SoulTax
Executive Member
So I thought I might put up a quick post to help you guys identify the good gear from the not so good gear. Both for knowing what items to put into the Guild stash that may be helpful, as well as knowing what gear to be looking out for to use and or sell into the late game.
Chapter 1
Sockets and Stats
By now, even those guys new to the game will have noticed that raw stats are not always the be all and end all of POE gear. Particularly whilst leveling. For instance, if you come across a chest piece, with Life and two resists on it, but it has a single socket. It is not the easy winner vs a second chest item with only life, but it has a 3 or 4 link set of sockets on it.
Now once you hit end game, you want the best of both worlds. Whilst leveling however, that is not always possible. So you need to decide on which to prioritise, sockets or stats.
Chapter 2
Unique stats per slot
There are certain niche stats that only appear in certain gear slots. (Except on unique items but those are the exception). The primary ones to look out for while leveling are:
Movements speed rolls on the boots.
Elemental damage with weapons on the belt.
Mana Regen on the jewellery. And caster weapons/shields.
If you find these items with these stats, and a few of the other sought after stats, then they will be useful to somebody.
Chapter 3
Useful stats for <almost> everyone.
Life: It goes without saying that Life is the first thing to look for on a piece of gear. If it has no life, it better rank high on all the other factors in order for it to be useful.
Resists: Secondary to life, resists are a huge deal. If you are looking at level 1 to 15 gear, cold resist is the most important (Merveil fight). But any resists should be good.
Sockets: The power of linked sockets cannot be understated. Even in the early game. I chose to run a blue chest with the right 3 link sockets, that only had 11 HP and 20 cold resist. For all of Act 2 and Act 3. Simply because nothing better, with the right socket links was on offer.
Movement Speed: Found on boots only. If you find movement speed boots, with any combination of the above stats, then it is good. Movement speed with 30 life and 3 linked sockets in the early game? Yes Please!
Weapons should be pretty self explanatory. Casters want spell related stats and attackers want flat and percentile damage increases on the weapon itself.
All other stats are supplementary IMO. Sure life leech and attack/cast speed are great, but without the above stats on the item, they are only worth vendoring.
Chapter 4
Stats per slot
Armour items need to focus on sockets first, and stats second. So Jewellery needs to be left to pick up the slack in most cases.
While leveling it is hard to expect to find a 4 link pair of boots with movement speed, life and two resists on it. It is much easier to expect to find a Sapphire ring (Cold resist) with a single life roll and a single fire resist roll. You can find that on a blue item even.
So basically every piece of jewellery with life and two or more resists on it, is going to be useful to someone. If you find one while leveling or replace one, consider dropping it in the guild stash.
Chapter 5
Useful base items
As far as Jewellery goes, Paua amulets are probably the most useful. With the raw stat amulets being second.
For late game, If you find amulets with a juxtaposition in their stats, they can be more valuable than they appear.
Something like a Strength amulet with caster stats, or an Intelligence amulet with Attack stats.
The reason for this is that a witch might be pretty low on the strength requirements for rallying cry/flame totem/spell totem etc....
Resist rings are the superior ring choice here. Don't let the raw life ring fool you. 30% cold resist as a base is always better than 30 max life.
Summary
For early/mid game.
You want items with:
-as many links as possible (ignore on gear below level 10)
-Life
-Resist
-Raw Stats (Str,Int,Dex)
-preferably a hybrid base item. ( Armour and Evasion for instance) Because it has a higher likelihood of rolling more than one socket colour, if someone cares to spend chromatic orbs on it.
From levels 1-20, checking two boxes is enough to be a good item.
From level 20 to the end of act 4, 3 of the above boxes is needed.
From Cruel difficulty onwards. Life and double resist on a 3 or 4 links item is practically a necessity.
These same rules carry into the late game, but where you might value a "4 link life + a single resist" item in the mid game. In the late game you want it all. 4 Links, High life roll, and at least 2 resists rolled really well or 3 rolled moderately well. Along with other slot specific stats, like Cast/Attack speed on gloves. Or Leech. Or movement speed. Or crit. Or accuracy. Or Flat elemental attack/spell damage.
