Casting Characters include the Sorceress, Necromancer, Elemental Druid, and Traps Assassin.

There are many options for Caster Characters. Although this page has suggestions about popular items, there is no perfect guide to the best items to wear. Generally, it is best to rate items against each other and select the ones that best help your character. This page mostly lists the Ultimate Items rather than listing all options available. Check out the Item Section for a more complete list of what is available. Class-specific Casting Character equipment is not mentioned on this page.

Basic Magic Ability List

+ All Skill Levels, + All Skill Tabs, + Individual Skills
Skill Levels, Mana Cost, and Skill Damage are very important to spell casters. By increasing Skill Levels, players can reduce Mana usage and reduce the amount of time required to kill monsters as a result of increased spell damage. Many players choose to make increasing Skill Levels their number one priority.

+ Mana
As you add more Mana you can cast spells more times and you can increase your Mana Regeneration. For more information about Mana Regeneration refer to the Mana Regeneration Formula.

Regenerate Mana %
This will increase the rate your Mana is regenerated.

Maximum Mana %
Whenever possible try to collect items that increase % Maximum Mana because they will provide a significant increase in total Mana and increase your Mana Regeneration. Here are some items:

*Unique Gauntlets: Frostburns (40%)
*Unique Ring: Stone of Jordan (25%)
*Unique Rune Staff: Skull Collector (20%)
*Rune Word: Memory Staff (20%)
*Unique Mesh Belt: Gloom's Trap (15%)
*Unique Bone Knife: Wizardspike (15%)
*Unique Grim Shield: Lidless Wall (10%)
*Unique Mesh Boots: Silkweave (10%)
*Unique Burnt Wand: Suicide Branch (10%)
*Sur Rune (5%)

Damage Taken Goes To Mana
This can generate extra Mana as a result of being attacked. It does not reduce the amount of damage to Life but instead just adds to Mana.

Faster Cast Rate
Cast Rate items will reduce the time it takes to cast spells. Cast Rate items stack so the more you put on, the faster you can cast spells. While you may not want to sacrifice to wear an item with Faster Cast Rate, it certainly helps to have it on any items you wear. Faster Cast Rate Items will not improve casting speed of Assassin Traps. Faster Cast Items will not help skills with Casting Delays.

+ Life
Casters are generally very weak against melee attacks which means additional Life is important to their survival. Players can place points in Vitality to increase Life and also use Items to add additional Life.

Resistances
It is best to try to maximize Resistances, especially Lightning, Fire and Cold.

Magic Find
Magic Find generally comes at a price. For more tips on Magic Find Equipment go here.

Charms
Good Charms to have are + Life, + Skills, and + Resistances.

Hit Recovery
Items with Hit Recovery allow you to quickly recover after having been hit. Without Hit Recovery items, when a character is hit, it will be stunned and will simply stand in place until able to move again. If multiple monsters are attacking at once, the character may remain continually stunned until it dies. But, with Hit Recovery items characters can quickly return to battle after being hit. Hit Recovery items stack, so they can be used on several different pieces of equipment (belts, armor, boots or, shields) significantly reducing the length of time a character remains stunned.

Crafted Items
There are several Caster Crafted Items you can create here.

Second Weapon Slot
You can use your second Weapon Slots for Weapons and Shields with high Resistances, in case players encounter a boss with a number of elemental attacks. You can also place Weapons, Staves, Orbs, Wands that give bonuses to skills that you do not have skill points in but still wish to use. Examples of such spells would be Frozen Armor or Enchant. Another option is to use a Wand that has charges of Lower Resist. You can switch to the alternative weapon slot, cast the spell, then return to your main weapon slot when necessary.

Unique Shamshir: Hexfire
(+3 To Fire Skills, Fire Resist +25%, 10% To Maximum Fire Resist)

Unique Bone Knife: Wizardspike
(Increase Maximum Mana 15%, All Resistances +75, 50% Faster Cast Rate, Regenerate Mana 15%, 2-198 To Mana)

Unique Bearded Axe: Spellsteel
(Regenerate Mana 25%, 10% Faster Cast Rate, +100 To Mana, more)

Unique Jo Staff: Razorswitch
(+1 To All Skill Levels, 30% Faster Cast Rate, All Resistances +50, +175 To Mana, +80 To Life)

Unique Rune Staff: Skull Collector
(+2 To All Skill Levels, Increase Maximum Mana 20%, +20 To Mana After Each Kill)

Unique War Sword: Culwen's Point
(+1 To All Skill Levels, more)

Unique Burnt Wand: Suicide Branch
(+1 To All Skill Levels, 50% Faster Cast Rate, Increase Maximum Mana 10%, All Resistances +10, +40 To Life)

Unique Blade: Spectral Shard
(50% Faster Cast Rate, All Resistances +10, +50 To Mana)

Runeword: Silence
(+2 To All Skill Levels, All Resistances +75, +2 To Mana Per Kill, more)

Necromancers should look for a good Wand. Other classes might find Wands useful as well.

