My first Enigma

Hi,

I got all the runes to make my first Enigma.
I already got a 3os

Dusk Shroud, however, I am wondering if it is better to wait for one with ED or even a

Mage Plate with ED.

Is there a lot of difference in the value if it has ED?
Is a

Mage Plate worth more than a

Dusk Shroud?

Thanks!

ED increases repair cost significantly so that’s something to bear in mind if you are a character that gets hit more often.

Mage Plate is commonly used because of the low strength requirement, although for some characters strength is not so much of an issue due to using some items that provide + strength.

The 750-775 defence roll is fairly meaningless unless you get the max roll in a 15/15 base. Which unless you are very lucky often requires a lot of rolls. Also a perfect 15/15 (even 15/0)

Dusk Shroud is expensive since you can't use the socket quest in Act 5 (will give 4 sockets instead of 3).

I’d just use the base that does not require any additional investment in strength. Finding / purchasing a standard one with a good roll should not be hard nowadays.

Thanks for the advice .

It's for my

Frenzy barb, so I will stick to the plain

Dusk Shroud.

just a small bit from me.

In my experience there are two types of player behaviour in making Enigma.

First, seeking for a 15/15 sup base and even reroll the armor to get that sweet +775.

others take any base that fits and preferably looks cool on the char or at least okey-ish (hobo-necro in the shroud pases hello). Most popular choices are

Dusk Shroud/

Mage Plate/

Archon Plate due to the lowest penalty to the movespeed as those are considered light armors

From the practical perspective, the difference between any decent base is negligible, particularly if you are not planing pvp. The only choice here is whether you want to spend points on str

p.s. if you are not doing lots of melee any sup base is ok. you will get the cash to repair it or just spend an extra

Ral for the repair...

Bases are a matter of personal preference, more than anything else. As in "I prefer the look of xyz so that's it!". Functionally, the primary concerns for those who do care are light armor, low str req and decent def in no particular order.

Light is easy enough to get with various bases (such as your

Dusk Shroud).

Low str req is a relative term and kind of depends on the (quality of the) rest of your gear. Between torch and anni alone, even a sorc ends up with up to 50 str which allows for a few bases to be used with 0 str invested. At the same time however, even said sorc will in most builds still aim for using a

Monarch (Spirit, jmod, whatever it may be), meaning she needs to hit 156 either way. If you go backwards from there, Enigma adds up to 74 (less at <99), meaning you need to hit 82 str before Enigma no matter what which in turn means the 77 needed for your

Dusk Shroud are already covered. At that point, going for a

Mage Plate instead means you drop in defense and gain..basically nothing. Except perhaps looks which again is subjective.

Defense is cute and all but let's be realistic: Most builds that use Enigma couldn't care less about defense as they simply don't/barely get hit anyways. And even if you do and even if you looked at an

Archon Plate, 15% ed means you go from 410 def as the worst possible non-sup roll to 603 as the best case. So even from worst to best, you're looking at a difference of not even 200 def. Admittedly, for some builds that gets multiplied out but more often than not, it ultimately makes little to no noticeable difference whatsoever.

Personally, I would say go with whatever looks you enjoy the most as that's the single biggest impact your choice of base will have. Functionally, they're all fine in the end and you'd be hard pressed to really notice any difference.

I for one would never use anything other than an

Archon Plate (on any build..for any armor rw..excluding a handful of merc Edge cases and only 1 char Edge case) but that's just because a) light, b) elite (matter of Principle ^^) and c) looks (personal preference that coincidentally applies to all classes for me). Sure, they also coincidentally have the highest def of all light armors while still keeping relatively low str reqs overall but neither of those is in any way noticeable during gameplay if compared to say the same build/loadout just with a

Dusk Shroud instead.

Superior bases are more expensive to repair... and to trade for. if you don't care too much about a few points in defense (especially for Enigma, there is no multiplier like in Fortitude, it's just adding defense points), you can try to get a base with a good roll on defense but not a perfect one if you're not very rich.
For example a

Mage Plate can roll defense 225-261, I'd consider any roll above 250.
For

Dusk Shroud (361-467), anything above 440.

It should not be much more expensive that way, while not having the feeling of spending top runes in a bad base.

Also you have a topic somewhere on this forum with the aspect of every armor - check to have one that you like (but most likely in light armors, as said above)

And do remember it's

Jah-

Ith-

Ber, not

Jah-

Eth-

Ber or

Jah-

Ist-

Ber or whatever wrong combination, that's too painful when it happens

Congrats to your first Enigma! Actually there is nothing to add... but maybe my favourite thread of d2io adds a value: forums/i-farmed-2-fucking-week-for-this ... 20154.html

Thanks everyone for the information .

No luck on the roll... became 757 .

But no re-rolling here, don't even understand people getting so rich they can afford re-rolling with

Jah's.

Anyways, glad with the help and my first Enigma

ShadowMonk wrote: 3 months ago

No luck on the roll... became 757 .

Come on, note that there is no bad Enigma! Enjoy it and have fun!

Congrats. that is the first, but will not be the last.

To me, I dont like

Dusk Shroud simply because the looks of it, haha, put it on a necro and him would look like a homeless hobo on char selection screen.

Apart from all the things mentioned, Mageplate do look nicer compare with the

Dusk Shroud, at least in my eyes.

But hey, now your barb can

Teleport, thats more important

necro+

Dusk Shroud+

Circlet+toilet brush ftw!

I almost never use sup bases for runewords, they look all nice with 15/15 but then dropping 900k to repair them on the regular.... just not worth it, I just try to get the perfect defense normal ones which are not all that expensive, sometimes not even that I just grab whatever is on storage at the time (yes even for RWs like Enigma)

Important note: On a Druid a

Dusk Shroud looks way better than a

Mage Plate or

Archon Plate

Grats ! My only Enigma I ever rolled... rolled 751, so no worry... and I still use it on my main char !

u r barbarian right? Why didn't u roll

Sacred Armor? Strenght is problem for other chars,but not a barbarian,that's why everybody needs

Archon Plate etc.

this is mine,although I prefer COH.

I am wielding dual Grief in

Phase Blade, so the highest demand in strength comes from my Arreat’s Face. That is way lower than a

Sacred Armor, certainly counting the strength from the Enigma itself.

So any point spared in strength, is welcomed in vitality

seansixsixsix wrote: 3 months ago

Congrats. that is the first, but will not be the last.

To me, I dont like

Dusk Shroud simply because the looks of it, haha, put it on a necro and him would look like a homeless hobo on char selection screen.

Apart from all the things mentioned, Mageplate do look nicer compare with the

Dusk Shroud, at least in my eyes.

But hey, now your barb can

Teleport, thats more important

The reason I would never even think of using

Shako

Maf wrote: 3 months ago

seansixsixsix wrote: 3 months ago

Congrats. that is the first, but will not be the last.

To me, I dont like

Dusk Shroud simply because the looks of it, haha, put it on a necro and him would look like a homeless hobo on char selection screen.

Apart from all the things mentioned, Mageplate do look nicer compare with the

Dusk Shroud, at least in my eyes.

But hey, now your barb can

Teleport, thats more important

The reason I would never even think of using

Shako

and for the topic, depends on what char you play and what is your EG. I mean with my sorc or necro, I need to repair so rarely I wouldnt even know. For my

Frenzy barb repairing his Sup Forti is pain in the ass. Especially doing some torches runs.