D2R Best Ladder-Only Runewords To Keep for No-Ladder Build and Merc in Diablo 2 Resurrected Season 1

Ladder Season 1 is coming to an end in Diablo 2 Resurrected, let's take a look at which are the best Ladder Only Runewords and Items you should keep or collect for single player and non-ladder mode!

Since every class received changes and buffs with new builds rising to the top in terms of popularity for the Ladder, this guide primarily focuses on profiting from previously underused items and new items that these variables will be utilizing

Best D2R Ladder Runewords To Keep For Your Character

Let's get into the first category of items which is the new rune words of patch 2.4, as many of these will see used with even a few of them becoming best in slot items for several meta builds, it would thus be wise to not only keep an eye out for the runes that are used in these rune words, but also some of the more optimal bases that are used to construct them.

Flickering Flame

Flickering Flame can be built in three socketed helm including druid pelts with Nef, Pul and Vex, so for this, you definitely want to especially keep an eye out for druid pelts which are the druid helmets of course that have plus three preferably to two different fire skills like armageddon and volcano is probably the other good one. By the way and this pretty much applies to all other runeword bases as well, but you should also keep an eye out for white runeword bases or white items especially druid pelts if they can roll for example good fire skills, you can actually use the horadric cube or use larsa to get your guaranteed sockets or with a horizontal cube is not guaranteed.

Flickering Flame

                               

                           Level 4-8 Resist Fire Aura When Equipped (varies)
               +3 To Fire Skills
               -10-15% to Enemy Fire Resistance (varies)
               +30% Enhanced Defense
               +30 Defense Vs. Missile
               +50-75 To Mana (varies)
               Half Freeze Duration
               +5% To Maximum Fire Resist
               Poison Length Reduced by 50%                        

Obsession

Obsession can be built with zod is illness in D2R unique, rare, magic staves. The first major thing here is that it's made the zod rune a lot more valuable than before although you'll probably not be very likely to find a zod anyway, but just know that it's going to be a lot more expensive to secure one compared to before where jaw and burr were the primary high runes that people were coveting after. Anyhow even if you don't end up finding any zod runes, this item is still going to shake up the meta of item fighting at least by quite a bit, especially with how frequently staves drop, because you want to be looking for staff bases which may roll up to plus three to three skills, so you want to look for the most useful skills for sorcs based on what's meta right now which is mainly hydra and nova as well as any of the main cold skills frozen orb and blizzard. So you want to get plus three in any of these skills and also plus three in the respective masteries.

Another bonus is if you find ethereal staves, you should pick them up as well because obsession uses zod right which obviously makes them indestructible.

Obsession

                                                                   

                           Indestructible
               24% Chance to cast level 10 Weaken when struck
               +4 To All Skills
               +65% Faster Cast Rate
               +60% Faster Hit Recovery
               Knockback
               +10 To Vitality
               +10 To Energy
               Increase Maximum Life 15-25% (varies)
               Regenerate Mana 15-30% (varies)
               All Resistances +60-70 (varies)
               75% Extra Gold from Monsters
               30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items                        

Wisdom

The mid game rune wood Wisdom is also for helms which is not only good for the newly revamped throw barb and also boson, but also just a good physical damage character item in general with cannot be frozen and attack rating bonuses. 

Wisdom

                                           

                           +33% Piercing Attack
               +15-25% Bonus to Attack Rating (varies)
               4-8% Mana Stolen Per Hit (varies)
               +30% Enhanced Defense
               +10 Energy
               15% Slower Stamina Drain
               Cannot Be Frozen
               +5 Mana After Each Kill
               15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana                        

Best D2R Ladder Runewords To Keep For Your Mercenary

The next set of rune words both new and old are primarily going to be useful for the newly buffed mercenaries, mainly the act 1 rogue, act 3 desert wolf or iron wolf rather, and the act 5 barbarian who is actually getting one extra spec and will be able to dual wield one-handed swords. Plus they'll also be able to cast taunts making them quite useful for squishier characters like casters and range characters and also be able to utilize the when struck mod on their gear.

Unbending Will

One more thing about mercenary gear before we get into the rune words is that ethereal items are preferred because they don't actually lose any durability for mercenary use and with that let's get into some act 5 bar mark gear starting with Unbending Will which can be used in or socketed in any type of sword, so it can be one-handed or two-handed swords and thus it's actually usable by both types of barb mercs.

Plague 

Plague this can be a bit more expensive because of the cham rune that it requires, but we think this will actually be one of the best end game options especially for casters when you combine it with the taunting bar merc, since it has the ability to cast lower resist when struck, and also having a level 17 cleansing auro to boot, making this a very good contender against the act 2 Infinity merc at least for lightning characters, because lower resist doesn't actually break immunities, so it doesn't really matter for other elemental types, but for lightning specifically, you do need Infinity whether it be you equip it on your main character or you have a fist of heaven's paladin or you use the act to Infinity merc.

Plague

                               

                           20% Chance to cast level 12 Lower Resist when struck
               25% Chance to cast level 15 Poison Nova on striking
               Level 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped (varies)
               +1-2 All Skills
               +20% Increased Attack Speed
               +220-320% Enhanced Damage (varies)
               -23% To Enemy Poison Resistance
               0.3% (0-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
               +25% Chance of Open Wounds
               Freezes Target +3                        

Lawbringer

The other good option for Act 5 support mercenary bard is Lawbringer and a sword, this will not only give him a chance to cast the crepify on striking which by the way does break physical immunities, but will also give you yet another aura in the form of Sanctuary aura on top of another one that you might already have such as with Plague. 

Lawbringer

20% Chance To Cast Level 15 Decrepify On Striking
Level 16-18 Sanctuary Aura When Equipped (varies)
-50% Target Defense
Adds 150-210 Fire Damage
Adds 130-180 Cold Damage
7% Life Stolen Per Hit
Slain Monsters Rest In Peace
+200-250 Defense Vs. Missile (varies)
+10 To Dexterity
75% Extra Gold From Monsters

Obedience

Now for some honorable mentions when it comes to mercenary weapon choices before we move on to the next item type, Obedience which is not only a good budget option for the desert merc but also for shape-shifting druids and even we suppose spirits giving us even more reasons to look for man catchers and also other Diablo 2 Resurrected spears like matriarchal pikes and other perhaps lesser amazon D2R magic spears.

Obedience

30% Chance To Cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill An Enemy
40% Faster Hit Recovery
+370% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration (Normal)
-25% To Enemy Fire Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
+200-300 Defense (varies)
+10 To Strength
+10 To Dexterity
All Resistances +20-30 (varies)
Requirements -20%

Insight

Insight has been primarily used for the mana regeneration but actually supports decent damage and attack rating as well, can now also be socketed into bows making them useful for rogues and even sort of mid-game amazons, and thus again giving us more reason to hunt for bow bases. And by the way, bows cannot be ethereal so you just want to look for well obviously you can only find normal bows and superior bows, and they can also be put into crossbows although the rogue cannot use crossbows but can actually now use amazon bows in addition to their normal bows.

Spirit

Level 12-17 Meditation Aura When Equipped (varies)
+35% Faster Cast Rate
+200-260% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Sale[+240-260% Enhanced Damage] (varies)
+9 To Minimum Damage
180-250% Bonus to Attack Rating (varies)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
+75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds
+1-6 To Critical Strike (varies)
Sale[+6 To Critical Strike]
+5 To All Attributes
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Sale[ETH]