Questions about charms and what's good

I am really bad about understanding charms , what is good and has worth and what doesn't. Is there a Compendium of some form that's helpful?

I know that skillers, and skillers with other mods, have worth but outside that I'm lost. For instance I know 20 life SC's are good, but only have worth if they have other specific mods also. Ehat about 5% FHR SC's or 12% FHR GC's. What are the min stats needed to have decent use/trade value?

Edit: I play Non-Ladder so there may be a difference for ladder charms

Two things to note up front:
1) It isn't a bad idea to know what's even possible on charms: https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Charm_Affixes

2) There's a lot of desired affixes on charms that tend to follow a certain priority in terms of what you want. Generally, 2 affixes always beat one (should be obvious) but especially early on in a new season, folks want to get the priority stats out of the way and even the 1-affix charms actually have value, before dropping down into next to nothing territory later on. Small charms with 20 life are a good example. Early on, those are quite desired. Later on, noone wants them anymore unless they also have dmg/ar, res, magic find or the like.



Out of all the possible stats, many are good but not all of those are used by the more popular specs. As a result, some charms can be sold instantly for quite a bit of profit (good for popular specs), others can be sold for a very good profit but only if you're willing to be patient (good but not for popular specs) and others yet really don't sell well at all (just bad).

The most popular affixes include things like magic find, Gold find, life, resistances (traditionally especially fire, sunders also added cold and light and to a lesser degree poison). and damage/ar. Things like defense, mana, pure AR and poison damage are quite good but typically only for more select builds (VERY select in the case of defense). And hit recovery is excellent but also not that vital for most PvM builds (if only because Spirit already adds tons) and far less critical for PvP as compared to what it was before the DR patch. Stats (str/dex) can be nice and some folks do pay extra for those though personally, I never quite got why (ever since respecs have been added to D2).

Things like stamina and most non-poison elemental damage tend to be ignored entirely.

Skills range all the way from excellent (light, cold, pally combat, ..) over average (druid summons, ..) to just plain dumb (barb masteries, ama passive, necro curses, ..). Their value depends entirely on "do people play builds of that skill tree?" and "if so, does a skiller add more than other charms such as dmg/ar would for that build?".

Disclaimer:
All of that is based on personal judgement and observation. I may well have also forgotten an affix or two.

For general small charms, +5 all res, +20 life, +7 mf, +11 single res, etc... or combinations are usually good ones.

Note these are max value.

In addition to what Schnorki and Flyhorse said, I'd suggest using the price check tool on this site price-check/ and type "small charm" in the search field. Browse a few historic prices pages to get a decent idea of what's typically bought (i.e. sought after).

Grand charm:
Skiller + userful suffixe (Life, Faster Hit Recovery, Faster Run/Walk, Extra Gold)
Max Damage + Attack Rating + Life for some melee builds

Large charm: not really valuable because it can't fit with GC skiller.

Small charm: useful suffixes are

• Fire Resistance
  Cold Resistance
  Lightning Resistance
  Poison Resistance
  Faster Hit Recovery
  Faster Run/Walk
  Poison Damage
  Attack Rating
  Strength
  Dexterity
  Extra Gold
  Max Damage
  Attack Rating
  Life
  Psn Damage
  Faster Hit Recovery
  Magic Find
  All Resist/Resists
  Faster Run/Walk

More information with max possible value here https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Charm_Affixes
You want a combinaision of prefixe and suffixe. With a single affixe, the charm doesn't have much value.
When both prefixe and suffixes rolled perfect, the charm is much more valuable than the closed to perfect one.

In my experience, running alot of budget builds that tend to not use shields (zon, barb), resists tend to be the most important aspect I find myself prioritizing for charm effects. After that, it's usually a tossup between +life or +dmg (phys, elemental, poison), or sometimes +AR depending on what kind of character and build. I find myself hoarding any decent resist charms regardless of it's a GC, LC or SC. Also useful are some SCs that give +str or +dex for some builds which can enable you to use equipment without putting points into them. If you can find good +life or resist charms which give +str or +dex you need for your gear, it's often a nice perma equip you can keep in your inventory based on that character build, at least that's what I often find myself doing.