D2R Unique Items - Astreon's Iron Ward (Caduceus)

[@darbian]

Hey, thanks for making these videos. Diablo 2 (and old school Counter-Strike) were my high school addictions back in the day and I remember spending countless hours on the Arreat Summit website looking through all the items in the game that I'd probably never find. Really enjoying learning about many of the lesser-discussed items as well creative use cases that aren't so obvious just from looking at the stats. Keep up the great work!

[@GGMentor]

Lol I was in a clan back in counter strike days. Good old {TKO} aka Total Knock Out. Spent years playing counterstrike, halflife, team fortress, and Diablo 2

[@darbian]

@@GGMentor those were the days. No youtube, twitter or facebook. Just hanging out on IRC and gauging the popularity of a clan based on how many “idlers” they had. A taste of what the internet would become.

[@GGMentor]

@@darbian lol IRC days wow that brings me back

[@Fingolfin3423]

Look at Darbian making an appearance here. Cool!

[@willimace]

Really like your vids, I love that you're taking time to go over everything! Very soothing too

[@GGMentor]

Thank you sir

[@Commandos12]

it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that anything with a 50% dmg to undead falls under the barb's mace mastery so this will work on barbs :D PS: now that i think about they should probably change the skill name to "blunt weapon mastery" XD

[@nightowl8363]

I havent even seen a Cadeceus base yet in D2R.... Great drop though

[@GGMentor]

I see them now and then in chaos sanctuary.

[@chichodormi4732]

Generous pindle dropped one for me recently. Great item, no problem doing p8 baal runs with my zealot with it.

[@GGMentor]

Very powerful item for sure.

[@jonpeterson5749]

Great video thanks. ?????? How does it stack up against the Black weapon???? For Ubers. Ty

[@GGMentor]

Way better then black in my opinion but certainly not cheaper. Early game when you are building a budget smiter black is the go to option but it has serious drawbacks. It breaks really fast, and in general lacks other good stats to make it an endgame weapon. Astreon's Iron Ward goes toe to toe with Grief and wins, and Grief is certainly better than Black.

[@JustaSimplefact]

I thought the entire point of smiting Ubers is that smite ignores attack rating and always hits

[@GGMentor]

Yes but smiters will often zeal as well, for various reasons low HP faster kill mana steal, or just a change of pace

[@JustaSimplefact]

Ah ok, yeah my smiter is boring af, could use a change of pace

[@amfitness5598]

This is one of those items I've never found in game ever. It's too bad that the most rare "top tier" Pally weapon still gets super seeded by things like GRIEF etc.

[@rammpeth]

Rng is rng. I found 2 in a week. None with +4 cs tho

[@GGMentor]

Sounds like you missed the part of the video where this is better then grief for an Uber smiter

[@GGMentor]

It does suck finally finding one and it has bad stats

[@amfitness5598]

@@GGMentor no I didn’t miss that part. It’s just not right that such a prized item (potentially) could be super ceded by something as simple as a Lo rune.

[@gojiracz955]

@@GGMentor That is a straigh up lie.

[@DAILYBANTERR]

This looks gg never knew it existed

[@GCT1990]

I have six of these damn things because for some reason bosses keep dropping the same items over and over again. I don't know if this is typical but I have 6 level 1characters I use for their inventory and single character slot in the stash for items which I have multiple items of. I have heaven's light, 3 to paladin skills w/two sockets. Pretty sure the states are better ill have to check

[@GGMentor]

Lol 6 astreon's Iron wards sounds super duper crazy for one person to find.

[@TrustworthyFella]

Probably a noob question, but could you for instance use this Ward, and a Passion blade as dual wield with a Barb, and then have the +4 apply to the +1 Zeal and Berserk? And if yes - are there more items with Paladin skills that could be used this way by other classes? Would be interesting :)

[@GGMentor]

I have tried this with similar items and the answer is no. Only all skills works with things like zeal given by an item on a non paladin.

[@TrustworthyFella]

@@GGMentor Ok, saves me from trying it out :) Maybe that is one of the things that will be changed in the future..

[@robantico2490]

The grind is real

[@TheGhjgjgjgjgjg]

Rock that D2 single player and find that GG with the true grind

[@jaredbills72]

What is the lore on this weapon? Who was Astreon? Wish there was more behind it. Never found this weapon but been wanting to try it. I was thinking there could be some do it all zeal 1pt smite and either FOH or Hammer paladin build which has a mix of very good physical damage from attacks and some use of the casted combat skills.

[@CommanderReplay]

I zeal/smite and let me tell you what that 200% AR gets me real hot and bothered for my zeal.

[@edwarren7022]

I have a off topic question, any idea where you find the nature's peace ring.

[@GGMentor]

Probably hell mephisto it's a qlvl 77 item which puts it firmly in hell and probably only some of the higher level zones.

[@edwarren7022]

@@GGMentor thanks 👍

[@holysaintknight343]

Nice one

[@pssa3215]

Pretty sure a perfect one can match grief for a zealer. You guys need to add the 85 bonus dmg to the base dmg of the weapon itself.

[@dannyk1289]

Wondering what rune or jewel to put in mine, I got a pretty good roll running treachery highlords gface with ias jewl and dracs

[@GGMentor]

Lots of fun things you can put in it. Ber for more Crushing blow, zod to make it indestructible, Um Rune for Open wounds Shael for IAS

[@sebastienbeaulieu4070]

I just got one from Pindle with +3 to combat skills and +82 damage. I'm a blizz sorc and wanted to make a smiter but I'm mfing first to obtain items for other characters. Considering how rare it is, what can I hope to get for it if I want to improve my sorc?

