Crafted Items in D2

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You are right about some modifiers belonging to different families - of butchery and of carnage are modifiers for jewels if I remember correctly though? but yes, there are max damage, min damage modifiers too, and max dmg per level modifiers.

In my mod, I set a level limit on what modifiers could spawn. So you cant be level 90 and get an item with +1 to Attack Rating - that doesnt make sense and it makes for useless items, and forces people to spend hours looking for uniques etc which in all likelyhood, they will never find. Its probably not much of an understatement to say more people have won the lottery twice than found Tyraels Might.

hmmm - imagine a D2 -> D&D conversion, where finding a sword with +6 to damage and attack rating would make it a godly item?

 

Well, jewels can spawn with just about any affix, so I'm sure it's possible to get runes with those affixes on them. However, of butchery and of carnage can be found on all weapons from the sword, mace, spear, polearm, and axe classes, so they certainly aren't rune-specific affixes.

Of course, seeing as how crafted items can get affixes that cannot normally be found on magic or rare items, it's kind of a moot point. The safety amulet is a perfect example. One of the preset mods is it adds up to 10% to your chance to block. AFAIK, "of blocking" is an affix that can only appear on shields, except for this particular instance. Circlets are also odd in that circlets have a much larger pool of affixes available to them than do other headgear, but I don't think "of blocking" is one of those possible affixes.

Which is what makes crafting so unpredictable. There pool of potential affixes always increases. Just because you're level 90 it doesn't mean that you can't craft an item with a level 1 affix. The +1 to attack rating is the "bronze" affix, and yes, it's level 1, and yes, it's available regardless of what level you are when you craft an item. I just assume that whenever I craft an item, half of the modifiers will be crap, because half of all possible affixes are crap. If you craft an item and get four affixes (common for high level crafts), the typical breakdown is 2 crap affixes, one useful (but by no means great) affix, and one good/great affix. And of course, past performance is not indicative of future results.

I think the reason many people steer clear from crafting is there is always a chance, regardless of level that you get close to the minimums for all the preset mods, and a bunch of useless additional mods. If you're new to crafting and your first couple of attempts produce duds, it can quickly sour you on crafting. I will also readily acknowledge that the majority the items you craft will be less than stellar. As I've said, only about 20% of the items I craft actually result in usable gear for my character.

So really, you have to be smart about deciding whether or not you should attempt to craft an item in the first place. Just because you have all the necessary ingredients for the recipe doesn't mean you should craft it just for the heck of it. Ask yourself, "What kinds of mods would I need to get on this item that would actually make it useable for my character?" If that list is a very specific set of modifiers, you're probably wasting your time. However, if you're using a normal magic item, and you find a magic exceptional version of the same item, then there's a pretty good chance that regardless of what mods you get you're going to be able to use it, and crafting becomes a no-brainer.

I'm not even sure what that is. Is that a unique elite armor maybe?

Well that's whole other tangental subject. To address it as succinctly as possible, in (A)D&D, a point of anything, be it damage, AC, THAC0, whatever, is a very large unit, while a point in D2 is a very small unit.

 

yes Tyraels Might is an elite uber unique item. So rare it bleeds.

No jewels are limited in what they can spawn with. They can spawn with many affixes, but not as wide a range as you might think (having taken a look at the relevant file).

What do you mean rune-specific?

Each modifier that you see (eg of butchery etc) usually has several different versions behind the scenes. some of these can spawn on weapons and armor, some on jewels, still others on charms etc. they key point is, they are different, so youl will never see a jewel with more than 40% enhanced damage, ever. you wont see jewels that add skills or charged skills, or auras, or massive amounts of damage, or ignores targets defense, or freezes target. basically jewels are geared to be weaker. if you dont believe me, open magicprefix.txt and magicsuffix.txt. you will need an mpq editor. take the time to understand, and you can gain valuable insights on how rares and magic items are created.

Yes crafted items can get modifiers not allowed on rares, if they are specified. if not, the modifiers will be the same as those on rare items, which themselves are a subset of what can appear on magic items.

thats the thing I have against crafting - jewels and runes arent so common that I would craft one every other chip to town. so you waste many, on generating items only appropriate for level 25-35 characters, and at those levels most of the runes you need arent that common (heck runes arent common anyway).

crafting is a nice idea, but badly implemented by blizzard - should have been way more recipes added, and some for higher levels requiring higher level runes, because as I said, no one actually finds those uniques, so when you get to hell difficulty, you cant play it solo, and you should be able to.

 

My bad. I didn't mean to type that. I meant jewel-specific, as in a modifier that would show up on a jewel, but not on a weapon.

Yes, I know. I was speaking hyperbole when I said just about everything. While there are some really nice runes out there, you're never going to get a rune with massive increase to damage or attack rating.

Yeah, in re-reading my post I realized I was vague on a lot of the things I said. I was referring to the random generated mods - those are taken from the rares list.

