Diablo 2 Resurrected Unique Helmets & Circlets Guide - Best & Worst D2R Helms Tier List

One of the more popular slots for unique items in Diablo 2 Resurrected is the helmet, and this is because we have a ton of options ranging from simply interesting all the way to best in slot thanks to the unique features available to specific uniques in this space. 

Unique Normal Helms Tier List

1. The Face of Horror (Mask)

The Face of Horror comes with a 50% chance to cause an enemy to flee, but this helmet does see a few more uses than Howltusk mostly because of a fairly large strength  as well as bonus damage to undead and a good  to all resists. It's the pretty solid helmet, if you end up having to go with something like an Insight build or on a knack 2 mercenary an early nightmare and need to square up that extra strength while doing what you can to keep enemies off of him. Weirdly it seems the trend of the end of normal helmets is great mercenary helmets.

2. Wormskull (Bone Helm)

Wormskull is fairly similar to Undead Crown in life leech and some poison resist, but it sheds a few of the other modifiers in favor of adding a bit of poison damage, more importantly, a plus one to all necromancer skill levels which gives you a nice little  across the board. Though unfortunately unlike the old days, this helmet is a little quicker to be outclassed by the other available plus skill D2R helmets across the board, pretty much only beating out Undead Crown.

3. Undead Crown (Crown)

With life leech poison resists half restoration and buffs against undead, Undead Crown works out as a fairly solid early mercenary helmet to get you some nice modifiers on all but Act 3 mercenaries. That said some necromancers have used it in the past for skeleton mastery s but you're usually better off with lore or our next helm Wormskull.

4. Tarnhelm (Skill Cap)

Tarnhelm was used to be one of the most sought-after helmets in the game before the lord of Destruction released and for obvious reasons. With plus all skills decent magic finds and gold find, all with only a level 15 requirement, and before that it had no requirement, it's extremely exceptionally nice for a helmet for its level requirement in lod and resurrected, even by today's standards, even though its bonus list is fairly short.

5. Coif of Glory (Helm)

While not something that's likely to be used in the end game, Coif of Glory can be an interesting early tool for a number of ranged or even fast attacking characters, thanks to not only the blinding effect mentioned but also the lightning resistance and improved defense against missiles, which can help out in some early areas but it does get quickly outclass as you approach the mid-game.

6. Duskdeep (Full Helm)

Duskdeep is an all-around just good albeit fairly mundane helmet for the low levels, mostly thanks to the fairly significant 15% resist all, but it also does have a nice pinch of damage reduction, as well as a plus maximum damage that can help out quite a bit at least early on.

7. Howltusk (Great Helm)

Howltusk is interesting for ranged characters, but we find it infuriating for melee characters and that's because it's pretty much built around keeping things away with a 25% chance to cause fear as well as a chance to knock back enemies. Though it does have some nice bonuses in its minor stats such as damage taken to mana which can help you stay topped off mana wise if you're taking a lot of hits.

8. Biggin's Bonnet (Cap)

The unique cap falls into an interesting category of being one of only a handful of off weapon enhanced damage sources with a reasonable amount of . While not as impactful early on this can make this particular helmet quite interesting to use at least as you progress throughout the game and get higher base damage weapons, that it also has a few other nice s like attack rating, life, and mana, though it is worth noting. 

Unique Exceptional Helms Tier List

1. Vampire Gaze (Grim Helm)

Vampire Gaze

Defense: 252 (Base Defense: 60-125)
Required Level: 41
Required Strength: 58
Durability: 40
+100% Enhanced Defense
Adds 6-22 Cold Damage - 4 Second Duration
15% Slower Stamina Drain
6-8% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)
6-8% Mana Stolen Per Hit (varies)
Damage Reduced By 15-20% (varies)
Magic Damage Reduced By 10-15 (varies)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

In terms of life leech helms, very few can compete with our next helmet the infamous Vampire Gaze. With all of its varied abbreviations, it's still just a really solid helmet packing dual leech, cold damage to slow down enemies, decent defense, solid damage reduction percent and even a flat magic damage reduction that helps far more than you'd think. This used to be the go-to helmet for a lot of characters but after a few changes to the game mechanics, it has fallen just a little bit behind but it is still really freaking good rather than godly like it used to be.

