Last Wish Runeword - D2R 2.6

Last Wish

Runes: Jah + Mal + Jah + Sur + Jah + Ber

6 Socket Swords / Hammers / Axes

Ladder Only Runeword

6% Chance To Cast Level 11 Fade When Struck

10% Chance To Cast Level 18 Life Tap On Striking

20% Chance To Cast Level 20 Charged Bolt On Attack

Level 17 Might Aura When Equipped

+330-375% Enhanced Damage (varies)

Ignore Target's Defense

60-70% Chance of Crushing Blow (varies)

Prevent Monster Heal

Hit Blinds Target

+(0.5 per character level) 0.5-49.5% Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based on Character Level)

Last Wish is the most expensive Runeword in Diablo II. The cost of 3 Jah Runes and Ber make it extremely rare on the Diablo II Ladder Realms. It is a relatively strong weapon but suffers from a lot of the same problems that Breath of the Dying has. Damage-wise, it cannot compare with Grief for regular PvM and still falls slightly behind against the Ubers.

In summary, Last Wish provides everything that a melee character could desire. The Chance to Cast Fade adds a huge amount of damage reduction and resistances. The Chance to Cast Life Tap essentially grants immortality in the vast majority of PvM scenarios when it triggers and the huge amount of Crushing Blow allows the wielder to dispatch bosses with ease. However, when contextually analysing gear choices for the other item slots, these stats overlap with many other best-in-slot items and are made somewhat redundant:

• Resistances are generally not a high priority for melee characters. Most of them benefit from a passive source of resistances (Assassins naturally have access to Fade, Barbarians have Natural Resistance and Paladins have a +45 All Resistances shield automod if required). The physical damage of Fade is a little more useful but certainly not essential in PvM. In fact, the biggest benefit of Fade is most likely the passive curse length reduction which works well in the Chaos Sanctuary and Throne of Destruction.

• Crushing Blow overlaps with Guillaume’s Face and Gore Riders which are two of the most common items for physical damage builds in general (and Goblin Toe for Uber builds). This reduces the effective Crushing Blow percentage on Last Wish to 40-50% (or even lower if the user opts for Steelrend or Blood Craft Gloves.

• The built-in Might Aura (200% Enhanced Damage) on Last Wish is made redundant by a Nightmare Act II Offensive Mercenary (often the best choice for physical damage dealers). It is generally better to change weapons rather than change the choice of mercenary.

• While Life Tap is nice, it is not strictly necessary in general PvM. Some % Life Stolen Per Hit from a ring or belt slot is usually enough for most characters to stay at full health. Against Ubers, Dracul’s Grasp is often a better choice since it provides both the Life Tap as well as Open Wounds.

Furthermore, the weapon slot is the highest priority in terms of determining the damage output of any given character. While Last Wish does have high enhanced damage stats, it is almost exclusively made in a Phase Blade base since it has no built-in IAS. This is done in order to take maximum advantage of its high Crushing Blow and Life Tap proc. Unfortunately, Phase Blades have low base damage and cannot be Ethereal which means that Last Wish outputs less damage than Breath of the Dying and Death too.

UBERS

Last Wish performs quite well against the Ubers. It isn’t quite as strong as Grief or Astreon’s Iron Ward, but remains a very solid choice. Interestingly, Uber Smiters are perhaps where Last Wish is at its weakest (the clear time will be negligibly slower than Grief). 

On Uber-Druids, it frees up the glove slot for Laying of Hands. This is also true for dual-wielding Barbarians where the low weapon damage of Last Wish is less pronounced since you can use Grief in the other hand. Last Wish is stronger than Grief for Uber Kicksins who don’t benefit from +Damage, but is slightly outclassed by Stormlash.

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