Lower Resist wand/dagger?

[PlasmaTorture]

Lower Resist wand/dagger?

So while browsing Akara for Life Tap wands since I know they're an option for zealots and whatnot who want to use something other than Dracul's grasp. I began to notice quite a few Lower Resist wands showing up and I couldn't help but wonder:

How effective would using one for a sorc be?

Realistically, it's nearly impossible to get a Level 3 LR item, though (req iLVL 99), so most people would have to settle for a Level 2.

Level 2 LR gives -37% res all for 24 seconds. -41% res if you can get Level 3...

To me this seems like a cheap and easy way for breaking immunities, especially for Lightning sorcs who have such a hard time without expensive equipment. There seems to be relatively few monsters who have 115+ resistances (although maybe I'm wrong). Of course I don't know how breaking resistances works so well so i probably shouldn't comment on that.

What I do know is that reducing enemy resistances = great, and why Cold Mastery is the "best" mastery.

So how come I don't see this mentioned in anyone's gear setups? Is the repair cost too inhibitive (don't know how much it is, but my necro gladly pays 2000 gold a teleport from his Naj's puzzler)? Is it just not worth the effort (ie you kill fast enough) and not effective enough to break resistances? Or are people happy with an MFing weapon (or whatever else) on switch and don't want to carry one around in their cube for emergencies?

I'm thinking about getting one for my sorc (currently level 44) to play around with and was wondering if anyone else had experimented with it?

 

[Mimeaphone]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

That's actually very interesting and I was thinking about nearly the same thing today while shopping for a nice starter wand for my hc necro. I think that for dual element sorceresses, its primarily laziness. I have a meteo-orber and usually just let my merc handle dual immunes while I blast away the non-immunes. However, a wand might be useful for nasty beasts like dual immune lister so I might have to try giving this a shot.

 

[PlasmaTorture]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

Well now that I've actually done my research, I see LR has to be level 10 for it to break immunities.

Still would be an effective tool for killing what you can hurt faster, though. But now I see it isn't worth the effort I think. And for some builds (blizzball for instance) you have so many spells to juggle already it seems like a little too much.

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

Well now that I've actually done my research, I see LR has to be level 10 for it to break immunities.

Ummm... I'm not sure where you were doing your research, but anything that says you need a specific required level of LR across the board, is bull.

Read this: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658719

... in other words, level1 LR could break the right immunity, or level 65+ would be ineffective against the wrong one.



As for the tactic of using the wand... I've tried it, and found it too tedious. It definitely helps your damage - quite a bit - but it's not much fun.

Finally, fyi, if you have a level94 (or higher) character you can shop for wands with the level3 LR charges.

 

[PlasmaTorture]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

Ummm... I'm not sure where you were doing your research, but anything that says you need a specific required level of LR across the board, is bull.

Read this: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658719

... in other words, level1 LR could break the right immunity, or level 65+ would be ineffective against the wrong one.

I was reading the Diablo 2 wiki and misread a line. :thumbup:
It was saying to break a 110% resistance you need to have a conviction or lower resist of 55% or higher... thus level 10 Lower Resist. and somehow I took that to mean all immunities need that to be broken, and that's partially because I was forgetting there were mobs with immunity and only 100-105% resist.

So with your info from that thread it sounds like a super budget Lightning sorc could handle a pretty large amount of the game relying just on merc + LR wand to break immunities (of course with, say, an eth cv insight a merc can take pretty much anything in solo hell). As far as I know, it could run hell Meph, Andy, Countess, Pindle, Eldritch, and Shenk just fine, which is a plenty until one can afford an Inifinity. That might have to be my next project... :scratchchin:

As for the tactic of using the wand... I've tried it, and found it too tedious. It definitely helps your damage - quite a bit - but it's not much fun.

Finally, fyi, if you have a level94 (or higher) character you can shop for wands with the level3 LR charges.

That is a good point though. I'm having a blast on my blizzballer who just got 105% FCR just teleporting everywhere and shooting off machine-gun like fireball. It seems like it'd slow down things a lot, but perhaps coming from just playing a Necro I like having a utility belt of sorts to be able to handle any situation. But for using it to just damage increase and not immunity breaking would be tedious, even if you limited to just bosses.

Also, thanks for the info. For having owned the game since it came out I feel like I know very little about its mechanics.

 

[Luckymofo]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

Ummm... I'm not sure where you were doing your research, but anything that says you need a specific required level of LR across the board, is bull.

Read this: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=658719

... in other words, level1 LR could break the right immunity, or level 65+ would be ineffective against the wrong one.



As for the tactic of using the wand... I've tried it, and found it too tedious. It definitely helps your damage - quite a bit - but it's not much fun.

Finally, fyi, if you have a level94 (or higher) character you can shop for wands with the level3 LR charges.

i thought only baal has lvl 3 lr wands; no monsters, chest, or npcs

 

[sirpoopsalot]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

Shopping produces items of (character level + 5). So a level94+ character can get level99 mods. I believe I bought this one from Ormus in Act3.


Arcing Grim Wand of Lower Resistance
One-Hand Damage: 5 to 11
Durability: 15 of 15
Required Level: 50
Staff Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 99
Fingerprint: 0x918a166e
Adds 1-266 lightning damage
+1 to Decrepify (Necromancer Only)
+2 to Iron Maiden (Necromancer Only)
150% Damage to Undead
Level 3 Lower Resist (82/82 Charges)

 

[Neuuubeh]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

It will help you break immunities on most normal monsters, however not much use for uniques. If you want to run hell with a low level sorceress, its worth it. Otherwise, no, its too tedious.

Id also much rather have an MF setup on switch than some dumb wand

 

[MagpieLee]

Re: Lower Resist wand/dagger?

This is definately useful if you lack fire power (or cold power or lightning power) for the bosses like meph, andy, duriel, diablo, baal. Although once you have enough +skill from torch, anni etc the difference might not be worth the trouble of switching weapon, casting then switching back.