Diablo 2 Ethereal Items Description

In Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction there was added a new type of items with the “Ethereal” flag. As Diablo II Resurrected is going to contain both core and DLC players will see Ethereal items as well. We’d like to highlight some points about this type of items in this post.

First of all, Ethereal is not a modifier but a flag similar to Superior or Socketed. It can occur randomly on almost every type of items with some exceptions that we will highlight below. Ethereal can be on normal, magical, Rare, and Unique items that have durability. But not on Set items. Also, you will see them as transparent pieces of armour or weapons.

Items that can’t be Ethereal:

• Amulets
• Rings
• Bows
• Crossbows
• Phase Blades
• Set Items
• Unique Items with “indestructible” modifier.

The chance of getting Ethereal on weapon or armour is around 5% of all. But it is worth searching for them as such item has bonus damage or defence, reduced durability and requirements, but you will not be able to repair it as usual though. The bonus to damage or defence is 50%. The new durability is half of the original +1. Strength and Dexterity requirements are reduced by 10 each. The sale value is reduced by 75% or more.

But can you repair an ethereal item in Diablo 2? Well, some items can be self-repaired, but if it brokes it remains broken with 0 durability. But it’s not the same with Throwing Weapons with replenishing quantity. Even if their durability falls to 0 the attribute will still work and the quantity will be eventually restored.

Below you can see by what ways you can lose durability on items in D2:

• Armor does not lose durability when you take magical damage.
• Shields lose durability when you block successfully with them.
• Weapons lose durability when you hit things with them. If you don’t hit anything with your weapon, (as with an orb or staff or wand used by a spell-caster) the item will never lose any durability. So an ethereal orb is just as good as a non-ethereal one.

Ethereal items can be used to make Rune Words. An Ethereal item with a Zod Rune will fully negate the side effects of reduced durability.

If you want to use an ethereal item in Horadric Cube recipes you need to remember that some recipes can erase the ethereal condition (flag) from it. Generally speaking, if you use a recipe that keeps the attributes of the original item like socketing or upgrading the ethereal flag will remain. But if you use a recipe in Horadric Cube that changes the item like rerolling or crafting the ethereal flag will disappear from the item. In addition, none of the repairing recipes won’t work on an ethereal item.

The best option is to use Ethereals on your Mercenaries since their equipment doesn’t lose any durability. In Diablo 2 your Mercs are useful and if you equip them right you’ll get a huge help. So good ethereal items suit them perfectly. In case you got good unique items with an ethereal flag you can use them yourself until they drop to 1 durability and then put them on your Merc.