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I've been playing this game off and on for 20 years and never new that upping a gold wrap gives it more potion slots. I've been using the 3 stack version this whole time. Thank you!
Great stuff. Should be noted that If you're running a basic unique like Chancies, Gtoes , Hotspurs, mages. It's always worth upping once. It costs a few runes from normal countes and a pgem. (Basically free) Chancies goes from like 27 to 65+ Def. Which may not seem like a ton but for hardcore characters every little bit helps! You can't mf when you're dead :)
I've always liked upping these items as I play through the game, waiting to replace gear: Lycander's Aim - can be upped to a GMB while you wait to get Windforce→Faith Goldstrike Arch - same as lycander's, decent bow most throw away that you could up until windforce/faith Jalal's Mane - much like Arreat's Face, has all the same benefits and problems Nightsmoke - decent belt for a while until end game: 10 all res, +20 mana, 50% dmg to mana
Upped nightsmoke on a melee/enchant sorc is definitely one of the most slept on upgrades. 50% damage returned as mana turns you into a god, and lets you mana stack instead of hp stack. With warmth maxed, frosts, and 2 soj's you can out regen basically anything in the game with your insight merc (just stay the hell away from mana burners).
I've been using dark glow diamond mail with an increase attack speed jewel and irathas set to put all my resistances up to 90% max on a barb. I like it.
So this is a HUGE list, but I hope it will be helpful to those reading the comments for both budget and end-game builds as well as hopefully giving some insight towards other options for niche end-game builds. Be that for PVP or PVM. Enjoy! I stuck with just uniques, since set items would just make this list that much longer lol. I would also recommend always checking the required stats to use the upgraded base item before upgrading the item to ensure you or your merc can use it after you have up'd it. really sucks to have to grind out some levels before you can use the item(s) you just up'd. Armor : lots of options based on what you want to build your character/merc for. Budget and end-game. Rockfleece is an ok option for a single up, maybe two if you have the STR to spare. 10% dr is nothing to scoff at. -10% requirements, 100-130% ED +5 str. Great option for martial characters, good budget merc armor. Goldskin for a budget gold find build. 100% gold find, 35% all res, 120-150% Ed. Good base defense. Probably best suited to a budget barb. Skin of the Flayed one, especially if eth since it has repair mod. 150-190% ED, 5-7% LL, Replenish life 15-25, attacker takes damage 15. great budget melee armor. High defense potential. Spirit Forge with high +life per/level potential (1-123). buffable by BO. 120-160% ED, 2 open sockets so you can use an eth and zod it or drop um runes in for the lack of res. +15 Str. Que-hagen's is a great alternate option for Vmagi. Socket it with an Um rune to help make up for the no res. 140-160%ED, high defense potential with low STR requirement for casters. Black Hades, great option for mercs. 3 open sockets, 140-200% ED, 30-60% dmg to demons, 200-250 AR to demons, Half freeze duration. Eth + some ias/ed jewels makes a powerhouse merc. High strength requirement drawback though. might want -XX% requirements in sockets instead depending on how you choose to use. Gloves : not much to say here. A few options though for budget builds. Venomgrip is probably the best budget option to up here. 130-160% ED, tiny bit of CB (5%), 30% poison res, 5% max poison res, and 5% LL. Will get an ok return on defense for a reasonable STR requirement when up'd to elite gloves. Lavagout and Hellmouth are a couple options but all your really getting is a bit of extra defense in exchange for a high STR requirement. Only really useful in some niche builds. Likely best used on travincal farmers with high str. Helms : A few options for both casters and melee. Budget and endgame. Peasant Crown. not much to say about this one, its the budget shako, just adding some defense when upd. Rockstopper. Absolute beast when up'd for a melee build if your lacking on res, especially with good rolls and an um rune. Up it to add some extra defense. 160-220% ED really helps with the defense boost. 10% DR. 20-40% cold res, 20-50% fire res, 20-40% lightning res, 15 vitality, 30% FHR. just a solid helm. Great for a merc too if eth and up'd. Stealskull. 10% IAS/FHR, 30-50% MF 200-240% ED, and 5% dual leach. Great option to up for early melee mf builds. toss an um in to help with res. Great merc option when eth. Blackthorn's Face. Great budget option for lightning absorb (20), 180-220% ED, 15% lightning res. really good alternative or when paired with Tgods for ubers. Good merc option for ubers. Boots: just one here, mainly for min/max though. Silkweave is an uping option for casters but thats more for min/maxing your build. Weapons: some really good budget and endgame options. Axes The Gnasher makes a good up option for early barbs with its crushing blow and open wounds, 2 of them can wreck mobs when up'd. Butcher's Pupil is another option as well, especially if it's eth since its Indestructible and it comes with Deadly Strike, Open Wounds, and a decent Ias and ED (150-200%) Swords Ginther's Rift is a good option if you want to forego the need for berserk or other magical damage to overcome magic immunes. Headstriker would be a really good option as it has a static 150% ED, Max damage/lvl (+99 at max), Deadly Strike/lvl(max of 148%) , +15 Str. The Atlantean is a decent option for early zealers with the 50% AR boost, 200-250% ed and all the extra attributes (str, dex, etc. ) Hand of Blessed Light is another zealer option to up. 100% AR bonus, +2 paladin skills, 15% mana regen, 130-160% ED, 50% DMG to undead. Bows: some really good options here. For zon and non-zons alike. though Amazons would make the best use of them. Kuko Shakaku. Good budget fire bowazon option. Decent ed (150-180%), Piercing attack (50), +3 immolation arrow, +3 Bow and crossbow skills. socket with a good ed/ias jewel or sheal rune to help with the lack of IAS. Cliffkiller. Another bowazon option. 190-230% ed, adds (5-10)-(20-30) dmg, +2 amazon skills, +50 life, Knockback. As above, add a sheal or similar IAS to a socket to help with the lack of it. Goldstrike Arch. Probably the best option here for endgame short of windforce/faith, potentially better. Depending on stats rolled. 200-250% ed, 100-200% dmg to demons and undead, 50% IAS, 5% chance to cast level 7 FOH on striking, replenish life 12, 100-150% bonus AR. socket it with a dual leach jewel or ML rune to help with that and watch things melt. Same requirements as Windforce when up'd. Polearms: a few decent budget options for mercs. Blackleach Blade. 100-140% ED is ok, the max dmg/level is great here though. 1-123, 5% chance to cast level 5 weaken on striking, requirements -25% helps your merc use this early and offset the stats increase when up'd, and 8% LL helps them stay alive. Eth option is always a boon of course. socket with IAS rune/jewel to help that offset. Grim's Burning dead Grim Scythe. 140-180% ED, some fire damage, -50% targets defense, +20% enhanced defense, 200-250 AR, 45% fire res, requirements -50%!! great budget option for travincal farming merc. socket with sheal or ed/ias jewel to help offset the lack of IAS. Very low requirements when up'd. Shields: some good options for niche farming and budget builds Bverrit Keep is a decent option for farming travincal. 75% fire res, 80-120% ED, 5 STr. The Ward is another alternative option. 30-50% all res, 100% ED, 10 Str, 10% increased block chance Belts : a couple options for budget and endgame. Lenymo. Great option for ES sorc. 30% mana regen? yes please! 15 mana, all res 5 is meh otherwise. up it to elite for the extra pot slots. Bladebuckle. Decent budget option for melee. 30% FHR, 80-100% ED. 10 dex, 5 str. Up for more pot slots. Glooms Trap. alternative to Lenymo for ES sorcs or other casters and even melee. 15% max mana, 15% mana regen, 120-150% ED, 15 vitality, 5% ML. good budget option and useful in some endgame builds. Low str requirement when up'd (106).
Thanks for the guide. Would love to see some more in-depth information on upping rare items as those are typically the most profitable / useful for ultra-late game.
Eth blackleach blade bill fully upgraded to a CV, larzuk socketed with a shael/40-15. I take it over insight on my blaze/orb sorc any day. Scaling dmg, Good atk spd, good Ls for sustain, and a weaken proc that procs constantly. Much love for this item!!!
@@Ridimir they can be yes, the issue with the rare items is that your looking for very specific stat roles based on what build your playing. Quad res boots, java/bow gloves, 5 nado/twister/hurricane pelts, etc. Unique items are just much easier to come by and I didn't want to make the post too long. It's already a pretty large read.
