I'm on a "semi-vacation" and moving each of the other five classes through normal mode, doing one quest at a time for all classes, with the goal getting everyone to level 75 and then playing hell with all those classes+Assassin. I finished Act 4 with everyone and am starting Act 5.
In between quests, I'm using my Hammerdin to farm gear for everyone else through shared stash. I've also focused on upgrading and crafting items (this game is complex AF unless you actually study it!), which I had never done. I bought a couple handfuls of runes needed to do this, because I'm not spending 200 hours on Countess and Baal runs. I found a sale and spent like 10 dollars total for a crapload of runes. Cool.
................
So...I just found a unique piece of armor in the Hell Pit.
An ethereal Skin of the Vipermagi! Armor to Level/Strength Requirement out to wazoo. Great for a Sorceresses or Druid...I'm thinking probably Druid because my Sorceresses can teleport now pretty easily. But in any case, at a bare minimum, I can use this for a midgame and maybe even endgame build for one of them. Amazing!
I say screw it...let's make this endgame viable (IMO)...let's upgrade.
I do so, upgrading from exceptional to elite body armor. Awesome!
But I got to deal with the ethereal aspect. No problem. I still have my socket-quest on the table for my Hammerdin playthrough. Basically three separate socketings available. I can spare one for what will probably be the final armor for my Druid, right? I take it to Larzuk and get a nice single socket in that shizzz.
Time to pop the Zod rune in and conclude the armor. It should be ethereal, indestructible, with insanely high physical defense, but not too radical a strength requirement....and with all the usual faster cast, +skills, etc...associated with the Skin of the Vipermagi. Pop! In goes the Zod. I beam inwardly, very proud of myself.
I move the cursor over the armor, and this is what I see:
I legit stopped and stared at the screen for like five minutes after.
The following things happened:
1. My brain misread Skin of The Flayed One as Skin of the Vipermagi. How? I legit passed over the armor with my controller like 20 times. I didn't notice this once? The attributes of the respective armors aren't similar. How did I not notice ANYTHING even ONCE?
2. I unintentionally raised the level requirement from I think 29 (original SOTFO) to level 76. Basically, taking it entirely out of play for normal, nightmare and probably Act 1 or so of Hell.
3. Not that it really matters since I paid like a dollar for it, but I completely wasted a Zod rune.
4. I didn't notice the armor was *essentially* already indestructible because of the repair durability every 10 seconds ability. There was nothing (in effect) to address with the Zod rune in the first place! Again, how does one not notice this?
5. I did a quick Google, and found this Reddit thread of Diablo 2 Vets making fun of someone doing what I *thought* I was doing. So not only was I a retard, but the idealized version of what I was doing was also retarded (to my very small credit, at least I upgraded first). I didn't understand the role defense actually plays in the game (apparently, not nearly as much as is implied?).
I got owned like 51 times on this adventure. At best, I crafted a respectable piece of armor for Waheed or Khalid or Habee-bee or whichever of Leoss's ancestors I end up using in Hell mode. Lem Rune, Zod Rune, P-Diamond, socket quest 1, original dynamite midgame armor....for that reward.
Tough scene.
