Summary of "Don't Make This Mistake! Levitation Mastery and Why You Shouldnt Use It | Diablo 2 Resurrected D2R"

TL;DR

Put 1 point in Levitation Mastery and spend the rest elsewhere for the current Echoing Strike warlock builds. Its off‑weapon enhanced damage, crit chance, and attack rating are largely redundant because gear already provides most of that value. Reevaluate if Echoing Strike is patched or your gear doesn’t give many skill bonuses.

What Levitation Mastery does

Grants:
- +% enhanced damage (applies to the off‑weapon enhanced damage bucket)
- Attack rating (AR)
- Critical strike chance (a separate crit roll from deadly strike)
- Reduced weapon stat requirements
The reduced weapon requirements explain why some items look equipable in tooltips but mercs or other characters may still be unable to equip them.

Why maxing Levitation is usually not worth it (numerical example)

Echoing Strike builds stack very large off‑weapon enhanced damage from gear and stats.
- Example: total off‑weapon enhanced damage ≈ 1,593; Levitation rank 21 adds 105 → ~6% damage increase.
Crit contribution is tiny in practice:
- Example deadly strike/crit sources: weapon 20% deadly strike + amulet 37% + boots 15% ≈ 72% deadly strike; other crit sources bring total crit chance to ≈ 80%.
- Maxing Levitation only increases actual chance to crit by ≈ 1% in that context.
Attack rating is currently irrelevant for Echoing Strike because of a bug: Echoing Strike doesn’t require hitting to apply its damage (it still shows hit/miss). If this bug is fixed, AR could become more important for hit‑dependent builds.

Off‑weapon vs on‑weapon enhanced damage

On‑weapon enhanced damage: the weapon’s own “+% enhanced damage” stat — raises the weapon’s base damage directly.
Off‑weapon enhanced damage: everything else that modifies damage later in the calculation (strength/dex bonuses, shield/book stats, other equipment +% enhanced damage). Levitation’s +% damage is applied to this off‑weapon bucket.

Why other skill points are often higher value

Hex Purge
- Magic damage that largely bypasses resistances.
- Triggers multiple explosions on hit (can proc multiple times on fly‑out and fly‑back).
- Excellent scaling for clear speed and single‑target when mobs are clustered.
Lethargy
- Lowers monster physical resistance/defense — very valuable vs physically resistant or immune enemies.
Blood Oath
- Transfers damage to demons, improving survivability and enabling different stat investments.
Stat points (Strength/Vitality)
- Strength increases off‑weapon enhanced damage and meets weapon requirements.
- Vitality improves survivability.
Summon skill scaling (Consume/goatman, etc.)
- Improves summon effectiveness (damage, life, run speed), which can outpace spending many points in Levitation.

Situations where Levitation can be useful

Early game or when your gear gives few or no bonus skill ranks — its bonuses matter more.
Non‑Echoing Strike builds that require hit checks (e.g., Cleave, Mirrored Blades): AR and hit chance are meaningful because those skills need to hit.
If you’re not using weapons that ignore target defense, AR and hit chance become more valuable.

Other important clarifications

Demons and spells (Hellfire/Abyss, etc.) do not inherit your character’s random stats from Levitation Mastery.
Current advice is meta‑dependent: patches or balance changes (including an Echoing Strike bug fix) may change Levitation’s relative value.

Practical recommendation

Put 1 point into Levitation Mastery for the reduced weapon requirements and the small base benefit.
Spend remaining points on Hex Purge, Lethargy, Blood Oath, stat investment, or summon scaling depending on your playstyle and whether you need AR for your chosen build.
Reevaluate if Echoing Strike is patched or if you lack bonus skill ranks from gear.