Diablo 2 Resurrected Best Items To Upgrade - D2R Best Armor, Weapons, Runewords Upping

Diablo 2 Resurrected Best Items To Upgrade - D2R Best Armor, Weapons, Runewords Upping

12/15/2021 11:19:04 AM

In this D2R guide, we are breaking down what are the top 10 best items to upgrade in Diablo 2 Resurrected, which surely covers all of the kinds of major D2R items (armors, weapons, runewords) that you would want to upgrade, as well as we will talk about some various uses for them.

Diablo 2 Resurrected Best Items To Upgrade

Process of Item Upping (Upgrading) in Diablo 2 Resurrected

Before diving into the list, we would like to very briefly explain the process of upgrading an item and why you might choose to do so in Diablo 2 Resurrected:

In Daiblo 2 Resurrected, depending on whether or not, you're upgrading from armor to a weapon, to a helmet; or you're going from a normal to an exceptional, to an elite base variant, your horadric recipes are going to change a little bit. But the purpose of upping an item is typically either more damage on a weapon or more defense on body armor or a couple of niche case scenarios you might be getting an extra potion slot in a belt, so having four rows instead of two can actually be pretty beneficial depending on the character. But again one thing we want to make very clear is that you're not replacing an exceptional variant item with the stats of an elite variant if that makes sense so. If you have a String of Ears (exceptional belt), the elite version of it is a Spiderweb Sash, you're not going to turn a String of Ears into an Arachnid Mesh, you're just going to get a String of Ears with more defense in a Spiderweb Sash variant.

Arachnid Mesh

Defense: 119-138 (varies)(Base Defense: 55-62)

Required Level: 80
Required Strength: 50
Durability: 12
16 Boxes
+90-120% Enhanced Defense (varies)
Slows Target By 10%
+1 To All Skills
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Increases Maximum Mana 5%
Level 3 Venom (11 Charges)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

Top 10 Best Items (Armor, Weapons, Runewords) To Upgrade in Daiblao 2 Resurrected

Now we will actually jump into the list of the top 10 items that are worthy of upping in Diablo 2 Resurrected:

Top 10 - Guardian Angel (Templar Coat)

This is an ethereal variant Guardian Angel works very well for a mercenary specifically if you want to farm traffic. Now the reason for that is because of the plus 15 to maximum fire resistance that this item gives, so with the proper helmet typically Kira's Guardian, you can get cannot be frozen and a ton of resists. So this mercenary will have 95 fire resist against traffic, also it's a really good way to farm high Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder runes early on. When you upgrade it, you get a significant defense pop so 2300 defense, a little bit extra attack running to demons. Especially paladin scale doesn't really help out the actual mercenary that much, but you do get that minus fifty percent fire rise, so it's definitely a solid choice.

Guardian Angel

Defense: 770-825 (varies)(Base Defense: 252-274)
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 118
Durability: 60
+180-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+20% Increased Chance Of Blocking
+30% Faster Block Rate
+ (2.5 Per Character Level) 2-247 To Attack Rating Against Demons (Based On Character Level)
+1 To Paladin Skill Levels
+4 To Light Radius
15% To Maximum Poison Resist
15% To Maximum Cold Resist
15% To Maximum Lightning Resist
15% To Maximum Fire Resist
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Top 9 - Ethereal Titan's Revenge (Ceremonial Javelin)

If you upgrade the ethereal variant of Titan's Revenge, you get more throw damage, so this allows you to leach a tiny bit more. And the really cool feature about this item being ethereal is it has replenished quantity. So typically the ethereal variant of this and then upgraded gives you extra throw damage. It's not necessarily mandatory some people even argue against using ethereal Titan's Revenge like a lot of people that play a ton of jabs on typically like to have like one or two of these in their inventory just regular Titan's Revenge javelin, so they can throw them quickly, and then when they run out of durability they can just swap out the one in their inventory. So they don't have to wait for the item to replenish its quantity again, that's kind of really minimaxing but definitely, a viable version is upping Titan's Revenge.

Top 8 - Goldwrap (Heavy Belt)

Typically when this belt is used as a heavy belt, you only get three potion slots, so more often than not people will upgrade this item to at least a battle belt variant because they get four potion slots. Hardcore like the barbarian, pit circle magic finding characters, and really any MF character will benefit from having that extra potion slot, as well as the extra MF. So usually at minimum people, upgrade to a battle belt variant, you can go all the way to a troll belt. If you're using spirit and a monarch shield that monarch base has a 156 strength requirement, so getting to that 151 you're still below it, you're not really being penalized for upping all the way to a troll belt.

Goldwrap

Defense: 34-36 (varies)(Base Defense: 6)
Required Level: 27
Required Strength: 45
Durability: 18
12 Boxes
+40-60% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+25 Defense
10% Increased Attack Speed
30% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items
50-80% Extra Gold From Monsters (varies)
+2 To Light Radius
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Top 7 - Hone Sundan (Yari)

One of the very coolest weapons in our opinion to upgrade is a Hone Sundan. Now if you can get this ethereal version or variant, you can get a substantial amount of damage and it has repair durability over 10 seconds, so you can use it on yourself or for your mercenary and you don't have to worry about any of the durability.

