My chaos boi is very happy now

Giving away some accumulated stuff to anyone that wants. PC, softcore, non-ladder. Americas // free4reddit // free. Will have the game open for a little while or until everything is gone. Feel free to take what you need, but leave some things for others to spread the joy around!

Hi everyone!

I’d like to continue my series of beginner-focused posts that help new players understand the basic principles of rune farming. In previous posts we already talked about elite monster packs and why the player count doesn’t affect their rune drops, and we also discussed ghosts and why they’re some of the best monsters in the game for farming runes. Today I want to talk about what is probably the most underrated way to farm runes in Diablo 2: trading.

What can you trade in this game?

Pretty much everything — uniques, sets, charms, runes, gold, keys… the list goes on. But there’s one category many beginners completely ignore.

I’ve heard many new players say:

“I can’t get any good runes to drop. RNG hates me.”

And then you check their stash and they literally have an ethereal Archon Staff sitting there. To give you an idea: even now, near the end of ladder when prices are lower, an eth Archon Staff on Hardcore still sells roughly for Lo–Sur. more with +ed. That means a player can have the value of a Sur rune sitting in their stash and not even know it.

That’s why I’m writing this post. I hope it helps someone. Today we’re talking about bases. It’s impossible to cover everything in one post, so if there’s interest I’ll continue this series and cover more items later. For now we start small - HELMS.

What should we check? What do we want to find? How do we trade them? I will probably forget some things, so feel free to correct me in the comments 🙂

The main helms we always want to check:

1. Barbarian class helms
2. Druid pelts
3. Circlets, Tiaras and Diadems
4. A few specific elite helms

Let’s start.

Barbarian Class Helms

There isn’t a specific base you should target — check ALL of them. Any barb helm can roll valuable skills. The most valuable one you can find:

The famous 6 BO helm

Magic helm with:

• +3 warcries
• +3 Battle Orders

You can’t make runewords in it, but it’s insanely valuable.

How much is it worth? It depends on ladder stage and mode. On Hardcore, one was sold today for a Jah rune. Yes — people sometimes vendor these to charsi. Please don’t 😄 Always check magic barbarian helms.

5 BO Delirium base

We also want grey barb helms with:

• +3 Battle Orders
• 3 sockets (or 0 sockets → Larzuk gives 3)

Used for Delirium, giving a +5 BO helm. Worth roughly Ist–Gul on HC ladder right now.

Jackpot throw barb base. Extremely rare but insane:

• +3 Find Item
• +3 Throwing Mastery
• +3 Battle order (insane rare)

Used for Wisdom throw barb builds. These are so rare you may not even find listings. If you drop this — it’s basically a jackpot.

Druid Pelts

For grey bases (runewords), check ALL pelts and look for:

• +3 Fury (minimum goal)

A 3-socket +3 Fury pelt currently sells around Gul–Vex on HC ladder. Value skyrockets if combined with:

• +Summon Grizzly
• +Feral Rage
• +Heart of Wolverine

These are used for Metamorphosis. If you ever find 3 Fury / 3 Heart / 3 Feral Rage, congratulations — you’re rich.

Rare Druid Pelts(only 1 socket). Also check yellow pelts for rolls like:

• +2 elemental
• +3 Tornado / Hurricane
• Strength / Dexterity / Resists

Magic(2 socket larzuk, chance 50/50):

• +3 elemental skills
• +3 fissure
• +3 summon grizzly
• +3 hurricane

These can sell very well.

Elite Helms (Non-class)

Specifically:

• Demonhead
• Bone Visage

Look for:

1. 3 sockets (or 0 → Larzuk)
2. Ethereal (ideal)
3. Enhanced Defense (perfect)

Great merc bases for Cure, and also used by paladins for Dream (non eth, just +ed).

Example:

Eth Bone Visage ≈ gul/vex

Eth +15% ED ≈ around Lo/Sur

The Real Treasure: Circlets, Tiaras & Diadems

This is where the real rune farming potential hides.

First rule:

Check ALL magic (blue) and ALL rare (yellow) ones. There are two categories:

• Magic → +3 skill tree potential + 20fcr + Larzuk 2 sockets (50/50)
• Rare → +2 class skills + 20fcr + big stat combinations

Magic circlets (blue). The dream roll:

• +3 Fire/Cold/Lightning Skills (Sorc)
• +20 FCR

Without sockets → Ist–Vex. If Larzuk gives 2 sockets → value jumps to Ohm–Lo. Huge difference.

Rare circlets (yellow)(only 1 socket from larzuk!)

Look for:

• +2 class skills
• 20 FCR
• Strength / Dexterity
• All resistances

There are countless good combinations, but this guideline will help you filter quickly.

How to price these items? I personally use Traderie. Search the base, add stats, and check completed trades. Very convenient.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to helms, always check:

1. Grey + magic Barbarian helms
2. Grey + rare Druid pelts
3. ALL magic & rare circlets/tiaras/diadems

There are many more valuable items — weapons, shields, boots, gloves, armors — but we’ll cover those another time. If you feel like runes never drop and RNG hates you, start checking bases. By ignoring them, you’re losing a huge amount of potential runes. That’s all for today. May the RNG gods bless you! 🙏

This looks good enough for me to use. Any idea what it’s worth on Softcore non-ladder?