Sorceresses should look for a good +1-2 to Sorceress Skills Orbs or possibly a good Unique Staff.

Skill Focused Armor

Unique Balrog Skin: Arkaine's Valor
(Incredible bonuses such as +1-2 Skills, High Defense, Vitality, Faster hit recovery and more. Very Rare)

Set Hellforge Plate: Naj's Light Plate
(+1 To All Skill Levels, 45% Damage Taken Goes To Mana, All Resistances +25, +65 To life)

Unique Serpentskin Armor: Skin of the Vipermagi
(+1 To All Skills, 30% Faster Cast Rate, All Resistances +20-35, more)

Unique Mage Plate: Que-Hegan's Wisdom
(+1 To All Skills, 20% Faster Cast Rate, +3 To Mana After Each Kill, +15 To Energy, more)

Unique Russet Armor: Skullder's Ire
(+1 To All Skill Levels, 1.25-123.75% Magic Find, more)

Unique Ghost Armor: The Spirit Shroud
(+1 To All Skills, Cannot Be Frozen)
Can be Socketed with an Um Rune for an additional All Resistances +15.

Unique Ancient Armor: Silks of the Victor
(+1 To All Skills, 5% Mana Steal)

Other Armor

Tal Rasha's Guardianship
(40% Cold/Lightning/Fire Resist, 88% Magic Find, High Defense, more)

Runeword: Wealth
(100% Magic Find, +2 To Mana After Each Kill, more)

Runeword: Stealth
(Regenerate Mana 15%, 25% Faster Cast Rate, 25% Faster Run Walk, more)

Runeword: Smoke
(All Resistances +50, Level 6 Weaken (good for casters), +10 To Energy, more)

Generally, look for a higher % Blocking instead of Defense and add sockets and runes or jewels to shields for even more benefits.

Recommended Shield

Unique Grim Shield: Lidless Wall
(Increase Maximum Mana 10%, 20% Faster Cast Rate, +1 To All Skill Levels, +3-5 To Mana After Each Kill, more)
Although this shield does not have as much % Blocking as other shields, it does have some of the best magical bonuses available.

Other Shields

Sigon's Guard
(+1 to All Skills, 69% Blocking)
This Shield is useful for its +1 to Skills and its high Blocking.

Wall of the Eyeless
(+5 Mana After Each Kill, 20% Faster Cast Rate)

Socketed Tower Shield/Pavise/Aegis/Monarch with 3-4 Perfect Diamonds or Um Runes
As characters move to Act IV and higher difficulty levels, Resistances become very important. A 3-4 Perfect Diamond Shield will offer about 57-76% Resistances, which can offset the -40 and -100 to Resistances on Nightmare and Hell difficulty. Um Runes can be used instead of Perfect Diamonds; however, they are very rare. Added Resistances are much more helpful than the +1 to skills on the Sigon's Guard.

Unique Round Shield: Moser's Blessed Circle
(All Resistances +25, 2 Sockets). The addition of Perfect Diamonds creates a high Resistance Shield.

Unique Gothic Shield: The Ward
(All Resistances +30-50)
The addition of a Perfect Diamond or Um Rune creates a high Resistance Shield.

Runeword: Rhyme
(Regenerate Mana 15%, All Resistances +25, 25% Magic Find, more)

Necromancers should look for good Shrunken Heads, if possible.

Recommended Gloves
Frostburn Gauntlets (Maximum Mana 40%)
If you have enough Mana, find some other gloves.

Magefist Gauntlets (20% Faster Cast Rate, Regenerate Mana 25%)
These are the only gloves which offer faster Mana regeneration. The Faster Cast Rate also certainly helps. The main benefit of these gloves however is the +1 to all Fire skills. This includes Warmth, which will also increase your Mana regeneration. Fire focused Sorceresses may wish to use these gloves over Frostburns for their skill point bonuses once they have enough Mana.

Recommended Belt

Unique Mesh Belt: Gloom's Trap
(Increase Maximum Mana 15%, Regenerate Mana 15%, +15 To Vitality, more)

Other Belts

Set Mesh Belt: Tal Rasha's Fine-Spun Cloth
(37% Damage Taken Goes To Mana, +30 To Mana, 10-15% Magic Find)

Nightsmoke
(50% Damage Taken Goes to Mana, All Resistances +10, +20 To Mana)
Many high level players use this for its 10% to all resistances, additional Mana, and damage taken goes to Mana. One drawback of the Nightsmoke belt is that is only has 3 rows for Potions instead of 4.

