The General’s Tan Do Li Ga is extremely underrated.
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This is exactly why i Sold all my MF to the merchant. I deleted all the low level mules that i had and kept 3 characters… Now With 0 MF i actually find that the elite items that you seek will still drop regardless if you have mf or not.
So far i got a 2 socket coa just clearing the throne with my zealot, and i also got a Eth 2 skill 200+ ed Alma Negra (its I level 99) because Baal dropped it for me with 0 mf.\
Mf just creates more garbage to pick up in this game. Thats how alot of people know that drop rates have changed. They really changed the rune drops though… I think they want to make runes the absolute currency, which is a huge mistake because items can just as good as runewords.
But without a pvp scene in this game, because of all the nerfs (fhr,Stun) Non of these new kids and the other people on this forum that are pushing an AGENDA to ruin this game, I suppose we will be stuck with these trash new drop rates that this group of people have employed in this game.
Extremely bad you mean
Unique need a rework to give a feeling of excitement again when they drop
They also need a rework to make them last longer and be endgame viable
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what do you ask? do you want all items to scale or all items to be uber god mode level 85 and nothing in between?
Tan Do Li Ga + Steel Flail is strong enough to beat NM as a whirlwind barb. Well, you also need 3 piece Sigons and a Manald. On that character I also used Greyform, which was pretty much BiS at that point in the game.
it’s awesome. used this on my kick sin for leveling until i could make a spirit long sword. helped a ton on early mana issues too.
There is already the upgrade recipe that exists
It just needs some love
That would keep everything from early to endgame and everything in between like you say
I’ve found a few uniques that are so far (for me) the most powerful items I’ve ever found. The Amazon’s Koku Shakaku bow, even when first found, does heinous damage. It’s +3 to Zon skill levels, and improved damage with immolation arrows are awesome. After upgrading, the immolation arrows do over 2K damage. It’s default attack of explosive arrows that don’t use mana is great too.
And still one more level of upgrading, if I can ever find the runes for that.
Bartuc’s bloody talons for the Assassin are wicked good as well. They do over 1K per hit, and I now have two of them for the Zin to dual wield. They also still have an upgrade level to go. You high level guys with uber characters may scoff, but as a lower level player, I am ecstatically happy to have found these items…
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hell even b4 end game uniques are trash.
d2 was a over-rated game to start with then again.
Its not true, majority of uniques is useful.
Even while leveling fresh, most of the sets/uniques that are found get vendored.
Like finding an Angelic Sickle (even with 2 piece bonus) or a Blood Crescent which both do less damage than a white Long Sword off the vendor…
Now take a magic long sword + 3 chipped gems and cube it = 2 sockets magic long sword with random affixes
No it isn’t… 
BS. Majority are trash, only a few pieces are useful
Ah, but they do go back and give purpose to worthless uniques without affixes. A little at a time throwaway items become some of the best in the game. Keeps it fresher than the 3000th “Diggler” you’ve left on the ground.
Bs is your statement. Majority is usefull, not everyone is starting with 5000 fg online like you. If you make selffound playthrough, majority of uniques and sets you find is usefull. Claming items are not usefull while you already have bis gear is dumb. They are maybe not that valuable for you personaly anymore. It doesnt mean these items are not good.
Even when leveling the majority of Unique and sets are useless.
Then you have to consider that 99% of the gameplay of a character is the endgame… which makes most uniques even more useless
I was curious one day and asked people how much time they spend in normal difficulty on a character
https://strawpoll.com/polls/GeZAN6Mr8yV/results
Sure it’s only normal, but sure invalidates the usefulness of a crap loads of uniques if only barely usable in less than 1% of the gameplay
I already said it and I repeat it Horadric Unique Upgrade is the key
It keeps the normal ones like they are( bad for me, good for you) but also allowed them to grow and improve the game itemization
For every fresh start offline, I vendor at least 90% of the sets or uniques I come across. Runewords are just too powerful. And most normal and exceptional sets and uniques are garbage.
This is especially true for normal set items on their own as they are limited to 2 affixes. Normal sets are glorified magic items which actually only shine if you have multiple pieces which you usually don’t find in a playthrough when you actually need em.
Any pieces that may be useful for leveling aren’t actually ever found in their useful level range. For example Rixot’s Keen is useful up to level 13 but you won’t ever find it in your typical playthrough to Normal Countess…
Do most games start at the end?
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Could say the same about many games.
Diablo 3:
Legendaries make rares pointless
WoW:
Epics make Rares pointless
FF14:
The new raid gear makes last tiers gear pointless
That’s just how it works. Endgame gear is going to the best and seen as endgame for a reason.
Rune words are overpowered and made rares and uniques pointless
I heavily disagree with this sentiment players have.
d2 has some of the best itemization of any rpg ever.
every item type is great. you will find white and blue items worth much much more than most rares. and the most obscure and difficult to find rares that can outshine many standard runeword options.
what runewords help do is bring the baseline up to par for a lot of builds.
grief means players don’t have to have a ridiculously hard to find 450ed weapon or 300/fools weapon to keep up with casters.
for the builds that don’t have the option to use grief, the item gap between having a 450ed jav or not on a bowazon, or having a 300/fools claw or not on a wwsin, is HUGE.
there are definitely rares that outshine runeword options as well. but guess what? they are RARE.
every build is a combination of runewords, uniques, rare items, crafted items, and some with blues and white bases being important to builds.
just like there is no substitute for enigma, there is no substitute for fcr/stat rings, or a gg fcr circlet.
there is no replacement for many unique items like stormshield and coa for many builds.
the idea that runewords somehow made rares and uniques pointless is just completely wrong imho.
you guys aren’t looking at complete builds and what items of each item type can bring to the table. they are all useful if you know which ones to look for for which builds.
this is why d2 has some of the best itemization ever.
So you think rares and unique weapons are not used less since BOTD/Grief?
You think rare/unique armors are not used less since Enigma/fortitude?
You’re being purposefully difficult
Hold on, so your case is that runeword rings dont exist thus runewords don’t replace rares or uniques? sigh
So you think rares and unique weapons are not used less since BOTD/Grief?
You think rare/unique armors are not used less since Enigma/fortitude?
I have actually used 450 eth repair zerker axes and 300/fools rare weapons.
they do keep up with grief and on the highest end of things with 6 point rares can be better.
the great thing about grief is the accessibility. for the low cost of a Lo rune you can compete with casters and many builds.
this brings the baseline of what is expected from a melee build up to par. but there is still room for rares to shine. and they become very valuable trophies for melee players.
I think the armor slot is a special case that defines builds.
and I think that there are reasons to use 20/20 facet armors and 160/60 jeweler armors over runewords for many builds.
again I’ll repeat myself:
“you guys aren’t looking at complete builds and what items of each item type can bring to the table. they are all useful if you know which ones to look for for which builds.”
rares crafted uniques runewords all piece together to make a build.
there is no reason to say “oh no one is using rare armors, enigma made them useless”
no, enigma made the complete-builds-as-a-whole great, whereas the rare armors did not.
but rares have their place in other equipment slots.
it all comes together in the end imho.