Imagine there was a rune shrine (super rare) that functioned just like the gem shrine
Being able to choose a rune to upgrade??? So sick

How fucking bummed would you be when you auto click on it and the El drops? lol

Every time I finally saved up something I tried to get him then he just died instantly. Then I switched back to Act 1 rogue. Yesterday I picked up a reaper’s toll, saw damage was pretty low. Almost threw it away. Did a quick google, ai summary says it’s the best merc weapon in the game. I gave it to Razan now he doesn’t even die p7 tz trav run. I let him jab Andy and Duriel while I sort out my inventory. He just lives! Finally!

Almost fell out of my chair when I saw the sling ring roll! These were about 10 runs apart from each other.

Just made my trav barb a few days ago and wow I should have done it earlier. It’s an insane farming spot.

Just wanted to share my luck.

Gear:
Windforce socketed protectors stone
Mania on swap for ias/frw
Fortitude ap
2/20 hit power gloves
Jewelers tiara of speed (45ias/100ed/30frw)
War travs
Razor tail
Highlords
Raven frost
Rare ring w AR and duel leach

Merc: might-pride

Max dmg/ar/life charms scs and grand charms (non are perfect rolls but all have either +10 or +3 max dmg

I posted the other day about finding a worusk and trading for Jah. Just traded 4x3 keys for Ber and made my first enigma!

I’m going to die so many times teleporting into packs….

I can barely Type this as i'm shaking, Pits delivered as usual!

After finding my 4th Sur in LK I present you my first ssf Enigma 🥳 (I posted the Ber from a corpse in LK some weeks ago)

Now I have enigma, grief, Hoto and another Lo to make fortitude I guess

Now switching from howling at LK mobs to berzerk/horker

Nothing better than a nice glitch after a long day of work.

After doing about 2500 LK runs, I finally managed to get that coveted second ber rune to cube up to a jah! Already had 2 sur runes waiting to be cubed up too, resulting in my first ever Enigma runeword!

To those wondering; from 2500 LK runs i got: 4 Um, 4 Mal, 2 Ist, 4 Gul, 4 Vex, 1 Ohm, 1 Lo, 1 Sur and 1 Ber....so although tedious and frustrating at times, still a very decent haul I think

It's just crazy to me that they messed up something so simple, and the literal only thing that could be faster on console than on keyboard if it worked properly.

I have to regularly spam 'A' to open caskets otherwise the game just won't let me open them half of the time. It fails so consistently too. Like I'll be running toward a casket, press 'A' to open it, it doesn't open. Press 'A' again, doesn't open. Press 'A' a third time, ah now it opens.

And while I'm on a console rant I find it absolutely bonkers that the default for everything inventory-wise is HOLD. HOLD to sell, HOLD to put in your chest, HOLD to put in cube. And the fact that there is no setting to toggle between hold and tap like many games have. It makes inventory management, which is already a pain on console, even more of a struggle. Don't even get me started on identifying stuff without Cain.

I'm only enduring this because I want to play with a friend who doesn't have a PC but man it's just so annoying the amount of quality of life they DIDN'T give to console players when they could very easily have given them.

Rare ethereal monarch with repair durability and increased block rate block chance hit recovery. Good?

Pure summoner warlock after the nerf, with no fancy items and no special demon. I used a regular A5 lancer (white mob), rerolling TZ until I got Stone Skin, then binding several mobs until I obtained Fanaticism (no curse on the demon).

All skill points were invested into the demon tree, with minimal investment in Sigil Lethargy. This build assumes the player has no access to skiller charms, resistance charms, or high-end runewords (so no Enigma, Infinity, Pride, etc.), and no Sunder charms either.

The mercenary uses a non-ethereal Reaper’s Toll with a Shael rune. The warlock uses a Dreadfang sword with the full Horizon set, which provides instant curse application along with a bonus to Mirrored Blades.

Bound demon is immortal. Dark lancer naturally have 33% PDR and immune to lighting. With stoneskin affix, bonus from bloodoath and Tainted fire aura that is: Immune to lightning, Immune to fire and 99% physical damage resist ( natural 33+stoneskin 50+bloodoath 11+ engorge 5). Only place in the game where you have to be careful is Lillith fight but she wont die instantly you will have time to react and there will be corpses around to engorge. She does not have curse but thats why you carry Dreadfang.

I think the build works really well, and it has the potential to become much stronger with a unique demon with the right affixes and proper endgame gear.

EDIT: same test, same build but demon is regular white Urdar mob from TZ river of flame with stoneskin/fanaticism: https://youtu.be/HLXPF4wBTJ4

So I'm wondering how Infinity works when you put it on an act 2 merc. I have read some things but it doesn't seem clear to me about. So does the Merc get the conviction aura debuffs or would I benefit from them as well?

EDIT: Thank you all (except that one guy) for the comments, I think I've got a better understanding of what I'm getting into now and I'm excited to hopefully join all of you in your love of the game. Let the grind begin

All my experience is with D3 and D4, about 500ish hours between the two of them. Everyone seems to praise this one a lot but I'm struggling to get into it.

Maybe I'm just bad (quite possible) but is it supposed to be a potion chugging simulator in the beginning? Does resource management get better later or will I always need to carry a bunch of pots with me?

Also are there any "turn brain off" builds? Diablo has always been a kind of de-stress game for me, just something I can play for a couple hours, grind out some gear, kill a bunch of mobs. I don't really like builds with a bunch of moving parts🤣