Protectors Stone in a Vipermagi

I got a decent Protectors Stone to drop very early on in my character (70ish) and just assumed it wasn't that hard to get and that I would get more an better ones. So I threw it into my Vipermagi.

I now have an Enigma and haven't even found enough statues to get another chance (lvl96 now)

Am I a friggin idiot and boned now or is there any worth at all to an upgraded Vipermagi with a Stone in it?

First of all, upgrading a caster item like Skin of the Vipermagi is not going to increase it's value because casters don't need the additional defense, and increasing the strength requirement is a net negative to any caster build trying to invest the least amount possible into the strength attribute. Second, while the jewel does have some trade value socketed into an item, it's going to be a fraction of it's value compared to when sold seperately.

This of course is assuming it's a 35 all res vipermagi, otherwise why invest such a valuable jewel? right?

So doubly an idiot lmao. Thanks

not good to upgrade it.

physical Stone and vipermagi

can use in very early Teleport amulet amazon/bar/paladin

but from any view, I dont see why people use it that way

Well, from my point of view it is not completly useless. In one of my fav Maulbear setups I am utilzing a vipermagi. The reason is that the FCR is great for shockwave. If you have no FCR on the build shockwave is just painfully slow. I would love to have such a jewel in my vipermagi for this build

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/lhd80ezt

An ES Warlock who doesn't have Enigma (or doesn't want it) could take great advantage of this armor/jewel combo.

Schnorki wrote: 4 months ago

As for Protector's Stone..why? What build are you running that wants a phys jewel in a viper?
Not saying there aren't any but that is niche AF.

Melee Bear Sorc ftw!!!

Schnorki wrote: 4 months ago

Upgrading viper is absolutely worth it.

Wyrmhide still only requires 84 str which is far less than e.g. a Spirit Monarch and easily covered by nearly every caster build anyways.

So all it does is add free defense. Which doesn't do a lot of course but better than nothing.

Agreed, I always upgrade mine.

As far as I know, the physical dmg won't even work properly unless it's placed in a weapon (due to the ED jewel bug), so I think it was a waste :/

That said, it is not necessarily a waste to upgrade a vmagi. I upped mine for my Nova sorc to get more defense, she can still wear it just fine.

justinman114 wrote: 4 months ago

That said, it is not necessarily a waste to upgrade a vmagi. I upped mine for my Nova sorc to get more defense, she can still wear it just fine.

+41 Strength = -123 Mana (+% maximum mana bonuses from gear added, not including Battle Orders) towards Energy Shield, your life line. Sorcs do not need defense in softcore, and while Nova is somewhat a close range spell putting you in harms way, mobs should be dying before they have an opportunity to hit you.

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

justinman114 wrote: 4 months ago

That said, it is not necessarily a waste to upgrade a vmagi. I upped mine for my Nova sorc to get more defense, she can still wear it just fine.

+41 Strength = -123 Mana (+% maximum mana bonuses from gear added, not including Battle Orders) towards Energy Shield, your life line. Sorcs do not need defense in softcore, and while Nova is somewhat a close range spell putting you in harms way, mobs should be dying before they have an opportunity to hit you.

What Boots does you ES Nova sorc wear?

Yea I am running an Echoing Strike Warlock. I'm pretty sure the phys res reduction still works, but if not I was mostly interested in the Exp gain and the Fade.


@DKBam How much would you be willing to buy it for?

Knappogue wrote: 4 months ago

What Boots does you ES Nova sorc wear?

Tri Res rares (with poison res)

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

justinman114 wrote: 4 months ago

That said, it is not necessarily a waste to upgrade a vmagi. I upped mine for my Nova sorc to get more defense, she can still wear it just fine.

+41 Strength = -123 Mana (+% maximum mana bonuses from gear added, not including Battle Orders) towards Energy Shield, your life line. Sorcs do not need defense in softcore, and while Nova is somewhat a close range spell putting you in harms way, mobs should be dying before they have an opportunity to hit you.

