The Best Item Drops in the Game

ssssnake529#2202

The Best Item Drops in the Game

After several thousand hours of Warhammer, I’ve decided to put together a list of the random drop items that I feel are the best in the game.
Note that this list is only random drops. It does not include quest items such as the Sword of Khaine, the Legendary Lord quest items, or items that you can craft in the various workshops.
These are items that have an element of randomness to them. There is no guarantee that you will be able to access these items. There are some “crafted” items on the list, but the crafted items that are included are awarded due to random events (i.e. Invocation of Vaul, Skaven loyalty dilemmas, etc.)

Weapons:

Top Tier

There are three weapons that provide very high armor piercing damage buffs and are the best I have found while playing Warhammer. The best of these are Massa Moon’s Pride and the Obsidian Blade. These random drops are better than many legendary lord weapons, as both provide +100 armor piercing damage along with other benefits. The Blade of Sea Gold, a High Elf crafted item that is occasionally available from the Invocation of Vaul, is almost as good, with a minor drawback of a -10 base weapon damage.
Note that I have never obtained these top tier weapons as any other race other than High Elves. It may be possible to obtain them as other races, but I’ve never had them drop unless I was playing High Elves.

Second Tier:

There are a number of other decent weapon drops in the game. The Corrosive Blade (which I’ve only encountered as Skaven) the Blade of Leaping Gold, and the Mechanical Claw (awarded by a Skaven loyalty dilemma) are all pretty good weapons.)

The Tormentor Sword and the Ring of Corin:

The Tormentor Sword is a common drop item that is extremely useful as it has a “net” ability which can be used over and over again, every 90 seconds. It stops the enemy from moving and also provides a melee debuff. It’s super useful for crowd control, running down fleeing units, and trapping moving units in place so you can kill them with spells or artillery or missile fire.
The Ring of Corin is an enchanted item with a bound damage spell. However, I’m including it in the weapons section because it also provides a constant +100 armor piercing damage bonus. Pair a Ring of Corin with one of the top tier armor piercing weapons mentioned above and you have a combination that simply cuts through any armor in the game. I have only found the Ring of Corin while playing High Elves. I don’t know if it’s accessible to other races.

Bound Damage Spell Items:

There are a number of items that have bound spells which you can use to cast magic without using up mana. These are great to assign to lords and heroes that normally don’t have much spell casting firepower. Some spells are more useful than others, so I’ve only included my favorites.
Gem of Sunfire gives a single cast of Flame Storm from the Lore of Fire.
Khaine’s Ring of Fury provides 2 casts of Firey Convocation from the Lore of High Magic (only ever seen this one while playing High Elves.) (Note that if you give this item to Teclis (who can get Firey Convocation as a bound spell through his skill tree) it does not give him additional casts of the spell.
Scroll of Stone gives a single cast of Assault of Stone, an excellent bombardment spell.
Ring of Corin has 2 casts of Spirit Leach, but its primary value is the +100 armor piercing damage as outlined above.
The Gilded Horn of Galon Konook has 2 casts of Gehennas Golden Hounds, a vortex spell from the Lore of Metal. It’s a decent item, but it’s a crafted item from the High Elves’ Greater Invocation of Vaul, and always is a choice alongside a better item (the Diamond Guardian Phoenix,) so I seldom pick this item if I’m offered it in the Invocation of Vaul.
The Scroll of Black Horror gets a single cast of a decent wind damage spell that covers a pretty broad area.
The Kraken Tusk, (which I’ve only ever acquired as Vampire Coast,) gives four casts of the Tidecall spell from the Lore of the Deeps.) It also provides melee buffs and enables frostbite attacks.

Items that Buff your Troops

The Guardian Phoenixes are talismans that provide constant resistance to your army and all allied armies across the entire battle map. The Diamond Guardian Phoenix gives +12% physical resistance. The Sapphire Guardian Phoenix gives +12% magic resistance, and the Ruby Guardian Phoenix gives +12% fire resistance. These items are obtained from the High Elves’ Greater Invocation of Vaul.
Sacred Incense (only ever found this as High Elves) gives a constant 12% missile resistance to the holder and allies within 40 meters.
The Enchanted Spyglass (another High Elf Invocation of Vaul item,) the Book of the Phoenix, and the Horn of Vaul all buff weapon damage.

