For unique weapons I will be showing stats of every item. I heard the feedback from you all, but not until this round of tierlists had already been made. Next ones will improve!

02:30 Ancient's Pledge 03:56 Beast 05:03 Black 15:09 Bone 08:09 Bramble 10:29 Brand 03:01 Breath of the Dying 01:30 Call to Arms 02:07 Chains of Honor 06:44 Chaos 08:39 Crescent Moon 03:49 Death 07:04 Delirium 12:04 Destruction 06:13 Doom 08:42 Dragon 04:53 Dream 05:57 Duress 09:35 Edge 01:00 Enigma 13:43 Enlightenment 11:56 Eternity 03:17 Exile 01:55 Faith 07:11 Famine 01:32 Fortitude 10:57 Fury 12:45 Gloom 00:55 Grief 11:46 Hand of Justice 12:34 Harmony 02:00 Heart of the Oak 11:25 Holy Thunder 06:46 Honor 05:24 Ice 01:39 Infinity 01:44 Insight 11:40 King's Grace 07:28 Kingslayer 03:29 Last Wish 07:59 Lawbringer 05:41 Leaf 08:55 Lionheart 04:12 Lore 09:00 Malice 10:36 Melody 06:33 Memory 16:05 Myth 09:43 Nadir 05:51 Oath 02:46 Obedience 10:26 Passion 09:40 Peace 06:57 Phoenix 04:57 Pride 13:33 Principle 10:00 Prudence 14:03 Radiance 12:47 Rain 04:24 Rhyme 11:33 Rift 06:29 Sanctuary 07:47 Silence 05:36 Smoke 01:28 Spirit 11:50 Splendor 01:47 Stealth 09:51 Steel 09:31 Stone 09:24 Strength 02:21 Treachery 14:56 Venom 12:03 Voice of Reason 11:21 Wealth 05:13 White 14:48 Wind 14:27 Wrath 08:35 Zephyr

Would you ever consider making a merchant/shopping guide? There seem to be a lot of worthwhile items you can get from the various merchants on different difficulties. Appreciate all the content!

I understand it would take a while to show every item but showing them for a second would add a lot of value to the tier lists. I watch all the videos on a secondary screen and it's much easier if I can simply pause it for a bit to see the goodies. Great content!

Not seeing the items makes this list very hard to actually understand. Some indication on what the runeword is for would also be awsome (like melee, ranged, sorc BIS, merc only etc.)

I honestly think that Spirit/Insight/Stealth are more OP than Enigma is. People can cry all they want about Enigma but you can't beat those stats you get for the price of dirt. Grief on the other hand.......

I made an infamous Storm Bear with ‘Rain’ armor back in day. It ran Stormlash ctc tornado and Carrion ring and Rain ctc twisters and recast Cyclone. I put 75 points in wind and maxed Maul, and also used highlords, dracs, and SS. It was so much fun, I still have old vids of it on my channel I think from ‘08 using it. Just shows even D tier can find a niche

You kids and your runewords. Back in my day we had to manually repair all our slots there was no repair all button!

The amount of content you have been uploading is just mind blowing. I have so many videos to watch when i go for D2R... hell, watching them nowadays already, dont stop!

Oath is actually a busted runeword. It just gets overshadowed by things like Grief and Last Wish because D2 has been so end-game focused over the years. Oath delivers an absurd amount of DPS for the price of a Mal. It is my go to when I'm first working on a melee character before getting Grief. EDIT: I should mention that it is arguably harder to find a decent Eth base than the Mal. Though since it is cheap you can throw it in whatever and later make another one.

Kept rerolling oath in a 15sup eth small crescent until I got one with 352% ed. Slaps pretty hard in mid lvl duels.

Funny thing about the runeword fury. Back in 1.09 we got our hands in an eth bugged Balrog blade which we used to make fury in and duped it, and it was the best weapon for Barb vs Barb.

Runewords that I would place higher: Peace: Ridiculously good on an amazon because 1 real point in Valkyrie allows the level 15 valk procced by this to stay alive indefinitely. So it's like having +14 to valk on this armour. Prudence: Self-repair means you can make this in an ebugged armour and wear it yourself. Lawbringer: Often finds its way onto a windy druid, since almost all the immunes that give this build a hard time are undead. Harmony: It's scandalous that this got rated lower than Melody. Good +damage%, vigor aura, flat damage, elemental damage, valkyrie, small army of revived minions... what else do you want?