I didn't need to add any strength after upgrading it, she already has enough to wear Sandstorm Trek or War Traveler (depending on my mood), or I just throw on my tri-res Boots. Otherwise I wouldn't bother, but it was a free upgrade.

Knappogue wrote: 4 months ago

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

justinman114 wrote: 4 months ago

That said, it is not necessarily a waste to upgrade a vmagi. I upped mine for my Nova sorc to get more defense, she can still wear it just fine.

+41 Strength = -123 Mana (+% maximum mana bonuses from gear added, not including Battle Orders) towards Energy Shield, your life line. Sorcs do not need defense in softcore, and while Nova is somewhat a close range spell putting you in harms way, mobs should be dying before they have an opportunity to hit you.

What Boots does you ES Nova sorc wear?

Usually the War Traveler for the extra MF, but I sometimes use Sandstorm Trek or some tri-res Boots if it's a spicy area like WSK.

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

Knappogue wrote: 4 months ago

What Boots does you ES Nova sorc wear?

Tri Res rares (with poison res)

Ahh, yea. That's why most people with ES Nova don't mind upping vipermagi is they use sandstorm treks which has a str req of 91. Even Eth treks has a req of 81 but provide no less than 10 str, so upping viper is a moot point for them regardless.

Knappogue wrote: 4 months ago

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

Knappogue wrote: 4 months ago

What Boots does you ES Nova sorc wear?

Tri Res rares (with poison res)

Ahh, yea. That's why most people with ES Nova don't mind upping vipermagi is they use sandstorm treks which has a str req of 91. Even Eth treks has a req of 81 but provide no less than 10 str, so upping viper is a moot point for them regardless.

You're still spending points into strength to wear those Boots though. 50 Strength is the cutoff on gear for me, perfect attribute Torch + Anni brings me to 50 Strength to wear everything needed, all points go into Energy. On CTA swap i use a Splendor Bone Shield, not a Spirit Monarch or a Lidless, though an ethereal Lidless would work as well.

If you're lucky enough to have a high strength roll on your amulet, that obviously helps alleviate the trade-off.

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

Knappogue wrote: 4 months ago

D2Veteran wrote: 4 months ago

Tri Res rares (with poison res)

Ahh, yea. That's why most people with ES Nova don't mind upping vipermagi is they use sandstorm treks which has a str req of 91. Even Eth treks has a req of 81 but provide no less than 10 str, so upping viper is a moot point for them regardless.

You're still spending points into strength to wear those Boots though. 50 Strength is the cutoff on gear for me, perfect attribute Torch + Anni brings me to 50 Strength to wear everything needed, all points go into Energy. On CTA swap i use a Splendor Bone Shield, not a Spirit Monarch or a Lidless, though an ethereal Lidless would work as well.

If you're lucky enough to have a high strength roll on your amulet, that obviously helps alleviate the trade-off.

I don't even have a good enough Caster Amulet to wear 2 SoJs so I'm already losing mana anyways, and she still wrecks everything haha. I mostly play P1 so it's not really an issue.

TheEmotifNinja wrote: 4 months ago

@DKBam How much would you be willing to buy it for?

Well, I played the Maulbear a few seasons ago and if such a jewel would have been available at that time I simply would have looked up what the offers are and tried to get/find the necessary runes.

But all of this got me thinking. I put a perfect Protectors Stone jewel in the maxroll calculator in the build I used the vipermagi due to FCR for shockwave. The damage output went up about 18% which is pretty massive imo. I do not know if the calculator takes into account the bug concerning the non-weapon ed correctly since it also adds a flat damage amount, but if you could get about 15% increased damage output and the minus enemy resistance makes the vipermagi with a protectors Stone imo BiS for many set-up I played with the wearbear. Usually I ended up with a Chains of Honor in most setups.