Its a mid level runeword with 330% ED and ias, thats pretty darn good for a lvl 41 minimum runeword. Its also a cheap solution for an act 5 merc, eth 6 soc CB (374-740ish 2h dmg)
that would make it better than any unique 2h sword in terms of dmg.
new rw’s are welcome in my book, low lvl, mid lvl or high lvl, i dont care. the lower the level, the more use they will get, we dont need more end game things, we have grief, enigma, etc.
if you dont like any of the new rw’s, you dont have to make them…its simple!
its only garbage to you because of the 1.10 runewords. yall dont remember when magic swords were popular? cruel of quickness, they were rocking non eth magic cb’s and folks shopped them hardcore. but fast foward a few patches and you are calling a 330% with ias sword garbage…oh the cringe.
The 330% ED is pretty nice, especially for a Fal rune. Requiring 6 sockets and swords is a little limiting though. PB is less ideal since you’d want to maximize base damage for ED% (vs. flat damage bonus of Grief), although might be worth it for WW BPs. CB gets 2nd to last -10 BP.
Fal rune can’t drop from NM Countess, so you’d be farming Hell Countess unless you get a lucky drop before then. You can get a white Executioner sword in NM that is high enough ilvl to get 6 sockets from Larzuk.
Traditionally doing a “self found” or “ladder start” Barb, the transition from NM to Hell is where things get tough. So you could farm a white Executioner Sword, burn a socket quest and end up with a 6 OS Executioner Sword, then farm Hell Countess for Fal rune and build this. PB has 1 higher avg damage than ES but likely harder to get a 6OS PB by the time you’d be wanting to build this. You’d end up with a 202.1 - 344 (2H) 103.2 - 172 (1H) weapon that hits the 2nd to last WW BP, or could be decent for DS/Frenzy and has some pretty nice stats:
330% ED, 20% IAS, +3 BCombat skills, +9 Max Dmg, modest AR bonus, 8LL, Prevent Monster Heal, 10 to STR/VIT and Dmg Reduced by 5 are all pretty nice mods in one place.
The fact that there’s not a huge damage range either is pretty appealing as well, but it’s possible they just haven’t included it yet, since none of the bonuses have any variance.
I started D2R with a barb, knowing I wouldn’t be as efficient but also knowing I enjoy the playstyle. I hit a similar wall in Act 1 Hell and farmed Countess hoping to make an Obedience but ended up collecting IK things and just going partial IK then full IK instead. Before I got IK maul I had been using an Insight Partizan, so something like this would have been a nice thing to work towards. I hadn’t dropped any unique or other set items that would have competed with this, and with the randomness of rune drops I haven’t been in a position to make an Oath, although I have found runes and items that could probably trade for the runes to make one. Still keeping an eye out for a good eth 4 OS sword base.
So this RW existing I could definitely see useful for the Act 1 Hell “hump” that un-twinked Barbs hit and it would have been fun to try to target as well.
In terms of usefulness on Barb mercs, I’m not sure. The buff’s they’ve mentioned for Barb merc so far are more HP and using Battle Cry (hopefully this is an addition to stun/bash not a swap). The +3 BComb skills obviously won’t help with War Cries, but good dmg/LL are always good for a merc weapon, and if the barbs still use Stun/Bash then they’d get a bonus that way. Not sure that will be enough to compete with an A2 aura merc when often mercs are mostly there as a character buff, so I was thinking they might try to make sword RW for Barb merc that would give aura, but it is an interesting option.
Overall I think the item is an interesting option for progression and think the game will be better for it.
So thoughts on the thread in general, I think the reason you’re getting a fair amount of push back is that you made a thread about Unending Will, but your issue isn’t with Unbending Will, it’s with the decision that the devs have made to create new LO-RW rather than buff up existing uniques. Preferring that they make existing uniques more usable is a perfectly reasonable preference, however based on the information they’ve told us about 2.4 so far, it was pretty clear that wasn’t in their scope of changes. They did say they’d be making new RW to support their desired balance changes though, so this seems to fall nicely into that bucket. Helps mid-range item progression by giving more options, potentially useful on Barb Mercs (Merc balancing being another stated goal), etc.
