Preface: I was trying to trade a 34res Heart of the Oak (Hoto) + a vex rune for an ohm rune. Which is a more than fair trade… but the guy saw that it was Ethereal and turned down the trade. Two minutes later an Ohm rune drops from Hell Cows. I am laughing.
People who do not know already: Casters don’t lose durability on their weapons! You want Ethereal weapons, not only because they look cool, but they lower the requirements needed to use them! That means you can use less points in strength/dexterity to equip them.
You only lose durability on weapons if you attack with them (using a normal attack or a skill that uses your weapon to attack such as a barbarians whirlwind or paladins zeal.)
I am glad that person didn’t understand the value he would get out of it because now I have my Eth +5 BO CtA and I didn’t even have to trade my Hoto or vex rune!
Now just to get that Jah rune!
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Always use eth spirit. However, hard to buy eth monarch.
No one uses eth monarch except on switch with CtA because eth monarch can be destroyed if hit. So, yeah, you will have a hard time finding anyone saving eth monarchs, or any non-paladin eth shields.
The same thing with hoto: you can occasionally attack by it and break it. The same logic.
If sorc with monarch get hits often - there is something wrong with her. Spirit requires common runes only and lasts 2-3 month on average. It is good enough to get that str req reduction.
No? You don’t attack as a caster… why would you attack with hoto as a caster? You are very likely to get hit as a caster. Even a sorc… Its not that you are doing anything wrong… I would like to see you try to tele Durance of Hate or Worldstone Keep without taking a single hit.
I have 105 cast speed and still get hit teleporting. The good thing is to have 75% blockrate so you don’t take damage from those hits.
Too much agi for spirit is required. 75% block or spirit - choose one 
Because you have a left mouse button
That doesn’t make sense.
Fire sorc:
RMB : Meteor
LMB : Fireball
Light sorc:
RMB : Teleport
LMB : Chain Lightning
Cold sorc :
RMB : Blizzard
LMB : Ice Blast
Wind Druid :
RMB : Hurricane
LMB : Tornado
Hammerdin :
RMB : Concentration
LMB : Blessed Hammer
Trapsin :
RMB : Lightning Sentry
LMB : Mindblast
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Why do you have Default Attack on Left Click as a caster? LOL
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For instance, me a poison necro, I got nothing available to put in the left slot other than teeth.
I had a pair of Ethereal Frostburns on my sorc. IN normal and NM they had full durability … Once I hit Hell mode they dropped really fast and almost broke before I sold them to Charsi after I found a normal pair…
Literally, put teeth there then… Why not? You are going to pass on a eth death’s web because you are (I dont even know what) to put teeth in your LMB slot? You won’t use poison dagger because its a useless skill when no daggers provide benefits like Spirit, Hoto, or Death’s Web.
Not sure if I understand your point.
Let’s assume you misclick and L Click a mob…
Would you rather run up to a mob and physically attack it with Default Atk on L Click; or, remain where you stand and cast Teeth.
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Further on this, as dumb as the reasoning behind not being able to use every skills on both sides, if I got teeth there and misclick it as I often do, I will die in hell most likely if it happens at a bad time while I’m trying to aoe them down.
I’d rather have melee so my necro starts running towards the monster and not standing still getting hit by 5 missiles. This way I can easily steer my character clear out of danger.
See my post. Yes. Maybe it is unique to the playstyle of novamancer.
You can have bone spear, bone spirit in the left slot. But not nova… sucks
Wait what ??? the first thing you should do is type this command ////NO Pickup /// Assign TAB to highlight items… assign Shift to stand stilll … Assign all skill to 12345678 … Pick the once you use best for skills.
edit - assign potions to F1.F2,F3, F4 /////
Edit 2 - yes etheral items do expire on casters, I was good with some ETH forstburns on my sorc until I got to hell… Had to sell them after I found a NON ETH Pair as the about expired on me …
I’ve played necro all my life, all types of build you can imagine. Poison necro is the one build I will never be able to use an eth weapon unfortunately its too risky. Just because poison nova is considered like corpse explosion and curses.
Rotation is: lower resist + swap nova, everytime
I play necro too and never had a problem with randomly attacking things I didn’t want to do.
The point is: If you don’t want to use an eth weapon that is your choice, a bad one but still yours to make. It doesn’t really matter though with necros since wands don’t really have strength/dex requirements but I know I would not pass on using an Eth Death’s Web with my poison necro.
If I had the choice between two dwebs that are exactly the same except one is eth… I am taking the eth one. It just looks cooler, imo.
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Fair enough, I’ll be perfectly honest I don’t recall ever melee’ing by mistake ever since I rolled my necro in D2R even with melee there.
Maybe I’m too cautious.
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OP is specifically talking about Eth weapons, not Armor, which would lose durability when you get hit.
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You are totally right, HOWEVER, i kinda of understand the guy. I thought for more then 10 years that when you died your weapons also lost durability. In fact i only found that out because llama made a video about it, its not something you are just going to try it out. But your topic will help a lot.
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