Next video should be "Game mechanics: Damage Calculation: Local VS Global ED" or a complete guide to Damage Calculation I've been playing D2 for nearly 20 years, and this is the issue that I have struggled with for a long time. I can only imagine how the newbies feel. Besides, I have not seen a single good video nor guide that explains this thoroughly. Great video. Cheers!
It seems using a barbarian you can dual wield swords with malice and honor and have some lifesteal and health regen of your own to counter the life drain, after all it’s only a 5 life drain.
Another often very overlooked aspect of Grief is the poison res reduction on it. It works incredibly well on a Rabies Druid because of it. I know in the current state of balance its not the greatest build but it works very well if you like farming cows. If you like Playing Mods, Rabies Druid is a massively sleeper build in PD2 for mapping, i got one to lvl 96 during season 2 and its some of the most fun i had with D2. In the base game, i also found going hybrid Phys/Poison damage with Rabies as the supporting element to be a very effective way to get through hell on a Werewolf Druid in single player. Getting a Lo rune in the environment does require some luck though but its not the hardest high rune to cube up to either.
They should make Falcata 3 socket max ( Ataghan, Elegant Blade and Hydra Edge as well). Theyre only eligable for Steel,Strength and Wind... itd be cool to open up the sandbox a little bit.
Note to self: Bow Paladin likes Silence. I don't mind the "Flee" effect and it's useful. Phoenix is win for that - fire res. Take a guess what THAT is useful for. Same for Hand of Justice. But that's GODLY win with a side of win.
1) If you play o cold sorceress with act 5 frenzy mercenary,equiping him with "Voice of Reasons" the -24% cold resist affects only the target the merc hits or all the mobs around him? 2)Lawbringer + Crescent Moon or Lightsabre + Azurewrath for budget act5 frenzy merc?
1) Only the mercenary's attacks themselves, it will have no effect on your damage. 2) Lawbringer + Crescent Moon - significantly easier to find, and in most situations better (not all)
Really like ure work with this! good stuff! could we get a more specific for the category please, for an example when u mention swords we acctually get to see runewords in a propper sword to make a relavant decision if its acctually a good option. as i said really like what ure doin but when i see for an example bow's in the "sword" clip i cant resist to question it cause i cant really put it in to perspective in what it could be unless im goin on SP Jamella editor =). Great work else! love ure series!
I was wondering what your thoughts would be on putting an oath into a 15ed eth decapitator axe. My son is rolling up a melee druid and I thought it would go well.
it would be a fairly solid weapon, and be able to take you through hell, though generally I prefer them in Ethereal Scourges or berserker axes for general use (on all classes) - as far as 2handed axes, specifically for wereforms, generally I favor Feral or Champion Axes for the better speed, BUT with the new IAS system for werewolves in D2R - you can hit some good breakpoints with the decapitator as long as you have a handful of plus skills and max werewolf. For werebear, I'd still probably stick with the faster axes, since decapitator will struggle to hit the breakpoints, even with the new maul.
Still a Death fanboy 🤪 A Steel Cutlass is still hands down one of the cheapest and most effective smiter runewords. The speed of the Cutlass combined with the item mods make it a beastly weapon. Repairs are the only downside.
Eee , fortitude as a weapon is nice, i use it on 2 builds and it s prety op, so... You should try fortitude sword on a tessladin, helps with teleport, and on frenzy baba, 2 of them, great boost on defense, nice damage, and fcr for teleport.
Dude right!!! I just switched from dual spirit to full druid set with spirit shield. My sorc had dual spirit until my friend gave me occy....but now my necro and hammerdin both use dual spirit lol
Just made a grief, it rolled low but it will work fine for my smiter. Oddly his smite damage is outdone by one hard point zeal, the shield is upgraded HOZ, Zeal just opened up a can of whoop-pass with Greif that I did not expect. I will probably not ever reroll it as it works just fine and I do not think a bit more flat damage will make or break the build. Oh well, my Hamerdin HOTO rolled max anyway.
