Is Death Worth it?

So, experts of d2, I have the following question:

I had a

Frenzy barb rocking 2 Grief Phaseblades (40/382 and 33/389) and he was happy.
However, I decided to give one of the Grief Phaseblades (the faster one) for my smiter paladin, and Its annoying to constantly pass around the Grief every time I want to go back to my barb.

I got an ethereal

Colossus Blade with 5 sockets and the runes required for the Death runeword.

So my questions are:

1. Would Death be a good pair for the slower Grief?
2. Would Death be effective enough to justify its expense over

Azurewrath (I could buy that one from the forums instead)?
3. Should I just quit whining and just let my pally put the sword away every time he finishes ubering?

Thank you guys for all the time you took to read my post.

are you aware of the 0 durability bug? Put Grief in one hand, and get a

Crystal Sword in the other, let the

Crystal Sword break and D2 will think your barb is rocking 2 griefs. Thank me later ...

Thought that only worked for

Whirlwind, but its cheap enough to be tried

Aegis200 wrote: 3 years ago

Thought that only worked for

Whirlwind, but its cheap enough to be tried

correct. i tried this with

Frenzy and

Double Swing and it doesn't work since they are 2 weapon skills you need both items to have durability.

Aegis200 wrote: 3 years ago

3. Should I just quit whining and just let my pally put the sword away every time he finishes ubering?

Well im pretty sure dual Grief is going to be the "best" but Death might be fun too. You could just save for another Grief so you don't have to pass it?

But at least the suggestion made me try it, and got a random

Dracul's Grasp off

Travincal, so at least it was nice (will still do it until I break it)

Update: completely correct. Sadly, all the dual-wield skills become un usable, perhaps

Whirlwind may come in the future, but not for now

Aegis200 wrote: 3 years ago

But at least the suggestion made me try it, and got a random

Dracul's Grasp off

Travincal, so at least it was nice (will still do it until I break it)

you should also consult the IAS calculator because if you hit a certain IAS breakpoint it could be a big deciding factor: https://d2.lc/IAS/

According to the calculator, having either 33 or 40 IAS main hand Grief made no difference with respect to the breakpoints.
Thus, the question still stands.

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

you should also consult the IAS calculator

You beat me to it.

After reading he put the faster one on his smiter I was just going to say thats a bit of a mistake; no need. Any PB Grief(30IAS+) with fanat up gets you max frames on both

Smite and

Zeal.

The one and only consideration is if you care to have 1frame faster

Smite vs Meph, and Meph alone, when you use convic or

Salvation to counter his aura. For that you do need 35%+. But we're talking 10-12seconds of possibly the tamest part of the uber process. Super unnecessary.

It's a great option if you want to run ubers. The 50% crushing blow is a big deal.

I cleared them twice easily last night with Death +

Lightsabre for

Mephisto.

What did you have for the AR booster,

Atma scarab? Double angelic? Thank you for the information. Also, do you use the Death sword in your main hand or the other hand.

iNevermore wrote: 3 years ago

BillyMaysed wrote: 3 years ago

you should also consult the IAS calculator

You beat me to it.

After reading he put the faster one on his smiter I was just going to say thats a bit of a mistake; no need. Any PB Grief(30IAS+) with fanat up gets you max frames on both

Smite and

Zeal.

The one and only consideration is if you care to have 1frame faster

Smite vs Meph, and Meph alone, when you use convic or

Salvation to counter his aura. For that you do need 35%+. But we're talking 10-12seconds of possibly the tamest part of the uber process. Super unnecessary.

Good idea, ill just give the slower one to my pally, since I dont need

Conviction or

Salvation, and I go full fanat.

Leaving the faster Grief for the barb its fine then. Is the off-hand weapon attack speed considered for

Frenzy? That could be a counter for the Death

Colossus Sword, instead of the

Azurewrath.

Update: It appears that

Frenzy does some sort of weapon speed substraction, and there was a way to bug the attack speed with a much slower weapon. Can it be done in D2R?

Never made a Death myself but making one in an

Eth

Colossus Blade is never a bad option especially if you already have the base. You may even be able to sell if for a profit when you're done with it.

Well, sometimes I want to YOLO it, ill make the Death in the end. I think

Azurewrath could be a nice idea, but no one seems to be selling them fast (and if they do, ill buy it and test it as well)

What convinced me was the +20% AR, as well as the fact that I could try to solo Ubers with my barb, which I have never done (pally is pretty safe but sounds badass).

Any attack rating recommendations for such setup for ubers? 10K+? 20K+?

Thank you guys for all the comments, will tell you guys about the roll as soon as its complete (Update: Rolled a pretty average 337/380 (base 300) )

Also, the combo still beats the cooldown in

Travincal (with very crappy mf gear on) so its fine) and got me a Trapskill GC

Thank you guys for all the help. The thread can be closed (unless somebody knows what is the best hand off-hand combination of Death and Grief).

Death is incredibly powerful. At high levels you get 40+ deadly strike, 50% CB is big time damage against ubers/bosses, 7 mana leech is a nice bonus and 20% AR bonus is underrated. I have Grief CB with Death CS on my WW Barb right now and its awesome, I can handle ubers pretty easy (one at a time) with

Wisp Projector,

Metalgrid, arreat,

Gore Rider,

Laying of Hands, Fortitude, and sharp/light resist charms. be sure to level up

Howl a little bit to keep the adds away and vendor a

Life Tap

Wand for meph.

therob91 wrote: 3 years ago

Death is incredibly powerful. At high levels you get 40+ deadly strike, 50% CB is big time damage against ubers/bosses, 7 mana leech is a nice bonus and 20% AR bonus is underrated. I have Grief CB with Death CS on my WW Barb right now and its awesome, I can handle ubers pretty easy (one at a time) with

Wisp Projector,

Metalgrid, arreat,

Gore Rider,

Laying of Hands, Fortitude, and sharp/light resist charms. be sure to level up

Howl a little bit to keep the adds away and vendor a

Life Tap

Wand for meph.

Very very useful information. Got all but the

Wisp Projector, so Ill have a new farm/trade target. Death Grief are about twice as fast shredding the council when compared to Grief

Lightsabre
Thanks

My conc barb exclusively uses a eDeathCS and a

Stormshield. He loves it, highly recommended.