I’d love to see a video about mercenaries. Specifically, best ways to level them, best type of mercs for builds, and are the stats a lot better for normal act 1 mercs compared to nm/hell at same level.

Would love a guide on runeword bases to look out for. Half the time I don’t know if I’m just keeping junk or what’s best for what

Loved the burp ending "Oh yeah and... like and subscribe!"

Hey Mr Llama, would you consider a video for newer or returning players about Which kinds of bases you'd put the runewords in during a ssf run? It's one thing to know that the runeword is good, but another to know whether X base is worth using the runeword on? Thanks.

Have you done a video with what runewords is useful for different classes ?

FACTS. Obedience is ridiculously good for the cost.

Fury is also the best in slot second weapon for whirlwind assassins in pvp. The open wounds and deadly strike are huge. It's expensive and niche but really amazing in that niche.

mainly agree except for gloom, ebugged gloom is my favorite merc armor when i'm playing a barb, crazy defense buffed by shout + ctc dim vision is a game changer, decent midgame armor for any char with defence multipliers (pali, barb, even sorc)

Just a suggestion: I think for most people it would have added a lot of value to see the item when you hove over the runewords. The words you used to introduce them were enough but a visual aid would help a lot.

Will there be any way to look up runewords in game in d2r? It always feels weird when you have to look online to find runeword info. It would be nice if there were some sort of reference in game.

Amazing list man! My only one that I'd change would be Leaf to S but with your rating all of them and overall use I'd agree to probably put in high A so hats off! Some others I'm not too sure about but the whole S, A and B tier are close to me agreeing 100%. Edit: Also get Ancient's Pledge out of S tier! xD

Please do a video on which items we should be looking for to trade or which things have significant value. Obviously the S tier items but its difficult to know where the cut off is. I would hate to toss something that isn't relevant to my character to find out later I could have traded it for like a high rune of something

May we get a video talking about the tunewords more indepth? I suggest doing s tier, a tier, etc. I want the a/b to know what's worth playing with before getting the op stuff

I need a scrabble letter/word search for runewords!!! Put in the runes you have, and it tells you know what complete or partial runewords you can make!!

Voice Of Reason is underappreciated 😞 it's my go to against physical immunes as it has everything it needs to handle them. It was particularly useful on my smiter as the lack of ED didn't matter. And to top it off, it also gave Cannot Be Frozen which let me replace my Rhyme.

I spent the whole video wondering why Bone was in D tier, until I realised I was thinking of White

I actually have all the runes till um and i had summon necro with bone and splendor. My friend is doom/oath barb form extra auras. And what is best in slot helm runeword for act 2 merc for summonomancer?

Aw destruction is so great! I like to use it on my Druid’s merc to proc some fire skills with my windy windy werewolf

I agreed pretty much across the board, just felt Lawbringer could be a bit higher. It really does save melee characters vs physical immunes / undead.

Hi guys, just a question, is Smoke a good replacement for Stealth? Or should I go Bone instead? Playing Necro btw. Thanks for your insights. :)

Man bone is amazing when you don't have access to enigma and are forced to run around as a necro. The constant proc of the bonearmor with synergies absorb like 700 DMG and keeps you alive so much more than any other armor for necro. It's even possible to make an unkillable necro utilizing this armor. It deserves recognition. 2 ums isnt expensive nor is it something you have right of the bat. But it should definitely be considered as a mid tier armor. Only to be replaced by enigma

Voice of Reason seems pretty underrated IMO (especially since it has cannot be frozen and is fairly cheap) - great for the frenzy barb that is leveling and hasn't found raven frost

Wrath feels like it would be super good if it wasn’t stuck in bows. The life tap proc and the 20% cb seems like it’s tailor made for ubers.

