Luxury runewords

When I think about Wealth in D2, I like to think of it in terms of a basic class system:

- You've got your working class, the majority, who are all working hard to obtain at least one copy of the "big six" runewords, namely: HotO, CtA, Fortitude, Grief, Infinity, Enigma

- Then you have the middle class, who have achieved the above and can now start generating some level of disposable Wealth for "luxury" items, often looking to min/max a personal favourite build

- Then you have the upper class, who have endless

Ber runes to throw at crazy rares, the best charms, and anything else they fancy in the pursuit of perfection

Obviously this framework doesn't apply to everyone, but I like it. I have just recently moved into the middle class, and now I have some disposable income for those luxury items. I was therefore curious to know what D2io's favourite luxury runeword is!

I'm defining a luxury runeword as: any runeword that is not one of the "big six" and costs at least a

Vex. Anything under this is considered a utility runeword, since the runes are are relatively easy to obtain (e.g. with the Hell Forge quest).

I know that some of these runewords are terrible and not even remotely worth the runes, but I'm not looking for a tier list. I just want to know which ones are your favourite and why - you get three choices.

Edit: I'm also celebrating reaching a nice round 100 trust on this fabulous site!

I think the only runeword that qualifies as "luxury" is Last Wish. Everything else doesn't take that much time to obtain when starting from zero.

That may be true for you, but it is not for me,
these are all a big luxury in my eyes. I finally made Enigma to finish the core runewords last week, took me since launch!

I think a lot of them are also only useful for very specific builds, which I'd argue is luxury rather than essential.

Last Wish, just rolled my second for A5

Frenzy merc, for pure opulence. Faith simply to hit IAS breakpoint for an Infinity spearzon to poke faster. Exile, although relatively cheap, makes taking down Ubers and dclone trivial.

Have hesitated between the 3 I use or see using : BotD, Ice, Faith. And all are for bows.

BotD and Ice are actually core options for Maniac Pixie Dreamgirl A1 merc, so not exactly luxure. I use Ice (but a bit luxury over Edge) on my Sin's merc and she rocks in crowd control. Made BotD for my Pally buddy's a1 merc: same use but shatters less corpses for when I play my main necro with him.

Exile core for Pally as well.
Finally Faith as main on my Zon us great too - feels safe and efficient, though at one point in time I'll want to reroll my 1/12 worst roll possible.

Voted Ice.

iamergo wrote: 1 year ago

I think the only runeword that qualifies as "luxury" is Last Wish. Everything else doesn't take that much time to obtain when starting from zero.

I agree with this statement

Last Wish is of course the elephant in the room probably more then any of the others, got my vote but I also voted Phoenix and Obsession because it is a lux sorc item.

Xanhast70 wrote: 1 year ago

iamergo wrote: 1 year ago

I think the only runeword that qualifies as "luxury" is Last Wish. Everything else doesn't take that much time to obtain when starting from zero.

I agree with this statement

Cool!

Perhaps I wasn't clear, this is a very personal frame of reference.

I consider all of above as luxury runewords, I'm not trying to present this as an objective fact and I fully understand that other people will have a completely different definition of luxury.

Nevertheless, they're luxury to me, and I'm interested to hear which ones people like.

Destruction because it's expensive and mostly just eye-candy.

Eternity because it costs so much while being probably the most bland uninteresting runeword there is. Also weak.

If you are making those two you don't know what to do with your wealth.

Last Wish just gets the honorable mention because it's perfectly usable but needs to ignore enemies' defense thrice. *shrug*

Dual Dream for best zealot build , Flickering Flame with

Guardian Angel so any merc (specificaly act 1 merc) will eat travi hydras ez

I get that this is your list, but some of the runewords on here, like eBotD are only as expensive as Grief. That's not really luxury. I find those two actually compliment each other nicely on a trav barb.

Some of them are part of basic builds, like Chaos, Plague, Phoenix, Beast, Dream, Dragon. Now these are expensive builds, but they aren't my idea of luxury. I would put a few of the runewords on a list of luxury that does what other, cheaper runewords can already do with similar effectiveness.

Exile: I love it for the ease it allows my smiter, but you can can by just as easy with hoz.

Last Wish: it's the big one that is completely unnecessary. Grief is often as good if not better, so it's just to show off or to say that you made one.

Faith and Beast: both go with builds, but are also more for the aura than for the actual weapon itself in most builds (depending on the build of course). They allow you to hit break points and change how you build a character. So I don't see them as luxury as there aren't really any other options to give

Fanaticism to other classes.