Thanks so much! I never knew upgrading belts increased slots and I literally avoided using my gold wrap because it only had 3 rows but now I'm stoked I get to farm with it again!
I always upgrade my Magefists 1x to 71 Def. I upgrade items whenever I can, as long as I have the attributes for them. I think upgrading is underrated.
@@golternator333 It's just easier to upgrade Magefists 1x and get the Perfect 71 Def. I just love perfect items. And yes, it makes sense to up them 2 times if you have the strength.✌️
I only want to add that the D2 - D2R Community has been AMAZING & AWESOME for many years now, two decades, and thank you for that! I honestly remember skipping classes in middle school, at 11-12, to play D2 LOD in an internet-café in Bucharest, on Battlenet, and receiving so much help from others, from the veterans. Now, as an older gamer, I play offline and use all the Ladder runewords, I play a lvl 83, currently, WW Barb, and still have a great time, almost 19 years later since my first character when fumbling on Bnet. The community keeps games alive! Also, some push to Bliz/Microsoft to add extra features and more inventory space (got 5 mules now..) to the game, is what we could do. A $40 game that is just a reskin/remaster, with the same engine but added graphics is an enormous price. Much love to everyone playing! ❤ Now it's again my time to do a Baal run, while the kids are sleeping! Hahaha P.S. Diablo 3, 4 do not exist
I think there is a good argument to be made that Eth Upped Shaftstop is atleast 2nd BiS (after Fortitude) for a Cow Javazon Merc. Most of all you want your merc to live and Shaftstop does that very well in there, if there is almost no elemental damage going around.
Bonesnap is also a great weapon to upgrade (once). The thing with a lot of the weapons is that the enhanced damage on weapons below "elite" tier is usually really low.
An Upped Witchwild String can be a decent placeholder until the rng gods grace you with a WF. Its a little underpowered, but basically everything for a Bowazon is.
@@nileist6666 It is an exceptional Unique weapon so I don't believe so. One upgrade gets it to elite, which would be maxed out on lvl. The 2OS makes it pretty versatile depending on what other gear you happen to have though.
I disagree with upping Arreat's Face. Mine had 346 Defense (+186% ED). When I upped it, it went to 368 but the strength requirement jumped up to 196 and level requirement to 72. All in all, not worth it.
There's RNG involved in using the upgrade recipe in the horadric cube, when you find a item that has % enhanced defense it'll always roll max for the itembase in particular, but when you upgrade the items they can go anywhere within the range from top to bottom. In your case, the baseline max defense is 120 on a Slayer Guard, meanwhile the range on a Guardian Crown is 117-168. In the best case scenario your helmet would've rolled 480.48 (rounded down to 480 i assume), but it could also go as low as 334.62 - i've had this helm actually downgrade in defense at one point.
It is worth mentioning that upgrading an item does not always grant you a higher defense: Items with +%Defense spawn with max base Def +1. If you upgrade the item, the base defense of the new item is not max+1 but it gets rerolled. So with a bad roll you can actually end up with a lower defense. Vampire Gaze is a very famous example: It spawns with 252 Def (Grim Helm max base def (125) + 1 + 100%Def) but if you upgrade it, the def range of Bone Visage (100-157) is rolled. Which means you can end up with a 200 Def upgraded Vgaze :) Same goes with Arreats Face, which is a real bummer due to 196 str req ^^
I can't believe I overlooked upping skins on my hammerdin. Fantastic video! One of my fav upgrades is steel driver to a thunder maul, -50% req and an equivalent cruel of swiftness mods. Great weapon overall
@@teal_2v338 I play hardcore and having good def does make a difference when stood still whirling hammers. Eg I'm in pits and a devilkin hits me on 16% my def is over 14k
I think uppd Goldstrike would have been a good Bow option to upgrade. 200% bonus to attack rating would slam with multi arrow or straff. Great vid Bro you pretty much got it covered!👊🏻💯
I really dont know how u dont have more subscribers with this top tier content... one of the best channels of diablo 2 on youtube :D. I really love ur content! keep it up!
2422 Shaftstop is one of the BiS armor choices for zealots in melee pvp. Extremely expensive armor! Three other excellent options are eth up’d Toothrow, Eth Up’d Black Hades and Eth Up’d Duriel’s Shell. Excellent armor choices!
Great video Dbrunski! You are a god send to the D2 community. You and Llama are the two youtubers/streamers I watch for the best information. Thanks for doing all this.
@@justinhowell712 yeah I watch them a bit too but wasn't wanting to list off everyone while I was trying to give him a compliment lol. but I haven't heard of cooley, ill check em out. Thanks!
Awesome video! Big like! 15% IAS Jewels in Shaftstop and Vgaze combined with a Thresher weapon will still give a decent overall attack speed. Could be cool :)
Thanks a lot! Moments after I watched this video I dropped a near perfect ED% Eth Hone Sundan on HC. I upgraded this beast and it hits like a truck! 99-724 dmg.
I agree with the items listed. People covered most the ones you left out. I think there is a whole other list of items that are extremely useful in mid-level/Nightmare areas. But it's easy to forget a throw barb because they aren't very strong anyway, but they won't even stand a chance without some Eth, upgraded Scalpers Francisca to Flying Axe, like Titans they replenish quantity. And I would mention Valk Wing and like others said the Goldstrike and Buriza
I love eth upped duriel's shell for merc! High defense, life per level, 20 fire, 20 light, 20 poison, 50 cold res, 15 strength AND cannot be frozen! And 1os choice.
I'd rather have treachery even over a uppd duriels. In the end cannot be frozen is nice but in my experience the 45 ias with fade procced doesn't compare to duriels until fortitude. My Merc literally doesn't die with treachery. I mean of he does.. but it's extremely rare with fade procced which is easy to proc in itself. So not dying while being stronger and faster? Ias is so important for LL for mercs. If your going to use a lem to up. I'd rather make a treachery is what I'm getting at. Way more value out of it. I'd rather up a high res vipermagi for my own characters than a duriels.
I had no idea Kicksin damage was tied to the boot stats, I love that little detail. I remember in Skyrim the gloves impacted hand to hand damage, but since that game didn’t have a hand to hand tree (cause it sucks) I never used it. Oh yeah it needed a perk point in heavy armor or something to even be active.
It does say (except on set boots for whatever reason) how much kick damage there is on a boot, so it's not all that hidden. The set boots also have the same damage as the base boot type of whatever it is, e.g. Aldur's Advnace being Battle Boots gives 37-64. It's always a massive upgrade as an untwinked kicksin to either upgrade your boots or find a new set of boots of upgraded quality, pretty much no matter what the other stats are. The difference between Elite and Exceptional and Exceptional and Normal is massive. Edit: Should specify. You can see the damage listed only while playing Assassin.
Back in the day playing Morrowind, hand to hand took away stamina, which made dudes fall over and pass out. Then they'd just be a punching bag on the ground. It was super effective.
I use Duress on all my melee characters. So upping my arreats was a no brainer for me. With Duress and Gore Riders I found that I had plenty of CB, CS, OW.
Bonesnap is my jam. Whenever I make a fury Druid I hunt for that maul. The ED, crushing blow, and resistances are amazing. It will carry me through Nightmare and into Hell easily.
Great vid! just my 2 cents. I've always loved an eth upped Hone Sundan for an Act2 merc, especially if you are having weird MF luck or if you are mostly single player or self found. Over time you can build a Treachery Armor with 45IAS, up the HS and get the Ghost Spear version and shove 3xShaels in it and that makes the 105 breakpoint for 5.5. Get a helm with life leech and you're good to go. Or there's variations to the theme. Shael and Amn plus whatever else you want and a Guilliame's for the CB plus Treachery gets you the 65 breakpoint ... and so forth ...
Pretty comprehensive list. I'd add Nightsmoke, very nieche use, but many zerker barbs use it solve mana problems. I usually go Trang belt on my zerker builds, to avoid cold damage from Raven, but there are some crazy people out there, who do more than just mf runs on pure zerkers.
