Infinity Runeword - D2R 2.6

Infinity

Runes: Ber + Mal + Ber + Ist

4 Socket Polearms

Ladder Only Runeword

50% Chance To Cast Level 20 Chain Lightning When You Kill An Enemy

Level 12 Conviction Aura When Equipped

+35% Faster Run/Walk

+255-325% Enhanced Damage (varies)

-(45-55)% To Enemy Lightning Resistance (varies)

40% Chance of Crushing Blow

Prevent Monster Heal

0.5-49.5 To Vitality (Based on Character Level)

30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Level 21 Cyclone Armor (30 Charges)

Infinity is an automatic best choice for almost every single elemental caster class in the game with the exception of Cold Sorceresses. The reason for this is the level 12 Conviction Aura that the Runeword provides which is essential for breaking monster immunities and shredding resistances. Conviction also reduces enemy defenses by 83% which largely eliminates the need for attack rating – and one of the reasons it is used by Summoners.

Infinity is most commonly used as an Act II mercenary weapon since it can only be made in polearms and prevents the use of a shield. It is important to note that the -55% Enemy Lightning Resistances of the item only applies to the wielder so your main character does not benefit from this bonus if the item is equipped on your mercenary.

Level 12 Conviction provides -85% Enemy Cold, Fire and Lightning Resistance (not poison) which increases damage taken by a minimum of 85% if the target’s starting resistance was zero. However, where -% Resistances really shine is when the target has high base resistances. For instance, if a monster has 75% lightning resistance in Hell, that means it would normally only receive 25% of the incoming lightning damage. However, once Conviction is applied, the monster will be taking 110% damage – over 4 times more.

When breaking immunities, Conviction Aura functions at 1/5th of its normal effectiveness (-17% Enemy Resistances) which means that it can only break the immunities of monsters who have 115 or less resistance. 

COLD IMMUNITIES IN HELL

Infinity is the least effective for breaking cold immunities since the large majority of Cold Immunes in hell have 120 Cold Resistance or higher. Furthermore, sorceresses are the only class which deal large amounts of cold damage and their Cold Mastery makes Infinity unnecessary. (Amazons and Paladins have relatively low damage output)

FIRE IMMUNITIES IN HELL

Infinity is critical for all fire-damage based builds. There are more fire immune monsters in Hell than any other element and a surprisingly large part of them are breakable. Unfortunately, a lot of the unbreakable immunes are located in key farming areas such as Chaos Sanctuary and the Throne of Destruction which makes single-element fire damage a rather bad end-game choice. 

LIGHTNING IMMUNITIES IN HELL

Infinity is essential for all lightning-based characters (Lightning Sorceress, Javazon, Holy Shock Characters, Trap Assassins). Lightning is the best element for endgame content. There are only seven monster types that have unbreakable immunities and none of them spawn in important farming zones. This means that lightning based characters will only ever need to deal with the occasional lightning enchanted or magic resistant unique monsters.

If you'd rather skip farming you can quickly buy gear at Rpgstash's D2R Store.