2. Crown of Thieves (Grand Crown)

Speaking of mercenary helmets, Crown of Thieves is actually one of the go-to helmets in the mid-game, thanks to its massive life leech for a helmet, combined with solid dexterity and life s not to mention a dab of fire resistance as well. And if your mercenary gets the final hit, you can even count on a bit of extra gold. It is not the best in slot, but it's a solid life leech helmet that can just get the job done when you need the job done.

3. Rockstopper (War Hat)

Peasant Crown is a damage reduction helmet, it packs faster hit recovery decent resist and damage reduction by percent, and is repeatedly ignored by players in spite of its utility as a strong tanking centered helmet. While it does lack some desirable helmet traits, if you can fill those gaps elsewhere, this is a fairly reliable mid-level helmet that you can easily beat Hell with while using.

4. Peasant Crown (War Hat)

In the exceptional slots, we actually have one of those plus skill helmets that beat it out and that's Peasant Crown - an oddly underrated helmet with plus all skills  to vitality and energy, replenish life, and a rather odd bump to run walk speed that most people forget about on this helmet. There are only a few builds that'll favor this over loron, but it is still a decent helmet for a lot of builds if you already have enough lightning resistance elsewhere.

5. Stealskull (Casque)

Stealskull like Biggin's Bonnet doesn't come with that socket but it does come with all the rest of these stats: increase attack speed being super uncommon for helmets, the faster hit recovery being nice, the dual leech being really solid for physical damage dealers like amazon or paladin. And it packs variable magic find percent that can be really useful for finding incidental items while going through the game, and the percent is competitive with tarnhelm and at its peak, it's even competitive with a Harlequin Crest which is still about two rows away.

6. Darksight Helm (Basinet)

Darksight Helm is kind of like a Coif of Glory, where it's built around robbing the enemy of sight. It packs a cloak of shadows charges, as well as a chance to cast dim vision which is the area effect of the blind spell when struck. On top of that, it also packs a bit of fire resist cannot be frozen and mana leech, all of which are desirable traits and it gets a pinch of defense every level to help you keep from getting hit as much. 

7. Valkyrie Wing (Winged Helm)

Valkyrie Wing is an amazon helmet that gives us amazon skill levels, faster run walk, faster hit recovery, and mana per kill. While not necessarily best in slot for most amazon builds, there are still quite a few that can get some decent utility out of each of these abilities, and is also funnily enough. 

8. Blackhorn's Face (Death Mask)

Combining Blackhorn's Face with razer titan on a mercenary to reach the slow target cap when he stabs enemies. Even though it's not super effective, it is just kind of fun, this helmet does have other nice features though such as lightning resistance and absorb, retaliatory lightning damage and preventing monster healing which can actually make it useful on a number of characters while you're working towards something better.

Unique Elite Helms Tier List

1. Harlequin Crest (Shako)

Harlequin is probably the most infamous of the pack commonly just called shako, the Harlequin Crest lives up to its reputation as far as magic find helmets go thanks to plus two all skills, plus two to all attributes, a scaling life, and mana as well as a percent damage reduction, all paired with magic find. While more specialist helmets can easily win out on specific builds, this is just the most reliable helmet for many builds to go for and packs with a lot of magic find which tends to result in people flocking to it for farming gear even if something else is stronger.

Harlequin Crest

Defense: 98-141 (varies)
Required Level: 62
Required Strength: 50
Durability: 12
+2 To All Skills
+ (1.5 Per Character Level) 1-148 To Life (Based On Character Level)
+ (1.5 Per Character Level) 1-148 To Mana (Based On Character Level)
Damage Reduced By 10%
50% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 To All Attributes
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

2. Andariel's Visage (Demonhead)

Andariel's Visage is probably the most popular mercenary helmet or at least the most desirable, another plus all skills helmet but this time with increased attack speed, lifeless, strength and poison perks in several respects. The only reason you generally leave this on the sidelines is you pretty much have to be using something to compensate for the loss of fire resist if you're using this whether on a mercenary or a player because that's a pretty hefty chunk. The most popular is a ruby jewel of fervor to  attack speed more while overcoming the fire resistance, not to be confused with the other ruby jewel of fervor that s damage with attack speed. 