Great video, I recently did a normal-hell run-through as a bowazon this weekend and got lots of value out of an upped rogues bow, was a great item to use until I could equip witchwild
@@LaddRusso91 yeah, slapped a couple of random +max damage/enhanced damage gems in it and it carried me all the way til lvl 73 when I could get the Windforce equipped
@@LaddRusso91 Would be nice to but I'm poor at the moment, on a dry streak for items so a faith is a little out of budget atm. I'm actually thinking of going dual dream's as my next "big" purchases and going melee sorc or tesladin :)
They also just need more unique elite gear in general. A lot of elite items don’t have unique variants. And it is kind of dumb when a lot of upped exceptional uniques are better than some of the elite uniques that do exist.
Keep up the great work. I really like your content. Especially videos like this. For newer players it really helps. I also like your base videos, and Merc, buff videos. Please buff hydra blizzard.
Concernng Carrion Vine: What if it heals your minions and Merc, too? Right now, it only heals the Player himself. When talking about buffing the summons, Carrion Vine healing those summons would be a great improvement!
When talking about Smite Damage on Shields, it might be in your best interest to display those items on a Paladin. That way you'll actually be able to show the Shield Damage in the mods. Same idea with showing off Boots on Assassins to show the Kick Damage on the Boots.
@@Pavlo211 Yep I agree. Most just want to be told how to think these days though. Personally, I would never waste my time upgrading a Hone Sundan lmao. Nice upgrade options that I've made lots of use of over the years are Eth Up'd Duriel's Shell, Eth Up'd Toothrow, and Eth Up'd Black Hades. Phenomenal Melee armor.
So what stat affects the smite damage when you upgrade a shield? He doesnt mention that in the video. Isnt it just the armor that gets higher? Om not a smiter so I have no clue 😅
LOL I tried upgrading Arreat's Face once and ended up with LOWER defense (352 vs. 361) for higher strength requirement. Since that was on single player I just nuked D2 before it would autosave (and thankfully I did it fast enough). :) Yea to Hone Sundan. Very underrated spear I got sometime in 2005. Now a backup weapon for my Hardcore Amazon. Now with Shael+Amn+Um. Yea to Vipermagi. 'Nuff said. I upgraded one of 2 I have (the other is kept as it was for the up and coming characters to wear while levelling). My own list of stuff to add: Buriza-do Kyanon. You get very high strength requirements but it's a weapon that shines, and max damage is levelling up - what's not to like? Lycander's Aim. I discovered it lately and my HC bowazon uses it to great effect. Duriel's Shell. The strength requirement doesn't go through the roof for once. Nightsmoke. One of only 3 belts to have + all resists and it's insane that it first becomes available at just level 20. Unless you're a barbarian you would probably want to stick to that for a while. There's also a boatload of "no-brainer" gear like String of Ears, Infernostride, Venom Grip etc. (Have you noticed how it all - plus the Vipermagi - becomes available at once, at level 29, and a character will not be the same after getting all this amazing gear, and more, available to them?) If I have the runes on hand, I upgrade these for extra defense too.
I’ve used an upped Rattlecage on mercs in the past. Decent budget option if you haven’t found the runes to make the more typical runeword armors yet. Socket that bad boy to give it some life leech and you’re viable all the way through hell.
Question, is there a point on any of these items where upping them wouldn’t be advised because they rolled low? So a rib cracker below “x” Ed or viper below “y” res wouldn’t be worth it? Thanks!
I wouldn't waist a lem and a ko on upping a viper unless it had 33-35 res the defence won't help that much and the armor would be worth less then a ko.
@@Dbrunski125 thank you as I'm not as familiar with variance in Ed on ribcracker. That being said if it's your only option and your pul and lem rich anything over 250% maybe but you won't get trade value back out of it. If solo maybe I'd up it if on bnet I would try and trade for one.
I've been playing SSF maul werebear and I picked up a ribcracker. You have solidified my decision to up that. But I'm too poor and don't have the runes quite yet. But I got lucky and found an IK stone crusher in the meantime. The ribcracker also gives crazy defense stats to a werebear. Very cool item for werebear.
Food for thought... Just found a Ribcracker for the first time a few days ago and never had the idea of which character it might come handy for. Thank you for the idea.
Happy to see the ribby on this list. I know you're a fan of the fury druid(same as me) and this is pretty much a must have. The only thing that even comes close to it is a tomb reaver and you lose that huge ed to demons!
I wouldn't up an Arreat's face, cause I usually go for the str "bug", in which one item gives str to use another, then another, then another till u have a full setup with ZERO str points spent. One item I like a LOT is "Duriel's Shell", now that thing is a PERFECT candidate to be upped, specially if it's Ethereal, since it's gonna provide a LOT of good stats, such as resists and EVEN +15 str, which can be useful if u still don't have Andariel's Visage to equip any eventual weapons u may want ur merc to equip...
@@chrismoore1372 weird... cause it wasn't actually a BUG... u HAVE the str to use what u wanna use, it just doesn't come from hard points... Eth Bug, now Str bug... they're ruining the game already, one more reason for me to stay in the vanilla D2...
Great point w the Shaftstop being paired w Gaze! True, it's hard to argue against Treachery and Fortitude; HOWEVER, my merc has died far less w this setup than the other 2. This is a situational setup tho. I use it w my Bramble summons Necro but not w my sorc or zon. Pride or Infinity pairs really well with it.
Upped arreats needs almost 200 str. When I was respeccing my barb for minimum STR, I noticed my alternate weapon swaps didn't give me enough strength for the guardian crown. =(
Barbarians like strength though. Back in the day I would put enough strength for every item without the reliance of another item, and enough dexterity for block without other items. Thanks to passives and warcies he still had enough defense to connect powerful hits. Works out pretty well
@@ragmancometh One reason I respecced is I previously followed a cookie cutter template off a UA-camr that put up damage numbers but lacked survivability. And as a console player with trash loading times and slowdowns, any death after lvl 90 costs you DEARLY. Most guys also had enough Lo runes for double griefs and I just had one for fort. So yeah, you're probably right....but "good enough" damage works for now while I claw my way to clvl 92.
@@xristo702 with iron skin, natural resistance, shout, battle orders, you should be pretty good but yeah i haven't really played much barb lately.. it was probably the shield providing survivability 'cause i'm not sure if whirlwind affects block rate the same way toggling run/walk does. also i haven't owned a console in years
@@xristo702 to be honest i would still recommend doing str/dex then vit as barbs get a bunch from all of those stats and still have all those skills to provide defense... i'm guessing you're doubleswing or frenzy from what you said but if you're whirlwind then one grief is enough with a stormshield
You forgot nightsmoke. Upped nightsmoke on a melee/enchant sorc is definitely one of the most slept on upgrades. 50% damage returned as mana turns you into a god, and lets you mana stack instead of hp stack. With warmth maxed, frosts, and 2 soj's you can out regen basically anything in the game (just stay the hell away from mana burners).
I've always felt like there should be more use cases for undead or demon damage. You can get massive increases from certain items. I guess there just aren't enough places that use only 1 base type that are good to farm.
@@csquared4538 well if you wear one item with huge bonus the demon damage and another item with huge bonus the undead damage you get the best of both worlds, but this is why we all love laying of hands gloves on melee characters, perfect example
My two favourite items to up is bonesnap crushing blow and insane damage for a non elite weapon. Gore riders if you are running a kick sin the -%requirement puts them at 156 str same as a monarch which your likely to have on switch for cta.
New to this but how do you upgrade? Is there a list somewhere that shows what you can upgrade and what to use to do it? I mean what runes and gem combos do you use? Random stuff or certain order?
I found a ribcracker the other day and I just tossed it because I didn't think it was worth anything. Not too big of a deal I guess since I don't plan on making a shifter druid.
I am happy to see you, still covering for Diablo 2. Is this the Resurrected version? Because I have been trying to actually figure out your channel name, and happy to finally having found you, and reSUB.
For most of the class specific weapons I agree. But for the armors, in most cases the defense buff is pretty negligeable, the defense stat in d2 overall isn't super important. It's one thing to go from like 400 to 1000 defense in the case of viper magi, but in most cases the extra 50-100 defense isn't worth the runes.
