Diablo II’s Runewords are iconic. These types of items are the ones that players always sought after in the endgame. Enigma is iconic for being the armor that allows players to teleport without using charges while Call to Arms is simply the best secondary weapon you can have for any character outside of a Barbarian. But there is one Runeword that seems to be forgotten compared to those popular Runewords. That Runeword is the prestigious Breath of the Dying.
For the longest time in Diablo II’s lifespan, this Runeword was the only one that required the elusive Zod Rune. It is definitely a powerful item due to its high damage output, massive 30 to all attributes, it comes with dual leech and it’s a significant amount. You generally want to make this Runeword in an ethereal weapon base to take advantage of the Zod Rune’s Indestructible modifier. Until patch 2.4 of Diablo II: Resurrected, Obsession would be the second Runeword that required a Zod Rune to be crafted.
Breath of the Dying is a great Runeword at heart, but it does have tough competition against another powerful weapon that is also a Runeword. Grief is widely considered to be the weapon you can craft for your favorite melee characters that specializes in one handed weapons. There are many great stats that Grief can provide like a decent amount of increased attack speed, increased damage to demons, but the real juicy thing about Grief is the flat damage it provides to your weapon.
Grief may not be indestructible like Breath of the Dying, but it’s popular to craft it in a Phase Blade to take advantage of the Phase Blade’s indestructibility. Grief is certainly a lot cheaper to make and easier to craft because you definitely don’t need to find an ethereal weapon base which can be challenging to hunt for. When you compare these two weapons, it’s fairly understandable of why Breath of the Dying isn’t quite the Runeword that players will generally try to chase for during an early ladder season or an item they believe will be easily obtainable.
Why Use It Over Grief?
Now the next question is: does Breath of the Dying have any uses over Grief? The answer is yes, but keep in mind, if you’re going to use a Breath of the Dying over a Grief is mostly because of special reasons. If you’re ever looking for a weapon that’s going to do more damage than Grief, Breath of the Dying isn’t quite that type of weapon if you’re planning to make your Breath of the Dying in a one handed weapon base. Despite offering inferior damage output in a one handed weapon base, it does provide you some advantages that Grief doesn’t have.
As someone who is a fan of using the Zealot or Zeal Paladin, Breath of the Dying is a great weapon for that build who wants a more defensive oriented weapon. On top of that, it is also a weapon that can allow your Zeal Paladin to take a hybrid approach of using Vengeance. If you take this approach, you will have a character that can handle any physical immune mobs like it’s no problem especially when your character’s level is at least around the low 90s.
Breath of the Dying can be a good weapon for your mercenary.
Your Conviction Aura should definitely have a decent amount of points and with one point into Vengeance, you can easily take on all sorts of physical immune mobs including the boss variants. Since Grief doesn’t have any actual enhanced damage on the weapon, it cannot be used with Vengeance which does give Breath of the Dying an advantage in this regard.
Breath of the Dying is also an amazing weapon for defensive values. This can make it a better option over Grief if you play the game on Hardcore mode or if you plan on trying to level up your character to level 99 and you don’t want to die and lose 10% of your experience. A good example I can give you is if you want to go for max block on a Concentrate Barbarian build that is using Stormshield. When using Breath of the Dying, it will help you reach it much easier. Breath of the Dying does give you additional Strength which Stormshield does require a hefty amount (156), and that means all your remaining attributes points will go to health and you will actually become more durable than using Grief as your primary weapon.
My favorite weapon base to make Breath of the Dying in.
On top of that, the weapon itself gives you great amount of life steal, and you can never have too much life steal. It is possible to take a direction where you can end up having so much life leech where you don’t even need to use Life Tap. Speaking of life steal, the mana leech from Breath of the Dying is fantastic for allowing you to not necessarily need a dual leech or mana leech ring which is generally desirable if players want to use Grief. This means you can have more ring options especially most players tend to use Raven Frost on their melee characters in the endgame.
Items to Consider…
Here are some items I’d recommend pairing with your Breath of the Dying:
Vampire Gaze – Both Vampire Gaze and Breath of the Dying go well together. They both provide dual leech and have massive defensive values. One can argue that having too much mana leech might seem overkill, but it can be helpful against Storm Casters or Mana Burn mobs. If you happen to want to rush towards a location, having additional mana leech can also be helpful in that situation too if you need to hit a monster to replenish your mana.
Chains of Honor – This armor gives both amazing offensive and defensive capabilities when using Breath of the Dying. It does have additional life steal which is great because Breath of the Dying already has a lot of life steal, and it also provides you additional Strength which can synergize very well with Breath of the Dying’s attributes bonus stat.
Stormshield – This item feels like it was designed to be used with Breath of the Dying. It does have a lot of Strength requirement which Breath of the Dying will help you reach. It also allows the player to reach max block much easier too because of the 30 to all attributes. You will generally have a lot of health available when using this item with your Breath of the Dying.
Crown of Ages – A wonderful item to pair with Breath of the Dying. Crown of Ages has always been more of a defensive oriented item. When you pair it with this weapon, it is a good idea for sure. I’d recommend using two Ber Runes for the heavy Physical Damage Reduction. You can also use jewels that increase your attack speed and damage to go for a more offensive route. This route will help you hit breakpoints to counter mobs that have the Holy Freeze or Decrepify ability.
Verdungo’s Hearty Cord – Since Breath of the Dying gives you so much life steal, String of Ears might feel unnecessary. You definitely can use this belt increase your overall Vitality and Physical Damage Reduction.
Find Zod Rune, Make Breath of the Dying!
These are just some items that you can pair your Breath of the Dying with to take advantage of the weapon’s stats that it provides you. You definitely have a lot of options that you can use with Breath of the Dying to increase your character’s overall survivability or efficiency.
Did you know Borderlands 3 paid tribute to this iconic runeword with its own Breath of the Dying?
If you do happen to find a Zod Rune, you should definitely be proud of it! They are extremely rare to find and using your first Zod Rune on a Breath of the Dying is always a fantastic choice. Breath of the Dying won’t be the weapon that veteran Diablo II players will chase during an early ladder season. However, it’s always a great option to go for when you do have the resources available to you. On top of that, you will always feel stylish when you see those Poison Novas go off!
