in and out of shape-shift.
Wait, shacko has magic find? I traded for an item that had some green jewel and guy said to me it is players that call it "shako" and i havent seen magic find on it... hmmmm
There are too many bad items, though. As long as an item is not as good as a vendor-bought magical item it's trash tier, and unfortunately there's plenty of stuff that fall into that category.
CTA is a luxury item. no builds actually need it to farm. i farm anywhere i want every latter and never have a CTA. SO CTA shouldn't even be on this list.
Yeah you look at the universal functionality of something like Stealth that isn’t in the top 20 and can comfortably carry every class to hell vs CTA as you said a luxury that you’re not getting prior to end game. If we’re talking raw power it’s Enigma no contest but considering spirit beats it out due to being cheap, virtually everywhere, versatile, and BiS for many builds it’s odd to see CTA weighted so highly.
Llama is trolling, it’s ludicrous to put CTA at the top. Barbs don’t run it it’s a total cap that a barb uses cta. It’s a waste of runes for barbs. Also all of llamas barb guides don’t run cta lol. I think it’s Enigma, but I could see spirit there too. CTA? Maybe like 5th best or something
Nuclear take: all runewords appearing in this list should be removed from the game. It sucks that single items can render so many alternatives completely redundant. That makes loot more boring overall.
![[GUIDE] GAMBLING IN Diablo 2 Resurrected](/img/n.gif)
Dude I love that you're the biggest D2 streamer and yet you do the ranking in paint. Classic!
Moreover, it take 2% of the screen and you have to zoom Xd
The number 1 item wasn't even listed.
It's the Horadric Cube.
You've got quite a treasure there in that Horadric Cube.
@@TheStephenation stay a while and listen!
I would put Enigma at 1#, CTA 2# and Spirit 3#. Infinity should be a 5#, at least, even with the existence of Sunder Charms. Amazing list.
CTA should be in 10-20
Alternate top 10 D2 items (not unique/rw):
1. ethereal fools cruel weapon of quickness 2os/2sk - any melee or bow (non eth)
2. 2 skills 3class skill 2os visionary helm - barb and druid
3. 15 dex fcr 40+ life crafted/rare ring - paladin
4. 20+ strength 50+ life dual leech crafted ring - any melee
5. 20fcr 3 skill magic diadem - sorc, paladin, necro, assa, warcry barb
6. jmod - ranged builds
7. 2sk 20fcr amulet - any caster
8. 3 class skill 2sk 2os necro shield - poison/ bone/ summon
9. 20fcr 20frw 2sk rare diadem - paladin , amazon
10. 30 frw 30+ fire light cold res 10fhr boots - any class
honorable mention 6/40 javelins trang gloves, tal rasha armour, 6skill helm, 3/20 gloves
I wouldve put arreat face and stormshield into llamas top 20 uniques, remove COH nobody uses it by the time you can afford COH you make something like enigma instead also remove Hoto as it does get outclassed in most builds that use it eventually I can only think of an ele druid that is forced to use a shield would be the only class to get best use of it.
arreat face is probably the most used and most value unique in the entire game
Mosaic not being up there is a crime. Litterally spawned the best build in the game upon its conception. Can do players 400+ with miminal risk. I get that its just for one build and a lot of these are general, but come on. Its insane how good it is. You litterally said it did insane dps even before infinity. Its probably the best item in the game right now, but because of how your list works, it definitely belongs in the 11 to 20.
Agree but it isn't used across classes which somewhat drops it down
llama cut some of the prediscussion, we didnt count mosaic because it wasnt the item itself that was overtuned, it was more just the build has a lot of fundamental issues that was highlighted by an attempted balance fix of mosaic. mosaic just isnt a d2 item in all honesty with a mechanical change for a skill on an item.
Mosaic is not even close to being the best build in the game. Those are still Novasorc and Javazon, and with some distance, Hammerdin+Blizz Sorc. Cast+Attack frames matter much more than raw throughput in realistic farming scenarios. Besides, what tarrantwalter said. The power is in the whole build, not the item itself.
