Set/Unique/Runewords useful on early leveling (up to 30)

Hi

I already have some set/unique/runewords in my mules.
I thinking in what low level ones I should keep (as I starting to become out of "mule space" ), and the first thing that comes to mind is to keep the ones that were useful for a leveling character.

Some that I use on my last leveling:

- Character
Set Arctic Binding Light Belt L2
Set Arctic Mitts Light Gauntlets L2
Set Arctic Furs Quilted Armor L2
Set Hsarus' Iron Stay Belt L3
Set Hsarus' Iron Heel Chain Boots L3
Unique Gull Dagger L4
Set Infernal Cranium Cap L5
Unique Bloodfist Heavy Gloves L9
Unique Nokozan Relic Amulet L10
Set Angelic Wings Amulet L12
Set Angelic Halo Ring L12
Set Angelic Mantle Ring Mail L12
Unique Tarnhelm Skull Cap L15
Runeword Stealth Leather Armor L17
Runeword Ancient's Pledge Kite Shield L21
Unique Magefist Light Gauntlets L23
Runeword Spirit Crystal Sword L25
Set Natalya's Soul Mesh Boots L25
Runeword Rhyme Grim Shield L29
Unique The Stone of Jordan Ring L29
Unique Skin of the Vipermagi Serpentskin Armor L29
Set Immortal King's Detail War Belt L29

- Mercenary
Set Berserker's Headgear Helm L3
Set Arctic Horn Short War Bow L2
Unique Greyform Quilted Armor L7
Runeword Malice Pike L15
Unique Boneflesh Plate Mail L26
Unique The Face of Horror Mask L20
Set Hwanin's Justice Bill L28
Runeword Insight Partizan L27 (L30 because of requirements...)

Another suggestions?

Most of what you quote are useful, Arctic set, Hsarus set, Angelic set, Infernal Tools, Iratha set are nice early.

The bad ones above are:
- Berserker Helm, you can have better
- Hwanin Bill: Insight is way better at that level
- Boneflesh and Horror: only if you have nothing better.

Hwanin's Justice Bill I used only until my Merc could use my Insight (in my case I had to reach L30...)

The Face of Horror is more for the +20 str (to enable some Polearms earlier for my Merc - and because it could get Life Leach from body with Greyform/ Boneflesh)

Iratha's Finery is a good tip for defensive status (full set gives you 65% to all resist and +10% to all max resist)

Insight in an ethereal Bill, merc can use at lvl 27 and good for a long time,,,

krathkor wrote: 2 years ago

Insight in an ethereal Bill, merc can use at lvl 27 and good for a long time,,,

This.

fredkid wrote: 2 years ago

Another suggestions?

If you haven't already, it's worth doing some investigation into "twinking", because there is a whole philosophy around optimizing early leveling. +4 Dex or +4 Str grand charms have no level requirement, and they can be godly on a new char so that you can equip other items with no level requirement like 3os Light Plate or a 4os Hunter's Bow or a 3os Mask.

The other piece that you'll want to for no level requirement is jewels of envy, which has poison damage. With some grand charms to get you to the required str/dex and the gear I said above socketed with jewels of envy, you can be doing hundreds of poison damage with high def before you even leave town. If you have a second set ready for your A1 merc, you can ride P8 basically to act 3 and level 25-30 on any character at warp speed (you can switch over to Tal instead of JoE for more poison when you get Stealth). Then you can spec over with your Insight and Lore and Spirit or whatever.

An Eth Partizan Insight for merc is the absolute bomb until late game (even then it holds up ok).

Online you can give an early character Khalim's Will, which also has no level requirement and is godly early. But not as godly as a bow. It's funny to see a sorc shooting everything with a bow, but it's hands down amazing for leveling with the poison damage. Also make sure you equip stamina potions.

For druid, not sure anything beats Poison Creeper, which I think he can do naked.

I'll just post 2 pictures to show how awesome the jewel is:

Iratha's Finery and Sigon's Complete Steel (or at least parts of it), both have very nice bonuses.

SnowSnow wrote: 2 years ago

Iratha's Finery and Sigon's Complete Steel (or at least parts of it), both have very nice bonuses.

I agree with parts of sets such as Sigon's. If you have a low lvl physical build that depends on IAS and LL, then Sigon's mitts, Belt, and Boots are perfect. At lvl 6 the Belt give you 16 boxes+ 20% fire resist, the Boots give you 20% faster run walk and 40% cold resist, and the combination with the mitts give you 30% IAS and 10% LL.

