upgrading uniques- ripsaws, doomslinger etc- worth it?

rikus wrote: 2 years ago

Ripsaw is pretty good with its chance to open wounds...so could be a good upgrade...so is

Doomslinger and others like

Chance Guards, gold wrap, but are those a go to for hell as well? or just for NM normal?

any upgraded uniques you guys have used on hell? which worked nice on your NM/normal runs?

Doomslinger is incredibly weak and ineffective past Normal and not worth upping for use into NM and beyond imo.

Chance Guards are worth upping into exceptional because of how incredibly cheap it is to do so, but not worth the defense bonus for the cost to up into elite (chances are that the char using it is not too dependent on high defense anyways). Usually people upgrade good exceptional weapons and armor into elite versions, weapons especially, since the higher base damage from the base item is the profound change. But also you have to keep in mind the increased stat requirements with upping an item. Higher STR req sometimes blindsides people if they aren't paying attention, especially when upping into elite items.

Cryptography wrote: 2 years ago

You comment like you literally are here to change religion, though.

Upgrading most(!) items, fun or not, is not reasonable unless seeking for the perfect roll (which requires perfect base to begin with). If you like to do it then go for it but your topic context invoke discussion and I provided.

seems like you're trying to draw me into something.
my question was purely about experience and benefits, if you can't provide exmaples, that's fine too. my examples were probably not that good-that is exactly why i asked.

but perhaps they are good in the NM normal stage? if they are not that expensive.

rikus wrote: 2 years ago

Cryptography wrote: 2 years ago

You comment like you literally are here to change religion, though.

Upgrading most(!) items, fun or not, is not reasonable unless seeking for the perfect roll (which requires perfect base to begin with). If you like to do it then go for it but your topic context invoke discussion and I provided.

seems like you're trying to draw me into something.
my question was purely about experience and benefits, if you can't provide exmaples, that's fine too. my examples were probably not that good-that is exactly why i asked.

but perhaps they are good in the NM normal stage? if they are not that expensive.

I will rephrase my argument to be more for your liking.

It is 100% worth upgrading any item that gives you direct benefit by adding damage, potion slots or defense, last one on term that you don't have to

Sacrifice stats to equip item post-upgrade.

I have few examples for you, sure.

Lidless Wall. Decent shield in itself, dropped as

Grim Shield - base shield has max of 150 defense that is always the case since shield has enhanced defense modifier. After upgrading it,

Troll Nest base will roll defense anywhere between 158 to 173 that is then boosted by %EDef. Strength requirement increases from 58 to 106. Unless you get that strength from your equipment (which sorceress usually don't unless using Enigma), you'll need to spend extra stats to equip it and defense boost would be irrelevant for your character overall.

Upgrading Vipermagi for your caster could have same effect. Yes, defense could increase from 279 to 1034, quite useless still, but strength requirement will up from 43 to 84. It only makes sense if you get 84 without having to spend hard points.

Cryptography wrote: 2 years ago

I will rephrase my argument to be more for your liking.

It is 100% worth upgrading any item that gives you direct benefit by adding damage, potion slots or defense, last one on term that you don't have to

Sacrifice stats to equip item post-upgrade.

I have few examples for you, sure.

Lidless Wall. Decent shield in itself, dropped as

Grim Shield - base shield has max of 150 defense that is always the case since shield has enhanced defense modifier. After upgrading it,

Troll Nest base will roll defense anywhere between 158 to 173 that is then boosted by %EDef. Strength requirement increases from 58 to 106. Unless you get that strength from your equipment (which sorceress usually don't unless using Enigma), you'll need to spend extra stats to equip it and defense boost would be irrelevant for your character overall.

Upgrading Vipermagi for your caster could have same effect. Yes, defense could increase from 279 to 1034, quite useless still, but strength requirement will up from 43 to 84. It only makes sense if you get 84 without having to spend hard points.

I may be the fault of how the thread is named but you give examples of Exceptional armor pieces but i think it is more about Normal weapons (

Ripsaw and

Doomslinger). You both have total different context and this makes it a "religion clash" (i don't want to call it that, it is more of a misunderstanding for me here), we don't know if OP is just casully playing solo or otherwise. In the end is totally irrelvant what you do in Nighmare with your Normal Weapon, if you use something like a

Ripsaw and have nothing better as a Melee Character (i think you don't play a Soso with that weapon in mind), you can also invest to wear it, in hell you need even higher stats to wear Elite weapons or you can respec if you find something better with lower requirements. That being said you should always look up what happens exactly if you want to up a weapon because i support the advice that most of the time it is not worth upping.

P2Mc28 wrote: 2 years ago

A personal favorite of mine: image.png

Exactly! Got this one very early on from questkill Andy Hell or NM with two of my rl-friends, questing our first D2R- Chars. Not a good roll, but this was a wink of Destiny, so I socketed and upped as fast as I could.
It now rests on a mule char, but it did very well for questing bosses, killing bosses in generel, and helping my Merc to kill cold-immu Nilathak, whom I could not kill with my Blizz Sorc!

Darq wrote: 2 years ago

Cryptography wrote: 2 years ago

I will rephrase my argument to be more for your liking.

It is 100% worth upgrading any item that gives you direct benefit by adding damage, potion slots or defense, last one on term that you don't have to

Sacrifice stats to equip item post-upgrade.

I have few examples for you, sure.

Lidless Wall. Decent shield in itself, dropped as

Grim Shield - base shield has max of 150 defense that is always the case since shield has enhanced defense modifier. After upgrading it,

Troll Nest base will roll defense anywhere between 158 to 173 that is then boosted by %EDef. Strength requirement increases from 58 to 106. Unless you get that strength from your equipment (which sorceress usually don't unless using Enigma), you'll need to spend extra stats to equip it and defense boost would be irrelevant for your character overall.

Upgrading Vipermagi for your caster could have same effect. Yes, defense could increase from 279 to 1034, quite useless still, but strength requirement will up from 43 to 84. It only makes sense if you get 84 without having to spend hard points.

I may be the fault of how the thread is named but you give examples of Exceptional armor pieces but i think it is more about Normal weapons (

Ripsaw and

Doomslinger). You both have total different context and this makes it a "religion clash" (i don't want to call it that, it is more of a misunderstanding for me here), we don't know if OP

Ist just casully playing solo or otherwise. In the end is totally irrelvant what you do in Nighmare with your Normal Weapon, if you use something like a

Ripsaw and have nothing better as a Melee Character (i think you play a Soso with that weapon in mind), you can also invest to wear it, in hell you need even higher stats to wear Elite weapons or you can respec if you find something better with lower requirements.

I have considered other circumstances as well, examples were simply brought up to show that upgrading does not make sense "always". Considering amount of melee weapons compared to all other upgradable items, I can say most of the time it isn't.

But I considered other options, hence I said IF it increases damage significantly then it is reasonable to do. Without other options for weapon, it could be best choice to upgrade existing low level base unique.

Cryptography wrote: 2 years ago

So, this data really shows what defense it could be, not would be.

Yep well said. That's why it says 'perfect values' any time that data is displayed