Question for the GURU regarding obsession

With 2.4 around the corner I can imagine every light sorc including myself looking at Obsession with bright eyes and drooling mouths chomping at the bit. Now down to the brass tacks: Being it is indestructible with the Zod in the rune lineup and my limited knowledge of etheral items my question is this:

Is it imperative to find that Perfect Eth base?
Because, my knowledge behind this is that it ( Eth) really enhances some of the base values. IE def dmg etc etc but being as a casting sorc wouldnt I or we only be looking for the ultimate +1-3 lightning/chain and +1-3 Lightning Mastery?

Please help me.

Ethereal on a weapon does 3 things (functionally speaking):

- Increases dmg by 50%: completely irrelevant for a sorc weapon
- Makes it unrepairable: completely irrelevant here as the Zod overrides that
- Reduces Str and Dex requirements by 10: Basically irrelevant here as well because staves are already designed for a sorc and come with super low requirements as is. Even the elite ( Archon Staff) has no Dex req and a Str req of 34 non- Eth. So really, it doesn't matter. By the time you can wear the rest of your gear, you certainly won't fall short on Str for the staff.

So thanks to that, the only real reason you might want Eth is for style points to get a shiny see-through weapon. That's really all there is to it.
The skill bonus you're looking for (assuming it is a valid combination) you could get on both, Eth and non- Eth.

That having been said, if anyone finds an Archon Staff with +3 Nova, Thunder Storm and Lightning Mastery...please do let me know.
Not that I have much hope for ever finding a perfect base for this. I remember spending an Eternity, trying to find a perfect White base. And for that, you "just" needed the right base which you could find on multiple different wands. Here, you'll need the base AND then get lucky enough to either have it roll with 5 sockets or cube 5 because Larzuk will give you one too many and you're looking at very few possible staves. So basically, on average, you'll find like like..what? 11? ish..perfect White bases by the time you find one of these...i.e. most people will never see one.

Edit: Ignore the part about 5 socks..apparently I can't read and skipped a rune. Turns out it's 6 so Larzuk will do just fine.

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Ethereal on a weapon does 3 things (functionally speaking):

- Increases dmg by 50%: completely irrelevant for a sorc weapon
- Makes it unrepairable: completely irrelevant here as the Zod overrides that
- Reduces Str and Dex requirements by 10: Basically irrelevant here as well because staves are already designed for a sorc and come with super low requirements as is. Even the elite ( Archon Staff) has no Dex req and a Str req of 34 non- Eth. So really, it doesn't matter. By the time you can wear the rest of your gear, you certainly won't fall short on Str for the staff.

So thanks to that, the only real reason you might want Eth is for style points to get a shiny see-through weapon. That's really all there is to it.
The skill bonus you're looking for (assuming it is a valid combination) you could get on both, Eth and non- Eth.

That having been said, if anyone finds an Archon Staff with +3 Nova, Thunder Storm and Lightning Mastery...please do let me know.
Not that I have much hope for ever finding a perfect base for this. I remember spending an Eternity, trying to find a perfect White base. And for that, you "just" needed the right base which you could find on multiple different wands. Here, you'll need the base AND then get lucky enough to either have it roll with 5 sockets or cube 5 because Larzuk will give you one too many and you're looking at very few possible staves. So basically, on average, you'll find like like..what? 11? ish..perfect White bases by the time you find one of these...i.e. most people will never see one.

Extremely helpful, useful and educational. Thanks for this and all you do good person. May the RNG(esus) be forever in your favor.

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Ethereal on a weapon does 3 things (functionally speaking):

- Increases dmg by 50%: completely irrelevant for a sorc weapon
- Makes it unrepairable: completely irrelevant here as the Zod overrides that
- Reduces Str and Dex requirements by 10: Basically irrelevant here as well because staves are already designed for a sorc and come with super low requirements as is. Even the elite ( Archon Staff) has no Dex req and a Str req of 34 non- Eth. So really, it doesn't matter. By the time you can wear the rest of your gear, you certainly won't fall short on Str for the staff.

So thanks to that, the only real reason you might want Eth is for style points to get a shiny see-through weapon. That's really all there is to it.
The skill bonus you're looking for (assuming it is a valid combination) you could get on both, Eth and non- Eth.

That having been said, if anyone finds an Archon Staff with +3 Nova, Thunder Storm and Lightning Mastery...please do let me know.
Not that I have much hope for ever finding a perfect base for this. I remember spending an Eternity, trying to find a perfect White base. And for that, you "just" needed the right base which you could find on multiple different wands. Here, you'll need the base AND then get lucky enough to either have it roll with 5 sockets or cube 5 because Larzuk will give you one too many and you're looking at very few possible staves. So basically, on average, you'll find like like..what? 11? ish..perfect White bases by the time you find one of these...i.e. most people will never see one.

yes staff bases with nice skill rolls will be worth a ton as they will be super rare. the good news though.... Obsession is Zod + Ist + Lem + Lum + Io + Nef ... so 6 sockets.

so if you find a staff with 3 nice +3 modifers, and it is White, you can at least Larzuk it.

