Presentation post / how to spend these runes?

[zticazzy]

hello everyone, newcomer here.
after years of casual D2 playing and incgamers lurking (esp. the LK statistics threads) i decided to register to say THANK YOU to all of you helping me having a great gaming experience! :thumbup: i've always played this game SP with no mods, apart for the D2loader which i used to exchange items from char to char every now and then, but i guess GoMule is a better option right now; plus i've never traded nor i want to start doing it, i like to play the game just with the items i find by myself.
i'd like to have some advice about how to spend some hr i've stored up over the years ("give 'em to me" is not an option ). now i have a Sur, a Lo, 2 Ohms, 2 Vexs, 2 Ists, along with some other lower runes, ad I was thinking to make (for my ww barb):
- 2 griefs PB
- 1 grief PB and fort
- 1 beast (Ber cubed) (2nd weapon being a good roll razor's edge)
- 1 CoH (Ber cubed) (better used on my sorc maybe?)
- ???

which one is the best option for trav/CS/baal runs and pwning the game in general? i know CoH and Beast don't stand a chance against grief and fort, still i added them in case i didn't want to install RWM, i feel uncomfortable thinking to use runewords that are not designed for SPers.
right now my armor is an almost perfect AP duress (which i'm very fond of), and my weapons are kingslayer and a bad roll frostwind. lately i've spent my time running the pit on P8 with my meteorb (0% mf) looking for a white berserker axe and the only good result i've got was to level her up from 91 to 92. -.-
so how should i spend these runes? suggestions and further combinations of runewords i'm not taking into account because of my lack of creativity are welcomed. thanks!

 

[Gripphon]

Welcome to the forum.

First of all, to comment "pwning the game" element. If by that you mean that you can comfortably kill in any area in the game, with lower priority on killing speed, then you can use both Fortitude and CoH for great success. 2x Grief and you are pretty much ready for pwning the game with ww barb. For this kind of advices you rather hear other peoples opinions who play the game that way.

If you by "pwning the game" meant that you want to kill as fast and as efficient as you can, then I can give advice for that since that's the only way I actually play the game. For that Enigma armor is far superior to any other armor for WW barb. For that, however, you will have to do additional LK running. A bit less than 4k at average to be exact. It's really not much, along you will farm more charms, runes and so on.

By all means do 2x Grief, you will hardly beat that combination, especially at areas where you kill demons.

Also don't cube Lo to Sur, unless you really really don't have anything else to do with Lo. Rather make 2x Grief + Fortitude, and cube Sur's to Ber's.

2 Vex are good for Hoto's, or at least make one. Ohm for CtA etc.

 

[mir]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

My advice (if you play without rwm) is to wait until you get ber/jah before you cube those runes. If you get jah then cube those runes to ber and make enigma, if you get ber make beast. If you cube those runes you lose: HotO (vex), exile (vex+ohm), CtA (ohm), delirium (ist), doom (if you find cham), coh (if you find ber) or bramble (instead of exile).
Enigma might worth it but beast is not.

 

[thefranklin]

Welcome to the forums! With "Gieb" out as an option, I really don't know how to help you

Definitely get at least one grief up and running. Whether you make a fort is up to you, I would not because any runner will eventually use Enigma, and the fort will seem wasted. I would even use Engima on a Trav runner, it would free up my amulet from requiring teleport charges.

Before making a second grief, I would make a good oath for my off-hand and compare it to lawbringer/azurewrath for CS and baal. In the end, the second Lo is 1/4 a Ber and 1/8 a Jah, so not a higher percentage of an enigma, so flat out making two griefs would not be a bad option. During this time you might find another use for a Lo, and that is the only reason I would not make two straight out of the gate.

If I didn't want to use RWM I would save for enigma. I wouldn't consider Beast or CoH to be worth 1/3 of an enigma. (I would argue ladder rune words are applicable to SP, SP games have the higher monster health equivalent to ladder, as opposed to lower monster health of non-ladder). I would use an upp'ed ribby, upp'ed eth hone sundan, or even IK barb with a lot of max damage charms. Meph would drop you a nice ribby in a reasonable amount of time.

Good luck!

 

[zticazzy]

seriously... is there anyone who doesn't have RWM here?
after reading your advices i think i'll simply install the RWM to make a double grief (or grief + oath as suggested by thefranklin), and then run trav for more runes. i'm not a big fan of CtA, so the 2 Ohms are better spent as a Lo to me. i'll probably make a HotO too, i was almost forgetting about it.
thanks everyone for the replies!

 

[Fabian]

Very few people play without RWM, but there exist a couple.

Getting a well geared Trav Barb and hunting runes for Enigma/etc is a very sensible plan. What you "should" do depends on your goals and what you enjoy obviously, but Grief+Grief+(Fort) sounds good to me for that particular plan. When the Fort gets obsolete because you have Enigma, it will make a good to very good merc armor anyway, but Grief #1 and Grief #2 are far and away the most important runewords for this plan.

Call to Arms is one of the best runewords in the game, and if you play non-Barbs you really should consider making one at some point.

 

[Dodgydave]

For a long time I played vanilla. However, once I finally started finding a few high runes the RWM was too tempting due to the plethora of extra options it offers.

 

[Drystan]

Call to Arms is one of the best runewords in the game, and if you play non-Barbs you really should consider making one at some point.

I have to disagree with Fabian here. I'm not saying he's wrong (I truely respect Fabian's stats, commitment and the knowledge he's shared here,) but I'm saying it comes down to personal preference style here.

As a long-term HC player, with CtA used on numerous builds, I really don't care for it. Personally (and that's what it comes down to,) I would never make another one - even beta-CtA (unless I had runes falling out my...) It doesn't make/break any character/build, especially on the high-end spectrum. It adds improvement, but not beyond what a properly build/created character could already handle. It adds little damage/speed on a well-geared character, and on well-geared characters, the survival is already there, so the added life is not required.
I personally, based on using CtA in HC on a range of characters, would recommend runewords (RWM) that will be used as main weapons/armour - Grief / Oath / Fortitude / HotO / Enigma / Infinity (if you can save a little bit for it - Trav / LK should provide eventually if you're committed.)

Congrats on the r00ns, and enjoy whatever you choose to use them in!

 

[japanzaman]

seriously... is there anyone who doesn't have RWM here?

Present and accounted for! I could go on a whole spiel about my opinions on this matter, but I'm sure nobody really cares. Let's just say that there are "purists" out there who play entirely with what the game gives us (no muling, mods, etc). Plus, the normal runewords are already powerful enough in my opinion- CtA, Enigma, Beast, etc.

 

[JoeBruce]

is there anyone who doesn't have RWM here?

Present and accounted for!

You are not alone. Don't like to fiddle with mods, even one as benign and widely accepted as RWM. It probably has more to do with the fact that I don't have a lot of good runes, so I'm not missing out on much (I do envy a couple of the lower-end runewords). Haven't played too many high level chars in 1.13. I'm still a little short of finally making my first Heart of the Oak after all these years...

As for what to do with yours? The aforementioned HotO, a nice Chains of Honor? Silence was the original high-end runeword, and while obviously overshadowed by many of the newer options, is still pretty cool. Doom always makes me drool, but you'd need to find a Cham for that.

 

[Maltatai]

Welcome!

seriously... is there anyone who doesn't have RWM here?

Yep, all vanilla except the orange rune text mod. Though I did like GoMule during the brief period I used it, quite convenient even if you never swap items between characters.

So that means unfortunately I can't help you much when it comes to rune word choices.