@polkhigh_33 I mean I do believe mosaic is the number 1 build in the game but yeah the character is overtuned and broken with the item. I just feel like it isn't meant for this list so much... just an item/build that needs to be fixed lol
Not trying to be offensive, but what a build does in a theoretical P32 - P128 setting doesnt really determine its power. What matters is how fast and efficient the build performs in the most common situations. Which are p3, p5 and p7 splits for the most part. Really gotta have a gg sin to get ahead of an average hammerdin or javazon, your own footage verified that. And for some reason Novasorc was missing, we can just assume why ;-) @@MrLlamaSC
I feel that Blizzard should spend a little programming time balancing out some of the least often used Rune words. Especially the ones that require one or more high runes to craft, but are weaker than other, easier to make rune words, or even some unique items.
The lack of stealth here seems wild. Basically every character makes it at some point, and even though it gets replaced pretty quickly, it’s easily the best piece of gear for most characters for a significant portion of the early game.
For sorc, I run that in a dusk shroud the whole time. Until I find Ormus' Robes, vipermagi, or que-hegan's.
I've never been able to afford an enigma, I just don't play enough or have the patience to run LK or travincal 1000 times.
I'd love to see you rank uniques in a way that assumes runewords don't exist and where they fit when you are levelling up. I know you have videos of them all ranked but they don't seem specific to levelling up, eg Grandfather is great but what are you using before you can equip that to get you through normal, nightmare. I also think the problem with Grief is if you removed it it makes Last Wish viable but that still obsoletes every other item in the game (which is less of a problem due to the cost of Last Wish). I often play builds to try and make use of unfancied items eg a Barb that only uses 2 x 2h unique swords.
too complicated imo
@@game_jinx that's what LLama's expertise does is make complicated things simple for us plebs
this will only make sense if he does a no runes run. Or less strict, no runewords. Then you could still potentially do the tir tir, ral ral and tal tal tal etc.
For some reason, I never ignored to wear Ravenfrost on all characters. This makes it all the more worth it!
Cannot be frozen op
In general I agree with your list (though perhaps I would change the order of some of the items a bit, like putting Enigma at #1) except for Griffon's. Yes, it is really good but it is only useful for lightning-based builds. All of the other items in the top 10 (and even in the top 20) do not have this element-based restriction. I would put either COH, or Fortitude, or Maras, in its place.
Should definitely have a SC section vs HC section as well. For hardcore some gear is absolutely necessary until you find or finally make that next level item.
Oculus is a must for HC sorc
@@abouttime2569 haha definitely while wearing enigma too just so you can lose that shit
Not seeing Stealth and Lore in the top 20 is wild. Literally the starter runewords everyone uses. 2/20 circlets, trangs/magefist, war travs are knocking on the door. Would love to see blizz give us a usage chart
i was thinking stealth at least needs a shoutout. I literally wore my stealth until i swapped to enigma.
I'm surprised Ancients Pledge isn't on here too. I use it pretty much on every build until I can find the res stats elsewhere
And no leaf
Fire sorcs be screaming
they are not the BEST runewords, they are starter runewords even if they are as powerfull as stealth is. u always replace them sooner or later. if mr llama makes a list on early runewords they will be in
@@DustinJames-mk1glsorc and starter assassin
Would love if you'd show the item/runeword you are talking about be it from your game or just a picture of it. That'd be awesome for us who don't have every item memorized!
Otherwise love the content and your style! Laid-back, conversational and easygoing. Keep it up, man 🤘
Haha sorry that probably would be smart. I forget sometimes not everybody has all items memorized
I can buy the reasoning for the list. Don't really know what else to say. There are just so few unique that feels valuable compared to runewords. I love runewords, but I would also love to see more uniques being able to see more play in the late game.
Great list Mr.LLama! I'd be interested to see a top 50 or 100 list to see if items like Reaper's toll, Drac's, wizardspike, etc have a place.
I'm gonna disagree with CTA being #1. I've played a lot of late game meta builds without it and you can honestly ABSOLUTELY wreck high player counts without it using other S-tier items. Compare it to build-enablers infinity/enigma there are a TON of builds that simply wouldn't exist and wouldn't clear/farm even remotely as fast. Sure - CTA is amazing, but you don't NEED to go from 1.2k life to 2k life to farm on P8 mostly due to just having super high damage and great resistances.