Armor and Items that Buff your Lords/Heroes

The Emerald Collar (High Elf Invocation of Vaul item) provides regeneration while in combat.
The Talisman of Preservation gives a 17% ward save
The Amplifier provides a buff to winds of magic and a -30% cooldown to all spells. This is a purple item that I have had randomly drop when playing as Imrik and fighting the non-unique quest dragons that show up after all 5 of the unique quest dragons have been vanquished.
The Armor of Gork (I assume this is greenskin specific) is a piece of armor with a nice charge bonus buff, which is great if you’re playing as Grom.

Armor and Items that Debuff Your Enemies

The Helm of Discord provides a modest armor bonus, but its main value is that it has an area of effect melee attack and defense debuff that you can re-cast every 90 seconds. This is a great item for heroes/lords that wade into the thick of a battle.
The Odd Powder Keg is a Skaven loyalty dilemma item that provides a melee defense debuff and drastically slows the enemy. This is a perfect accessory for assassins as it slows enemy lords and makes them less able to defend themselves.

Armor and Items that Make You Stealthy and Good for Flanking

It can often be very tactically advantageous to be able to sneak up on your enemy. Flanking and surprise attacks from the rear can be devastating. Here are some items that help with that.
Moranion’s Wayshard (an enchanted item I’ve only encountered while playing High Elves) gives the bearer constant stealth, along with vanguard deployment. It also confers vanguard deployment on all archers and spearmen in the army. Unfortunately, this is only generic archers, archers with light armor, and basic spearmen, not higher tier archers or spearmen like Sisters of Avelorn or Phoenix Guard, or units like the Lothern Sea Guard.) The best use I’ve found for Moanion’s Wayshard is to give it to a Life Mage as the sole ground unit in a dragon spam army. You need at least one ground unit on the ground, and the stealthiness granted by this item means your ground unit will never be located.
The Scroll of Lykos gives yourself or an ally 44 seconds of stalk and a boost to speed. This is useful for getting cavalry or another unit into flanking position.
The Armor of the Stars has an ability that provides stalk for 67 seconds.
Shadow Armor gives the wearer vanguard deployment.

Items that Provide Campaign Buffs

Black Buckthorn’s Map (which I believe is a Vampire Coast Specific drop) provides a whopping 20% boost to campaign movement range along with vanguard deployment for the wielder.
The Chest of Sustenance (another High Elf Invocation of Vaul item) gives a -10% discount to army upkeep costs and -40% resistance to attrition.

Some Conclusions and My Choices as to the Top 5 items in the Game.

It’s possible that I’ve just played more Imrik/High Elves than other races and factions, but in my experience, the High Elves have the best item drops. For whatever reason, I accumulate more good items when playing Imrik than all the other factions/races combined. Some of this is due to the Greater Invocation of Vaul, but I also seem to get better purely random drops from battles as well.

Here are my choices for the top 5 Item drops in the Game:
Massa Moon’s Pride Insane armor piercing damage, with melee buff and a bound damage spell. This is a terrific weapon.
Ring of Corin Another boost to armor piercing damage. This, coupled with its bound spell are perfect for lord killers.
Diamond Guardian Phoenix Mapwide, constant 12% physical resistance for you and your allies is a huge buff.
Tormentor Sword This item is relatively common and easy to find and provides an extremely useful net ability.
Talisman of Preservation 17% ward save keeps your lord/hero alive when the going gets dangerous.

ssssnake529#2202

I tried putting pictures into the original post, but I couldn't figure out how to put the pictures in the "Spoiler" format.

Here are pictures of the items discussed in the original posting.

