Mandatory Stats/Items
1) Spirit - you need +30 spirit across your body/amulet to fit in
Eternal Rage. It is cheaper to do this on your chest piece as amulet with both spirit and +levels to melee skills can be expensive!
2)
Sapphire with +1-2% life on kill
3) Gloves/ring with one affix with leech physical damage as life
4) High STR/INT/Dex -
Herald of Ice requires dex, our talisman requires high str, and pure ES boots requires high INT. Lots of your gear needs stats! +all attributes is worth its weight in gold as we need ALL 3 STATS
Gear Priority List
1) Talisman - ideally you want a
Maji Talisman or a
Nettle Talisman as they provide more maximum rage or more crit chance. Socket 2x
Greater Iron Rune and Aim for these affixes:
- High physical damage (and other flat damage is okay)
- +5 to attack skills level (better than melee as attack skills also applies to
Herald of Ice - Chance to gain onslaught or attack speed
- Gain Extra Damage as Physical/Cold
- Increased Damage with Elemental Attacks/Empowered Attacks is less optimal but also okay if you're looking for budget
2) Chest piece - Hybrid ES/Armour to maximise
Ancient Aegis. Look for resistances, maximum life and spirit
3) Helmet - Pure Armour as we have
Ruinic Helm. Look for %armour applies also applies to elemental damage - this will give you amazing damage reduction on elements before resistances are applied! Look for resistances, maximum life as well. If you are lower level and don't have
Ruinic Helm unlocked then use a ES/Armour Hybrid Helmet!
4) Boots - you want pure energy shield as we have the
Iron Slippers node
5) Amulet - can be a very expensive slot. +levels to melee skills (1 cheap, 2 medium, 3 expensive) can be an expensive affix and global defences can also be expensive. You can also get spirit here but it will bump the price up significantly. If struggling price-wise cap out resistances and look for +all attributes here then add in +melee skill levels later
6) Rings - high phys/cold damage (other flat damage is okay), look for resistances, stats, rarity
7) Gloves - Look for high phys/cold/flat damage, you can also get +levels to melee skills here but again expensive. Other good stats include attack speed, resistances and maximum life. Socket for
The Greatwolf's Rune of Claws for more physical damage. I went for
Soul Core of Tacati for a bit more chaos resistance!
8) Belt - you can find +20-30 strength here for cheap! Look for 3 charm slots, resistances, maximum life!
Jewels
At least 1
Sapphire with 1-2% max life on kill is mandatory. 2
Sapphire with max life on kill is even better for survivability! Other good stats include critical damage bonus, maximum energy shield, area of effect!
Look for
Time-Lost Emerald (Large radius if you're rich, medium radius if you're poor) with critical damage bonus for attack damage. You can also get critical hit chance for attacks as an affix but this WILL make it expensive!
Anoint
Anoint amulet with
Overwhelming Strike for more crit damage and crit chance!