So hyped for release My hope for Change/re-balance: - basic loot filter - see ilvl - remove basics keys - only one Low Quality item - not "Low Quality, Cracked, Crude and Damaged" - Last Wish Rune Word - remove "Hit Blinds Target" it overwrite Life Tap - Make so "Paladin Smite" does work with Life Steal and Mana Steal - Make so "Paladin Resist Fire, Cold and Lightning" display the hidden bonus to maximum resist - Make so "Assassin Venom" does not cap poisoning duration at 0.4 from other items - Make so "Assassin Fade" does not affects Shrines + display the hidden bonus to Physical Resistance - Make so "Druid Raven" gains 1 additional Raven for each 5 lvl after lvl 5 - Make so "Necromancer Poison Dagger" is Poison Attack - all weapons not only dagger

I'd move Chains of Honor, Exile, Breath of the Dying and Last Wish down to A tier. They're all sub-par for their resource cost. Probably Obedience as well because it's a pretty niche item. And also move Edge up to A tier because gambling is much more widely used than stuff like Ice or pre-buff Memory. And also move Phoenix down to F tier :)

Hot take: Lawbringer is high A / low S tier. Using on an a5 merc for a wind druid is best in slot but also VERY good on any physical based char outside of necro or barb with zerk. So the way sanctuary aura works is unique in that it works different than how it reads. It doesn't actually give you enhanced damage vs undead but it Lowes all undeads physical resistance down x% effectively setting it to 0 along with knocking back undead. And then it procs decrepify on hit which is slows everything heavily which is amazing for bosses and lowers phys resist an additional 50%. So looking at let's say a wind druid fully geared you have 7k tornados. But in hell difficulty many monsters will have about 50% DMG res so you do like 3.5k avg and 0 DMG vs phys immune outside of hurricane. With Lawbringer merc with decrep that puts it down to 0 so your damage is doubled back at 7k and can break immunity like with infinity. But let's say a heavy undead area like chaos (66% undead) now most those monsters will be taking full DMG including phys immunes and and with a decrep proc they will take 150% so 11.5k instead of 3.5k or 0 for immune undead. Or the whole ghost class of monster which is phys immune in hell diff and would be immune to tornados or physical attacks now take full damage or 150% of full damage. So again with a whole class of monsters you commonly would run into on hell countess, hell arcane(key runs), wordstone or anywhere in a3 gos from being immune to most your damage to being one shot by you. Oh and on top of that you also knockback all undead every few seconds which is actually hugely useful vs a lot of the most dangerous enemies in the game such as burning souls dolls and chaos knights. So TLDR is : neuters bosses, huge damage boost to physical on decrep proc, constant huge damage boost and complete immunity removal on all undead and great crowd control against many of the most deadly monsters in the game. All from very easily farmable runes.

White was the first rune word I tried back when and remains my favorite.

I had good results using Wrath on the Amazon. Pretty fun group alternative.

Peace on a amazon is super OP and cheap early on, just one point in valk gives you a lvl 15 valk (stays permanently if you have at least 1 point in valk) that doesn't vanish in 2 seconds like when you're playing a different class.

Lawbringer is so underrated. Very high chance to cast decrepefy, which is S tier spell of the game. You said this Llama.

I think voice of reason should be reconsidered at a higher tier. You dismissed it because it doesn't have improved attack speed in this video, but it doesn't need improved attack speed on a phase blade zealot the breakpoints are only 13 ias to get 5 frame zeals / 4.16 attacks per second which is essentially "anything" , or only 72 IAS for 4 frame zeals / 5.2 attacks per second. It works well synergized with a conviction aura or maybe even ideally a dual dream tesladin At least for that build it's on-par with any of the high rune weapons, at mid-rune price, now you can argue that dual dreams itself is expensive, but you don't actually "need" the dual dreams to make it work, it just happens to be the end-game ideal setup. The weapon works great even at low levels of gear, such as first breaking into hell. By going with voice of reason you're saving yourself the money of having to buy either grief or infinity, which makes the dual dreams that much easier to swallow. And while you don't then have the lifeleach of the high physical tesladin build with grief, you kind of don't need it because of all the crowd control you get from the frozen orbs. It is like rift, except for paladins instead of assassins.

I'd put Spirit at #1 personally just cause it's super cheap and has a bunch of great stats. Plus you could run a Spirit Sword and a Spirit Shield for up to 70 FCR just for 2 Tal, 2 Thul, 2 Ort and 2 Amn.

I'd say that all of the class specific runeword armours should be A tier. They're generally easier to get than SotVM. The extra skill levels and res are great for the mid game.

Bone is pretty much best in slot (on a budget) for a psn nova necro before enigma. You don't need fcr, but you need +skills and res. And the bone armor procc isn't bad.

