In Diablo 2: Resurrected, the big endgame chase items are generally unique items and runewords. Those items are the ultimate power spike that can allow your character to handle most of the game’s content on Hell difficulty with ease.
For any seasoned Diablo 2 players, we all know items like Enigma or Mara’s Kaleidoscope are extremely valuable and will most likely be used when you finally get your hands on them.
But there are some items in Diablo 2 that are certainly useful, but are generally not used that often for endgame. These items seem to be overlooked by most Diablo 2 players, and they should definitely deserve some more attention when it comes to min-maxing your build for the endgame.
I will cover eight items that should definitely be used as much for the endgame like the tried and true items like Infinity or Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band. You’ll be surprised by how useful some of these items can be and it can rival against some of the mainstream ones.
Let’s get into the eight underrated endgame items in Diablo 2: Resurrected.
Vampire Gaze
The first item I want to mention is actually a childhood favorite of mine. Vampire Gaze has always looked so cool on characters and green is also my favorite color. That is one of the reasons why it always left an impression on me. But when it comes to the core stats, it’s actually an excellent helmet for a multitude of reasons.
Without a doubt, the damage reduction for both physical and elemental makes it great for defensive purposes. It comes with dual leech which is amazing for melee characters or Javazon. Not only that, it’s also an excellent mercenary helmet too for defensive and life leech purposes.
The best Vampire Gaze I found in Diablo 2: Resurrected.
Vampire Gaze is generally one of those items I believe players will appreciate of finding one, but it will most likely be replaced with something else. For example, players tend to prefer Andariel’s Visage or Guillaume’s Face when it comes to perfecting their mercenaries’ gear. Same can be said if you happen to use a melee character like a Zeal Paladin or Frenzy Barbarian. Players generally like to go with Guillaume’s Face in that situation.
There’s no doubt that those are certainly excellent choices, but I believe a nearly perfect roll of a Vampire Gaze is competitive against those choices. Not only that, if you happen to get a perfect physical damage reduction roll of 20%, you have an item that’s worthy of putting a Ber Rune. If you put one Ber Rune, it goes up to 28% which makes Vampire Gaze the second best helmet for physical damage reduction. Crown of Ages with a perfect damage reduction roll and having two Ber Runes used will be better by 3%.
Keep in mind, Crown of Ages is not an easy item to find and you also have to hope it rolls well on the damage reduction or sockets for it to be truly valuable. Vampire Gaze is much easier to find, and the chances of finding a nearly perfect roll one will be more likely. The dual leech stats are also amazing too. This means you don’t have to worry about hunting for a dual leech ring when you are using Guillaume’s Face, and it gives the player more option of what they can use for their second ring outside of the mandatory Raven Frost.
Lacerator
The next item is certainly one of my favorite secondary weapons I like to use if I want to take a break from using the tried and true Call to Arms. As someone who’s into playing melee characters, dealing with physical immune monsters are always tedious. There is The Reaper’s Toll which is an amazing weapon you can use for your Mercenary, but Decrepify isn’t as consistent as you think. There will be some stone skinned elite packs where you will be forced to skip at times.
You also have the Bone Break Sundering Charm that you can use, but I personally don’t like having to deal with its negative affix where I have less physical damage reduction. Physical damage reduction is extremely important for melee characters because you need to be able to tank a lot of those types of damage in endgame.
This weapon is generally looked as a Barbarian focused weapon, but it can definitely be effective for other classes too.
That’s where Lacerator starts to shine. It is an amazing weapon for breaking those pesky physical immune elite pack. You can use it on the standard mobs that are physical immune, but I wouldn’t recommend it because it does have that hit monster to flee which can replace your juicy Amplify Damage curse. It’s not too bad against small groups of physical immune mobs like if you’re walking to Baal and you bump into the Specters in Worldstone Keep Level 3, it might be worth it to fight them.
Lacerator can be absolutely amazing on bosses especially if you’re using a weapon that has a lot of Crushing Blow like Death. It will allow you to significantly kill bosses much quicker. Speaking of bosses, I actually like to bring my Lacerator for Ubers just to take advantage of the Amplify Damage and it definitely works for the bosses before you face the bosses in Uber Tristram.
Overall, it is a niche weapon, but it can be extremely useful for the right situation. I would recommend using this weapon as a secondary if you enjoy melee builds like Zeal Paladin or Fury Druid.
Wizardspike
Here’s an item that I always want to find when I’m doing a fresh ladder start and that is Wizardspike. This cute little dagger is certainly an amazing weapon, but it’s also one of these weapons that tend to get replaced often especially by Heart of the Oak. Wizardspike does have some advantages over the often desirable Heart of the Oak.
You can put an Ist Rune in your Wizardspike if you plan on optimizing heavy magic finding for your Hammerdin which does give the item an advantage in that aspect. It’s also an amazing weapon to protect you from Conviction aura which many endgame Hammerdins will be vulnerable from it especially against elite packs of Venom Lords or Burning Souls.
I also like to combo this dagger with Guardian Angel just to synergize the maximum resistances affixes from the armor. This means you can heavily mitigate elemental damage and there is a specialized build where you can make a fragile character like the Sorceress into a living tank if you combo those two items with Stormshield. All the other items are customizable, but if you want to make a tanky Sorceress, you should try that set up.
