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Nowhere in the World of Sanctuary is the hunger for loot more feverish than at the trading screen. On Blizzard's Battle.net realms, where as many as eight adventurers share a single game, a second economy has grown up alongside the slaying of the Prime Evils. Gold, it turns out, is nearly worthless. The true coin of the realm is the drop itself.
For seasons now the standard unit of trade has been the Stone of Jordan, a unique ring so prized that traders simply call it "SoJ" and quote their prices in it. Want a well-rolled rare circlet or a high-end set piece? Expect to hear the figure named in Stones. Below the SoJ, the humble Perfect Gem and the Perfect Skull serve as small change, the way copper serves for bread.
With Lord of Destruction the ground shifted again. The expansion's runewords, recipes that come alive only when the correct runes are socketed in the proper order into the proper item, turned the rune itself into treasure. The high runes sit at the summit:
- Vex, Ohm, Lo: the price of entry for serious gear
- Sur, Ber, Jah: sought for the most coveted runewords, Enigma chief among them
- Cham and Zod: rarest of all, crowning the rune list; a Zod alone makes an item unbreakable
A single Ber or Jah can command a stack of Stones on its own. The Countess in the Forgotten Tower and the Hell Forge in Act IV give up lesser runes readily enough, but the highest answer to no reliable master; a Zod may fall but once in a hundred hours of hunting.
A few words of counsel for the trading floor:
- Learn the going rate before you offer. The Ladder resets each season, and prices reset with it.
- Inspect every rare and unique. A poor roll trades for pennies; a perfect one is a fortune.
- Hardcore traders pay a premium. One death and the wealth is gone forever.
- Beware the too-good bargain. Duped goods and broken promises haunt every open game.
From plain white items to the greens of sets and the gleaming golds of uniques, Sanctuary rewards the patient hoarder as richly as the bold. Deckard Cain will gladly identify your finds. What they are worth, only the market will decide.
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