Never re-roll a grief, sell it (to me) and try again. I've done the game several times with a low grief pb. Max fanatacism, max sacrifice (zeal synergy), max zeal, max holy shield. You mow down pretty much everything in the game except for physical immunes. (I used Atma's scarab for that, but there are other options). One point in smite is the better way to go and it's an ideal build for ubers if you have a source of lifetap (drac's ideally). For ubers it's best to make a treachery armor and pre-buff before killing meph so you can keep fanaticism instead of salvation to counter the massive drop in resists from Meph's aura. (or a ton of all res charms...)
@@pizza.doctor yes - Eschuta's is only 20% and facet can only get 5% max. Crescent Moon is 35% That said, a Jeweler's monarch with a socketed Eschuta's would net you more, as that could be as much as 45% EDIT: Wasn't paying attention - you can get more with a Crescent Moon sword and a Jeweler's monarch, but for as pricey as that would be...
Or on switch for a Physical Zealot, works wonders to kill Physical immunes, breaking Undead, and since the CTC Decrepify is high, it triggers fast, which let you increase Grief damage output a lot in P8 and also reducing incoming Physical damage alot.
BOTD is better than grief if you say fuck shields and slap it in an ethereal warpike or maul, on an impalezon or charge only paladin it hits like 60K per hit
Steel - adds 3-4 damage... what? For as long as I can remember, it added 3 to max and 3 to min damage. Where did you get 3-4 damage? Lawbringer will always be in my heart. It was the weapon that got me through Hell for the first time with a Zealer (yup, that was the best weapon I could get for a long time. With the set up I had back then, running with Lawbringer was actually better for me than using Oath in an eth weapon I also had.)
@@Alzorath I see, thanks. I thought the "superior" prefix stayed in the weapon name even after socketing. I guess I wasn't paying attention for the last 20 years.
Paladin and Barbarian are the main sword users, though most clases can use them in one form or another (especially considering spirit is sword/shield only)
definitely in terms of cost vs value - there are arguments for a few of the other strictly in the end-game, but none can really compete in long-term usability
frenzy is complicated, you should google how it works.. it's not as simple as weapon with most IAS mainhand if you are using Grief PB + Death CS/CB you should use grief mainhand and death offhand
While the dual wield attack speed bug doesn't exist in D2R (so I've heard, I haven't played it), grief in main with death in second is the way to go. Prior to D2R, depending on the weapon in question, you'd want the faster weapon in the offhand, but you'd bug it by unequipping and re-equipping the main hand weapon - again though, depends on what you're rocking.
Are you referring to people thinking the bone spirit isn't tracking properly? Because it actually is working properly in that regard Explanation as to why: The effect when you cast it sends the bone spirit targeted at the enemy being struck - if the strike kills the enemy, the bone spirit reaches its "target" and then continues on since the target is no longer there (you get a similar effect if someone kills your target before it gets there, or when spamming spirits in pvp and the player dies before the remainder get there). While the target is still alive, you will see the white-explosions from the spirit on the target, if they're not there, the spirit goes on without collision, similar to what is explained @ www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bone_Spirit (third bullet point)
"They are impossible to rate because there are so many uses." This is the best compliment a game design can get. Edit: what's the melee necromancer build with Oath? All I can find is necro using HoW charges from this weapon. It can't be used with poison dagger either, too bad.
it's a variant of the bone necromancer (a gimmick off-meta build), though it leans a bit more into the defensive boosts, and it ends up playing a lot like the warrior princess amazon (which is a non-spear/non-bow amazon). Generally guides for these types of builds (off-meta challenge builds) do horribly unless it's sorceress or paladin (or since 2.6, assassin) - so less people make them, but they also are harder to surface in search :(
I've really enjoyed this series, nice to hear some thoughtful commentary that really contextualizes the final verdict.