Andariel's Visage

Defense: 310-387 (varies)(Base Defense: 101-154)
Required Level: 83
Required Strength: 102
Durability: 20
+100-150% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+2 To All Skills
20% Increased Attack Speed
8-10% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)
+25-30 To Strength (varies)
+10% To Maximum Poison Resist
Fire Resist -30%
Poison Resist +70%
15% Chance To Cast Level 15 Poison Nova When Struck
Level 3 Venom (20 charges)
(Ladder Only)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

3. Nightwing's Veil (Spired Helm)

Plus two all skills ed cold damage, plus dexterity, gold absorb, half freeze duration, and a massive reduction in strength requirements to equip, makes Veil of Steel a really nice helmet for a cold damage dealer, especially the cold sorceress, and she already pierces resist making that plus cold damage go the extra mile. The plus skills on it help a ton too and can be used by any class, though slip it on a blizzard or orb sorceress.

Nightwing's Veil

Defense: 304-352 (varies)(Base Defense: 114-159)
Required Level: 67
Required Strength: 96
Durability: 40
+90-120% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+2 To All Skills
+8-15% To Cold Skill Damage (varies)
+10-20 To Dexterity (varies)
+5-9 Cold Absorb (varies)
Half Freeze Duration
Requirements -50%
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

4. Crown of Ages (Corona)

Crown of Ages is an often adored helmet that is actually kind of hard to find and super stat-hungry. Packing plus all skills, faster hit recovery resist all and a percent damage reduction along with natural open sockets, it can be a nasty helmet in the right hands, especially if you find great Items for those sockets. while we rarely recommend this helmet on builds, outside of certain meme builds, it is a really strong option if you have the strength and set up to support it and the need to be in the thick of things thanks to its massive flexibility and survivability perks.

Crown of Ages

Defense: 349-399 (varies)(Base Defense: 111-165)
Required Level: 82
Required Strength: 174
+50% Enhanced Defense
+100-150 Defense (varies)
+1 To All Skills
Damage Reduced By 10-15% (varies)
All Resistances +20-30 (varies)
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
Socketed (1-2) (varies)
Indestructible
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

5. Gaint Skull (Bone Visage)

Gaint Skull is a rather special helmet that doesn't look like it should be at first, but thanks to being a source of crushing blow with knockback and a  to strength along with reasonable stat requirements and open sockets, this helmet is just as flexible as Crown of Ages and could be one of your favorite sleeper helmets for ACT 1 mercenaries as well as boazons. Letting it do a lot more than it seems like it should at first glance. Also, it just looks cooler than the other bone helmets because D2R decided to make the other ones floppier.

6. Steel Shade (Armet)

Steel Shade is a mana leech replenish live fire absorb helmet that requires a ton of strength and level 62, that you would honestly rather use lore than in many cases since you can get that mana leech elsewhere with better mods attached and you have never bothered equipping this one on a character outside of desperation or wanting to stand in a firewall. 

7. Veil of Steel (Spired Helm)

Pretty much just used for stat s and fairly respectable resists, Veil of Steel doesn't really pack too many things that are interesting but maybe you will get around to making a man of steel build that uses it for meme reasons, but Veil of Steel just doesn't really get much of any use for us outside of true desperation. 

Unique Circlets Tier List

1. Griffon's Eye (Diamed)

Griffon's Eye is a sought-after helmet, at first it may look like it's solely for lightning characters and to an extent, you would be right - both plus all skills, 25% faster cast rate, all in addition to really strong lightning perks. It can be useful to a lot of spell spamming builds, even if they don't use that lightning aspect of it.

Griffon's Eye

Defense: 150-260 (varies)(Base Defense: 50-60)
Required Level: 76
Durability: 20
+100-200 Defense (varies)
+1 To All Skills
+25% Faster Cast Rate
-15-20% To Enemy Lightning Resistance (varies)
+10-15% To Lightning Skill Damage (varies)
(Ladder Only)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

2. Kira's Guardian (Tiara)

Kira's Guardian comes with faster hit recovery that cannot be frozen and massive resists, if you throw a socket in it, it can actually be really nice to use for a number of characters. It will almost never be the ideal helmet or best in slot Diablo 2 armors, but it's also just really good at providing resistance when you need it if you can't think of a better helmet. Though by the time you find it, you'll usually have found something better for each given build you could still use this for covering those resistance gaps.