I agree with you, having BO isnt a make or break with any character. Game plays perfectly fine without it
with enough mdr/dr/res/mb you can have 500 life and be safer than someone with 5k health lol, cta overrated in pvm
@@jordil5469and do negative damage.. its all relative to teh current meta
I think his point was how universal CTA is. Literally every character WANTS to run a CTA.
Shako isn't just have lots of MF.
Skako has everything.
DR, life, mana, skills....
And MF on the top, yea.
Literally any class and any build will feel good wearing Shako.
It might be not be absolutely best in slot for any class (because Griffin, Nightwing, Arreat, Jalal and others exist), but it is 2nd or 3rd best in slot for any class for sure.
Generally I agree with the list.
It’s funny, for weeks I was waiting for a Shako to drop. Never did, in all the ~10 characters I leveled up to 80’s/90’s. When it FINALLY dropped for me this week, I realized there were actually very few characters that it would be BiS for considering everything I already had: Face for pally, Jalal’s for druid, Griffon for javazon… I didn’t really have a place for it. Had to level up a poisonmancer just to find a use for it. (single player of course, so no trading)
@@balkthor
Huh
Considering Shako has 10 times higher drop rate than Griffin - guess you got trolled by RNG, like Llama was with Mang Song.
I rolled a perfect cta first time ever making one to lol
Hey man could you do a series of very small video about all unique and set and runeword where you describe the item and on what situation you would use it !?
You should check out Ginger Gaming Mentor. He has a whole series on different items.
Llama could you push for act 5 merc to be able to use axes?
The biggest testament of how brokenly good Enigma is? The fact that it's a top endgame option for many sorceress builds as well.
Not many, but all of them honestly. Even for coldsorces which get a ton of additional damage through +3 mainskill and 20% colddamage through ormus enigma is prefered as a whole package, since it offers a ton of str saved, a good amount of magic find, life after kill which is adds so much survivability to casters, some life and dr and that 45% move speed which will reduce your idle time while towning.
The real problem about enigma really is, there isn't a really a competition to it - every other option for tele is charge based. The game needs either some other good sources for tele or other movement based skills even if it's a +1 pointer on an item.
Not that it's new information, but I can attest to the strength of Grief. When I got my first Lo on plugy pre-D2R, I started to play Zealot, Smiter, Zerker, Fury, it didn't matter. Suddenly I could build any melee class and tear through Hell.
Reaper's Toll and Lawbringer on mercenaries are nice special mentions for physical builds. :D
Imagine Mosaic not being in the list xd
The skill proc uniques and some of the runewords too would probably make up most of my list. Those and some of the cooler ones like ribcracker and witchwild string. Always liked the ones with +1 to a skill of a different class to play around with too
Wait, what? Ribcracker and witchwild are interesting/cool, but in what world are they even in the discussion for best item? Witchwild isn't even close to BiS even for bowazon.
I would see a video of the top runewords outsight the high class that helps a lot while gaining high class like lore, Bulwark etc
Has Llama played Grim Dawn? I've been playing it since January and I'm still having a blast with it. Every time I get to a certain level and go through the constellations I think of another build I want to try.
The thing about Shako is it might not be the right choice for your build, but it's almost never the wrong choice.
Exactly right lol
Trangs and magefists!!!! Those are best in slot on so many builds. Love your content LLAMA
Magefist/trangs should be up there. You cant really hit any of the high fcr builds without them. Plus you get fire skills and mana gen etc. Top tier caster gloves that can be found in normal mode...which is a prime example of why d4 itemization sucks so bad, there will never be an item found at level 20 that is still useful at level 70
thats 2 items
I don’t love D4 like D2 but there are literally aspects that don’t scale that you can find at 20 and use at 70 if you didn’t add them to an item yet.
@@game_jinx no shit lol ...did you read anything after that? Or do you honestly not understand the point of highlighting those 2 items?
Im happy to elaborate if my post didn't make sense
@@rene.s.s i just sent a reply to you but youtube kind of froze up and closed lol
Did you get it? My app seems to be really shotty today
Blizzard can easily add interest in the game by making some obvious changes to uniques and runewords. Have you ever wondered why no one uses certain uniques and runewords even though they have great stats? For example the Death runeword. Very powerful, can match Grief but it is too slow. Add some speed. Doom runeword, add indestructible. Bul Kathos ring, no one uses it, throw the stamina stat right out of the window and add some mana steal. So many uniques although promising are completely useless.
