So its slightly worse then standard orb+spirit shield. They zod’d an item that doesn’t come in eth and does not lose durability. I mean at that point you might as well start making bow runewords with zod in it. Really no benefit to using obsession, unless someone can point out something that I’m missing.
Yes, all the ladder-specific runewords are mediocre. There is no point in playing ladder at all.
3 Likes
It was a nice try, but sorcs already have the most op weapon and shield combinations that nothing is likely to replace. I think they should have made a runeword and super unique for throwing weapons on Barbs instead.
You can get +3 +3 +3 skills on staves, along with +4 all skills makes +7. Pretty sure only GG rare/magic orbs could hope for that (in conjunction with Spirit) Not to mention it gives the same overall/better resist compared with HOTO and Spirit combo, gives massive FHR akin to Spirit, the %life boost is also highly underrated and will translate out to like 200-400 life, it’s also a staff, which is awesome in and of itself. Oh yeah it also has hardly a strength requirement, so that’s another +60-80 vitality right there too
2 Likes
Yea, I think it can get +3 Element Mastery and one or 2 other skills…but thats going to be crazy rare. If you can get it with +3 Light mastery, thats gold.
i dont play sorc or other caster , but is very obvious good player will never use staff , or the staff will need to be the most broken op item in the game , shield and 1 hand just offer way to much bonus togetder in def and offence
Full Tal Rasha with a 2-2-2 Orb (+1 skill on orb, +3 skill on full set, +2 spirit) gives +8 to Cold Mastery, +8 to Fire Mastery, +8 to Light Mastery.
Obsession gives +7 to Cold or Fire or Lighting Mastery but not all at once.
Another ignored fact is that with Frostburn, 2 Sojs, and Silkweave, Sorc get 100% maximum mana. So Tal orb gives 97 mana, Spirit range from 89-112. Let’s just say these 2 item combined gives me 200 mana in total. With Frostburn, 2soj, and silkweave, I actually get 400 mana.
Obsession only gives 10 energy from the Lum rune. That’s only 20 mana.
I would pick 400 mana over 20 mana any day of the week.
And it’s STILL not going be BiS for Cold (because Death’s Fathom exists) and Lightning (because Crescent Moon exists or Hoto if you want more utility/can’t get 117 FCR without it).
So to summarize: the rarest rune put on a staff that needs to be rolled very specifically (and therefore worth more than the rune itself).
Meanwhile HOTO+Spirit and Crescent Moon + Spirit and Death’s Fathom + Spirit: “Look what they need to mimic fraction of our power”
It’s a useful staff and people would want the eth staff for style points. I would take the staff for a full light build if it came with +3 light, +3 light mastery and +whatever other useful skill.
It will be interesting to see what people use it for. It will make zod a bit more useful than now. A good alternative to the orb/shield combo
It will be BiS for a sorc that wants the most Life, nothing will even come close.
| Obsession | Hoto+Spirit |
|---|---|
| 4 to all skills | 5 to all skills |
| 65 fcr | 75 fcr |
| 60 fhr | 55 fhr |
| 10 vit | 22 Vit |
| 10 energy | 10 Dex |
| Max life 25% | Rep life 20 |
| mana regen 30% | Max Mana 15% |
| all res 70 | Light and cold res 75 |
| 30 mf | Fire res 40 |
| 250 D vs missle | |
| Magic Absorb 8 |
Why are you comparing full Tal Rasha’s to a weapon runeword? And then only talk about masteries and not the actual valuable skills staves can roll? And then talking about mana??
It’s actually pretty comparable to say, HOTO + spirit, which gives +5 skills. Yeah the staff gives +4, but staves can roll +3 main skills as well, so you could get a +7 to main skills. Plus it offers comparable FHR, Resistances, slighty less FCR.
Factor in the fact that you don’t need 156 strength for it and you get a ton of extra vitality on top of the % health you get from it.
It probably won’t be BiS as other stuff exists for better damage or MF, but it’s pretty good and offers a nice mix.
1 Like
Don’t forget str requirement too, for Obsession it’s like, 40str (nothing) for Spirit it’s 156, so that’s another…whole lot of vitality on top
Spirit shield gets you 10% block at base though O.o. I think that would make up for that vit difference
Far as I’m aware, you really don’t want to be blocking with a spirit on a sorc, idk the exact frames for the block exactly, but it’s not exactly desirable (hence Spirit users go max vit no dex). So I wouldn’t “cancel those out” really at all. And 10% block isn’t worth 100+ vitality and +25% life boost
a vitality sorc without a shield mean nothing
already the class have a poor return on vitality point , good luck in pvp with your staff vitality 
bruce lee will parry arrow with is staff
How much life do you need anyway?
I run my lightning sorceress through P8 Chaos and WK and really more than 2200-2500 after BO is overkill. Who optimizes their Sorceress for max life? After this 2.2k clear speed is more important.
I am comparing it to full Tal Rasha set because I would not use Obsession over it. Tal’s set bonus and 2-2-2 orb and Spirit is a better option. That’s why.
You are giving up way too much for what little you gain in this runeword.
They just need to make 2h staves block and i would love it more.