Originally Posted by
gooback
I'm going to write a miniguide on early level itemization. This should be helpful to those with less experience, and hopefully if I miss anything, somebody can help me out too.
Levels 1-10
Ye noble hero has just begun their journey, and the douchebad rogues, despite having lots of equipment that would help you, offer you no assistance well you go and fight their battles for them, so we are on our own for gear. Unless you get a super lucky legendary or a good roll on a yellow, your goals should be as follows.
Helm: 2 socket cap or skull cap. Sockets are key, socket with 2 chipped rubies if you are not a caster, or 2 chipped sapphire if you are a caster. The 20 mana is super helpful.
Body armor: 2 socket body armor again, 3 sockets won't drop that I know of in act 1. Sockets are the same as the helm.
Weapon: early game casters and non casters will both rely on auto attacks in the early levels. Find a socketed (2) scepter if you can. Scepters do large base damage and do bonus damage to undead. The ideal sockets are 1 chipped sapphire (provides slow, this is tremendously important, prioritize this over 10 mana in a helm or armor), and 1 chipped topaz (highest average weapon damage) or 1 emerald (10 poison damage is quite high, although not all 1 frame)
Shield: If you are a paladin, you are one lucky mofo. You can drop 3 socket 10 all res shields right in act 1. Look for a shield with 3 sockets and socket it with 3 chipped diamonds, up to 28 all res. More likely you will get a 3 socket with 0-6 all res, but still quite good. Otherwise, just pick up any 1 or 2 socket shield and chuck them chipped diamonds in, should beat any rare.
Amulets and ring: If you are a caster, look for those 10% faster cast rate's, the first few faster cast rate breakpoints are easy to hit, and will give you better burst damage.
Belt boots and gloves just look for rares. Good stats are: life, vita, energy, mana, FHR (the best IMO), faster attack speed
Upgrades
The next items are the crucial items that you should be looking at getting asap, hopefully by the end of normal, or into the start of nightmare unless specified otherwise. These are super strong levelling items that will help you get to the point you can start farming meph on nightmare.
Helm: Lore (ort + sol). This might take some time to get to, but it's a tremendously good low level helm. Highly recommended for casters. It offers +1 to all skills which is so hard to get at these low levels. It also offers mana and lightning resist (the most important resist). For melee chars such as zealots or barbs, radiance (nef + sol + ith) is an amazing helm. It gives mana, life, and damage taken to mana (for low mana cost melee skills this as amazing as it keeps your mana topped up). A few other small perks here.
Armor: Stealth (tal + eth). You want this in act 2 or 3 at the latest. Eventually I like to get a breast plate stealth in act 3. It offers faster hit recovery (FHR), faster run/walk (FRW), and faster cast rate (FCR). All tremendously useful, especially for a caster. All 3 of these are very important, no question the best low level armor.
Smoke (nef + lum). If you are lucky enough to get your hands on a lum rune, the 50 all res can be super helpful in here, but only if you are willing to give up the stats of stealth. Better on melee chars.
Shields: Anceints pledge. You should always build this in act 5 at the latest in normal. You get the runes for free in act 5, and you should be on the lookout for a good 3 socket base. The resists are vital for going into nightmare, if you have negative resists because you don't have this shield, you have times of hardship and struggle upon you, just get it.
Twitchthroe: if you are lucky enough to get one of these (low level unique), it's super strong as a melee char
Rhyme: Get this, it should replace ancients pledge. It offers cannot be frozen, absolutely vital on a melee char, and super useful on casters. It also offers amazing blocking with some all res sprinkled on. Once you replace this with spirit, keep it for your switch on bosses. It offers 25% mf and when you start doing runs will help you get those uniques faster if you switch right before the kill.
Spirit: Unless you are a paladin, you have to wait until you find a monarch shield, which will take some time, but this shield is the best caster shield in the game, and the runes are easy to get, so get this ASAP priority 1. I shouldn't have to tell you why it's a godly shield.
Weapons: Steel (tir + el). Super good for melee chars. Especially on a barb with dual wield. Dual wielding these will take you through normal if you can get a decent bast (2 socket crystal swords that drop in act 2 are your friend)
Leaf: (tir + ral). Mediocre at best. It requires a 2 handed weapon, which means no shield. It provides a nice damage boost for fire sorcs, but it sacrafices all resistances and will only take you through normal difficulty, although it is quite good in normal. Replace with 1 hander and a rhyme shield asap.
Strength (amn + tir). Yay, crushing blow and some vita. Will help quite a bit against bosses, mediocre temp weapon otherwise, not the highest damage (less damage than steel without the crushing blow since steel offers open wounds and +3 min and max).
Spirit: (tal + thul + ort + amn). Unlike it's shield counterpart, 4 socket swords are easier to find. Don't worry about strength req on the sword, just put points in strength and equip this beast. The skills FCR FHR and mana this gives you is absolutely nuts for a low level weapon. A must for farming meph. this + stealth armor + fcr amulets and fcr rings will give you 80-90% fcr which allows for fairly safe teleporting, a must for farming meph effectively and safely. Best caster weapon until you get a hoto or a nice unique (or a ridiculously lucky yellow)
Insight: while this is technically for your merc, and not for you, it solves your mana problems way more than any other item. Very good for casters so you don't have to tp to town every 5 minutes for more mana pots.
Boots, Gloves, Belt, amulet, rings.
Same as level 1-10, the best rare unique or set item that drops for you. Once you get some currency, prioritize trading for magefists or frostburns as a caster, fcr amulets and rings as a caster, and melee chars want bloodfists, goblin toes, deaths guard sash (cannot be frozen, allows you not use rhyme and either dual wield or use a different shield).
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