Next video should be "Game mechanics: Damage Calculation: Local VS Global ED" or a complete guide to Damage Calculation
I've been playing D2 for nearly 20 years, and this is the issue that I have struggled with for a long time. I can only imagine how the newbies feel. Besides, I have not seen a single good video nor guide that explains this thoroughly.
Great video. Cheers!
Grief is either used in PB or BA as BA provides bigger attack range which sometimes is important in pvp and pve.
It seems using a barbarian you can dual wield swords with malice and honor and have some lifesteal and health regen of your own to counter the life drain, after all it’s only a 5 life drain.
Another often very overlooked aspect of Grief is the poison res reduction on it.
It works incredibly well on a Rabies Druid because of it. I know in the current state of balance its not the greatest build but it works very well if you like farming cows. If you like Playing Mods, Rabies Druid is a massively sleeper build in PD2 for mapping, i got one to lvl 96 during season 2 and its some of the most fun i had with D2.
In the base game, i also found going hybrid Phys/Poison damage with Rabies as the supporting element to be a very effective way to get through hell on a Werewolf Druid in single player. Getting a Lo rune in the environment does require some luck though but its not the hardest high rune to cube up to either.
What do you mean about the revive charges with pally?
Great D2 channel Alzorath, keep it up!
Great video bud! Death and Oath are my fav's for cost haha
They should make Falcata 3 socket max ( Ataghan, Elegant Blade and Hydra Edge as well).
Theyre only eligable for Steel,Strength and Wind... itd be cool to open up the sandbox a little bit.
Note to self: Bow Paladin likes Silence. I don't mind the "Flee" effect and it's useful.
Phoenix is win for that - fire res. Take a guess what THAT is useful for.
Same for Hand of Justice. But that's GODLY win with a side of win.
Steel already have become my most often crafted runeword.
But as my characters grow, that will likely change, at one point, you just have enough.
Mine is insight. Just keep making new ones every time I find a stronger base lol
Fury balrogs are so old school 🤣 i recall fury fanged knives being a thing also, because of the base IAS of the knives themselves.. nice vid!
1) If you play o cold sorceress with act 5 frenzy mercenary,equiping him with "Voice of Reasons" the -24% cold resist affects only the target the merc hits or all the mobs around him?
2)Lawbringer + Crescent Moon or Lightsabre + Azurewrath for budget act5 frenzy merc?
1) Only the mercenary's attacks themselves, it will have no effect on your damage.
2) Lawbringer + Crescent Moon - significantly easier to find, and in most situations better (not all)
@@Alzorath Any other budget combo for cow ?
7:06 how to combine "hand of justice" "Phoenix" and "dragon" runewords with a zealer sorceress?? For a powerful fire sorceress zealer.
Phoenix shield, dragon armor and Hand of justice as weapon.
Really like ure work with this! good stuff! could we get a more specific for the category please, for an example when u mention swords we acctually get to see runewords in a propper sword to make a relavant decision if its acctually a good option. as i said really like what ure doin but when i see for an example bow's in the "sword" clip i cant resist to question it cause i cant really put it in to perspective in what it could be unless im goin on SP Jamella editor =). Great work else! love ure series!
EBotD is the most underrated weapon in the game. The dual leech sustains a barb in P8 Worldstone Keep and Throne.
Are there lore behind the runewords why they are named so? King slayer I can see is a hero used to kill the King Leoric.
not really direct lore, a lot of item names in general are references/puns/etc. or were just named that "because they sound cool"
I was wondering what your thoughts would be on putting an oath into a 15ed eth decapitator axe. My son is rolling up a melee druid and I thought it would go well.
it would be a fairly solid weapon, and be able to take you through hell, though generally I prefer them in Ethereal Scourges or berserker axes for general use (on all classes) - as far as 2handed axes, specifically for wereforms, generally I favor Feral or Champion Axes for the better speed, BUT with the new IAS system for werewolves in D2R - you can hit some good breakpoints with the decapitator as long as you have a handful of plus skills and max werewolf.