My Wulf is using a Steeldriver Martel De Fer, and it has INSANE damage for level 34.. If i find a perfect one, ill upgrade it x2 to Thunder Maul since it comes with a helpful -50% Requirements.. Probably but a Shael in it
@@THEGRUMPTRUCK Mine is imperfect, like 187/200 ED%.. If i find a perfect one, or VERY close ill x2 upgrade it. Mainly due to the IAS and -50% requirements
Great video I have been playing Diablo for a while now and also back in the OG days and I never knew you could do this. How did people ever figure out these ruin words and upgrades
Important to note with Ribcracker is that Stalagmite base is slower than Quarterstaff base. So if u up it, you have to consider that it's going to be slower.
I think one thing youre missing on some of these type of vids is breaking down the time periods of play (character levels) where each of these items actually are top notch. For example, the vipermagi is dominant on your sorc from 29 to 57 as a serpentskin armor, then from 57 to at least 65 as a wyrmhide, then gives way to enigma in a dusk shroud or archon plate at level 65. I know I could benefit from knowing when to switch up the gear on each character.
99.9% of players who need the information in this video won't have any enigma for WAY longer than lv 65 anyways. Doesn't seem like critical information to me 🤷♂️
maybe you should warn people about upping war boots in particular, 208 strength requirement, I did my gore riders for my pally smiter 🤦♂️ had to find a new pair before I could respec all that strength back into life
You missed Wild Witch String, Steel Driver, and Head Striker. I would argue that Hone Sudan has to be eth to be worth upgrading. Arreat's face is a little risky because the base defense resets when you up it and it can end up with higher requirements and less defense. Arreats defense range is 302 to 363 upped it can be 292 to 504. IIRC it requires 78 more strength. Still a great list.
In the part about Titan's you present a weird argument - you say that people argue against having Eth Titans because they like having more than one in inventory instead of waiting for them to replenish. But this doesn't have anything to do with them being eth or not. If they want to keep two sets of Titans then it would be even more beneficial for them to be ethereal. People MIGHT argue against Eth Titans if they want to repair them for quicker replenish. Also it goes without saying that the number one thing that concerns upgrading items are the requirements. A Paladin with Gore Riders is not going to up them because it will boost the req. Str to levels he simply doesn't need.
@@bobnewkirk7003 thanks! Didn’t want to test it, but wanted to up my um’d 34 viper on HC. And it’s so hard to remember all these details from 20 years ago. Lol
Duriel's Shell can be upgraded as well. I wouldn't do it because if you have the Lem rune to up it, you better use this Lem for treachery instead. But it's still an okayish merc armor for early progression. The cbf and resists help.
Comment didn't age well now that you can upgrade it next patch. As far as what they were thinking I dunno game was made 20 years ago and like 70% of set / unique items are bad to mediocre, but for a game back then that was years ahead of everything else they did an ok job. A lot of items are going for flavor or just trying to be cool and I don't think meta/balance were highly considered. Most of the "good items" didn't come until 1.09 to 1.10 after devs had more experience and they added better some uniques and overpowered runewords. If I remember right as well patch 1.10 where all the meta runewords came from was mainly designed by a single guy so it's not like they had teams of balance testers like modern games.
@@jagoob okay. Was just finding it weird that no kick damage was found on Assassin's set boots while all other boots on the game have damages. Ironical.
@@daviddesgagneoh, well it does have kick damage actually. I don't know if it's a bug where it doesn't show or if you are looking on a non-assassin character.
Surprised not to see Buriza on here. The damage is comparable to a Windforce if you can get a near 200 ED one. Ya the strength requirement on it at 163 on the Colossus Crossbow is a lot for an Amazon but if you throw a Hel rune in it it's not to bad.
I upgraded my HoZ… what a terrible idea. Defense went from 432 to 435, and nothing else changed. But the strength requirement from the HoZ went from 89 to 142.. RIP my Lem and Ko, and RIP all that extra strength
Now, how DID you get this social recluse out of his nest? hehe. I always love your guitar playing Arjen. Looking forward to this new Star One album, and I absolutely love the two first songs/videos you have released to date. Cheers!
@@mrkiky yeah true.. definitely not worth it on a sorc, especially if you don’t have a different shield other than spirit that has higher block. With spirit, even 500 more defense doesn’t do much.
I'm enjoying my upped eth scalper this ladder. Picked up a perfect one for super cheap, hits like a truck. Paired with an eth lacerator and things just melt.
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I've been playing this game off and on for 20 years and never new that upping a gold wrap gives it more potion slots. I've been using the 3 stack version this whole time. Thank you!
😂 it’s actually usable with more slots
You forgot Moser's black circle. It adds a nice +8% to block for every character when upgrading.
This was my go-to shield when playing on budget.
isn't it blessed circle or something?
Great stuff. Should be noted that If you're running a basic unique like Chancies, Gtoes , Hotspurs, mages. It's always worth upping once. It costs a few runes from normal countes and a pgem. (Basically free) Chancies goes from like 27 to 65+ Def. Which may not seem like a ton but for hardcore characters every little bit helps! You can't mf when you're dead :)
Also don't forget that sometimes the str/dex requirements can jump a bit too!
I've always liked upping these items as I play through the game, waiting to replace gear:
Lycander's Aim - can be upped to a GMB while you wait to get Windforce→Faith
Goldstrike Arch - same as lycander's, decent bow most throw away that you could up until windforce/faith
Jalal's Mane - much like Arreat's Face, has all the same benefits and problems
Nightsmoke - decent belt for a while until end game: 10 all res, +20 mana, 50% dmg to mana
Upped nightsmoke on a melee/enchant sorc is definitely one of the most slept on upgrades.
50% damage returned as mana turns you into a god, and lets you mana stack instead of hp stack.
With warmth maxed, frosts, and 2 soj's you can out regen basically anything in the game with your insight merc (just stay the hell away from mana burners).
I could up my Lycander's, but I went with Buriza to save on runes (SSF).
I've been using dark glow diamond mail with an increase attack speed jewel and irathas set to put all my resistances up to 90% max on a barb. I like it.
So this is a HUGE list, but I hope it will be helpful to those reading the comments for both budget and end-game builds as well as hopefully giving some insight towards other options for niche end-game builds. Be that for PVP or PVM. Enjoy! I stuck with just uniques, since set items would just make this list that much longer lol. I would also recommend always checking the required stats to use the upgraded base item before upgrading the item to ensure you or your merc can use it after you have up'd it. really sucks to have to grind out some levels before you can use the item(s) you just up'd.
Armor : lots of options based on what you want to build your character/merc for. Budget and end-game.
Rockfleece is an ok option for a single up, maybe two if you have the STR to spare. 10% dr is nothing to scoff at. -10% requirements, 100-130% ED +5 str. Great option for martial characters, good budget merc armor.
Goldskin for a budget gold find build. 100% gold find, 35% all res, 120-150% Ed. Good base defense. Probably best suited to a budget barb.
Skin of the Flayed one, especially if eth since it has repair mod. 150-190% ED, 5-7% LL, Replenish life 15-25, attacker takes damage 15. great budget melee armor. High defense potential.
Spirit Forge with high +life per/level potential (1-123). buffable by BO. 120-160% ED, 2 open sockets so you can use an eth and zod it or drop um runes in for the lack of res. +15 Str.
Que-hagen's is a great alternate option for Vmagi. Socket it with an Um rune to help make up for the no res. 140-160%ED, high defense potential with low STR requirement for casters.
Black Hades, great option for mercs. 3 open sockets, 140-200% ED, 30-60% dmg to demons, 200-250 AR to demons, Half freeze duration. Eth + some ias/ed jewels makes a powerhouse merc. High strength requirement drawback though. might want -XX% requirements in sockets instead depending on how you choose to use.
Gloves : not much to say here. A few options though for budget builds.
Venomgrip is probably the best budget option to up here. 130-160% ED, tiny bit of CB (5%), 30% poison res, 5% max poison res, and 5% LL. Will get an ok return on defense for a reasonable STR requirement when up'd to elite gloves.
Lavagout and Hellmouth are a couple options but all your really getting is a bit of extra defense in exchange for a high STR requirement. Only really useful in some niche builds. Likely best used on travincal farmers with high str.
Helms : A few options for both casters and melee. Budget and endgame.
Peasant Crown. not much to say about this one, its the budget shako, just adding some defense when upd.
