Insight is a runic word that can be made with polearms or staves. Most melee characters don’t use polearms because while they do great damage, they are quite slow. Staves often have nice bonuses for casters, and more specifically for sorceresses, but both polearms and staves have one major drawback: they require two hands, forcing the player to forego the use of a shield. Since shields offer% Block Attacks, with a successful block nullifying all damage, and generally good resistances, most Diablo 2 players will loathe giving up on using a shield as a polearm or walking stick.
However, there is one character who can only use polearms as a weapon and cannot use shields: the mercenary from Act II. With three of the Runes being common and only the semi-rare Sun Rune, Insight is an affordable weapon for an Act II mercenary. Let’s take a closer look at why.
This runic word is only available to ladder characters.
Requirements:
4 Socket Pole Weapons / Batons
Runes (in order): Ral + Shot + Tal + Sol
The statistics:
Level requirement: 27
Level 12-17 Meditation Aura when equipped (varies)
+ 35% faster casting speed
+ 200-260% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+9 to minimum damage
180-250% Bonus to Attack Rating (varies)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
+75 Poison Damage over 5 seconds
+ 1-6 to critical hit (varies)
+5 to all attributes
+2 to mana after each kill
23% more chance of getting magic items
Level 12-17 Meditation Aura when equipped (varies)
Like most runic words that provide an Aura, this is the mod that makes Insight most useful beyond its cost.
Meditation is a skill in the paladin’s defensive aura skill tree. With meditation activated, all party members will enjoy an increase in their mana recovery rate.
A level 17 meditation aura will increase the mana recovery rate of all party members by a whopping 700%! With Meditation Aura activated, those constructions that use a lot of mana (sorceresses, necromancers that use bone attack spells, paladins that use blessed hammer, etc.) will delight in the ability to continue using their abilities without having to stop and rest or Find Potions to restore your mana.
Ironically, for a weapon meant to be used by a mercenary, this aura does nothing for the mercenary, as mercenaries do not have a mana score.