For werebear, I'd still probably stick with the faster axes, since decapitator will struggle to hit the breakpoints, even with the new maul.
@@Alzorath thank you for the thorough response!
I wasnt able to make Spirit in Broad Sword!!!!! Could anyone help with why did that happen???
Thank you for this. it was actually very helpful for me
Still a Death fanboy 🤪
A Steel Cutlass is still hands down one of the cheapest and most effective smiter runewords. The speed of the Cutlass combined with the item mods make it a beastly weapon. Repairs are the only downside.
i made a silence phaseblade that i dont use i really wanted to make an EBOTD Martel de fir or something
I’m using Crescent Moon for my kick assassin, but I made it in a Ettin Axe, so I didn’t need 136 dex.
Great vid! Keep making and ill keep watching 👀
Lawbringer and Voice of Reason. That's what my a5 frenzy dude is using.
Nice videos.
Is the Death runeword available on regular servers or is it Ladder only?
Regular servers
Eee , fortitude as a weapon is nice, i use it on 2 builds and it s prety op, so... You should try fortitude sword on a tessladin, helps with teleport, and on frenzy baba, 2 of them, great boost on defense, nice damage, and fcr for teleport.
Great vid
Using double spirit waiting for a quality flail and runes for heart of oak. Getting both spirits was a huge boost for my breezy druid
Dude right!!! I just switched from dual spirit to full druid set with spirit shield. My sorc had dual spirit until my friend gave me occy....but now my necro and hammerdin both use dual spirit lol
I would like to see a vid about the strongest 2h weapons
Just made a grief, it rolled low but it will work fine for my smiter. Oddly his smite damage is outdone by one hard point zeal, the shield is upgraded HOZ, Zeal just opened up a can of whoop-pass with Greif that I did not expect. I will probably not ever reroll it as it works just fine and I do not think a bit more flat damage will make or break the build. Oh well, my Hamerdin HOTO rolled max anyway.
Never re-roll a grief, sell it (to me) and try again. I've done the game several times with a low grief pb. Max fanatacism, max sacrifice (zeal synergy), max zeal, max holy shield. You mow down pretty much everything in the game except for physical immunes. (I used Atma's scarab for that, but there are other options). One point in smite is the better way to go and it's an ideal build for ubers if you have a source of lifetap (drac's ideally). For ubers it's best to make a treachery armor and pre-buff before killing meph so you can keep fanaticism instead of salvation to counter the massive drop in resists from Meph's aura. (or a ton of all res charms...)
Why not use the Revives on the Eternity runeword?
It deals damage to paladins, much like using Sacrifice.
No way! That is hilarious! Please create a video of this! Of all my time playing this game how have I not seen or heard of this bug!?
Can a lightning sorc use the crescent moon with her lightning spells to get the negative lightning res on enemies?
Yes
Yes and I have heard people say it's actually the biggest dmg boost you can have on a sorc weapon, more than eschuta with facet
@@pizza.doctor yes - Eschuta's is only 20% and facet can only get 5% max.
Crescent Moon is 35%
That said, a Jeweler's monarch with a socketed Eschuta's would net you more, as that could be as much as 45%
EDIT: Wasn't paying attention - you can get more with a Crescent Moon sword and a Jeweler's monarch, but for as pricey as that would be...
You forgot shael shael shael shael shael shael.
6 Ist phase blade for the win!
Well, except for a 6 Zod phase blade...
Lawbringer is so effective for frenzy barbs. Pair it with the biggest hitter you can find for your other hand and .... profit
Or on switch for a Physical Zealot, works wonders to kill Physical immunes, breaking Undead, and since the CTC Decrepify is high, it triggers fast, which let you increase Grief damage output a lot in P8 and also reducing incoming Physical damage alot.