Speaking of upgrades that feel good and make the difference, here's one that's missing: stealth. So easy to get, yet it's so powerful and almost everyone uses from early normal to a late hell even.
For me the Enigma is the No. 1, it is like .... my preciouuuuuuuss
I feel like insight should have been a bit higher on the list. It basically goes on every Act 2 merc, even well into end game. Between that and how accessible it is, yeah I think it deserves maybe #7?
Eh. I think that so many low level uniques are tragically overlooked because they aren't endgame gear or insight/spirit. Ribcracker(op tbh), bloodletter, rixot's keen, peasant crown, bloodfist, treads, etc are all things I'm happy to see when just playing the game.
Bro I love rixot keen. So good and I find it all the time before having high amounts of mf. Glad someone mentioned it
i think the humble Topaz and its variations needed a mention on here. well, maybe we need a best items getting to the end game list.
Seriously Enigma, Grief, and Spirit should be nerfed so they no longer dominate the game as much. Just reduce the added skill to +1 for Enigma and Spirit. Then change the flat damage on Grief to half of what it is today.
The fact i did try between Death and Grief against Baal so many runs for science, and yeah Death is much quicker killing him. i prefer Death all over Grief even through both are extremely strong.
Aldur's boot would be top set item imo
I'd even argue that Aldur's Rhythm, with the right combination of jewels, gems, and/or runes (if you'd like), would make for a versatile mace. Make one with high CB% and IAS, and maybe one with IAS and magic damage also, maybe find a rare jewel with decent affixes. I've managed to roll on 2 of these, both 3-socket, and upped them to devil stars. They're fun on a dual-wield Barb, though I wonder if it would be the case for the a5 merc too......
I would definitely like to see your top MF ten and your max dmg top ten also. Btw, I would put ATMA's very high at the list. Would also like to see your top 10 on switch
I think Goreriders deserves a second look, its a go to boot for tons of builds
bis boots for phy damage builds but they are boots and only 30% of builds. not top 10 imo
Yeah, not even useful for ranged or trap damage. Only really useful for a few builds that are full phys.
Good list, its annoying how hard the high runes are to come by though, I got a Cham before I got a Ber and that took far too long! Lore has always been a staple for my early builds, Ort Sol is easy and its usually my first +1 to all skills...
Is Grief + CtoArms good for act 5 merc? Can merc cast the skill?
oh btw i wanted to thank you for droping remmoded in the last few videos... been playing it for the past 2 days its epic love to increase in mobs and less floors xD high fives all around
I'm pretty new to the game, so this is great help.
Do a video on strongest merc setups!! We are talking godlike mercs!
So I think part of the question is also "What are the top 10 most used items" and "What are the top 10 best stats items" and that's why Maras could either be in Top 10 or not even be Top 20
I find Insight more important than Spirit.
Especially for Sorc you can play with many weapons(Tal,Oculus,Death F etc) and a Rhyme shield , but most of the time you cant do anything without Insight merc mana regen.
The exception is only when you use Infinity.
Reaper's toll is a fantastic polearm for your merc between insight and infinity. Once your gear and call to arms has your mana regen high enough reaper's toll gives your merc so much survivability when paired with vgaze or andy's. spam decrep from it is the nuts for keeping you both alive.
@@BunnyHoppin- Yeah, reapers toll and obedience are 2 of the best alternate polearms for merc surviveability/damage.
@@BunnyHoppin- Everything dies with Spells as long as you can spam them.
Even using perfect CTA and having some points to energy and Warmth 10+ , you cant spam your spells you run out of mana.
Using CTA + Warmth + Insight you have almost infinite mana without potions .
stormshield and tal armour should definitely be in there tho, storm’s dr is bis in pvp and widely used in hc, the mdr res and mf on tal armour is king in pvm
Yeah storm is godly pvp. Tal armor I could see in the 11 to 20 honestly
Thing is, PvP is at best a small niche in D2R, just like hc gaming, and while Tal Armor is solid, it always gets replaced by enigma in endgame, even on sorces once they get their hands on arach and a suitable neck.
