I see people suggesting and condoning the use of last wish all the time, in most cases it is a terrible choice of weapons
the purpose of this thread is to be a reference so that these misinformed players can be enlightened

Overview (the tl;dr version): Last Wish does considerably less damage to alternative weapons that are cheaper/easier to get, and if you need it to survive you're likely playing your character wrong or the rest of your equipment is as much trash as this item is and you need to do some research.

The use of this runeword is primarily for PvM, primarily as a melee weapon, tho some apply it to PvP i am not here to question its effectiveness in that field just that many consider the lifetap to be bad mannered.

alright, lets run down the modifiers that it has

6% Chance To Cast Level 11 Fade When Struck
you can get better fade from a much cheaper runeword called Treachery, while being a very good merc armor, borrow it from him/her to buff the fade on yourself
this should not be necessary anywhere other than uber trist
relying on ctc fade for protection is a poor idea, before its cast you're very vulnerable and theres only one way to get it to cast, get attacked... see the logic gap? if you're standing in fire to get it to cast every game you enter to mf in then you are wasting your time.

10% Chance To Cast Level 18 Life Tap On Striking
The ONLY place you need lifetap is in uber tristram, ONLY
if you are relying on it to cast on striking, your are vulnerable until it does, ctc on striking.. see the logic gap?
rather if you were to use a wand/dagger on your switch or Marrowalk boots, equipped with charges, you are safe from the beginning
if you are using it to recast after the initial then Dracul's Grasp gloves give you plenty, if you are not hitting often enough to cast it via draculs you arent likely to be benefiting from lifetap in the first place, these gloves also provide open wounds necessary to keep the ubers from regenerating their life, actual life leach, life after each kill and strength bonuses.

for general PvM gameplay, you want a curse that will make you do more damage and break immunes, Decrepify and Amplify damage do this, they are your best friends
lifetap overrides these better curses and will make you kill slower
decrepify is easily achieved through a mercenary wielding The Reaper's Toll which is a wonderful weapon that actually does a lot of damage itself, Lawbringer is also a decent choice,
amplify damage can come from wearing Atma's Scarab, Lacerator has a high ctc on striking too (but its own issues for pvm), and The Gavel Of Pain has charges so you can cast it wherever whenever you need it, Brand has a very high ctc when struck and you can put this on a rogue

having one of those curses will increase your effective damage astronomically, as well as break the physical immunity of many monsters, and increase the effectiveness of crushing blow

20% Chance To Cast Level 20 Charged Bolt On Attack
this mod is practically useless, it will not do enough damage to make a difference
maybe on a fully synergized lightning sorceress with lots of -enemy lightning resistance gear, but lets face it, she probably won't be swinging this thing, and if she is it won't be very fast leaving better options for her even


Level 17 Might Aura When Equipped
this is lower than the might aura offered by an offensive town guard hired in nightmare mode, this is the proper merc for most melee characters anyway for their aura and availability of weapons
some people may use this on their off hand to provide bonuses for other things that do physical attacks, maybe a summoning character or a wolf barbs unused hand, but for the most part there are better options for this as well, like Beast or something else depending on the case


+330-375% Enhanced Damage (varies)
This may sound like a lot, it sort of is, but not really if you are relying on this to kill monsters in a full game

this item does not have Indestructible mod, meaning it cannot be made in an Ethereal weapon and thus loses an effective +150% Enhanced Damage from the weapon itself!
it also does not have xx% Deadly Strike, which gives you an overall chance to double your damage

as such, it will always doe less damage than weapons like: Grief, Death, Oath, Breath of the Dying,
it suffers from repair costs as well

Ignore Target's Defense (ITD)
this is a good mod, it effectively almost nullifies the need for attack rating to effect your chance to hit
however it does not work on champions, uniques, superuniques and bosses

but Grief has this too...