Rockstopper. Absolute beast when up'd for a melee build if your lacking on res, especially with good rolls and an um rune. Up it to add some extra defense. 160-220% ED really helps with the defense boost. 10% DR. 20-40% cold res, 20-50% fire res, 20-40% lightning res, 15 vitality, 30% FHR. just a solid helm. Great for a merc too if eth and up'd.
Stealskull. 10% IAS/FHR, 30-50% MF 200-240% ED, and 5% dual leach. Great option to up for early melee mf builds. toss an um in to help with res. Great merc option when eth.
Blackthorn's Face. Great budget option for lightning absorb (20), 180-220% ED, 15% lightning res. really good alternative or when paired with Tgods for ubers. Good merc option for ubers.
Boots: just one here, mainly for min/max though.
Silkweave is an uping option for casters but thats more for min/maxing your build.
Weapons: some really good budget and endgame options.
Axes
The Gnasher makes a good up option for early barbs with its crushing blow and open wounds, 2 of them can wreck mobs when up'd.
Butcher's Pupil is another option as well, especially if it's eth since its Indestructible and it comes with Deadly Strike, Open Wounds, and a decent Ias and ED (150-200%)
Swords
Ginther's Rift is a good option if you want to forego the need for berserk or other magical damage to overcome magic immunes.
Headstriker would be a really good option as it has a static 150% ED, Max damage/lvl (+99 at max), Deadly Strike/lvl(max of 148%) , +15 Str.
The Atlantean is a decent option for early zealers with the 50% AR boost, 200-250% ed and all the extra attributes (str, dex, etc. )
Hand of Blessed Light is another zealer option to up. 100% AR bonus, +2 paladin skills, 15% mana regen, 130-160% ED, 50% DMG to undead.
Bows: some really good options here. For zon and non-zons alike. though Amazons would make the best use of them.
Kuko Shakaku. Good budget fire bowazon option. Decent ed (150-180%), Piercing attack (50), +3 immolation arrow, +3 Bow and crossbow skills. socket with a good ed/ias jewel or sheal rune to help with the lack of IAS.
Cliffkiller. Another bowazon option. 190-230% ed, adds (5-10)-(20-30) dmg, +2 amazon skills, +50 life, Knockback. As above, add a sheal or similar IAS to a socket to help with the lack of it.
Goldstrike Arch. Probably the best option here for endgame short of windforce/faith, potentially better. Depending on stats rolled. 200-250% ed, 100-200% dmg to demons and undead, 50% IAS, 5% chance to cast level 7 FOH on striking, replenish life 12, 100-150% bonus AR. socket it with a dual leach jewel or ML rune to help with that and watch things melt. Same requirements as Windforce when up'd.
Polearms: a few decent budget options for mercs.
Blackleach Blade. 100-140% ED is ok, the max dmg/level is great here though. 1-123, 5% chance to cast level 5 weaken on striking, requirements -25% helps your merc use this early and offset the stats increase when up'd, and 8% LL helps them stay alive. Eth option is always a boon of course. socket with IAS rune/jewel to help that offset.
Grim's Burning dead Grim Scythe. 140-180% ED, some fire damage, -50% targets defense, +20% enhanced defense, 200-250 AR, 45% fire res, requirements -50%!! great budget option for travincal farming merc. socket with sheal or ed/ias jewel to help offset the lack of IAS. Very low requirements when up'd.
Shields: some good options for niche farming and budget builds
Bverrit Keep is a decent option for farming travincal. 75% fire res, 80-120% ED, 5 STr.
The Ward is another alternative option. 30-50% all res, 100% ED, 10 Str, 10% increased block chance
Belts : a couple options for budget and endgame.
Lenymo. Great option for ES sorc. 30% mana regen? yes please! 15 mana, all res 5 is meh otherwise. up it to elite for the extra pot slots.
Bladebuckle. Decent budget option for melee. 30% FHR, 80-100% ED. 10 dex, 5 str. Up for more pot slots.
Glooms Trap. alternative to Lenymo for ES sorcs or other casters and even melee. 15% max mana, 15% mana regen, 120-150% ED, 15 vitality, 5% ML. good budget option and useful in some endgame builds. Low str requirement when up'd (106).
Thanks for the guide. Would love to see some more in-depth information on upping rare items as those are typically the most profitable / useful for ultra-late game.
Eth blackleach blade bill fully upgraded to a CV, larzuk socketed with a shael/40-15. I take it over insight on my blaze/orb sorc any day. Scaling dmg, Good atk spd, good Ls for sustain, and a weaken proc that procs constantly. Much love for this item!!!
Uped Venom Ward breastplate when fighting against Lilith
@@Ridimir they can be yes, the issue with the rare items is that your looking for very specific stat roles based on what build your playing. Quad res boots, java/bow gloves, 5 nado/twister/hurricane pelts, etc.
Unique items are just much easier to come by and I didn't want to make the post too long. It's already a pretty large read.
Thanks so much! I never knew upgrading belts increased slots and I literally avoided using my gold wrap because it only had 3 rows but now I'm stoked I get to farm with it again!
I always upgrade my Magefists 1x to 71 Def. I upgrade items whenever I can, as long as I have the attributes for them. I think upgrading is underrated.
I double up magefists IF I have the str.
Enigma gives alot of str
@@golternator333 It's just easier to upgrade Magefists 1x and get the Perfect 71 Def. I just love perfect items. And yes, it makes sense to up them 2 times if you have the strength.✌️
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. If I have a couple extra hanging around then yes.
Elite upgrade dont worth it most of the time .. i prefer keeping those runes..
I traded for a magefist recently, I didn't notice it was upped to elite until afterwards. It worked out though because I had enough str.
I only want to add that the D2 - D2R Community has been AMAZING & AWESOME for many years now, two decades, and thank you for that!
I honestly remember skipping classes in middle school, at 11-12, to play D2 LOD in an internet-café in Bucharest, on Battlenet, and receiving so much help from others, from the veterans.
Now, as an older gamer, I play offline and use all the Ladder runewords, I play a lvl 83, currently, WW Barb, and still have a great time, almost 19 years later since my first character when fumbling on Bnet.
The community keeps games alive!
Also, some push to Bliz/Microsoft to add extra features and more inventory space (got 5 mules now..) to the game, is what we could do. A $40 game that is just a reskin/remaster, with the same engine but added graphics is an enormous price.
Much love to everyone playing! ❤
Now it's again my time to do a Baal run, while the kids are sleeping! Hahaha
P.S. Diablo 3, 4 do not exist
I think there is a good argument to be made that Eth Upped Shaftstop is atleast 2nd BiS (after Fortitude) for a Cow Javazon Merc. Most of all you want your merc to live and Shaftstop does that very well in there, if there is almost no elemental damage going around.
I'd think treachery is easily #2 overall.
Bonesnap is also a great weapon to upgrade (once). The thing with a lot of the weapons is that the enhanced damage on weapons below "elite" tier is usually really low.
@@ryanmartin674 pretty great damage and cb for a lvl 30 maul once upped
The exceptional upgrade got my barb thorough NM and into hell.
Upped bonesnap is fabulous for a fury druid.
What about an eth one ?
@@sebastienbeaulieu4070 Not worth it.
An Upped Witchwild String can be a decent placeholder until the rng gods grace you with a WF. Its a little underpowered, but basically everything for a Bowazon is.
Great idea, I’m going to try that!
Cant you double up a wws?
@@nileist6666 It is an exceptional Unique weapon so I don't believe so. One upgrade gets it to elite, which would be maxed out on lvl. The 2OS makes it pretty versatile depending on what other gear you happen to have though.
Stays good for dealing with immunes on a strafer, even after you get your gg bow
Poor bowazon. The most hated on of any classes who say they get hated on.
I disagree with upping Arreat's Face. Mine had 346 Defense (+186% ED). When I upped it, it went to 368 but the strength requirement jumped up to 196 and level requirement to 72. All in all, not worth it.
There's RNG involved in using the upgrade recipe in the horadric cube, when you find a item that has % enhanced defense it'll always roll max for the itembase in particular, but when you upgrade the items they can go anywhere within the range from top to bottom.
In your case, the baseline max defense is 120 on a Slayer Guard, meanwhile the range on a Guardian Crown is 117-168. In the best case scenario your helmet would've rolled 480.48 (rounded down to 480 i assume), but it could also go as low as 334.62 - i've had this helm actually downgrade in defense at one point.
