Stats: Required Level: 65 +1 To All Skills +20% Increased Attack Speed + (0.375 Per Character Level) 0-37 % Deadly Strike (Based On Character Level) Lightning Resist +35% Adds 1-30 Lightning Damage Attacker Takes Lightning Damage Of 15 Why is it so popular? +1 To All Skills Always a nice ability on any piece of item.
+20% Increased Attack Speed This is a big reason for liking Highlord’s. With character builds that are going for the maximum breakpoint, 20% IAS on one item is a massive plus, especially when you add in all the other abilities (see below!).
+ (0.375 Per Character Level) 0-37 % Deadly Strike (Based On Character Level) As the only unique amulet to offer Deadly Strike, this makes Highlord’s Wrath a very, very popular choice for the amulet slot. If you put in on just as you’ve hit the minimum level, 65, you immediately have a Deadly Strike ability of 24%, just from this one amulet alone. Why is Deadly Strike so attractive? Deadly Strike in Diablo 2 gives your character an X% chance of dealing double damage. The damage is doubled after all other bonuses are taken into consideration (except for the Critical Strike bonus which also deals double damage). If you are fortunate enough to have melee character have both Critical Strike and Deadly Strike, the game rolls for one of the two first (either Deadly Strike or Critical Strike). If the roll for that fails, then the game rolls for the other bonus. If the first roll succeeds, then no second roll is needed. The ability to do double damage is very important to a lot of players, whether it be for PvM or PvP.
Lightning Resist +35% In both Normal and Nightmare modes, this ability is decent, but your Resistances would be easy to max out even without Highlord’s Wrath. However, this hefty bonus to Lightning Resistance really comes into its own when in Hell Mode, where there is a blanket 100% reduction penalty applied to all your elemental Resistances. Most players consider unique monsters with the Lightning Enchanted ability as the deadliest monsters in Diablo 2, especially when paired with an ability like Stoneskin, or even immunity to one of the four elements. In Hell mode, the extra bonus given by the Highlord’s Wrath to your Lightning Resistance may be the only thing that gives you a chance against these tough monsters.
Adds 1-30 Lightning Damage Fairly useless ability, unless you happen to have other items or a lot of charms in your backpack that increase the lightning damage.
Attacker Takes Lightning Damage Of 15 Useless due to the tiny amount of damage done.
Highlord’s Wrath is a very good amulet, providing a good boost to Lightning Resistance, but primarily used for its ability to boost a melee character’s Deadly Strike ability. When worn by a high-level character, and paired with a Grief Runeword weapon and the unique boots, Gore Riders, the chance of doing double damage is very high.