I just swept through single player hell with lightsabre/lawbringer on my frenzy barb and it was very fun
Never clicked so fast
I dont have Lo at the moment but is passion good for hell? Playing zealer here
If you get a Lo make a grief phase blade. With a zealer it's insane... (max sacrifice, fanatacism, zeal, holy shield)
BOTD is better than grief if you say fuck shields and slap it in an ethereal warpike or maul, on an impalezon or charge only paladin it hits like 60K per hit
Steel - adds 3-4 damage... what? For as long as I can remember, it added 3 to max and 3 to min damage. Where did you get 3-4 damage?
Lawbringer will always be in my heart. It was the weapon that got me through Hell for the first time with a Zealer (yup, that was the best weapon I could get for a long time. With the set up I had back then, running with Lawbringer was actually better for me than using Oath in an eth weapon I also had.)
Superior Scimitar.
@@Alzorath I see, thanks. I thought the "superior" prefix stayed in the weapon name even after socketing. I guess I wasn't paying attention for the last 20 years.
Who would benefit the most with a sword, the paladin, right?
Paladin and Barbarian are the main sword users, though most clases can use them in one form or another (especially considering spirit is sword/shield only)
Azurewrath!
Why cant a Paladin use the revive charges?
causes damage to him
Dual spirt hammerdin all the way through hell. Damage kind of fell off halfway through act 5 though
In my opinion, the Spirit sword is the best!!
definitely in terms of cost vs value - there are arguments for a few of the other strictly in the end-game, but none can really compete in long-term usability
@@Alzorath Yes, I meant in terms of cost vs value
#NerfGrief
I firmly believe Voice of Reason is better than Rift and I will die on that hill
What come first Death or Grief when duel wielding? Main hand off hand?
For a Frenzy barb? You get your wep IAS from
Your mainhand i believe.
frenzy is complicated, you should google how it works.. it's not as simple as weapon with most IAS mainhand
if you are using Grief PB + Death CS/CB you should use grief mainhand and death offhand
While the dual wield attack speed bug doesn't exist in D2R (so I've heard, I haven't played it), grief in main with death in second is the way to go.
Prior to D2R, depending on the weapon in question, you'd want the faster weapon in the offhand, but you'd bug it by unequipping and re-equipping the main hand weapon - again though, depends on what you're rocking.
You do realize that in D2r the Oath runeword is bugged right?
Are you referring to people thinking the bone spirit isn't tracking properly? Because it actually is working properly in that regard
Explanation as to why: The effect when you cast it sends the bone spirit targeted at the enemy being struck - if the strike kills the enemy, the bone spirit reaches its "target" and then continues on since the target is no longer there (you get a similar effect if someone kills your target before it gets there, or when spamming spirits in pvp and the player dies before the remainder get there). While the target is still alive, you will see the white-explosions from the spirit on the target, if they're not there, the spirit goes on without collision, similar to what is explained @ www.theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php?title=Bone_Spirit (third bullet point)
@@Alzorath Ah okay, so its a basically tricking us ok well that sucks
I really enjoyed your series... please make rune words for necromancer wands and shields...
😁 😁 😁
....hold on you put ebotd in the middle then show fury...*turns off video*
Oath is a great weapon for budget zealots with the highest rune only being a mal.
Breath of the dying has to be the best nonladder sword runeword.
"They are impossible to rate because there are so many uses." This is the best compliment a game design can get.
Edit: what's the melee necromancer build with Oath? All I can find is necro using HoW charges from this weapon. It can't be used with poison dagger either, too bad.
it's a variant of the bone necromancer (a gimmick off-meta build), though it leans a bit more into the defensive boosts, and it ends up playing a lot like the warrior princess amazon (which is a non-spear/non-bow amazon).
Generally guides for these types of builds (off-meta challenge builds) do horribly unless it's sorceress or paladin (or since 2.6, assassin) - so less people make them, but they also are harder to surface in search :(
Who writes the scripts for these videos?