@@polkhigh_33 i disagree, pvp is what kept the game alive but besides that, the set bonus of tal arm amu and belt definitely beats enigma arach in a pvm setup on sorc unless you absolutely need 105/117 fcr
Alive to that ridiculously small buble of pvp players maybe. I'd eat my own shorts if among those 20k average d2 players daily even 10% are pvp players. And for pvm, the Tal 3 piece never beats enigma+arach+x since you always wanna reach the 105/117 fcr breakpoints for farming efficiency, even on builds which dont benefit from fcr directly like fo/blizzard or hydra. D2 pvm endgame is all about minimizing idle times and enigma is the definition of it.@@jordil5469
The way I would judge Top 10 would be on how common they are used across the board in end game builds in combination with their power. IMO, if that's the case Shako and Insight fall out for me and would be replaced by Andy's and SOJ. Every single Act 2 Merc I own rocks and Andy's. And at least 1, usually 2 SOJs are on each and every caster build I have and even some "Melee" / Non Caster like my Auradin, Tesladin and Javzon.
I think someone could definitely argue soj/bk up there. I just think the impact they have compared to raven is a little smaller.
Also Shako is still used by tons of characters.
I always use 2 hoto on my barbs!! +6 is enough bo, but fcr + mana + Tele level best imo...
The Titke is “BEST” items, as in, items that have the most game-breaking affect, not “MOST POPULAR” item. I disagree with CTA, it should be bottom of list or not on, it’s just a stat boost of like +30% life/mana that’s it, it does nothing to break the game just a buff. Your hammerdin or summon necrobor Windy or w/e could easily grind without it with no noticeable difference. I hate when ppl do this where they make a top 10 list but Equivocate on language. Best =/= popular
Enigma has to be #1. Changes the way the entire game is played way toooo much. Even sorcs use it in pvp and pvm in certain scenarios.
I never liked using Enigma to be honest.
Insight/cure combo in hardcore is the real MVP
FYI the traps are considered minions, so they don't benefit from lightning dmg.
#10 should have been Skiller GC's those are basically needed in all builds to min max
Read the title
Hey, MrLlama where is hustle rw on armor
I have only played D2R for a couple months so I only have Sorc+Pally experience, but I put CTA as best weapon + runeword in the game. I got CTA without even really knowing what it did, but because the guides and everyone said it was mandatory I saved for it. Before CTA I would die on occasion to random things or maybe not paying attention or focusing, but after I got CTA I literally haven't died again. I only have a couple months played but to go from being able to die to never dying was just such a massive and unexpected difference that I have to put it as #1 because it's the item that has had the most impact on me. I have Enigma on my pally but it's different...it's hard to say...but it feels more like a QOL/time saver...I dunno...I just think CTA is more impactful.
Running a Werebear with Fury in an Ogre Maul is fun. Niche use-case, but fun. He clears in Hell against immunes, surprisingly without sunders. Still, use-case.......
If enigma was just an armor with +1 teleport and nothing else it would in fact be the #1 item in the game
CTA would be well down the list for me. Yes everyone uses it but if you took it out of the game today, everyone's build would more or less be the same. Spirit and Enigma top 2 for sure.
I agree with that. It is not really necessary to have.
Solid list besides COH being rank 13, im such a hater of that runeword lol so expensive for what it does its crazy, and almost no builds use that over enigma or other options
also it would be nice to see that same 10 or 20 best items without runewords, basically just uniques and sets, and some magics even
1. Spirit 2. enigma 3. CTA
great list
I think Runewords were the biggest mistake in D2 history. Runes could have had much cooler uses in D2, than just the braindead idea of "put these runes in order in a socketed item and you get exactly this extremely good item that will put all unique items to shame". Teleport was too good to only be on sorc and needed to be on a runeword? Then nerf/remove TP from sorc, or add TP to some unique items. Runewords suck as a gameplay mechanic.
agreed. i think runewords are a great concept, but the idea they tried to fit was awful. runewords shouldve been cheap simple items to cover slots that you hadnt found a good item for yet, like a build-your-own-item cheaply as a temp kind of thing. its fine if some of them are strong enough to become meta slots. but when they released all those op runewords in 1.10, they also massively buffed monster hp too to counteract the power creep, which is why melee is so far behind, because now theyre gated behind op runewords while caster builds arent.