All in all, Wizardspike is an item that’s useful, easily findable, and replaceable, but it can be surprisingly amazing if you want to go full distance with it. Also, it is the best in slot weapon for those that want their Sorceresses to rock that blazingly fast 200 faster cast rate set up.
Sanctuary
This runeword is easily one of my favorite shields to use. I’ve always loved many of its defensive value that it has whether it’s the insane amount of resistances or the additional dexterity to hit max block. But the main reason is the juicy Slow Missiles charges. This means you can drastically reduce the danger level of nasty ranged mobs like the Burning Souls or the Corrupt Rogue Archers because you can slow their attack projectiles
It’s also an amazing shield you can use for a Smiter too if you don’t have the runes for your trusty Exile and heavy resistances is going to be helpful for dealing with Uber Mephisto’s lightning damage which it is better than Exile in that regard. For just the price of a Mal Rune, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck if you decide to go make yourself a Sanctuary.
Kelpie Snare
This weapon has always been one of my favorite items to find. Not only it’s useful while leveling your character, but it can be effective for endgame. I’ve actually used this weapon for Ubers before and it was certainly helpful because of that massive slow down that can be applied on the bosses. It’s a weapon that’s not going to be the hardest hitting weapon you can have your mercenary, but if you certainly need some sort of defensive value, that’s what Kelpie Snare does at best.
Ethereal Kelpie Snare is the definition of massive style points.
I also believe if you play a lot of solo online, it might be better to rock a weapon like Kelpie Snare rather than an Ethereal Insight or Infinity. This tip is mostly targeted for Sorceress users who likes to magic find Mephisto religiously. You don’t want to teleport into a random group of dolls and have him kill them where the splash damage will hurt your Sorceress or possibly kill you.
Kelpie Snare isn’t going to hit as hard as those weapons, so you won’t have to worry about your mercenary killing them. However, Kelpie Snare will play a big role on making Mephisto nearly useless in terms of damaging you.
Doom
This runeword is certainly not for those on the budget and it will always be the runeword that you can make if you have a lot of high runes that you want to burn for the fun of it. Cham Rune is generally not too desirable compared to Ber Rune or Lo Rune, but I’ve always thought Doom is the best runeword that you can make out of a Cham Rune. The weapon itself hits extremely hard, it has Holy Freeze, and you can make your mercenary have another aura at the same time. The additional two skills can be helpful for melee characters if you’re using a Might mercenary.
I generally like to give this weapon to a Paladin’s mercenary. Whether you use a Hammerdin or Zeal Paladin, the mercenary’s damage will get buffed by a high level Concentration Aura or Fanaticism Aura.
Doom in a Great Poleaxe is a wonderful choice.
You can also use this weapon and try to make a specialized Paladin over cold damage similar to the Tesladin or Dragondin where these builds are specialized in lightning and fire. It also can be used for Shape Shifting or Elemental Druids.
If you do have the high runes available, Doom is worth it for those who want to get experimental with the weapon. It’s also going to be one of your most expensive runewords you’ll have in your collection if you happen to make one.
Azurewrath
Diablo 2 players are going to have to go through multiple Lightsabres before they find themselves an Azurewarth. This weapon has always been a stylish weapon because of the Sanctuary Aura it comes with which makes this weapon excellent against undead mobs. The large elemental damage is also amazing for dealing with physical immune monsters or you can put in on a Vengeance Paladin to even further increase it. Azurewarth can be amazing for farming in Icy Cellar. There are physical immune mobs down there and the heavy elemental damage will solve that issue. The Sanctuary Aura will be juicy against the Burning Souls, so if you want to farm that location with a melee build, this weapon is an excellent option. It’s also a fantastic off hand weapon for a Frenzy Barbarian and you can use your Grief Phase Blade in your main hand. This a great set up if you plan on doing lots of Chaos Sanctuary runs or Baal walks.
Delirium
The last underrated endgame item I want to pick is Delirium. This runeword should mostly be used on a mercenary and it’s the ultimate item for players that want to prioritize crowd control. Every affixes except for the bonus to vitality and Attract charges are all useful for the mercenary. I personally love using this item for any areas with large density mobs like the Secret Cow Level or the Chaos Sanctuary. It’s also excellent for Nihlathak too because there are some mobs that can definitely be scary to deal with, but when the Confuse curse goes off, it will reduce their threat level.
There are some downsides of using this helmet. It means you have to get your source of life leech from somewhere else. However, the massive amount of crowd control you have with this is certainly worth it especially if you plan on farming areas with high density and high priority monsters.
It should be noted that Delirium is rather buggy. I’ve had multiple crashes happened to me while playing old Diablo 2 when I use this runeword. It mostly happens when my mercenary transforms into the Stygian Undead Stygian Doll and starts hitting a target. I’m not quite sure if this bug was fixed for Diablo 2: Resurrected, but it is something you should be aware of.
If you happen to play the game online, you can always log back in that same game, so you don’t necessarily lose potential good loot. But for offline players, you might want to wait for the Stygian Undead Stygian Doll form to go off before you start playing again.
That is my eight picks of underrated endgame unique items and runewords for Diablo 2: Resurrected. I hope my suggestion will encourage you to try out of some of these items and make you realize how powerful they can be for the endgame. That’s one of the great things about Diablo 2; there are many items that can be used for the endgame. Some of them will be more obvious than others, and some of them will require time to see its true potential.
