Grief Runeword - D2R 2.6

Grief

 Eth + Tir + Lo + Mal + Ral

4 Socket Sword / Axe

Ladder Only Runeword

35% Chance To Cast Level 15 Venom On Striking

+30-40% Increased Attack Speed (varies)

Damage +340-400 (varies)

Ignore Target's Defense

-25% Target Defense

+(1.875 per character level) 1.875-185.625% Damage To Demons (Based on Character Level)

Adds 5-30 Fire Damage

-20-25% To Enemy Poison Resistance (varies)

20% Deadly Strike

Prevent Monster Heal

+2 To Mana After Each Kill

+10-15 Life After Each Kill (varies)

Grief is the strongest melee weapon in the game by a fairly large margin. The majority of melee builds use Grief as their best-in-slot weapon. It has a huge amount of base damage and increased attack speed as well as a collection of other very valuable damage stats.

The big selling point of Grief is the +400 Damage stat which should not be confused with +min or +max damage. This stat is added to both the minimum and maximum damage of an item when doing damage calculations. Unfortunately, the in-game display is bugged and does not add this stat on the weapon or the character screen, resulting in very low numbers being displayed. It works perfectly fine in practice though. The damage on Grief is also used in the Smite calculation and is added to Shield Damage.

In PvM, Grief is most frequently made in a Phase Blade because it is the fastest weapon base and does not need to be repaired. The +400 damage stat scales better with fast weapons rather than high-damage bases and the difference between damage-per-hit in different bases is quite small. Here are some of the more common examples:

Perfect Grief Phase Blade

435-440 Weapon Damage (437.5 avg)

Barbarian / Whirlwind / Grief Phase Blade / Grief Phase Blade 

6 Frames = 0 IAS

4 Frames = 4 IAS

Barbarian / Level 26+ Frenzy / Grief Phase Blade / Grief Phase Blade 

6 Frames = 0 IAS

5.5 Frames = 13 IAS 

5 Frames = 35 IAS 

Paladin / Smite / Grief Phase Blade / Level 27+ Fanaticism 

7 Frames = 0 IAS

6 Frames = 6 IAS 

Paladin / Zeal / Grief Phase Blade / Level 27+ Fanaticism 

5/5/5/5/8 Frames = 0 IAS

4/4/4/4/8 Frames = 9 IAS

In PvP, both Phase Blades and Berserker Axes are commonly used depending on the class in question (and the target IAS breakpoints)

Perfect Grief Berserker Axe

427-481 Weapon Damage (454 avg)

Barbarian / Whirlwind / Grief Berserker Axe / Beast Berserker Axe / Level 9 Fanaticism 

8 Frames = 0 IAS

6 Frames = 8 IAS 

4 Frames = 34 IAS

If you'd rather skip farming you can quickly buy the best items at Rpgstash.