60-70% Chance of Crushing Blow (varies)
this is a good mod too great for killing bosses, but you can get it from other sources, and more than 100% does not help
Stormlash, Gore Riders, Duress, Goblin Toe, Death, Stone Crusher, Heaven's Light, Astreon's Iron Ward and many many many more weapons and armor add this mod, it is not hard to come by, you can get it from other places
in the case of a dual wielding character, it only applies to the one hand that it is in

Prevent Monster Heal
this is pretty much useless as like ITD it does not work on champions, uniques, superuniques and bosses, which are the only mosnters with appreciable regenerate
it also stops working if you go a couple screens away, or to a different area (like town)


Hit Blinds Target
this is a curse that will override better curses
if you rely on lifetap as a smiter, it will remove it and you cannot leach back life (which you can get from other sources)
if you rely on amp/decrep to remove physical immunity, that is gone too
you do less damage and are in more danger, except that one mosnter may not attack you if it is a ranged opponent, way to go, one down, dozens to go... see the logic gap?

+(0.5 per character level) 0.5-49.5% Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based on Character Level)
Novelty mod, useless as far as killing is concerned, not enough to worry about, i wont even bother trying to list the other items that have this mod, they are not hard to come by



but lets run the logic on MF and the need to mf

Cost - the runeword costs 6 highrunes (okay 5 on some realms, mal can be found from hellforge), where the probability of actually finding these runes is slim to none.
for example, i have found Ber and Sur once in the last 4 years, you may have found more hrs than that, other players have never found any ever at all, i don't say this to brag or complain, just as a reference to how likely it is to come by the runes required to make this weapon during a single ladder season legitimately.

this is the most trivial reason, since most of you likely partake in the use of frequently duped runes, im not here to argue the ethical implications of this, regardless, the cost is still high compared to other better alternatives.

if you need to MF, you cannot afford this item, the converse is also true (if you can afford it you dont need to mf)
this is all beside the point that the less you spend on an MF character, the more effective it is because everything you find is profit as opposed to making up for what you've spent to make it.., see the logic gap?



Okay, there's the groundwork, if you'de like to add anything post it

This post was edited by MajinKaisa on Jul 6 2009 10:33pm

yah. I'll add that it turns most chars from uber-food to raping uber-tristram in one neat little package

hi multi

LW Phase Blade is the best weapon for smiting uber trist. And really, who cares about any other PvM play on a smiter?

first off this is not about just smiting

second, if it was, then your character is build around doing just ubers, and last wish is then definitely not the best choice, Astreons deals tons more damage for a smiter and is still easily capable of achieving 93cb, stormlash, same cb and has ctc static field on striking!, that is monumental amounts of damage not just to what you're attacking but everything around you too!
so why would you choose the worse item when you're purpose built to do something?

if you dont care about pvm then that's your prerogative, i dont care about pvp.

This post was edited by MajinKaisa on Jul 6 2009 10:48pm

Don't get me wrong. I do like pvm, but with a smiter, ubers are basically your lot. LW has always served me with a high degree of effectiveness in that aspect. I think most people will agree with me on this.

nope, in pvm its really the #1 ubers weapon, not just for smiters, also for kickers, frenzy barbs, etc etc.
And you know what? Fortitude is a terrible item on casters, and grief sucks on sorcs, and enigma isn't the *best* for most zons. You can't just say item A sucks at B but rocks at C, and therefore sucks. People use items for the things they are best at, and last wish is just another niche item, used for PvM frenzy/smite/etc. Sure, it might not be the *best* possible setup, but its a single item that gives you everything you need for uber-trist, all in one package. For a PvP char that wants to turn pvm at times, thats a lot better than having to switch out his stormlash/goblins/duress/dracs/guillaimes from his stash, because most people don't have that kind of room.

And who cares about PvM anyway?

I just wanna say....about über trist,
He mentioned in the op where certain shi is only good for uber trist
And I think the main point of this was to show how it's not as gg of a casual weap
As many ppl think, not that there is nn for it at all...
But yes LW is rubbish for anything other than uber smiter

i use lastwish on my UT hybdin. hammer skills to go for the mini bosses + kill the pesky mages @ izual. 1 point smite / 1 points hs / 1 points fana with last wish to kill bosses + ut.. easy.. xD

and much more fun that a plain smiter

FAIL?