Honourable non-mentions:
Stealth
Mosaic
Rhyme
Tal mask
Ive never used cta on any barbarian and been playing D2 since early 2000s why on earth would you use it and not 2x alibaba?
And if you are not magic finding then using 2x lacerator or a weapon with decrepify on switch is sooo much better
bo sticks and hoto/cta is only for people joining baal runs in a public queue, i said it
Shako could be compared to enigma in that i find nearly all my builds end up wearing it right to the end. Should be higher than Griffons eye which is a nichey helm.
with grief i would argue, actually two handed death is stronger and has more of a use..still there are like half of melee builds that would not use grief..its basically rw for shield paladin zealers and barbs, thats it, shapeshift druids use death or ebotd, amazon use ebotd, avenger use ebotd...
I'm still trying to get my first charm from uber diablo. I have 1 SoJ for my poison necro, but I just don't want to give it up lol.
Flickering flame 🎉
bloodfist, very common, used like 90% of the time when leveling up
I know many will disagree, but I think you have Call to Arms too high. I rarely run it on my builds. So far, in Single Player, I've made about 25 Runewords, including Engima, Infinity, Grief, etc. but have not yet made a CtA. I much prefer magic find items on switch, skill buffs, or even Harmony for FRW in town. I find CtA more useful on builds that struggle with Mana compared to life, especially once you've switched Merc from Insight to Infinity.
Maybe anyone playing D2 in 2023 should already know every item by heart... maybe not. But this video would have been a lot better if you pulled up the in-game stats while talking about the items.
I’m still not using cta on my sorc nova spec. Not really needed things die so fast. And in playing hardcore
In my calculations ethereal Death can be better than Grief.
Also Gore Rider is a definite Top 20 contender.
Then your calculations seem to be the issue. Even the worst possible grief beats any godlike non-grief weapon hands down. Feel free to share your d2planner though, I'd love to inspect it.
@@polkhigh_33 I have no idea, maybe YT does not like links :/ but in maxroll: k301koz0 This is my (hopefully) perfected build
@mrllamasc spirit and Enigma are so OP. How would you nerf those for more balance?
RavenFrost caught me wayy off guard. Imo Raven frost is 21-30.
Soj sits in 5 cta in 4 Griffons in 3 Grief in 2 and Enigma in 1
Tier zero is obviously Mang Songs Tyreals and A Scroll of Town Portal
Stormshield, Highlords, and Maras 100% deserve to be on the list, get War Travs and Treachery and Facets outta there, jewels shouldn’t be counted anyways. I just feel like Faith/Windforce and some of these staples should show up, too many buff items and mf items
CoH really doesnt deserve being put on any tierlist, exept for the top runeword traps maybe. If youre considering crafting one, its a wrong choice 99% of the time since there are better alternatives. The 1% chance is you being a fully passive travincal barb and letting Emilio or Ragnar do the dirt work. Also clearly, Enigma is the top D2R item. Every single build in the game has enigma as best in slot since its just disturbingly overpowered as a package. Its just as mandatory as CTA is, but offers a mugh bigger power spike in terms of power progression and farming efficiency. Infinity deserves rank 4. Its equally as powerful for its builds as grief is for melees but played in much more endgame builds. Also its a MUCH bigger powerspike than Arach and Griffon combined honestly. Finally, I'd move shaco to the 10-20 category since its good on all builds, but BiS for none, and add Skillers to the Top10. Blank skillers are mandatory for the far majority of builds and offer a great powerspike for their average trade value//drop chance. The rest seems about right.
I more or less agree with everything on the list, I might re-arrange slightly based on preference but you have more or less nailed it.
It does beg the question though, would it be good for the health of the game if the top 5 were nerfed? Like, does anyone get any joy out of CTA? Its required for every build in the game but it doesn't do anything interesting, it just gives you higher stats. Its just a tax on every single build. Imo just remove it from the game and increase base stats across the board to reflect the removal of CTA. It would be cool if we could start to think about the weapon slot as something that could be used as part of builds in a tactical way rather than it forever just being: "CTA prebuff slot". Either that or introduce some new buf runewords that could compete with CTA and do different but still powerful things.
