I have not been able to find a answer to this anywhere or anything close.
My question is at any time in the game you would use a set (or unique) over runewords like spirit, grief, hoto etc? The only thing I have seen any debate about is herald of zak shield vs spirit shield.
I never got to endgame back in the day and my builds were all over the place lol.
Basically I’m thinking something along the lines of say the paladin set from the expansion ( or whatever good set/unique) larzuk them for sockets ( think i read you could) and slap gems/ runes in them for more benefit than using whatever runewords.
Or are runewords basically a tier above set items? Because I always hear about sorcs using tal rasha but that’s about it.
Thanks for any help with this matter.
Griz’s set is a good decent set but your highest level runewords will outdo Griz’s set even fully gemmed up. The problem with using a full set it is almost as hard to find the set as it is to get some of the higher end items.
The reality of playing the game at this point is you use the best you can until you find better. You can not expect to have all the highest end gear, that is a goal you need to work very hard to achieve. Thus if you are able to get your hands on Griz’s set it will do nicely for you until you get better.
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There isn’t a ton to debate since each item is very specific in their use and if you want to run 8 player chaos sanctuary runs, which is pretty much what Hammer is good for, then you’ll need + skills on your items. I mentioned Hammer since its on my mind but each paladin build is the same more or less, they’re pretty specialized and do something very well.
Herald of Zakurum is unique because it offers max block at low dex and its used to spec for smite without needing to be a full smiter.
WizSpike is a good alternative weapon to spirit. Rare Circs can be used in place of Shako but won’t have MF. These items are usable, you’ll see them in PvP, but you really won’t see anyone talking about them too much because its more a discussion about “why are you using them” when the conversations do happen. It’s because people are leveling, pvp’ing, doing something specific in game, or just don’t have the runeword yet.
If the better option was available what is the benefit in using something else in place of Enigma and dealing with a weapon swap to the spellcasting axe with teleport? It is clunky and gets you killed a lot because you drop resistances, block, and FCR. Not to mention the repair cost on the charges. There is just no value.
That said, if you don’t have enigma then it doesn’t matter. Same with HoTo. Wizspike easily competes with spirit but HoTo is like a mix of the two.
As you gearing there is a ton of value in uniques vs low/mid Runewords.
High end Runewords are better than most uniques/sets and are more convent to use than nearly everything else.
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Good luck finding high runes man.
We’re talking about MONTHS before seeing them if you play like a normal person.
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I don’t expect to be showered with loot in the same way as D3 lol game would get boring (for me anyway) very fast.
That said , I’ll be on the lookout for griz gear.
I basically just wanted to have a idea of what I should be working towards. A goal if you will for the duration of my playtime with a given character wether it takes days/weeks or months is fine
Thanks for the info
Edit: thanks talby that was pretty much what I was looking for in regards to high level runewords vs sets etc
I could have formatted it a little neater but glad it helped