Top 6 - Gore Rider/Goblin Toes

Here we cover two different boots together as one version because they both work very well with the kicks in. That is either Gore Riders and we have a pair of war boots that are upgraded to merbanon greaves. There are three variants of Goblin Toe, first starting off with light plated boots, then going to battle boots, and then eventually mirrored boots. The reason why you would want to triple upgrade or double upgrade these boots for kicks in is you get more damage with your kicks, so the higher the variant of item that you go from normal to exceptional to elite, you're getting more kick damage kind of similar to the smiter. Definitely, a super viable option if you plan on rocking a kickstand.

Gore Rider

Defense: 140-162 (varies)(Base Defense: 43-53)
Required Level: 47
Required Strength: 94
Durability: 34
Assassin Kick Damage: 39-80
+160-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
30% Faster Run/Walk
10% Chance Of Open Wounds
15% Chance Of Crushing Blow
15% Deadly Strike
Requirements -25%
+20 Maximum Stamina
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Top 5 - Ribcracker (Quarterstaff)

Another really cool item to upgrade is Ribcracker, upgrade the Quarterstaff variant to Elite, you might get a really kind of good average damage - so the minimum damage is very high and the maxim isn't insane, but again that average damage between the two is very solid. With a lot of increased attack speed, FHR, crushing blow, this is a great weapon to use on a fury druid if you want to attempt to do ubers and it's also very budget.

Top 4 - Skullder's Ire (Russet Armor)

Upgrading Skullder's Ire ethereal variant is another item that has repair durability similar to Hone Sundan, so you can actually use this on a sorceress and not worry about the durability running out. Now if you upgrade it, you get a significant amount of defense - 2,300 plus defense, a ton of magic find based on the character level, and plus one to all skills. The upgraded Skullder's Ire is really solid if you want to rock something other than kind of the go-to standard three-piece towels.

Skullder's Ire

Defense: 634-732 (varies)(Base Defense: 225-243)
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 97
Durability: 90
+160-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
Repairs 1 Durability In 5 Seconds
+ (1.25 Per Character Level) 1-123 % Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items (Based On Character Level)
+1 To All Skill Levels
Magic Damage Reduced By 10
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Top 3 - Skin of the Vipermagi (Serpentskin Armor)

The Skin of the Vipermagi is one of the most sought-after armors to use on a sorceress, and it's a great candidate for upping. You could turn a 279 defense version into a 1034 defense variant - this is perfect the best you can possibly get. Just think about the possibilities you have with this body armor, the one skills are great for boosting damage, solid resistance, +30% FCR, alleviates the need to use FCR and other gear to reach certain breakpoints. So typically if you want to go for like a max damage lightning source for setup, you should use this body armor with a 5/5 lightning facet and then pair that with Crescent Moon (it does have a ton of minus enemy lighting resists).

Skin of the Vipermagi

Defense: 279 (Base Defense: 111-126)
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 43
Durability: 24
+120% Enhanced Defense
+1 To All Skills
30% Faster Cast Rate
Magic Damage Reduced By 9-13 (varies)
All Resistances +20-35 (varies)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Top 2 - Arreat's Face (Slayer Guard)

Arreat's Face is sort of similar to haws, it's not kind of mandatory but it is for a barbarian. You can upgrade the slayer guard version to a guardian crown for gaining significantly more defense, such as from 363 to 504. This is a really good overall helmet for a barbarian so you get plus 2 to combat skills, FHR bonus, attack rating, life stolen per hit, 20% to strength, and all resistances, with a socket choice you can even do more stuff like a 40% enhanced damaged jewel.

Arreat's Face

Defense: 302-363 (varies)(Base Defense: 121)
Required Level: 42
Required Strength: 118
Durability: 55
(Barbarian Only)
+150-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
30% Faster Hit Recovery
20% Bonus To Attack Rating
+2 To Barbarian Skill Levels
3-6% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)
All Resistances +30
+20 To Strength
+20 To Dexterity
+2 To Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Top 1 - Ethereal Shaftstop (Mesh Armor)

This is mercenary armor, surely it's not the best, you could argue it's worse than Treachery or Fortitude, but it is a pretty cool item to upgrade. Upgrading the ethereal version with 1027 defense, you will get 2422 defense, +60 to life, 30% damage reduced, and then a socket choice. So if you were to pair this with say a 20% damage reduced armor, you can get a 50 damage reduction on your mercenary. So if you lose out on the damage reduced that you get from treachery or lose out on the crazy enhanced damage from fortitude, but the upgraded Shaftstop definitely is a very cool and super solid variant that you can use on a mercenary.

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