Top Tier Weapons

2nd Tier Weapons

Ring of Corin and Tormentor Sword

Bound Damage Spell Items

Troop Buff Items

Lord/Hero Buff Items

Debuff Items

Stealth and Flanking Items

Campaign Buffs

HighRoller64#8823

Moranion’s Wayshard is something that I enjoy putting on an army with that 60 influence lord that cheapens the same basic units, so I have a seriously cheap 20-stack that I can use however the situation might call for. I hate having a random army springing up on to Ulthuan where I left without much reinforcement.

The Ruby Guardian Phoenix is actually pretty good with a flame caster/sisters/phoenix stack because it protects pretty well against any crossfire from those damage outputs, with the added benefit of feeling pretty thematic, and the casting buff weakening the enemy to all fire damage at the same time.

You left out casting items, I think, and I'd like to add in the Black Periapt. It's essentially a second Arcane Conduit, with seriously buffs all magic lords.

I think there's a good argument for The Potion of Health being up there, despite it being common to every race, and more common in general, just because it can take a great lord, and make him so much greater.

There's also that follower (Yeah, technically not an item) that gives a High Elf army immunity to all attrition, which is pretty damn insane.

This is a good post.

Seswatha#7633

Well...

-Talisman of Preservation
-Armor of Destiny
-Lucky shrunken head (Greenskins only)
-Armor of Eternal Servitude (DE only, not the best ward but also has regen)
-Folariath Robe (HE only, mages only cause it severely reduces melee damage)

are top tier because ward save and physical resist stacking is still OP.

-Potion of Healing

is also top notch for a common item, free healing is the best thing ever.

-Chalice of Chaos (WoC only)
-Skalm (Skaven only)

Are like potion of healing or better.

-Wand of Jet
-Forbidden Rod
-Book of Ashur
-Black Periapt (VC only)
-Darkstar cloak (DE only)
-Book of Hoeth (HE only)

Are also top tier because magic can win you battles and they give you more magic recharge or reserves.

Pretty sure there's a lot I've missed but you can't really go wrong with stacking resistances (ward & physical first and foremost), healing, or getting a ton of winds of magic for your army.

ssssnake529#2202

Yes, there are some excellent followers and banners too, as well as items that increase your winds of magic that should probably be on the list.

Winds of Magic Buffs

All of these buff your winds, either power or recharge rate (or both.)

Book of Ashur
Book of Hoeth
Wand of Jet
Starwood Staff

Followers

Some of my favorite followers are those that provide campaign line of sight.

And the Priest of Vaul, who, as mentioned above, makes you immune to all attrition at the cost of 10% movement penalty.

Healing and Toughness Potions

Potion of Healing and Potion of Toughness are both good for adding some extra durability to your hero or lord, when some extra hitpoints means the difference between success and death. .

Banners:

The most common banners seem to be those that provide leadership boosts, which I find to be only slightly useful. My favorites are those that provide armor piercing and flame damage. One of the best banners I've found was awarded after defeating some Bretonnian knights when playing as Noctilus. It's a banner that gives both flaming attacks and a charge bonus. The Burnt Banner of Knights.

manpersal#3961

MadDemiurg said:

Well...

-Talisman of Preservation
-Armor of Destiny
-Lucky shrunken head (Greenskins only)
-Armor of Eternal Servitude (DE only, not the best ward but also has regen)
-Folariath Robe (HE only, mages only cause it severely reduces melee damage)

are top tier because ward save and physical resist stacking is still OP.

-Potion of Healing

is also top notch for a common item, free healing is the best thing ever.

-Chalice of Chaos (WoC only)
-Skalm (Skaven only)

Are like potion of healing or better.

-Wand of Jet
-Forbidden Rod
-Book of Ashur
-Black Periapt (VC only)
-Darkstar cloak (DE only)
-Book of Hoeth (HE only)

Are also top tier because magic can win you battles and they give you more magic recharge or reserves.

Pretty sure there's a lot I've missed but you can't really go wrong with stacking resistances (ward & physical first and foremost), healing, or getting a ton of winds of magic for your army.