Obsession: isn't too expensive, but it does something very similar to a hoto and Spirit and those are a lot cheaper

Flickering Flame: can completely make builds and its pretty cheap to make

Chains of Honor: is one that I find a little excessive. It costs a

Ber and is only slightly better than a vipermagi and I use viper in most of the same situations happily for the fcr break point and free socket.

Destruction: like Last Wish, is pretty overkill in terms of price for what you get out of it. I guess building a proc druid could be kind of fun, but other than that, it isn't used for too much so it's pretty excessive

So I guess when I read you post, excessive is the word that comes to mind more than luxury. So maybe I'm off base, but I thank you for the post as it gave me a moment to think about some of these runewords in a different light

Coh jacket I always loved. Any my non-nigma wearing characters are clad in coh's (except for a non-trav all-around barb). I even replaced most of my merc's fortitudes for coh's as well. One big thing here is CoH is always great - no fkkin rng span which hits me almost every time I expect it. CoH is guaranteed perf roll - so no.1 in my list.
Also, love Phoenix shields, and raw might of a Grief weapon. The rest are more niche.

I think you forgot to add Infinity as a choice which requires

Ber

Mal

Ber

Ist to make, and Enigma which requires a

Jah

Ith

Ber and probably the single most popular luxury runeword. Of course it's possible that you consider Infinity and Enigma not luxuries but necessities?

Janet the Java wrote: 1 year ago

That may be true for you, but it is not for me,
these are all a big luxury in my eyes. I finally made Enigma to finish the core runewords last week, took me since launch!

I think a lot of them are also only useful for very specific builds, which I'd argue is luxury rather than essential.

Grats Jan.

Milestone for u i'm sure like all of us..at a certain point in the Chase.
Was it game changing for u...?

mhlg wrote: 1 year ago

I think you forgot to add Infinity as a choice which requires

Ber

Mal

Ber

Ist to make, and Enigma which requires a

Jah

Ith

Ber and probably the single most popular luxury runeword. Of course it's possible that you consider Infinity and Enigma not luxuries but necessities?

Janet the Java wrote: 1 year ago

- You've got your working class, the majority, who are all working hard to obtain at least one copy of the "big six" runewords, namely: HotO, CtA, Fortitude, Grief, Infinity, Enigma
(...)
I'm defining a luxury runeword as: any runeword that is not one of the "big six" and costs at least a

Vex. Anything under this is considered a utility runeword, since the runes are are relatively easy to obtain (e.g. with the Hell Forge quest).

A lot of love for Last Wish! Nice to see CoH is popular too, I occasionally end up in the dark world of d2jsp when trying to find something out and they seem to hate CoH over there. Odd place.

Skaijuice wrote: 1 year ago

Grats Jan.

Milestone for u i'm sure like all of us..at a certain point in the Chase.
Was it game changing for u...?

Thanks! I've not had the chance to use it too much yet but it certainly feels good to have all that extra mobility. I've been doing a bit of trav running recently, it's not exactly a game changer for that, but it still shaves off a few seconds.

I would have gone with Last Wish but I still can’t afford it offline, so I went with the highest runewords I’ve actually made, not for farming, but for fun: my dual Dream Tesladin and a

Berserker Axe Beast (initially for barb, but l’ll throw it in my summoner, maybe Tesladin, bear sorc, and probably my mercadin.

I’ve made 2 flickering flames, Death and Coh, but they’re less lux more nessesity

I vote Obsession
For one it requires a

Zod rune for style and because a base like for instance a +3 main skill, +3 secondary skill, +3 mastery staff and the gear necessary to make the character have enough mana is also ridiculous. And finally the need to acquire several rune sets in case it rolls bad. So the luxury doesn't come from the runeword itself but because everything else to make it work.

Metamorphosis is dang cool but really cheap with a

Cham. I built a mega expensive Ice bowa (many perf cold facets, perf nightwing etc), with Ice. Really cool.
Bramble is such a bully. Poison is the worst element out there, and you give us such a range of 25-50?! For the cost of

Sur

Ohm ??? (Expensive). That said, I rolled my first yesterday and got 49%.

I made Last Wish 3 days ago for my smiter palys barb merc. He slays everything with

Azurewrath in offhand. I consider that kind of luxury. Infinity I made for my main light sorc's merc, not exactly luxury as much as it is a must. Other than that I made 2 CoH and smaller runewords like Grief Fortitude etc. But Last Wish is not only a luxury item imo, it truly rocks !