Friday, February 03, 2006

Getting a good "Leaf" staff in Diablo II

In the computer game Diablo II, a sorceress who specializes in the skill "enchant" is a useful support character. One of the best items for an enchant sorceress is a staff with the runeword "Leaf". You can get one by shopping at the Act II normal vendor Drognan. "Leaf" uses the runes "Tir Ral", so you need a 2 socket staff. And you want bonuses to the skill Enchant to be present on the staff.

What follows are the details of how I shop for such a staff.

You will not have to read (much) during your repeated trips to the shop. Most of the visual scanning required consists of "is it a staff?", "is it red?", and "does it have 2 circles on it?". This relieves some of the tedium of repeated shopping.
  1. Create or join a normal difficulty game, using a character that has reached Act 2, but which is no higher than level 17.
  2. Make sure that no other players are in the Act 2 town area. Otherwise you will be unable to reset the shop contents.
  3. Make sure that Drognan's shop is next to a gate to the rocky waste. This will make shopping much faster.
  4. Having faster run/walk is helpful here. Make sure you are always running (use the "R" key to toggle).
  5. Open Drognan's shop window.
  6. In each of the two "weapons" tabs, mouse over each staff that has a red background. Because Enchant is a level 18 skill, and your shopper is level 17 or lower, every staff that has the Enchant skill must be red, indicating that it is above your current level.
  7. As you mouse over each red staff, look for ones that have exactly two sockets. A staff must have exactly two sockets to hold the Leaf rune word.
  8. If no staves are both red and have two sockets, skip ahead to the "close shop window" step. None of the staves in the shop are the one you are looking for.
  9. Ignore staves with a blue name (magic). The name must be grey for the staff to hold a rune word.
  10. If the staff has "+3 Enchant" (and grey name and two sockets), this is exactly the staff you are looking for! Buy it and rejoice. Your shopping task is done.
  11. In the meantime, you may want to buy 2-socket staves with only +1 or +2 to enchant, in case you get too bored with the repeated shopping.
  12. Close the shop window.
  13. Run a short distance into the Rocky Waste, and then run back to Drognan. The shop contents will have magically reset.
  14. Go back to step 5 (open shop window), and repeat the process until you have a 2-socketed +3 enchant grey-named staff.
I have gotten about 5 leaf staves this way. You can usually get one in less than an hour if you don't waste time.

You won't be able to use the enchant skill on the staff until your character is level 18. You won't be able to use the Leaf rune word until you are level 19. So wait until you are level 19 before adding the runes. This way you will be able to use the +3 to the enchant skill while your character is level 18.

It is not possible to get a white or grey-named staff with both Enchant and Fire Mastery skills on it from a town vendor. Such a staff can only be found in normal gameplay and is extremely valuable. Keep your eyes open for a staff with these characteristics:
  1. Enchant plus Fire Mastery bonuses combined are +4 or more. (e.g. +2 Enchant, +2 Fire Mastery)
  2. Staff has exactly zero, two, or four sockets. (for Leaf or Memory rune words)
  3. Staff name is white or grey (i.e. non-magical)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks, just got a great staff using your instructions. :)

Biospud said...

I'm pleased it worked for you. Happy enchanting.

Anonymous said...

9 nines after the post, it still helped me a lot. Just got a 2s +3 enchant staff doing this.