I wish I got Eth on my God rolled White Wand. +3 Bonespirit +2 Bone Shield +2 bonespear

Chickenhawk wrote: 4 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Ethereal on a weapon does 3 things (functionally speaking):

- Increases dmg by 50%: completely irrelevant for a sorc weapon
- Makes it unrepairable: completely irrelevant here as the Zod overrides that
- Reduces Str and Dex requirements by 10: Basically irrelevant here as well because staves are already designed for a sorc and come with super low requirements as is. Even the elite ( Archon Staff) has no Dex req and a Str req of 34 non- Eth. So really, it doesn't matter. By the time you can wear the rest of your gear, you certainly won't fall short on Str for the staff.

So thanks to that, the only real reason you might want Eth is for style points to get a shiny see-through weapon. That's really all there is to it.
The skill bonus you're looking for (assuming it is a valid combination) you could get on both, Eth and non- Eth.

That having been said, if anyone finds an Archon Staff with +3 Nova, Thunder Storm and Lightning Mastery...please do let me know.
Not that I have much hope for ever finding a perfect base for this. I remember spending an Eternity, trying to find a perfect White base. And for that, you "just" needed the right base which you could find on multiple different wands. Here, you'll need the base AND then get lucky enough to either have it roll with 5 sockets or cube 5 because Larzuk will give you one too many and you're looking at very few possible staves. So basically, on average, you'll find like like..what? 11? ish..perfect White bases by the time you find one of these...i.e. most people will never see one.

yes staff bases with nice skill rolls will be worth a ton as they will be super rare. the good news though.... Obsession is Zod + Ist + Lem + Lum + Io + Nef ... so 6 sockets.

so if you find a staff with 3 nice +3 modifers, and it is White, you can at least Larzuk it.

Wait..did they just change the runes for that? Or did I really completely misread it? Could've sworn it was 5..hell, I even got annoyed that they didn't leave out hte Nef to make it 4 to work with a wider variety of staves!
My bad, apparently..

Cinomed541 wrote: 4 years ago

I wish I got Eth on my God rolled White Wand. +3 Bonespirit +2 Bone Shield +2 bonespear

I see the irony in my asking this after I just skipped an entire rune myself but..are you sure you read that correctly and/or remember it correctly? Would love to see a screenshot of that Wand because based on d2 orig. rules, that should not exist. with a -2 to +1 tier range, Bone Spirit and Bone Shield should never exist on the same Wand. The highest you could get on a Wand with Bone Shield is Bone Spear. No prison and certainly no Spirit.

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

Cinomed541 wrote: 4 years ago

I wish I got Eth on my God rolled White Wand. +3 Bonespirit +2 Bone Shield +2 bonespear

I see the irony in my asking this after I just skipped an entire rune myself but..are you sure you read that correctly and/or remember it correctly? Would love to see a screenshot of that Wand because based on d2 orig. rules, that should not exist. with a -2 to +1 tier range, Bone Spirit and Bone Shield should never exist on the same Wand. The highest you could get on a Wand with Bone Shield is Bone Spear. No prison and certainly no Spirit.

I was wrong, I apologize it is +3 Spirit +2spear the +3bone armor is from White itself and its +3 Revive. Thank you for pointing that out. My bad. Lol

I'm admittedly, both saddened and relieved you're wrong.

Would've always loved the possiblity of a Teeth + Spirit White base. But I can't help but be happy not to have to hunt for that after all.

There's always perfect Boneshade. Not quite the same but still relevant. +2 Spirit +3 Spear +3 wall +5 Teeth and +5 armor. Now if I can find a +3/3/3 Poison Nova Lower Resist CE if that exists. Lol

Oh, I love my p. Boneshade. Won't give that up unless the base skill rules do change.

And no, it doesn't exist. Nova and Lower Res do work together but CE is one tier too low to be combined with them.
You could get Summon Resist on it instead though and at least save on that skill point. After all you need CE anyways to unlock and lvl up your Nova.

I like my CE radius large for both my necros. It makes clearing things much faster. My poison necro has about 10 where my summoner has 15 hard points and just obliterate anything on the screen. Minor issue playing on Xbox is you can't Tele stomp and CE makes up for it. But Yeah, that's mostly why I want Lower Resist on the Wand cause 90% of the time I don't use it. And it will save the point in Iron Maiden, blood tap, Weaken, Decrepify, and low res. I think besides the flying things in stoney field there are Skeleton archers in tamoe Highlands that have large amount of poison that needs curse to drop so I can hurt with Nova. But that's what the merc and 1 point in skeletons is for.

I always just stick with 1 point in CE. Though that still puts it well beyond 20 which is enough to seemingly blow up the entire screen.

Though I did end up playing around with maxed lower res on PTR yesterday just for the hell of it. There's something oddly entertaining about cursing mobs that are still 3 screens away from you.

Schnorki wrote: 4 years ago

I always just stick with 1 point in CE. Though that still puts it well beyond 20 which is enough to seemingly blow up the entire screen.

Though I did end up playing around with maxed lower res on PTR yesterday just for the hell of it. There's something oddly entertaining about cursing mobs that are still 3 screens away from you.

I remember when Decrepify used to work like that. I was messing around with a maxed Confuse a couple weeks ago and that was... interesting. Hit all the cows with Confuse then a Poison Nova. But my poison is so high it wasn't intertaining. Thinking about trying again with Summoner and just make everything but me fight.

I do wish Decrepify had some sort of area scaling still/again..

They patched it around 1.08 in LoD I believe cause it used to be same area as amp and reduce damage by 33% to. I remember it was around the time class set items came out. Like Tal rashes, IK, trangs.