Same for mine a disappointment.
I upgraded a 200 ED and rolled a 756 def, perfect roll
Eth*
It is worth mentioning that upgrading an item does not always grant you a higher defense:
Items with +%Defense spawn with max base Def +1. If you upgrade the item, the base defense of the new item is not max+1 but it gets rerolled. So with a bad roll you can actually end up with a lower defense. Vampire Gaze is a very famous example:
It spawns with 252 Def (Grim Helm max base def (125) + 1 + 100%Def) but if you upgrade it, the def range of Bone Visage (100-157) is rolled. Which means you can end up with a 200 Def upgraded Vgaze :)
Same goes with Arreats Face, which is a real bummer due to 196 str req ^^
I can't believe I overlooked upping skins on my hammerdin. Fantastic video! One of my fav upgrades is steel driver to a thunder maul, -50% req and an equivalent cruel of swiftness mods. Great weapon overall
Why? We dont need that much def anyway.. ?
@@teal_2v338 I play hardcore and having good def does make a difference when stood still whirling hammers. Eg I'm in pits and a devilkin hits me on 16% my def is over 14k
I think uppd Goldstrike would have been a good Bow option to upgrade. 200% bonus to attack rating would slam with multi arrow or straff. Great vid Bro you pretty much got it covered!👊🏻💯
I really dont know how u dont have more subscribers with this top tier content... one of the best channels of diablo 2 on youtube :D. I really love ur content! keep it up!
D2 has SOO MANY FEATURES it's insane. I played D2 LoD back in the day for YEARS...and i admit......i NEVER knew about upgrading items.
I never played expansion at all until d2r so imagine how overwhelmed i am
I think it's just a new feature.
Great video as always. Just upped my viper magi and got 1023 def!
2422 Shaftstop is one of the BiS armor choices for zealots in melee pvp. Extremely expensive armor!
Three other excellent options are eth up’d Toothrow, Eth Up’d Black Hades and Eth Up’d Duriel’s Shell. Excellent armor choices!
Yeah I just commented about Duriel's Shell too!
My merc is wearing an eth d shell n it's jus over 2k def. Now I jus need to lvl him to use this eth reapers toll n Andy's visage
Good luck getting a 2422 eth shaft shop lol, those things are expensive even on classic D2 non ladder.
Great video Dbrunski! You are a god send to the D2 community. You and Llama are the two youtubers/streamers I watch for the best information. Thanks for doing all this.
Llama is great for map reading. I also like his sense of humorl.
Make sure you check out cooleys vids too if you haven't yet also old school game snob has some nice d2 vids too
@@justinhowell712 totaly agreed with that 👍🏻
@@justinhowell712 yeah I watch them a bit too but wasn't wanting to list off everyone while I was trying to give him a compliment lol. but I haven't heard of cooley, ill check em out. Thanks!
Vipermagi is a must upgrade
Defense increase: 270 to 950
Str req: irrelevant, since spirit 156 str req
Paladins likemlow star reqs
Eth and upped duriel’s shell has been pretty nice for the merc. 2250 def cap, but the other stats make up for it pretty well
That is what I had on Emilio before finding my eth leviathan! It was very good indeed even at level 94
Awesome video! Big like!
15% IAS Jewels in Shaftstop and Vgaze combined with a Thresher weapon will still give a decent overall attack speed. Could be cool :)
need a cham
Thanks a lot! Moments after I watched this video I dropped a near perfect ED% Eth Hone Sundan on HC. I upgraded this beast and it hits like a truck! 99-724 dmg.
What runes did you go with?
I agree with the items listed. People covered most the ones you left out. I think there is a whole other list of items that are extremely useful in mid-level/Nightmare areas. But it's easy to forget a throw barb because they aren't very strong anyway, but they won't even stand a chance without some Eth, upgraded Scalpers Francisca to Flying Axe, like Titans they replenish quantity. And I would mention Valk Wing and like others said the Goldstrike and Buriza
I love eth upped duriel's shell for merc!
High defense, life per level, 20 fire, 20 light, 20 poison, 50 cold res, 15 strength AND cannot be frozen!
And 1os choice.
I'd rather have treachery even over a uppd duriels. In the end cannot be frozen is nice but in my experience the 45 ias with fade procced doesn't compare to duriels until fortitude. My Merc literally doesn't die with treachery. I mean of he does.. but it's extremely rare with fade procced which is easy to proc in itself. So not dying while being stronger and faster? Ias is so important for LL for mercs. If your going to use a lem to up. I'd rather make a treachery is what I'm getting at. Way more value out of it. I'd rather up a high res vipermagi for my own characters than a duriels.
I had no idea Kicksin damage was tied to the boot stats, I love that little detail. I remember in Skyrim the gloves impacted hand to hand damage, but since that game didn’t have a hand to hand tree (cause it sucks) I never used it. Oh yeah it needed a perk point in heavy armor or something to even be active.
It does say (except on set boots for whatever reason) how much kick damage there is on a boot, so it's not all that hidden. The set boots also have the same damage as the base boot type of whatever it is, e.g. Aldur's Advnace being Battle Boots gives 37-64. It's always a massive upgrade as an untwinked kicksin to either upgrade your boots or find a new set of boots of upgraded quality, pretty much no matter what the other stats are. The difference between Elite and Exceptional and Exceptional and Normal is massive.
Edit: Should specify. You can see the damage listed only while playing Assassin.
Back in the day playing Morrowind, hand to hand took away stamina, which made dudes fall over and pass out. Then they'd just be a punching bag on the ground. It was super effective.
Appreciate these videos man, I look forward to sending your channel to anyone that is curious about more Diablo related content!!🙌🏽
I use Duress on all my melee characters. So upping my arreats was a no brainer for me. With Duress and Gore Riders I found that I had plenty of CB, CS, OW.
Would you suggest this over fort for a 2hand fury druid?
Duress is a gg melee armor. Not as good as fort for general pvm but arguably better than fort for ubers
@@stupidchillout for Fury, no. Fort is just god-mode for us Wolves. Duress is an absolutely phenomenal armor to use before Fort though
Bonesnap is my jam. Whenever I make a fury Druid I hunt for that maul. The ED, crushing blow, and resistances are amazing. It will carry me through Nightmare and into Hell easily.
Steeldriver is my favorite item to find on melee character, up to carry through nm.
Great vid!
just my 2 cents. I've always loved an eth upped Hone Sundan for an Act2 merc, especially if you are having weird MF luck or if you are mostly single player or self found. Over time you can build a Treachery Armor with 45IAS, up the HS and get the Ghost Spear version and shove 3xShaels in it and that makes the 105 breakpoint for 5.5. Get a helm with life leech and you're good to go. Or there's variations to the theme. Shael and Amn plus whatever else you want and a Guilliame's for the CB plus Treachery gets you the 65 breakpoint ... and so forth ...
Pretty comprehensive list. I'd add Nightsmoke, very nieche use, but many zerker barbs use it solve mana problems. I usually go Trang belt on my zerker builds, to avoid cold damage from Raven, but there are some crazy people out there, who do more than just mf runs on pure zerkers.
Definitely a good selection. I like the Atlantean sword, duriel shell, or goldstrike bow. Mid lvl stuff
Great video, I recently did a normal-hell run-through as a bowazon this weekend and got lots of value out of an upped rogues bow, was a great item to use until I could equip witchwild
Love Witchy, great lil bow, slept on a bit
@@LaddRusso91 yeah, slapped a couple of random +max damage/enhanced damage gems in it and it carried me all the way til lvl 73 when I could get the Windforce equipped
@@BigMarbs sounds sick. U going faith merc?
@@LaddRusso91 Would be nice to but I'm poor at the moment, on a dry streak for items so a faith is a little out of budget atm.
I'm actually thinking of going dual dream's as my next "big" purchases and going melee sorc or tesladin :)
They also just need more unique elite gear in general. A lot of elite items don’t have unique variants. And it is kind of dumb when a lot of upped exceptional uniques are better than some of the elite uniques that do exist.
Keep up the great work. I really like your content. Especially videos like this. For newer players it really helps. I also like your base videos, and Merc, buff videos. Please buff hydra blizzard.
