Is it okay to replace early game rares with later game blues at certain points?

General Discussion
1

I’m playing classic mode, normal difficulty if that makes a difference. I had some rare hard leather armor from act 1 but I found a blue ringmail that had much higher defense while the rare hard leather armor from act 1 barely added any resistances to the elements.

Would it be okay to replace that blue item that has 81 defense over the act 1 yellow hard leather armor that just gave an extra 5% to both lightning and poison resistance as an example?

I don’t have the best of luck with drops, but I’m not really savvy on when I should be replacing old yellows with blues that I find in later acts. I would assume if I’m not getting any good rare drops in later acts then I should replace a low level rare with a higher level blue in some cases? I have a socketed Spiked Shield that has way higher resistance with a blue gem in it to increase my cold resistance while the rare small shield gave me small resistance boosts to fire but it was very low and the defense is a lot lower. I assume the socketed two slot spiked shield with the blue gems would be better since it also high higher defense even though I sacrificed a small increase in lightning resistance?

Thank you.

2

Going to depend on what you’re playing. Defense doesn’t mean much to a distance caster like fireball sorc. But to a zealadin in classic it’ll mean a lot more to have block and defense.

It’s ok to switch to any gear you feel addresses your weaknesses. There are blues that are highly sought over yellows. The number of possible affixes and their limits is all that changes between them. If a blue meets your specific needs until you find something better, then wear it. Also don’t worry too much about ticky tack stats in the early game. They won’t affect much either way.

2 Likes
4

do whatever makes you stronger ! Dig into the stats and the items !

know that the game is a breeze in normal, gets a bit interesting in nightmare and basically starts in hell

: )