What Pieces Are Worth Upgrading?

I've looked around, but can't find any consensus on what unique pieces are really worth upgrading.

It seems to me they'd need a pretty decent Enhanced Defense or Enhanced Damage roll to really shine brighter form the upgrading, but I'm just guessing here based on what I have seen.

I only have the ingredients to upgrade a few items, and I was saving for something else ladder exclusive, but a person was clearing out their season stash from last time and simply gave me an upgraded

Skin of the Vipermagi. The armor is not perfect, but it is really solid, and I was even thinking about socketing it; it is the best general armor for defense I can access at this point on my Necromancer.

Vipermagi is a great item, and socketing it with a PTopaz is never a bad idea (though I would not upgrade it as a necro, prefer to need less STR). I did it myself when levelling up, even if that burnt a socketing quest (just ask for a socket rush after to remake that).

What you want to upgrade :
- Belts when you don't have 16 potion slots if you want to keep them in use for a long time (hello

Goldwrap !)
- Weapons to do more damage (e.g.

Eth upped

Headstriker for A5 barb,

Eth Witchy for Zon) for physical builds.
-

Boots for kicksins only

Others are... much less likely as a general rule.

Adding defense brings little and add STR constraints, so it's gonna be situational if you have enough STR.

Occasionnally on body armor for that use, as at least it adds quite a high amount of def.

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

Belts when you don't have 16 potion slots if you want to keep them in use for a long time (hello

Goldwrap !)

Nice. I hadn't thought of upgrading belts as a way to get more potions, and I even have a decent

Goldwrap waiting on me.

I do have a follow up question about belts--

Goldwrap specifically--since you made the suggestion: is upgrading twice where appropriate worth doing?

I'm thinking no as belts don't seem to contribute much to defense anyway, and it would probably just add to the requirements for no other reason.

Upgrading armor is not always a surefire improvement either.

For any given item's original base, the Enhanced Defense mod adds +1 defense to the base's max defense before applying the enhanced defense percentage. When you upgrade the armor, it loses the max+1 base defense spec before applying the enhanced defense.

This is how you can end up with a

Vampire Gaze with less defense as a

Bone Visage than its original

Grim Helm base. As a

Grim Helm, it's (125+1)*2.00 for 252 defense. As a

Bone Visage, it could be as low as 200 defense (100*2.00) or as high as 314 defense (157*2.00). I don't know for sure off the top of my head if the +1 applies anymore upon upgrading, but that's pretty insignificant either way.

There isn't a defense range overlap between a

Serpentskin Armor and a

Wyrmhide, so

Skin of the Vipermagi doesn't have the same issue, but that 120% enhanced defense could just as likely be applied to a paltry 361 base defense

Wyrmhide as it could be to a 470 base defense one.

As for

Goldwrap, that's a single upgrade for the extra belt slots. There is no practical benefit in upgrading it to a

Troll Belt.

Snakecharmed wrote: 2 years ago

For any given item's original base, the Enhanced Defense mod adds +1 defense to the base's max defense before applying the enhanced defense percentage. When you upgrade the armor, it loses the max+1 base defense spec before applying the enhanced defense.

That makes sense and partially goes along with what I had found.

Snakecharmed wrote: 2 years ago

There isn't a defense range overlap between a

Serpentskin Armor and a

Wyrmhide, so

Skin of the Vipermagi doesn't have the same issue, but that 120% enhanced defense could just as likely be applied to a paltry 361 base defense

Wyrmhide as it could be to a 470 base defense one.

Thanks. I had made an assumption that is clearly not in play that I hesitate to explain in detail.

The one I was given has over a thousand defense so it must have rolled really well.

Snakecharmed wrote: 2 years ago

As for

Goldwrap, that's a single upgrade for the extra

Belt slots. There is no practical benefit in upgrading it to a

Troll Belt.

Thanks. I didn't want to waste ingredients.

Yeah, you definitely made out well on that Vipermagi's defense. It rolled 455+ defense as a

Wyrmhide.

There's some good armors to upgrade too; on the top of my head:

Duriel's Shell,

Guardian Angel and

Skullder's Ire, preferably

Eth on all accounts.

Ah, yes, merc stuff indeed can be worth it.

Stuff i usualy upgrade (Of course only if stats are good/perfect)

-

Hotspur (Lategame

Boots because of the +15% max fire resist. Elite stats are easy to reach)
-

Infernostride (easy to reach elite stats)
-

Death's Guard and

Death's Hand (especialy the

Sash can be useful even in late game because of Cannot be Frozen)
-

Herald Of Zakarum (But only for smiter!)
-

Goldwrap (only to except.)
-

Titan's Revenge
-

Chance Guards
-

Goblin Toe for Kicksin

+1 for

Death's Guard and

Death's Hand
no more ravens for my barb!

Blubbalutsch wrote: 2 years ago

Chance Guards (only to except)

I have some

Chance Guards on ladder as well, but I have to ask, why only to exceptional? The improvement seems meaningful with out having ridiculous requirements.

mistook them for

Goldwrap

Blubbalutsch wrote: 2 years ago

mistook them for

Goldwrap

>_<

I totally did. I misremember the post.

I read it last night and only had time to respond today...

No ur right, i made the mistake and edited it out as soon as you made me aware of it

Blubbalutsch wrote: 2 years ago

No ur right, i made the mistake and edited it out as soon as you made me aware of it

Oh. Well, you need to stop trying to

Confuse me; I'm an idiot anyway: I just got on to upgrade one

Goldwrap and one

Chance Guards twice, and I do have one set

Shael,

Tal, and a

Perfect Diamond, but I have

Lem+

Pul not

Lem+

Ko or

Lum+

Pul so I'll have to think about that for a bit.

when I begun to play D2R I wanted to upgrade all the gear. But lately I have come to conclusion that unless its regarding dmg (weapons or

Boots for kicksin or shield for paladin) or belts to get 16slots its useless.

But if u want it for "esthetics reason" then just check its requirements. Lets say ur character uses Spirit shield - thats 156str. So whatever u upgrade and its requirements will be lower than 156str its fine.

My upgrading list:

-

Skin of the Vipermagi
-

Duriel's Shell (for Merc)
-

Shaftstop (for Merc)
-

Guardian Angel (if you have enough strength)
-

String of Ears
-

Razortail
-

Thundergod's Vigor (if you have 185 strength)
-

Goldwrap
-

War Traveler (if you have 163 strength)
-

Gore Rider (if you have 156 strength)
-

Magefist
-

Chance Guards (up to two times)
-

Vampire Gaze (for Merc)
-

Crown of Thieves
-

Arreat's Face
-

Jalal's Mane
-

Titan's Revenge (only if

Eth)