[@GGMentor]

Ist probably without +4 it doesn't have the magic but it's still good for a smiter.

[@gheorghevasile1412]

This one droped in chaos sanctuary and i vendor it..i didn't know how good it is..

[@GGMentor]

I can't help but just laugh at the sillyness of finding one of the rarest items in the game and just selling it to vendor without even doing a bit of research first.

[@punkistiinuemorti]

Heaven's light is actually better for ubers because of 2 sock with 2 shael hitting highest IAS. Don't think Astreon can do that.

[@GGMentor]

Astreon's can hit the max ias bp. Main thing about astreon's is the +85 damage which function the same as griefs + damage

[@propaganjata]

@@GGMentor Ive came across with the Redeemer and also has the +dmg good for starter smiter weapon

[@GGMentor]

@@propaganjata yes I do remember that one, used it on my conviction paladin last ladder

[@propaganjata]

@@GGMentor stopped playing at 1.09 so had to keep up after D2R came up

[@DNGR369]

Yeah as mentioned by GG a Caduceus has a faster base speed than a Mighty Scepter so it needs less IAS on paper to reach that BP

[@Kristalya]

*Blade Fury Kicksin has entered the chat*

[@GGMentor]

Lol

[@spindoggytheexplorer2915]

Hey I’ve got one of these with a 137-159 one hand dmg, +3, 10%ias, +272%ed +61Damage. 196% bonus attk rating, 80-240magic, 33% crushing, damage reduced by 7. What’s it worth? I’m struggling to find a dweb atm and I’m wondering if I could trade this for one? Or maybe this plus a low hoto for a +2dweb?

[@spindoggytheexplorer2915]

A low but still +2 dweb for that matter don’t expect to get a perfect

[@GGMentor]

Probably not, it's not +4 combat skills, and astreon's Iron Ward is outclassed vs grief in pvp so it's trade value tends to be on the lower side as I said during the video

[@spindoggytheexplorer2915]

@@GGMentor thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Would it still be better than a grief if I rolled an Uber smiter?

[@GGMentor]

Yeah it would work fine on a smiter. The race with grief is always a close one, so also depends on griefs rolls.

[@Oldschoolsoundz]

anyone know how IAS u need with astreons and smite?

[@GGMentor]

d2.lc/IAS/ Use that to plug in your varibles

[@fu6817]

Found +3 eth one in non-ladder and of course i already had grief for my smiter :(

[@dragoscolumbeanu1357]

can i use it on a vengeance paladin?

[@RevengerBG]

show with a video how you make the items

[@GGMentor]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZXaeZ2uar2Cqbc

[@Thrilla604]

just found a +4, 84dmg one. never found before, but ladder and d2r is dead in general already :(

[@GGMentor]

Very nice find you should make my Northstar smiter!

[@Ashleymaul]

ah yes the item that nobody finds

[@GGMentor]

It's funny how sometimes these extremely rare uniques can sometimes be harder to get then a last wish lol

[@АндрейЯрлыков-и8п]

Was dropped on pit yesterday) 4skills 48dmg 246ed 163ar not perfect but now I want make smite 😊

[@GGMentor]

@@АндрейЯрлыков-и8п nice not horrible rolls tbh. Would still work pretty good

[@adamboyd5190]

Why?

[@Rootword7]

Cuh-doo-see-us

[@GGMentor]

Thanks I hate it

[@Cornholers]

There's a reason this weapons banned in any gg pvp game 🤣

[@GGMentor]

Banned? Why is that exactly? Because it doesn't compete with grief pvp penalty bypass?

[@Cornholers]

Nah it has slow on it mainly and that's 🚫

[@GGMentor]

Slows are not allowed in pvp? Why? Lol dude I would be stacking the highest slows target by possible

[@Cornholers]

All I know since I do jsp tournaments all the time is there is a list of good game items and a list of bad mannered items and this is one of them. If u wanna cheese someone in pvp get a really good one of these

[@Cornholers]

@@GGMentor no doubt. It's cheap on a Amazon ya know

[@Devilish69420]

Found an almost perfect one with 46% mf

[@gojiracz955]

Astreon's is in no world better than grief for smiting nor zeal. I don't know where you're getting this nonsense.

[@GGMentor]

You're wrong it's been parsed. For pure smiting, astreon's beats grief by a small margin. Because it also has the grief mechanic, as well as +4 skills that goes directly to holy shield and smite. Contributing massively to the damage output. Holy shield also adds direct damage like grief does directly to the shield damage. Also The Crushing Blow on Astreon's allows you to be more flexible with Crushing Blow on other equipment. Which in turn allows you to use more damage gear as opposed to CB gear. Astreon's is also an extremely fast weapon, not as fast as a phase blade but fast enough to still easily hit the max ias breakpoint for smite. I have tested it side by side against a grief smiter. What the grief smiter lacks severely is any other form of damage. I have come up with builds revolving around Astreon's that allow you to have the full killing capacity of a smiter, with the full killing capacity of a FoH paladin. With over lvl 50 holy shield and FoH. Something the grief setup really can't do. As the lack of CB or plus to skills makes it more difficult to setup