I would rate "Steel" bit higher, because it's very easy to make in late act1 - early act 2, considering it's easy to get 2 socket weapon and Tir+El rune, and it gives you +2 mana per kill which pretty much fixes mana issue for melee characters early game. It's not crazy or OP, but it's super easy to make and you can do it at lvl 13 I think. That and"Stealth" are pretty much go-to if you are Paladin or Barb.

Did you skip ice? that one looks pretty good

Prudence in an ethereal +15% ed Archon Plate is a pretty good armor. A bit like Smoke but with a lot more defense. I have it on my uber smiter and tbh it deserves a spot in A tier 👍🏻

I like the video but I wish you went into the stats of each one like you do with the unique weapons. It’s hard to tell what you’re talking about personally never having made most of these

I think Sanctuary is in my S tier. Tho it's a late game shield, having one around and as a hand me down after you get it really just makes it superior to Ancient's pledge (as long as it has significantly higher all res.)

But what should a SSF Necro get instead of Bone?

A lot of those lower tiered RWs have specific use cases. Bone is excellent for summon necro if enigma is out of reach. Rain is also great for a windy with no enigma. Those builds are highly +skills dependent, and in SP/SSF situations those RWs can be invaluable.

Wrath looks interesting to me for a multishot maybe ? 30 chance to decrepify + light and magic dmg should help with phys immunes, crushing blow and cannot be frozen can maybe free up another slot ?

My S tier Enigma (changes the game for all non sorc characters, so op it is BIS even for sorcs), Infinity (Every elemental build becomes amazing and there are a lot of such builds they outnumber melee builds), CTA (hardcore characters or those low in mana generally), Spirit (sword is A tier but shield is BIS casters), Insight (not as amazing as it used to be). Grief (best melee weapon),

In my opinion Lionheart belongs to A-Tier. A lot of life via stats and the 50 life , decent resistances and some ed for a fal as highest rune is one of the best low-budget-options for any melee character.

Lawbringer and Oath are amazing for the cost.

haha I always love using Bone on any Necro when I can't effort Enigma and don't need the fcr from Viper. For me the 30 prisma, 2 skills and tons of mana is worth the 2 Ums which are often used solely for the res anyways. And the Bone Armor proc is actually amazing. If you have less than +9 skills, the procced armor will be better than your own Bone Armor since synergies also work on procs. For me it's a solid mid-tier rune word ^^

Have to disagree with Gloom ranking. Throw it on a merc for res. Dim vision is basically just a total CC for any ranged/casters, and if you know how to move your merc, the melee monsters also.

Can you make this video again, but in depth?

Bramble is A tier, Beast is S tier being amazing for both minion and melee builds, Hand of justice A tier as it can be used with legendary mallet for excellent damage, Destruction B tier because volcanoes are fun. Ancient pledge B tier, Hoto A tier. Good call on Obedience it can make a great whirlwind weapon for barb as well as merc. Principle is a solid A tier, 150 life 2 skills some damage and resist, its better than a lot of armours for a paladin

Hello hello! Long time lurker. Just wanted to say thank you for making these videos. I'm handing them to mates cos you explain this so much better than I do 😂. I'm a bliz sorc with doom /spirit and my merc has infin and Fort. I've played on Asia server for the last 20 years and have a thought. If servers are merging, would you like to know the Korean words for things? It helps trust me 😂

Around 10:00 ... why is that Prudence in a non-eth armor?

Bone Runeword is actually very good with the bone Armor proc if you have all the synergies. You almost have always Bone Armor on. Kinda op

Harmony is a good budget bow for a physical bowazon. Depending on some gear things and your merc , you can beat act 5 hell with it.

You forgot one! What tier does IO DOL go into? 😲

Prudence is actually pretty good because of its self-repair mod, which coupled with its +170% ED makes it THE highest defense runeword a character (read: not merc) can wear. Silence in a phase blade could be pretty good for a trapsin since they use IAS frames instead of FCR ones for laying traps. Edit: that final "like and subscribe" was really heartfelt lol

anywhere i can find a complete list to read.. so i dont have to watch this entire vid every time i think i mite have a new one to make ?

What is the point of Ancient's Pledge if you can just slap 3x perfect diamonds on a shield?

Wraith on act 1 merc interchanging between descripify and life tap for bosses AND dclone. Bad stuff.

I would say the top spot is a toss up between Call To Arms (gets my vote) and Spirit. Both have a hugely transformative effect for when you get them, i play hardcore so CTA gives me that cushion in general Chaos sanctuary is blitzed in no time and let's face it Ubers and CTA. Any new diablo player should start with a sorc (because of teleport - most powerful skill in the game - makes MF boss running infinitely more effective) get spirit and the objective should be to get Call To Arms using all sales, runes to get it ASAP.

