Best Budget Unique Armors in D2R

Normal Armors

Twitchtroe - Great popular budget normal Unique armor which gives 25% increased chance of blocking, 20% ias, 20% fhr, +10 Strength and Dexterity from lvl16 with only 27 strength required

Venom Ward - Specialized in countering Poison damage with 90% poison resistance, -50% poison duration and +15% max poison resistance, becomes available at lvl20

Darkglow - Early good defensive armor that you will probably see drop at one point with all res +10%, all elemental max res +5% and +50 defense vs missiles, +20 attack rating as only offensive stat. Really shines at low levels when combined with items having high fire/lightning resistance to go over the 75% cap (like Nokozan Relic amulet for to reach 90% as max fire resistance) or even on a mercenary to make him have 80% all res until you get better options

Rattlecage - Pretty niche use but +25% crushing blow at lv29 can be really good to have against an act boss for example on you or your merc, Goblin Toe at lvl22 gives you another 25% enabling some pretty powerful low level setups, with Crushflange available since lv9 or Humongous at lv29, you can reach 83% Crushing Blow or 70% with The Gnasher (lv5 Unique axe) It's not a very popular piece of gear though due to 40% chance to make monster flee on hit and the fact that Crushing Blow is not needed at such a low level range for PvM, combined with the rarity of Uniques while you are leveling, often this setup is unobtainable and by the time you will need to build a Crushing Blow setup, the budget runeword Duress will heavily outperform this option.

Exceptional Armors

Atma's Wail - Budget mid to high defense armor (670 to 988) which may be appealing to sorc (specially ES sorc) or mana intensive builds in general before upgrading to better options due to the 15% increased max mana, on top of 20% magic find, +15 dex, +30% fhr and +10 replenish life. However unless you absolutely want the 15% max mana increase at one point you'll upgrade to something less casual.

Corpsemourn - High defense but also high strength requirement of 170, niche budget piece of gear used by Barbs or few other builds already reaching high str for important equipment who will wear this to benefit from the 40 Corpse Explosion charges (which prove really powerful during high density scenarios if you'd usually have limited to no AoE options)

Duriel Shell - Popular budget choice for merc due to the cannot be frozen mod paired with +1/100-125 life, 20% all res and an additional +30% cold res for a total  of 50%. Ethereal version is way less budget but is obviously better for merc considering that you can even upgrade the base to Elite to increase its defense further with the appropriate Horadric Cube Recipe (Ko + Lem + Perfect Diamond)

Guardian Angel - One of the best defensive options in the game for both the player and the mercenary, although it usually find its place in the mercenary armor slot for farming areas such as Travincal or even bosses to help him take less damage from elemental attacks, giving +15% to all elemental max resistances it allows to reach 90% max resistance in any element, reducing elemental damage by an effective extra 60% if you can cap at 90% instead of 75% (as you take 10 damage from 100 damage with 90% resistance, instead of 25 with 75%)

Shaftstop - Very popular Unique armor because of 30% physical damage reduction and +60 life on it, you can also upgrade it and in general can even be used with success on a mercenary until you get something better

Skin of the Flayed One - Niche piece of equipment for mercenary mostly for 5-7% life leech and +15-25 replenish life, it also has auto repair so an eth version can be used on a melee character. It becomes available at lvl31 and in that level range if your merc need life leech in armor slot it is a good option, but other than that there's no real use for this item later on.

Skin of the Vipermagi - Contrary to the Flayed One, the Vipermagi's skin find its use even in the endgame, often upgraded to elite version for much higher defense. It gives +1 to all skills, 30% fcr, reduced magic damage by 9-13 and up to 20-35% all resistances. Dedicated Hammerdins, Sorc or other builds using it will often socket  into it an Um for even more all resistances, or rare jewels, P.Ruby, Sol or Mal are also options (although Mal is not a very budget choice to put in the open sockets).

Elite Armor

Leviathan - Indestructible (high rolled ethereal version can be a nice trophy but not budget to get otherwise) defensive armor sporting very high defense, +40-50 Strength and physical damage reduction 15-25%

Ormus' Robes - Popular Sorc body with +3 to a random Sorceress skill and enhancing elemental damage, for this reason Ormus Robes having +3 to less desirable skills can be pretty cheap to acquire, compared to the most popular ones like. 

The Gladiator's Bane - Popular choice for "Immortal Sorc" Energy Shield builds because of flat physical and magic damage reduced by 15-20, plus 30% fhr and poison length reduced by 50% makes it ideal for a build stacking flat damage reductions on top of resistances.

 *If you'd rather skip farming or levelling you can quickly Buy D2R Items at our store.