Incendiary trait+folariath robe is one of the best combinations in the game, you still get better weapon damage than a regular mage and 50% physical resistance.

One of the cooler casting items is the Arnzipal's scroll of black terror which grant a single use of a unique wind spell unavailable otherwise for any faction. I think only high and dark elves can get it.

DE have a few excellent armours at their disposal: Armour of the living death, Armour of eternal servitude and I think there's still a generic version of the helm of the kraken. All these 3 grant some kind of regeneration. DE also can get the Satchel of potions from dilemmas which grants two uses of an ability which gives a healing and an increase of defensive stats.

Reeks#2417

Wardsave and healing items are king, nice list tho.

Ps Dat user name xD :

Slayer_Yannir#8069

Dark Elves, High Elves, Tomb Kings and Dwarfs get the best items I've found.

I'd like to add a few Dark Elf items on the list.

The Satchel of Potions that grants 3 uses of Potion of Toughness. That's twice the amount of healing from any other healing item in the game, and 2 minutes with +30 Armor and +24 Melee Defense.

Then there's the Rubrik of Dark Dimensions that grants you 2 uses of Pit of Shades. Competes with Healing Potions but this is the perfect item for this slot for Malus Darkblade. He already gains like +16 healing per second with regen items on other slots so healing potions are pointless on him. Turning into Tzarrkan will also recharge this item so you gain 2 more uses of Pit of Shades for 4 Pits of Shades in total.

peabodyestate#9505

Bloody good show old bean! Great effort

Bloodydagger#9716

I've been playing for over 1000 hours and still haven't seen some of these. Are the top tiers that rare?

manpersal#3961

Kelefane said:

I've been playing for over 1000 hours and still haven't seen some of these. Are the top tiers that rare?

I think it's a matter of luck, to me the scroll of black horror seems the rarest but I remember one campaign in which I got it 3 times.

ssssnake529#2202

Kelefane said:

I've been playing for over 1000 hours and still haven't seen some of these. Are the top tiers that rare?

They are pretty rare. I can play 150 turns and not get some of these items at all.

I wish I knew if there were things you can do to influence item drops.

I have heard that getting the Priest of Vaul follower requires that you actually have a lord at Vaul's anvil.

There may be specific conditions for some of the item drops too, but I haven't seen any patterns. (Other than the Burnt Banner of Knights that was dropped when I beat the Origo Knights while playing Skaven.)

The random crafted items from the High Elves' Invocation of Vaul dilemma always come in specific groupings with a choice of 4 items. There are 5 different possibilities and these 5 do not vary as to the choices they grant.

Here they are:

Slayer_Yannir#8069

Just adding some pictures of a few of the best Dark Elf items.

Armor of Eternal Servitude.


Armor of Living Death. Amazing on Malus Darkblade since Tz'arkan is Unbreakable. Leadership debuff is a small price when Dark Elves generally have excellent LD.


Rubric of Dark Dimensions. Doesn't say it but it's basically a Pit of Shades.


Satchel of Potions.

ssssnake529#2202

I wonder if it is possible to steal some of those Dark Elf items if you are playing another race and you defeat a Dark Elf lord or hero that has them equipped.

I would not have thought it would be possible, but I was playing as High Elves and had Dark Elves steal some of my crafted and unique (purple) items. So, the AI can steal them. Makes me think that perhaps the player can too.

Slayer_Yannir#8069

ssssnake529 said:

I wonder if it is possible to steal some of those Dark Elf items if you are playing another race and you defeat a Dark Elf lord or hero that has them equipped.

I would not have thought it would be possible, but I was playing as High Elves and had Dark Elves steal some of my crafted and unique (purple) items. So, the AI can steal them. Makes me think that perhaps the player can too.

AFAIK those items get destroyed. I've finished campaigns with Malekith and Morathi, and I have 0 of those HE items in either campaign despite having lengthy wars with the HE and conquering Ulthuan.
Not 100% sure though.