Engima I think is critical to the game because of the teleport, you couldn't take it away unless you also took away teleport completely but what if +1 teleport was added to some other items too while Engima itself was re-balanced to be less absurdly good. 9 out of 10 times even if another armor is a better choice, I will still take Enigma because of the teleport convenience. The ONLY exception is on shifter druids because Blizzard still won't let us teleport while shifted.
And as you say, Spirit makes every singe staff in the game irrelevant. I still remember the patch when spirit was first introduced and in the moment it was so exciting but looking back now, all that item has done is wildly decrease the number of viable "options". Grief is the same, its so powerful it just makes every other melee weapon irrelevant, this is not healthy for the game. Grief should not be absurdly better than BOTD, Last Wish, Death, etc in every situation, always.
agree, grief way better than last wish, cant beleive i sacved to trade for one, and when testing it i was so pissed.
I mean the logic for CTA applies for stealth too right? Every single build has it, literally every single one. Nothing else in act 2 normal (or maybe even in the entire game) will give you FCR, FHR and faster walk.
dunnow, cta just for boing should be put really into a top 10? It isn't BiS for building or anything it just buffs. Would definitely swap it out for Hoto because this RW gives so much and could be bit in any caster build.
TOP 10 UNIQUES THAT NEED TO BE UPDATED VIDEO PLEASE. Sorry caps I just need this.
I dont use a cta on javazon or bowazon, it doesnt last long enough
Enigma >>> cta >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> spirit. Teleport vs HP buff?
Hi MrLlama I think Spirit has to be on first place before call of the arms , on 28 lvl you get 25 to 35 fcr + 2 to all skills from Spirit sword snd after 25 - 30 lvs you get the same stats from the Spirit shield + res on top of that , easy runes from normal - nightmare to find over all Sword an Shield Spirit can carry you in mid late end game. My fire druid is like that all game . I even don't bother to make heart of the oak for 1 more skill and 5 fcr and little bit more res to be honest it doesn't worth it . Over all SPIRIT IS META rune word 😅😅😊 😊
grief needs nerf and some elite unique weapons need buff to balance things out and provide more choices for melee characters. Last wish should be the best weapon with its price. Spirit should have its FCR nerfed by half,and some unique staves buffed. Obsession is a cool option now.. But we should get excited finding unique archon staff! And other cool things like that. :)
1 Enigma
2 Spirit
3 Call to arm
Not all builds use call to arm. My Shape shift druid dont use CTA, can't cast in wolf or bear form. Too much of a pain in the ass to go in and out of shape-shift.
Wait, shacko has magic find?
I traded for an item that had some green jewel and guy said to me it is players that call it "shako" and i havent seen magic find on it... hmmmm
I also want to see a worst items video. Like items that have no business existing in D2.
There are too many bad items, though. As long as an item is not as good as a vendor-bought magical item it's trash tier, and unfortunately there's plenty of stuff that fall into that category.
CTA is a luxury item. no builds actually need it to farm. i farm anywhere i want every latter and never have a CTA. SO CTA shouldn't even be on this list.
Yeah you look at the universal functionality of something like Stealth that isn’t in the top 20 and can comfortably carry every class to hell vs CTA as you said a luxury that you’re not getting prior to end game. If we’re talking raw power it’s Enigma no contest but considering spirit beats it out due to being cheap, virtually everywhere, versatile, and BiS for many builds it’s odd to see CTA weighted so highly.
no HOTO ?
I never had any, never digged enough for HR. But I thought it was a best-in-slot for mage weapon, even better than Spirit.
ok didn't see the HOTO in top 20. my bad
Llama is trolling, it’s ludicrous to put CTA at the top. Barbs don’t run it it’s a total cap that a barb uses cta. It’s a waste of runes for barbs. Also all of llamas barb guides don’t run cta lol. I think it’s Enigma, but I could see spirit there too. CTA? Maybe like 5th best or something
Horadric Cube is best unique.
Special mention for Mosaics for just breaking the game?
Nuclear take: all runewords appearing in this list should be removed from the game. It sucks that single items can render so many alternatives completely redundant. That makes loot more boring overall.
The best item in the game is the potion of full rejuvenation.