Concernng Carrion Vine: What if it heals your minions and Merc, too? Right now, it only heals the Player himself. When talking about buffing the summons, Carrion Vine healing those summons would be a great improvement!
When talking about Smite Damage on Shields, it might be in your best interest to display those items on a Paladin. That way you'll actually be able to show the Shield Damage in the mods. Same idea with showing off Boots on Assassins to show the Kick Damage on the Boots.
It’s not that big a deal. Easy information to look up.
@@Greynth same logic: you can also check which items to up by yourself.. more knowledge on the video the better it is
@@Pavlo211 Yep I agree. Most just want to be told how to think these days though. Personally, I would never waste my time upgrading a Hone Sundan lmao.
Nice upgrade options that I've made lots of use of over the years are Eth Up'd Duriel's Shell, Eth Up'd Toothrow, and Eth Up'd Black Hades. Phenomenal Melee armor.
So what stat affects the smite damage when you upgrade a shield? He doesnt mention that in the video. Isnt it just the armor that gets higher? Om not a smiter so I have no clue 😅
@@percollen46 Shield damage is only shown when you're playing a Paladin. That's the original poster's point.
I totally forgot to upgrade my Goblin Toes. Thanks for the reminder man :D
LOL I tried upgrading Arreat's Face once and ended up with LOWER defense (352 vs. 361) for higher strength requirement. Since that was on single player I just nuked D2 before it would autosave (and thankfully I did it fast enough). :)
Yea to Hone Sundan. Very underrated spear I got sometime in 2005. Now a backup weapon for my Hardcore Amazon. Now with Shael+Amn+Um.
Yea to Vipermagi. 'Nuff said. I upgraded one of 2 I have (the other is kept as it was for the up and coming characters to wear while levelling).
My own list of stuff to add:
Buriza-do Kyanon. You get very high strength requirements but it's a weapon that shines, and max damage is levelling up - what's not to like?
Lycander's Aim. I discovered it lately and my HC bowazon uses it to great effect.
Duriel's Shell. The strength requirement doesn't go through the roof for once.
Nightsmoke. One of only 3 belts to have + all resists and it's insane that it first becomes available at just level 20. Unless you're a barbarian you would probably want to stick to that for a while.
There's also a boatload of "no-brainer" gear like String of Ears, Infernostride, Venom Grip etc. (Have you noticed how it all - plus the Vipermagi - becomes available at once, at level 29, and a character will not be the same after getting all this amazing gear, and more, available to them?) If I have the runes on hand, I upgrade these for extra defense too.
I always liked an Upped Duriel's shell for my merc, especially an eth one.
Seems like alot of people sleep on this armour early on for mercs.
I’ve used an upped Rattlecage on mercs in the past. Decent budget option if you haven’t found the runes to make the more typical runeword armors yet. Socket that bad boy to give it some life leech and you’re viable all the way through hell.
Question, is there a point on any of these items where upping them wouldn’t be advised because they rolled low? So a rib cracker below “x” Ed or viper below “y” res wouldn’t be worth it? Thanks!
I wouldn't waist a lem and a ko on upping a viper unless it had 33-35 res the defence won't help that much and the armor would be worth less then a ko.
I upped my 33 res because it's what I had. Got perfect defences for the first time on it fml
@@whodeyfps478 appreciate the response. How about the Ribcracker?
@@VipR25 maybe 270 and up ed I would suggest for rib cracker
@@Dbrunski125 thank you as I'm not as familiar with variance in Ed on ribcracker. That being said if it's your only option and your pul and lem rich anything over 250% maybe but you won't get trade value back out of it. If solo maybe I'd up it if on bnet I would try and trade for one.
I've been playing SSF maul werebear and I picked up a ribcracker. You have solidified my decision to up that. But I'm too poor and don't have the runes quite yet. But I got lucky and found an IK stone crusher in the meantime. The ribcracker also gives crazy defense stats to a werebear. Very cool item for werebear.
Food for thought... Just found a Ribcracker for the first time a few days ago and never had the idea of which character it might come handy for. Thank you for the idea.
Happy to see the ribby on this list. I know you're a fan of the fury druid(same as me) and this is pretty much a must have. The only thing that even comes close to it is a tomb reaver and you lose that huge ed to demons!
ETomb + Gface > Ribby. ETomb is the god pvm weapon for Fury
I wouldn't up an Arreat's face, cause I usually go for the str "bug", in which one item gives str to use another, then another, then another till u have a full setup with ZERO str points spent.
One item I like a LOT is "Duriel's Shell", now that thing is a PERFECT candidate to be upped, specially if it's Ethereal, since it's gonna provide a LOT of good stats, such as resists and EVEN +15 str, which can be useful if u still don't have Andariel's Visage to equip any eventual weapons u may want ur merc to equip...
they fixed the strength bug
@@chrismoore1372 weird... cause it wasn't actually a BUG... u HAVE the str to use what u wanna use, it just doesn't come from hard points... Eth Bug, now Str bug... they're ruining the game already, one more reason for me to stay in the vanilla D2...
Wow I did not know about the goldwrap up slots!
Working on my Fury druid. Want to do ubers with him. Have a cryptic axe upped when i get to 84. The ribcracker is nice tho
Great point w the Shaftstop being paired w Gaze! True, it's hard to argue against Treachery and Fortitude; HOWEVER, my merc has died far less w this setup than the other 2. This is a situational setup tho. I use it w my Bramble summons Necro but not w my sorc or zon. Pride or Infinity pairs really well with it.
Upped arreats needs almost 200 str.
When I was respeccing my barb for minimum STR, I noticed my alternate weapon swaps didn't give me enough strength for the guardian crown. =(
Barbarians like strength though. Back in the day I would put enough strength for every item without the reliance of another item, and enough dexterity for block without other items. Thanks to passives and warcies he still had enough defense to connect powerful hits. Works out pretty well
@@ragmancometh
One reason I respecced is I previously followed a cookie cutter template off a UA-camr that put up damage numbers but lacked survivability. And as a console player with trash loading times and slowdowns, any death after lvl 90 costs you DEARLY.
Most guys also had enough Lo runes for double griefs and I just had one for fort.
So yeah, you're probably right....but "good enough" damage works for now while I claw my way to clvl 92.
@@xristo702 with iron skin, natural resistance, shout, battle orders, you should be pretty good but yeah i haven't really played much barb lately.. it was probably the shield providing survivability 'cause i'm not sure if whirlwind affects block rate the same way toggling run/walk does. also i haven't owned a console in years
@@xristo702 to be honest i would still recommend doing str/dex then vit as barbs get a bunch from all of those stats and still have all those skills to provide defense... i'm guessing you're doubleswing or frenzy from what you said but if you're whirlwind then one grief is enough with a stormshield
An upped Goldstrike Arch (Gothic Bow > Hydra Bow) is also a very good budget option for Bowazons. It has a lot of damage and IAS.
100%.. currently what I'm running now. Got to love the 230+ Max damage
Still haven't found a Ribcracker :(
This list will need an update soon enough, with new patch allowing set items to be upped!
Witchwild String is supreme upgraded, the best Strafe bow 2nd only to Faith or maybe now Mist.
You forgot nightsmoke.
Upped nightsmoke on a melee/enchant sorc is definitely one of the most slept on upgrades.
50% damage returned as mana turns you into a god, and lets you mana stack instead of hp stack.
With warmth maxed, frosts, and 2 soj's you can out regen basically anything in the game (just stay the hell away from mana burners).
Old meta for amazon was Gaze, Shaftstop, buriza. Those were the days
awesome very informative, question DB125 , is it ok to up the G face?
Etheral "The vile husk" is good to up. I used it on a barb merc and he can 1 shot undead in players 8 most of the time.
never heard of this one, sounds fun for a chaos runner
just read some posts about people dual welding upped eth husks with frenzy, very powerful apparently, I love these builds we never here about
I've always felt like there should be more use cases for undead or demon damage. You can get massive increases from certain items. I guess there just aren't enough places that use only 1 base type that are good to farm.
@@csquared4538 well if you wear one item with huge bonus the demon damage and another item with huge bonus the undead damage you get the best of both worlds, but this is why we all love laying of hands gloves on melee characters, perfect example
@@yorkshirelad3133 yea for sure. I meant a specialized build where you're gearing for damage to undead or demon.