Some useful uniques I personally used a lot:

Weapons -- Rixot's Keen, Crushflange, Hellplague, Raven Claw; Honorable mention: Deathspade for casters or Bane Ash for Sorc

Helms -- Tarnhelm, Peasant Crown, Rockstopper; Honorable mention: Duskdeep (if very lucky since it's ultra hard to find then alt. Biggin's Bonnet)

Gloves -- The Hand of Broc, Bloodfist, later casters will probably switch to Magefist or Frostburn and physical ones will take any 20% IAS gloves;

Belt -- Nightsmoke (even a bit later on something like Gloom's Trap is genuinely pretty good for casters), String of Ears is BiS for some builds later or Razortail

Body armor -- The Centurion, Twitchthroe (but I mean Stealth is just so OP most of the time and it's ultra cheap to make), then later on you probably want to switch to something like The Spirit Shroud or Skin of the Vipermagi; Honorable mention: Rattlecage if you struggle with bosses

Boots -- Goblin Toe or just some rare or magic you can find; Horable mention: Silkweave

Shields -- Wall of the Eyeless, other than that I usually end up either having Sigon's or I'm having some sort of 2H weapon so it doesn't matter;

Rings and Amulets -- I don't bother with those, any random upgrades what I find as I go, maybe Cat's, Etlich or Mahim Oak are very decent I guess, other than that you can wear SoJ at lvl 29 which is quite soon, so if you have it pre-prepared you are set.


From sets, yeah, people already mentioned Sigon's Complete Steel is probably the best out there, even can be for major part of Nightmare, especially if you struggle with IAS problems, gloves + Belt + Boots combo can give massive boost and yet not cover one of the major slots!
I would personally definitely add something like Death's Disguise gloves + Belt combo, Cathan's Traps for casters (mainly Sorc) and that broken Angelic Raiment which you can stack 2 of same ring + amu => massive att rating boost (because essentially it applies twice) or even full Arctic Gear can be reeeeaaally decent for like a Frost Maiden if you want to go with that from the start!

P.S. For many parts and builds you don't even have to go THAT far, you can simply use like a Tir Tir Helm or Ral Tal/ Thul Ort armor (or make Ancient's Pledge) and be completely fine with it. This is even has more effect if you are doing SSF, since you can get that very easily by yourself and it gives you major buffs in things you usually need the most MPK for casters or pure res for everyone else. If you are using Act 1 Merc, you can get her 3os bow and stuff it with chipped/flawed gems of elem. she is using (so Ruby for fire or Sapphire for cold one) and she'll get a significantly more dmg on her elem. attacks because of how that calculation works.

Yea i always have a character named “ Larzuk” - that character’s only purpose is to get the Larzuk quest, socket an item and repeat as fast as possible, he’s a paladin, Holy Fire, his gear is sigons, a +3holy fire + Sacrifice sceptre, 2xmanald (the only build this works for), they +1 Ammy, +strength & stamina charms, then just stamina potions. Any of the other low level stuff is fine to: hand of brock, bloodfists, vidala’s fetlock , bagging’s bonnet, all good. You can shop FCR rings/ammies fairly early too - if needed

And yea, stamina potions-totally keep a Belt column specifically for them until lvl 30 at least!

I echo the same made specifically for Larz..

Except i don't like looking like a Tin Can..so i use the full Iratha's set coupled with Raven Claw and Holy Fire.

So yes - Iratha's Finery is my recommendation. More mentions!

Completely missed Arctic Gear new bonus... (the set was updated on the last patches and sometimes I look at " Arreat Summit" - https://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp - which don't include the last patches...)

In the idea of using Socket items:

For the initial attack weapon (you and Act 1Merc) you could use a 6S Crystal Sword and a 6S Long Battle Bow (or 5S Short War Bow) full of Flawed Gems

And you can get a "super" Deathspade by using something like a 6S Crystal Sword with lots of Tir

fredkid wrote: 2 years ago

Completely missed Arctic Gear new bonus... (the set was updated on the last patches and sometimes I look at " Arreat Summit" - https://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp - which don't include the last patches...)

In the idea of using Socket items:

For the initial attack weapon (you and Act 1Merc) you could use a 6S Crystal Sword and a 6S Long Battle Bow (or 5S Short War Bow) full of Flawed Gems

And you can get a "super" Deathspade by using something like a 6S Crystal Sword with lots of Tir

I like the ranged attack better than running up to everything and swinging, partly because running is so slow and requires stamina early. I use Hunter's Bow for the speed and low requirements. Sure you lose a socket, but rapid fire is helpful. Also worth noting that I like to start out with +6 poison small charms which turn on at level 6.

If we're talking about melee weapons for lowbies, don't forget Civerb's Cudgel. It's amazing for <30 playthroughs. That +max damage per level is so beautiful, and the fact that it's a Mace helps vs undead (especially act 2). Since the +max / level isn't part of the set bonus, you're also free to combine it with your choice of other lowbie items and set pieces.

Winterkill wrote: 2 years ago

If we're talking about melee weapons for lowbies, don't forget Civerb's Cudgel. It's amazing for <30 playthroughs. That +max damage per level is so beautiful, and the fact that it's a Mace helps vs undead (especially act 2). Since the +max / level isn't part of the set bonus, you're also free to combine it with your choice of other lowbie items and set pieces.

Yes special S/O to CC.

in D1 I used to swing it with the Rouge & later use it with my Sorcerer + Stone Skin, in HELL. It Was OP ASF.

Good times!

Skaijuice wrote: 2 years ago

I echo the same made specifically for Larz..

Except i don't like looking like a Tin Can..so i use the full Iratha's set coupled with Raven Claw and Holy Fire.

So yes - Iratha's Finery is my recommendation. More mentions!

Second this especially for HC

A Leaf rune word is very useful for an early sorc. Very cheap but does the job properly. You can easily use it until you face Nightmare!