Let me know if I missed anything, or if this was useful to you at all.
Chapter 1
Sockets and Stats
By now, even those guys new to the game will have noticed that raw stats are not always the be all and end all of POE gear. Particularly whilst leveling. For instance, if you come across a chest piece, with Life and two resists on it, but it has a single socket. It is not the easy winner vs a second chest item with only life, but it has a 3 or 4 link set of sockets on it.
Now once you hit end game, you want the best of both worlds. Whilst leveling however, that is not always possible. So you need to decide on which to prioritise, sockets or stats.
Chapter 2
Unique stats per slot
There are certain niche stats that only appear in certain gear slots. (Except on unique items but those are the exception). The primary ones to look out for while leveling are:
Movements speed rolls on the boots.
Elemental damage with weapons on the belt.
Mana Regen on the jewellery. And caster weapons/shields.
If you find these items with these stats, and a few of the other sought after stats, then they will be useful to somebody.
Chapter 3
Useful stats for <almost> everyone.
Life: It goes without saying that Life is the first thing to look for on a piece of gear. If it has no life, it better rank high on all the other factors in order for it to be useful.
Resists: Secondary to life, resists are a huge deal. If you are looking at level 1 to 15 gear, cold resist is the most important (Merveil fight). But any resists should be good.
Sockets: The power of linked sockets cannot be understated. Even in the early game. I chose to run a blue chest with the right 3 link sockets, that only had 11 HP and 20 cold resist. For all of Act 2 and Act 3. Simply because nothing better, with the right socket links was on offer.
Movement Speed: Found on boots only. If you find movement speed boots, with any combination of the above stats, then it is good. Movement speed with 30 life and 3 linked sockets in the early game? Yes Please!
Weapons should be pretty self explanatory. Casters want spell related stats and attackers want flat and percentile damage increases on the weapon itself.
All other stats are supplementary IMO. Sure life leech and attack/cast speed are great, but without the above stats on the item, they are only worth vendoring.
Chapter 4
Stats per slot
Armour items need to focus on sockets first, and stats second. So Jewellery needs to be left to pick up the slack in most cases.
While leveling it is hard to expect to find a 4 link pair of boots with movement speed, life and two resists on it. It is much easier to expect to find a Sapphire ring (Cold resist) with a single life roll and a single fire resist roll. You can find that on a blue item even.
So basically every piece of jewellery with life and two or more resists on it, is going to be useful to someone. If you find one while leveling or replace one, consider dropping it in the guild stash.
Chapter 5
Useful base items
As far as Jewellery goes, Paua amulets are probably the most useful. With the raw stat amulets being second.
For late game, If you find amulets with a juxtaposition in their stats, they can be more valuable than they appear.
Something like a Strength amulet with caster stats, or an Intelligence amulet with Attack stats.
The reason for this is that a witch might be pretty low on the strength requirements for rallying cry/flame totem/spell totem etc....
Resist rings are the superior ring choice here. Don't let the raw life ring fool you. 30% cold resist as a base is always better than 30 max life.
Summary
For early/mid game.
You want items with:
-as many links as possible (ignore on gear below level 10)
-Life
-Resist
-Raw Stats (Str,Int,Dex)
-preferably a hybrid base item. ( Armour and Evasion for instance) Because it has a higher likelihood of rolling more than one socket colour, if someone cares to spend chromatic orbs on it.
From levels 1-20, checking two boxes is enough to be a good item.
From level 20 to the end of act 4, 3 of the above boxes is needed.
From Cruel difficulty onwards. Life and double resist on a 3 or 4 links item is practically a necessity.
These same rules carry into the late game, but where you might value a "4 link life + a single resist" item in the mid game. In the late game you want it all. 4 Links, High life roll, and at least 2 resists rolled really well or 3 rolled moderately well. Along with other slot specific stats, like Cast/Attack speed on gloves. Or Leech. Or movement speed. Or crit. Or accuracy. Or Flat elemental attack/spell damage.
Let me know if I missed anything, or if this was useful to you at all.
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