My two favourite items to up is bonesnap crushing blow and insane damage for a non elite weapon.
Gore riders if you are running a kick sin the -%requirement puts them at 156 str same as a monarch which your likely to have on switch for cta.
Kinda wish they'd add upgrading set pieces like in some mods
yes
New to this but how do you upgrade? Is there a list somewhere that shows what you can upgrade and what to use to do it? I mean what runes and gem combos do you use? Random stuff or certain order?
I like up'd Butchers Pupil for Zealots as well
New video suggestion.
How to keep your Merc alive in hell Trav.
I found a ribcracker the other day and I just tossed it because I didn't think it was worth anything. Not too big of a deal I guess since I don't plan on making a shifter druid.
I am happy to see you, still covering for Diablo 2. Is this the Resurrected version? Because I have been trying to actually figure out your channel name, and happy to finally having found you, and reSUB.
And what about Lycander's Bow and Homunculus? Really most of the class specific unique items are worth to upg and often seem very underrated...
For most of the class specific weapons I agree. But for the armors, in most cases the defense buff is pretty negligeable, the defense stat in d2 overall isn't super important. It's one thing to go from like 400 to 1000 defense in the case of viper magi, but in most cases the extra 50-100 defense isn't worth the runes.
My Wulf is using a Steeldriver Martel De Fer, and it has INSANE damage for level 34..
If i find a perfect one, ill upgrade it x2 to Thunder Maul since it comes with a helpful -50% Requirements.. Probably but a Shael in it
I used a Steeldriver for a long time on werewolf. I held onto it until I was almost damn near max build, level 83+. It's incredibly strong.
@@THEGRUMPTRUCK Mine is imperfect, like 187/200 ED%..
If i find a perfect one, or VERY close ill x2 upgrade it. Mainly due to the IAS and -50% requirements
@@nightowl8363 Here's wishing you luck.
Great video I have been playing Diablo for a while now and also back in the OG days and I never knew you could do this. How did people ever figure out these ruin words and upgrades
Important to note with Ribcracker is that Stalagmite base is slower than Quarterstaff base. So if u up it, you have to consider that it's going to be slower.
My sorc wears an upper Vmagi. 998 defense, 34 res with a 15 res jewel in it
Vgaze wil be good as well and you even mention it in a combo with Shaft, but not actulaly include it.
Overal, a nice video! Keep up the good work.
I think one thing youre missing on some of these type of vids is breaking down the time periods of play (character levels) where each of these items actually are top notch. For example, the vipermagi is dominant on your sorc from 29 to 57 as a serpentskin armor, then from 57 to at least 65 as a wyrmhide, then gives way to enigma in a dusk shroud or archon plate at level 65. I know I could benefit from knowing when to switch up the gear on each character.
99.9% of players who need the information in this video won't have any enigma for WAY longer than lv 65 anyways. Doesn't seem like critical information to me 🤷♂️
maybe you should warn people about upping war boots in particular, 208 strength requirement, I did my gore riders for my pally smiter 🤦♂️ had to find a new pair before I could respec all that strength back into life
would have liked to see witchwild string on this list :)
I didnt knew about the ripcracker i'll try it 😄👌🏻
Eth Shaftstop with Eth Vamp Gaze is the goat for me personally. Fucking classic style. I love that set up so much.
Maybe an eth ginter's rift (dimensional blade) worth it, becomes indestructible and gains faster attack speed base turning into phase blade...
I got a 1000+ def vmagi on the first one i upped
You missed Wild Witch String, Steel Driver, and Head Striker. I would argue that Hone Sudan has to be eth to be worth upgrading. Arreat's face is a little risky because the base defense resets when you up it and it can end up with higher requirements and less defense. Arreats defense range is 302 to 363 upped it can be 292 to 504. IIRC it requires 78 more strength. Still a great list.
I did mention eth for hone sudan. Good list
Eth Duriels is my goto mercarmor
In the part about Titan's you present a weird argument - you say that people argue against having Eth Titans because they like having more than one in inventory instead of waiting for them to replenish. But this doesn't have anything to do with them being eth or not. If they want to keep two sets of Titans then it would be even more beneficial for them to be ethereal.
People MIGHT argue against Eth Titans if they want to repair them for quicker replenish.
Also it goes without saying that the number one thing that concerns upgrading items are the requirements. A Paladin with Gore Riders is not going to up them because it will boost the req. Str to levels he simply doesn't need.
Early Ladder: upped Headstriker (battle sword) for frenzy Barbs or Zeal Pala
"so the early game budget hone sundan upgrade is really nice. you can put 3 ohm runes in it." O.O
I upped my 35/13 vipermagi and got 1024 defence. Not perfect but still happy about it
what would it happen if u upgrade a socketed item? u lose the jewel or the rune?or u can´t? ty
Upped a viper magi that had an UM and it was still socketed. Good to go.
@@taylorvolk2639 Ty!
Was wondering what happens if you have the item socketed already. Do you lose whatever is in the socket?
nope, just upped my 35 all rez Vmagi with an Um, and the Um persisted. only rolled 959 def though.
@@bobnewkirk7003 thanks! Didn’t want to test it, but wanted to up my um’d 34 viper on HC. And it’s so hard to remember all these details from 20 years ago. Lol
Duriel's Shell can be upgraded as well. I wouldn't do it because if you have the Lem rune to up it, you better use this Lem for treachery instead.
But it's still an okayish merc armor for early progression. The cbf and resists help.
Dbrunski125 plz explain to us why there is no kick damage on Nathalya Assassin's boots own class set. What a shame. What was Blizzard thinking about?
Comment didn't age well now that you can upgrade it next patch.
As far as what they were thinking I dunno game was made 20 years ago and like 70% of set / unique items are bad to mediocre, but for a game back then that was years ahead of everything else they did an ok job. A lot of items are going for flavor or just trying to be cool and I don't think meta/balance were highly considered. Most of the "good items" didn't come until 1.09 to 1.10 after devs had more experience and they added better some uniques and overpowered runewords. If I remember right as well patch 1.10 where all the meta runewords came from was mainly designed by a single guy so it's not like they had teams of balance testers like modern games.
@@jagoob okay. Was just finding it weird that no kick damage was found on Assassin's set boots while all other boots on the game have damages. Ironical.
@@daviddesgagneoh, well it does have kick damage actually. I don't know if it's a bug where it doesn't show or if you are looking on a non-assassin character.
@@jagoob ok cool. Did not know that. Yeah I looked on an Assassin.
Surprised not to see Buriza on here. The damage is comparable to a Windforce if you can get a near 200 ED one. Ya the strength requirement on it at 163 on the Colossus Crossbow is a lot for an Amazon but if you throw a Hel rune in it it's not to bad.
I found some perfect damage titans the other day. Really annoyed they didn't drop eth
I upgraded my HoZ… what a terrible idea. Defense went from 432 to 435, and nothing else changed. But the strength requirement from the HoZ went from 89 to 142.. RIP my Lem and Ko, and RIP all that extra strength
Yea the only point to do it would be the smite damage. If you don't use it then it's a bad idea.
Now, how DID you get this social recluse out of his nest? hehe. I always love your guitar playing Arjen. Looking forward to this new Star One album, and I absolutely love the two first songs/videos you have released to date. Cheers!
Just rolled a 967 vipermagi myself today.. I too, have never rolled a 1000+ defense one. It’s a pretty rare thing to see.
Tolled perfect def on my 33 res vmagi. Now to do it on a 35 some day lol
Rolling perfect defense on every single piece of gear compared to average defense probably amounts to about 1-2% less chance of getting hit anyway 😂
@@mrkiky yeah true.. definitely not worth it on a sorc, especially if you don’t have a different shield other than spirit that has higher block. With spirit, even 500 more defense doesn’t do much.
what about an eth bone snap with near perfect ed which is 300%?
I like to use sorc with maxblock and I use upped visceratuant for that. Its much better then putting all into life
I'm enjoying my upped eth scalper this ladder. Picked up a perfect one for super cheap, hits like a truck. Paired with an eth lacerator and things just melt.
My vipermagi when uppd went to 1079 def. I cant figure out where the difference is from..