New Ladder Only r/w's announced

Here's the new shield: Spirit 4 Socket Swords/Shields Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn +2 To All Skills +25-35% Faster Cast Rate (varies) +55% Faster Hit Recovery +15% Enhanced Defense +250 Defense Vs. Missile +22 To Vitality +89-112 To Mana (varies) Cold Resist +35% Lightning Resist +35% +3-8 Magic Absorb (varies) Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Its a very good shield and darn cheap too relative to its counterparts/rivals. The thing is Im not convinced its _the_ shield like HoZ was for so many different paladins or what homo and DF is for necros (partially because you can still socket those and add something else that you might need or give yourself better options on other areas of gear)....I could see it being of definate use to sorcs/druids/trappers though. Depends on the build of course and your other gear i guess.

But don't get me wrong...Spirit is far cheaper to attain and can be used at lower levels than the others.

i agree with you, this shield will prob be used for MF-ing or lowlvl/lowbudget

Damn... Phoenix and fortitude are gonna wreck melee just like levi and EDC did...


Good for me i just quit melee

Damn... Phoenix and fortitude are gonna wreck melee just like levi and EDC did... Good for me i just quit melee

Wreck melee? I assume you mean make it closer to being 1-2 hit kills (like hammer or charge). If I misunderstand and you mean wreck as in making them not viable I disagree looking at all the different runewords for weapons.

(Personally I sill want to know what Oblivion does....thats such a cool name for a weapon or armor)

If i was a blizz developer, i'd create a candy cane weapon that has stats like a mix of BotD and Azurewrath... just for fun... well, someone please take shots of the new RW's and post em !!

Is Oblivion even a runeword? I personally wanna see what Pride does...

Is Oblivion even a runeword? I personally wanna see what Pride does...

Its not a released runeword. A long time ago back in .07 I think it was (correct me if I'm wrong on the history) when the runeword combos and potential names were still available to the "hackers" (Im not a hacker I dont understand any of this really) I think someone cracked the game and found the list of words (you can find the list on Diabloii.net I think among other places). Since then the combos have been changed of many of the released runewords when they were finally activated but the actual names have remained the same. Theres a long long list of them...Oblivion was merely one of the still non-activated words.

sounds pretty interesting

Wreck melee? I assume you mean make it closer to being 1-2 hit kills (like hammer or charge). If I misunderstand and you mean wreck as in making them not viable I disagree looking at all the different runewords for weapons. (Personally I sill want to know what Oblivion does....thats such a cool name for a weapon or armor)

I meant, levi and EDC "wrecked" melee by making 98% of all melee's cookie cutters. What i meant to say was fortitude/phoenix is the new CC IMO.

Phoenix does look interesting. Is Fortitude better than having DR? I don't know I suppose it depends on how much damage you do without the +300%. Remember you can socket a Levi still. You cant do that with a Fortitude.


Pekson remember if you're a caster there are far better caster weapons than a Spirit. (also you dont get the resists when in a weapon...the stats are different). Essentially its like a Silence but you trade resists for FHR and FCR. As a caster though I'd still be sticking with a HOTO probably or if I'm a necro, a white wand (dol io isnt that expensive) with good mods possibly and a sorc has other, better orbs to choose from than a Spirit.

Again low levels and budget its decent for a caster paladin, trapper, druid probably as a weapon. If you can find a way to make the str req work (ie: you like to use a SS on the switch anyways or something) then it could be a potential shield option.

Preference I suppose and again don't get me wrong I do find use in a lot of these new and nifty runewords including Spirit (this was just an example). I just think a counter arguement should be prevalent though among all this rage over new stuff. I suppose "Last Wish" which I find kind of neat especially for pvm could also be a good example of a really nice runeword (though very expensive) but hampered by a weakness in that it has no IAS which thus limits your other gear/builds that can really use it and what you can really socket it into (probably have to be a phase blade and you'll need probably either IAS armor or a fanaticism aura even if you're a speedy zealot).

Phoenix does look interesting. Is Fortitude better than having DR? I don't know I suppose it depends on how much damage you do without the +300%. Remember you can socket a Levi still. You cant do that with a Fortitude.

It's the defence thats going to make the difference. For reference, the fomer #1 ww barb uses Duress. The guy that beat him uses Eth Duress. Dr isnt maditory.