Cheap build-enabling uniques?

"

piotras wrote:

Great game but the drops are absolutely pathetic and I'm not buying this whole crap from GGG anymore that build-enabling uniques are easily available.

Oh, they are, just not for builds you see on TV, if you know what I mean :)

The expectation from GGG, I would assume, is that you're making an exalt (in mixed currency) every 5 hours of play or so? This is pretty slow for the endgame and easily achievable for anyone.

That said, Deadpeng's perspective sounds like that of a long-time standard player. Builds don't have to cost 50 exalts. You can make an effective build for under half an exalt and one that is happily capable of doing the vast majority of content reasonably safely and speedily for 5, at least in the temporary leagues (I haven't played standard seriously in years so I'm not so sure what goes on there anymore). I wouldn't worry too much about having to nolife to get anywhere in this game.

Anyway, here are some more options that haven't been mentioned here yet (note that I'm only mentioning items that are cheap that enable builds that are also cheap):



5-10 chaos, close to best in slot for an elemental Kinetic Blast build.



1-2 chaos each, very obviously intended to be used together for a dual wield ele axe build.



Enable various unarmed builds, Facebreakers are 1-20 chaos depending on rolls and Meginord's is 1-2.



Runs the engine for a whole variety of high crit builds, some of which are quite expensive but many of which aren't. 1 chaos and no rolls to worry about. I'm personally a fan of pairing it with



(also 1 chaos) for a cheap and very effective Discharge build.



Lets you do all sorts of weird stuff with a variety of skills. 1 chaos.



Enables a strong melee ranger style with the Point Blank keystone, notably good with Ice Shot and Puncture. 1 chaos.



Best in slot for Explosive Arrow. 1 chaos.



Strong for defensive, fast-hitting spellcasters (high-block Incinerate being the classic example), gives you a lot more life recovery than any other option available to many caster builds. 1-5 chaos.



Enables indefinite sustain of Righteous Fire for various builds (notably Incinerate and pure RF). ~5 chaos.



Necessary for various caster Marauder builds, often blood magic based. 1 chaos.



Very much a build-around unique, strong if you stack enough stats. 1 chaos.



Mandatory for a strong fire-based Flicker Strike build. 1-5 chaos.

"

sidtherat wrote:

first one is for casters AND wanders.

No, that's a terrible idea, lifesprig's nice and cheap and a massively more powerful levelling weapon for casters. Twyzel is for wanders and wanders only. The extra projectile isn't nearly as powerful as the spell damage + gem level you get from lifesprig. Not to mention Lifesprig has no level requirement and can be used as soon as you pick it up.

"

Deadpeng wrote:

I advise the same to you that you start off with something really beginner friendly with high magic find rate. Your 20 exalts will come to you in no time.

I'm playing this game on and off for 3 years (registered on the forums on September 12, 2012), I've seen 2 exalts drop for me.

I've had 2 early-map-capable characters before 2.0 (lightning arrow and freeze pulse, both aren't playable after patch). Each time the cycle is the same: make something cheap and simple (and boring as fuck), get to maps and hope for drops that never come and eventually hit a survivability wall with your crap gear. Then spend a lifetime on forums trying to sell your crap rares nobody cares about and remain poor without being able to buy build-enabling nor decent MF gear.

Actually, I am leveling a dual totem build right now (and hating every minute of it) and hoping that maybe this time it will work and maybe *later* I will finally get to experience something more interesting than your regular path of life nodes, but to be honest I'm really loosing patience.

"

sidtherat wrote:

one very important note

most if not ALL of the uniques mentioned above are VERY rare in new leagues (and probably also in standard). and i mean VERY rare - Rathpith Globe shield is in the 'rarest' tier of rarity

so take the prices listed above with a BIG grain of salt

from new uniques, that are also dropping like candy id suggest these:

first one is for casters AND wanders. second offers a very rare and powerful 'increased area' mod that can help scale things like fire trap, ice/shock nova etc AOE spells. because you know, there is nothing forcing a caster from wielding a hammer

I do recommend twyzel. Makes for some fun kinetic blasting.

Just start with wrath and herald of thunder for the ele version, and build from that.