Sadly is just another runeword and uniques will remain forgoten to rot,
Would like to see runeword for helm, for class helms like druid pelts etc.
Of course another runeword with teleport ,cheaper.
i would like to see as well rework to uniques cause most of them are useless OR ok-ish till make the runewords.
so you crap on it but then say
oh I guess it could be useful for leveling?
Not everyone just rushes to endgame dude! A lot of us like to actually play thru the game and this runeword looks FANTASTIC for a lower level barb just trying to make his way through NM or even Hell but I guess this RW is dead in the water cuz jaredk21 says he will never make one lol
So true. This is a terrible runeword. It isn’t viable for Barbs as it requires a 6 socket sword. Basically has to be CB or CS. They need to open it up to axes, lower the level requirement to be equivalent to a Fal rune, and lower the amount of sockets it requires. As it stands it is only really useful if someone wants to be a hipster with an A5 merc. Even then A2 mercs will outclass these by far. Totally useless addition to the game.
The lvl req of a CB is 63 and that’s all we’ve seen it in, right? It is possible that req is driven by the CB base rather than the rw. Making this in a ES may very well be lvl 41 based on Fal.
Everyone is passing over the taunt aspect of this runeword, which is arguably the strongest part of it. No wonder why so many think it’s “not good enough” or “garbage”
LOL do you even play with mid level gear, ever?
330 ED base, 20 IAS, 8% life leech, lots of damage boosts, prevent monster heal… This is solid, build it in a Exe sword or Naga or something if you can use Axes (not sure if that was a detail out there or not)
Pretty awesome weapon for a zealot or barb to get through NM until you can get your hands on something else.
Runes are attainable for a melee character vs mass unique farming, and bottom line, it gives you a viable option to use instead of the same ol meta.
Been considering it a bit more. I’ll just hit the parts that make the weapon Best in Slot until you get the end game stuff.
Taunt, I don’t play barbs much but it seem taunt is a single target targetable skill. It will trigger on the exact monster you are already attacking? Please someone tell me I’m wrong on this. If it is targeted only on the guy I just hit, all I’m really doing is reducing it’s damage potential and AR. I won’t be hitting a monster in melee range and then having it come attack me. Still a good thing if I’m dealing with Fanat monsters once I hit them a few times I don’t need to worry about damage they do.
330% ED puts it at a Hell/Elite level weapon but it is Nightmare level req. If I shove it in a Dimensional Blade I get it at lvl 41 Phase Blade I get at 54. This thing then rivals Elite level Uniques and Runewords that are much more expensive.
20 IAS, I don’t need to say anything here it’s perfect for melee
8%LL Again no need to say anything.
Basically this is the best options for a Zealot, Barb, WW Druid, etc until you get the ‘better’ grief/other end game stuff. I think it either needs to be restricted to only 2 handed Swords or it needs to be a range of ED 270-300. This is another example of runewords killing off the uniques. Giving this much ED to a Countess Farmed rune/runeword is too much power creep IMO.
My latest Zealot was happy to find a butchers pupil to get me through nightmare/early hell until I got Heavens Light. This thing I can easily make after a small amount of Hell Countess farming on my first char and hand down to my Zealot at the beginning of NM. It stays good to use all the way through Hell and rivals Heavens light. The worst part is I can only make it 1 handed on the ugly A** Phase Blade.
unbending will isnt the weapon you want to finish with but has good mid level uses. when you are standing out on the blood moor with a cracked sash it is ambrosia.
Indeed it is. This is always been the problem with Blizzard forums. They don’t always attract the sharpest knives in the drawer. Those knives tend to go elsewhere. Plus, the echo chamber effect…
I have never used JSP and can easily have a better sword than this within a week.
This is a good weapon for beginners. Or someone with no time to farm a mal.
Honestly I think this runeword be best used as a a5 merc weapon in a etheral CB or CS , hopefully they add a might aura to a5 merc or something. That is the only use i personally would ever use this for.