Set Mithril Coil: Credendum
(All Resistances +15, +10 To Dexterity, +10 To Strength)

Set War Belt: Immortal King's Detail
(Lightning Resist +31%, Fire Resist +28%)

Set Troll Belt: Trang-Oul's Girth
(Cannot Be Frozen, Replenish Life +5, +25-50 To Mana, +66 To Life)

Newbies: Unique Sash: Lenymo
(Regenerate 30%, All Resistances +5, +15 To Mana)

Look for Boots that offer Defense and useful magical bonuses such as Faster Run/Walk, Faster Hit Recovery, Resistances or additional Life/Mana (if needed). Boots that give a Faster Run/Walk Speed, and faster Stamina Regeneration can really help characters avoid danger and reach their destination much quicker.

Initially, look for boots that reduce Stamina drain or offer additional Stamina. Boots that Heal Stamina 50% will heal Stamina faster when characters stop. Vidala's Fetlock will give 150 additional Stamina. Treads of Cthon will take 50% less Stamina when characters run and walk which means in essence that it doubles Stamina. If Stamina doubled is greater than Stamina +150, then Treads of Cthon will allow a character to run longer than Vidala's.

As Characters accrue more vitality, they can eventually run as often as needed (within reason) and not run out of Stamina. At that point, Stamina reducing boots are no longer needed and should be replaced with "Faster Run/Walk." This will free up Magical Prefix/Suffixes on your boots.

Recommended

Unique Mesh Boots: Silkweave
(30% Faster Run/Walk, +5 To Mana After Each Kill, Increase Maximum Mana 10%)

Good Picks

Set Mesh Boots: Natalya's Soul
(40% Faster Run/Walk, Cold/Lightning Resist +15%, more)

Set Battle Boots: Aldur's Advance
(40% Faster Run/Walk, +180 Maximum Stamina, 10% Damage Taken Goes To Mana, more)

Set Heavy Boots: Sander's Riprap
(40% Faster Run/Walk, +5 To Strength, +10 To Dexterity)

Set Light Plated Boots: Vidala's Fetlock
(30% Faster Run/Walk, +150 to Maximum Stamina)
While other boots can offer Faster Run/Walk, only Vidala's Fetlock offers the huge increase of 150 to Stamina. This combination means running is almost unlimited. The only drawback of Vidala's Fetlock is the lost opportunity to wear a Rare pair of boots with Resistances, and other useful stats. Once you have enough Stamina, look for better Rare boots.

Unique Chain Boots: Treads of Cthon
(30% Faster Run/Walk, 50% Stamina, +50 Defense vs Missile)
Requires 50% less Stamina to run or walk. Treads of Cthon are especially helpful until you can build up enough Stamina to use just Faster Run/Walk boots without additional Stamina or Stamina reduction. Once a high enough level of Stamina is reached, look for better boots.

Unique Greaves: Tearhaunch
(20% Faster Run/Walk, All Resistances +10)
While Tearhaunch is slower than Treads of Cthon and Vidala's Fetlock and does not offer any help to Stamina, the +10 to Resistances is pretty handy.

Rings

Recommended

Unique Ring: Stone of Jordan
(+1 to All Skill Levels, Increase Maximum Mana 25%, +20 to Mana)

Or Unique Ring: Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band
(+1 to All Skill Levels, +0-49 To Life, more)

Or a Fast Cast Ring with bonuses to Magic Find, Life, Mana or Resistances.

Amulets
Find an Rare or Crafted Amulet that gives +1-2 to Skills and/or +1-3 To Skill Tabs.

Unique Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope (+2 To All Skill Levels, All Resistances +20-30, +5 All Stats)

Set Amulet: Telling of Beads (+1 To All Skill Levels, Cold Resist +18%, more)

Unique Amulet: Highlord's Wrath (+1 To All Skill Levels, Lightning Resist +35%)

Unique Amulet: The Rising Sun (+2 To Fire Skills, Replenish Life +10, 0.75-74.25 Fire Absorb, more)

Newbies: Set Amulet: Civerb's Icon (Replenish Life +4, Regenerate Mana 40%).

Unique Shako: Harlequin Crest
(+2 To All Skill Levels, 50% Magic Find, +1.5-148.5 To Life/Mana, more)

Unique Skull Cap: Tarnhelm
(+1 To All Skill Levels, 25-50% Magic Find)

Rune Word: Lore
(+1 To All Skill Levels, +10 To Energy, +2 To Mana After Each Kill, Lightning Resist +30%)

Set Basinet: Sazabi's Mental Sheath
(+1 To All Skill Levels, Lightning Resist +15-20%, Fire Resist +15-20%)

Unique War Hat: Peasant Crown
(+1 To All Skills, +20 Energy, +20 Vitality, more)

Rare Circlet with + Skill Levels or + Skill Tabs.