What would be the best way to get High Runes on Battle net in the beginning?

I'd actually like watching you explain every single runeword and why exactly they are how they are.

this isn't related to the video, but ive been magic finding on a new grail sorc, and i just got my first pretty gg drop being my first shako. It rolled eth... bro

Silence is intersting whiles its moderately expencive its fantastic back in 1.09d it was elite my wwbarb dual silence colossus blades spin to win baby i will make it again for nostalgia.

did you really put Bone runeword in the last tier? I can tell you've never even tried using it on an endgame necro - the auto bone armor recast (which still gets buffed from your bone armor synergies) often when you get hit makes him practically immune to physical damage, because it usually takes more mob hits to deplete the entire bone armor than it takes for the armor to be recasted.

Stealth and Spirit up where they belong c:

Grief is better than Last wish? Is this just because of price?

I'd love to have seen you actually pull up Harmony. It felt like you realized you had no idea how it ended up in C tier anyway and something went wrong, but kinda glossed over it. I can't look at its stats, the runes it asks for, and comprehend how it doesn't fucking slap Nightmare difficulty silly for a single Ko. Or how it doesn't shank Melody in the kidneys and leaves it to bleed in a back alley.

I just found a 4so divine scepter, 2 mediatation 1 sanctuary 1 conversion. Should I work on putting Heart of the Oak in it and use it over spirit sword?

Stone is fantastic for Mercs and honestly the best Armor you can wear until you get your end game armor, you recover sooooo quickly. It is the best armor for Merc, sorry, it just is, if you watch when your merc dies it's in hit recovery. This armor allows him to continue leeching. And Treachery, I know you can do a port him to you trick to get him Faded, but it does not get the HUGE defense bonus. An Ethereal Sacred armor on a Defiance merc gets him close to 5% chance to be hit, and with Mercs getting their resistances capped by level, it's really only hit recovery that can stop him, Fade doesn't add very much since in Stone he's almost never getting hit anyway.

Death is very base sensitive, but if you can make up for its lack of IAS, it's a solid S. Example: Fury druid, Death 2h axe, 20k damage per hit at 5 fpa with 100% deadly strike, 100% crushing blow.

The tier list I was looking forward to the most :)

"waste of an amn rune" hahaha, rolling at the comments on myth.

maybe we can get an updates version of this one with the new runewords and all the changes like holy fire, etc.

Lawbringer+grief is S tier on a frenzy barb. I only play /players8 and it literally lets me 3 shot undeads. The aura also knocks back entities undead stun locking the mana drain undead in CS preventing them from attacking. The knockback also ensures that your swings are concentrated on 1 person.

Isn't Crescent Moon best in slot for lightning sorc?

I dunno, that is a really low cost for entry on the +2 barb skills. I mean, you can find the runes for that thing in 10 minutes and not even want to pick them up.

I put Edge on a bow for my Merc and i didnt know it put thorns on all my skeletons. I have never killed BAAL so fast.

I am an odd duck. I rate Edge higher than I probably should because I figure it to be a solid item to make one of in d2r, place it in your shared stash, and grab it whenever you need to repair or are searching for bases or whatever. Mid A Tier for me.

i can understand why myth is the at the botom but atleast its usefull, i always slap it on my bo barb

Gosh dang it! This video is also like the unique armor one. Remake please.

For my Zealot, Chains of Honor is pretty much the only choice 👍👍

Yo this needs to be remade now with all the new D2R runewords

duress comes with all res and fhr too though! I feel like it should be S personally.

Hey Llama Video Idea: best teams for starting out in d2r, for like a duo/4 man. Maybe evaluate based on ease, fun, efficiency.

I genuinely think that Grief, Enigma, and Spirit are *so* far above everything else that they deserved their own tier. CTA and Infinity are right below that, maybe on par. Basically, gamebreaking runewords deserve their own tier.

Made a wealth over the weekend and found skullders 2 runs later. Its been a painful return to D2. 1000 hell meph with 520 mf and zero shakos 🥲. Also 1000 LK runs and just 1 sur rune, ill never get an enigma

famine would be better if it could be used in swords and polearms, cause it would make a great merc weapon