Rookie Runeword Base Qs

Hi everyone,

So with my first few trades in the rear view mirror and a set of mid/high runes in the stash, now it’s time to make sure I don’t screw up too badly venturing out into runewords.

I’m pretty good on the basics, but I did have a question about how you make the call to hold out for a particular base vs. just build one now and get more overall usage out of it.

Obviously nobody is going to craft an Enigma in normal armor or a Stealth in Elite armor. Where things get a bit tricky is that large “middle.” For example, would something like Treachery in

Ancient Armor be totally out of bounds?

Any general rules of thumb, tips, or war stories greatly appreciated. And that includes reminders that a large part of this will just come with experience.

Thanks!

Personally, I would say that for anything that is by definition an interim solution (which includes Treachery imo), just use whatever most fitting base you have available at the time.

Holding off for 'the right base' is really only worth it for something that you will then actually use long-term.

(And let's be honest..as much as an

Archon Plate is theoretically superior to a

Light Plate..most builds would never notice a difference in actual play and even for those that do, it typically isn't all that much)

The only thing I'd say is go for the right 'category' at least (which shouldn't take much 'holding off' to get). Specifically with regards to armors, that's using a light armor as opposed to an

Ancient Armor (medium) to avoid the weight penalty. For weapons (if actually attacking with it), it'd be more about "fast enough to still work with resulting IAS breakpoints", while still offering decent dmg of course.

Agreed, anything light is usually fine. For your merc if it can be

Eth too it's much better, and 3 os

Eth

Wire Fleece or

Scarab Husk is usually quite cheap.

While your assertions are mostly correct, ppl actually do socket normal breast plates with Enigma..

For melee weapons, do a lot of research into the base. With exception to Grief, the base damage is critical to its function. For all weapons, the inherent attack speed is very important to factor into your choice of base.

Armor is more arbitrary as many place low value on the defense stat bc by running, you fraction your defense and most characters use running as the primary form of minimizing damage by moving outside the range of melee attacks or dodging projectiles zig zagging. This is especially true of casters who often prefer lower strength bases to maximize investment into vitality. For most melee characters, I would pay closer attention to maximizing defense where it doesn’t stretch your strength too far and would also use light armor so the armor doesn’t slow your run/walk speed.

For Treachery, bc there is no Enhanced defense, the base defense is less relevant, but ppl would still mostly use a low strength elite base or an ethereal elite baseif placing on a merc. However, you probably wouldn’t notice the difference in most circumstances. If making the runeword now would immediately result in major quality of life or clear time improvement, (for Treachery, if it helps keep your merc alive or allows you to reach a critical ias breakpoint) it makes sense to use what you’ve got now rather than holding out for the perfect base that may take weeks to show up especially for a mid range runeword like Treachery or any which doesn’t require high runes. A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.

General rule of thumb,

Archon Plate is the most desired base. Mage plates are often used for Enigma.

Dusk Shroud is kind of the middle Ground for people who want defense and low strength requirement. Any of these listed armors with 3 sockets and 10+Ed are generally valuable. However, late in ladder, 14ed will only get you a small fraction of what 15ed would get you. If you find an unsocketed 15ed

Mage Plate, keep it, it has a max of threee sockets and will fetch you a large sum when you have

Larzuk put holes in it. Also keep an eye out for high defense ethereals regardless of heavy or light. For values sake, ethereal bases with the highest possible armor are the most coveted bases for mercs. Anything with more than 800 defense with 3 or 4 sockets is valuable. With ethereal bases, 4 socket is more valuable than 3. People mostly prefer Fortitude on their mercs and that armor in particular is highly variant depending on the base defense of the armor.

Pro tip, when socketing expensive bases and runes, triple check the base, the runes and the rune order before socketing. I recently accidentally joined the gemmed

Phase Blade

Club by mistaking the order of

Ral and

Mal and it was like getting kicked in the stomach…

*addendum when I submitted this, I saw that the pros already beat me to the punch as usual lol, but I offered some additional info. Sorry for redundant info

Ok the quality and detail of these comments are awesome. Great advice everyone!

Remember that armors have a range of possible defense rolls. So just because you had that 3os

Archon Plate drop for your Enigma, doesn't mean it's an immediate keeper. Check the defense. Non-superior APs can roll from 410-524.
Necrarch made a recommendation a while back which I'll push here. If making an expensive runeword make sure your armor's defense rolled at least in the top 10-15% of its possible range.

Generally if you're not going to sell it then any armor base is fine for the most part. If you're thinking of selling it down the road then yes check the defense like others have said and try for a superior base.

Weapons you should be more picky about if you're physical dmg. Depending on the runeword and who's using it you want fast or hard hitting

Mercs are different, you want everything to be etheral on the highest base they can equip to get the most defense or dmg. This is more towards endgame though, while you're leveling use whatever you want for lower runwords

Especially for newer offline players, one thing that comes up from time to time is whether your weapon needs to be ethereal for Oath or Death to be "worth it"

The way ethereal damage calculations work, a perfect roll in a non-ethereal base does less average weapon damage than an absolute minimum roll in an ethereal base

People get annoyed about this real fast. But in my opinion, it's always worth the effort to find an ethereal base for a weapon

For example, even though Oath is cheap, there are at least a dozen reasonable bases for it, many with a max of four sockets--worth a few extra farming sessions to get the most out of a weapon that can singlehandedly clear the game and get you off to a good start farming

Travincal

Don't forget that if you are melee, and are going to get hit a lot, you may not want an armor or weapon base that is superior due to repair costs.

I made a Duress armor for my throw barb in a

Balrog Skin and it had nearly 1600 defense, however every time I went on a

Mephisto run, it was $300K to repair the darn thing. I sold it to

Charsi and made a Treachery instead, because I didn't have another

Um rune. The Treachery is less than $1000 to repair usually.

Be mindful that perfect superior elite armor, helmets and weapons can have a lot of value - make sure to check before you trade away cheap.

Don’t think it has been stated… you made the comment that you wouldn’t make a Stealth or lower runeword in an expensive base. You can if you want and if the character can wield the base. In the future if you need to use the base for something else just desocket it with a

Hel and

Scroll of Town Portal in the cube.

I'll chime in mostly to echo what others have said.

-The base really matters for weapons. If ethereal can work, it's huge. Meaning ethereal bases for mercs are huge and ethereal for repairing/indestructible runewords is huge.

- For armor mostly pay attention to requirements.

You don't necessarily think about it when you're making but that

Colossus Voulge has a really high min requirement (especially ethereal). So if you're hoping to use it to level another char, you might be out of luck. It's end game only.

One last thought. If the runes are expensive enough, try to think ahead. You might not care about every last little bit right now. But are you going to wish you'd made that runeword absolutely perfect later? Will you remake it just to get a little more? It might be worth investing now.