I wouldn't go quite that far. The times I think it's worth crafting are when you are in Act V on normal and nightmare, and Act I on nightmare and hell. On Act V normal and Act I nightmare, your character has mostly normal equipment, but it is these acts where you see your first magical exceptional items begin to drop - good time to craft. Likewise on Act V nightmare and Act I hell is when you see your first magical elites begin to drop when your character has mostly exceptional equipment. Since you're getting your first items that are clearly better than what you're using, a lucky craft can really score you a nice piece of equipment.

I have played hell difficulty many times, and it seems that all elite uniques are hard to come by. I do not know if my experience is much worse than others, but I've had very little luck at all in getting elite uniques. I've only ever had two elite unique drops in all of my playing, although I must admit that they were two pretty good ones. I got the Lightsaber to drop in Act I (in the Masauleum) and the Demon Limb to drop in Act V (Frigid Highlands).

Still, sometimes the best equipment you get is magical. For melee builds, your best bet may very well be getting a cruel (fill in whatever weapon class you need) of alacrity. Huge enhanced damage and really fast - the two most important things for melee builds. Plus, magical weapons can get two sockets if you chose to go that route.

For any shield using characters, a magical shield may be better than a lot of uniques (except Stormshield). You can do a lot worse that a jewelers tower shield of deflecting. Huge chance to block and customizable resists.

I have successfully soloed hell twice, but both were high defense characters. Once was with a conc barb - he was using Lightsaber - and the other was a holy freeze/holy shield/zeal paladin. The only reason either of them were effective was because I also had a defiance merc. Both of those characters had defenses well over 10,000. The paladin had maxed holy shield and the synergy defiance, which when combined give a huge boost to defense. I still took a defiance merc because my active aura was always holy freeze. The only reason I pumped defiance was because it gives a synergy bonus to holy shield, which I always had active. For the conc barb, well, even before he attacked his defense was over 10,000, but he got an additional 300% defense bonus while attacking when using concentrate. Both of these characters were very slow. Concentrate is a one-at-a-time attack, and while zeal will hit five times quickly, because it spreads out the attacks over several enemies, you have to go through several zeal cycles if you are surrounded by several enemies.

I've never soloed hell with a spell-based build, and that's what this attempt is for. That also probably explains to you why attaining max block is so important to me. Sorceresses can never hope to equal the defense or the life of characters like the barbarian, paladin or druid (the werebear build actually has surprisingly high life and defense, especially combined with the proper vine). Also, the sorceress doesn't get dodge and evade skills to help her out like the amazon. So basically, a lot of times, if you get hit in hell with a sorceress, you're dead. That's why having a 75% chance to block the attack (and thus take no damage) is essential. It's also why I rarely have my sorceress run.

 

I've never played Hell with a sorc, but I've always been amazed at the ease with which they slaughter things.

Still, one of the most powerful builds I've ever seen is a spearazon using lightning spear attacks. the last one, that creates chain lightning on hit, has far more hits than the sorceress version with higher damage and lower mana cost. the more monsters around, the more damage it does, and sometimes it gets to truly scary amounts of damage (like you click once and every enemy in a 2 screen radius drops dead).

in that case I agree with you - crafting can be a great way to improve magical exceptional and elite items, but the cap on modifiers you can get is very limiting (like max 60% damage isnt all that much). I like muling - get a character to high levels and go item hunting, and store those for later use.

 

Just did the hellforge and the perfect gem drop turned out to be a perfect sapphire. That is unfortunate, as that points me to the hit power recipes, which are unquestioningly the worst of the four. You see, while the preset mods are never great, some are definitely more useful than others. I much prefer the other three classes of crafts because you know from the start you're getting something at least semi-useful as a result. But hit power sucks. The two preset mods are 5% chance of casting lvl 4 Frost Nova when struck, and attacker takes 3-7 damage - both of which suck.

About the only useful hit power recipe is if you're playing an amazon and want the gloves, as the gloves give knockback, and a amazon is about the only character that really benefits from this ability.

I rather the blood recipes (ED and life leech), caster recipes (faster mana regenerations and fcr) or even safety recipes (damage reduction and resistances). I also find it odd that sapphires are used for hit power - you'd think the sapphires would be used for caster recipes (seeing as how the mana bulb is blue), but caster recipes require amethysts.

EDIT: However seeing as how I have a level 29 character, I'm not going to be crafting anything in the immediate future. Up to level 30, you are only guaranteed one extra mod on your craft. Starting a level 31, you are guaranteed a minimum of two bonus mods.

[ April 13, 2007, 14:56: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

 

Well, I did my first craft last night, and it turned out to be a real dud. With my low-mana sorceress, I opted to make the caster gloves out of demonhide gloves. The guaranteed mods are:

+10 to +20 mana
+4% to +10% mana regeneration rate
+1 to +3 mana per kill

Then, based on my level I'm guaranteed two additional mods, but possibly up to four, although statistically speaking I'm much more likely to only get two bonus mods.

What I got:

+10 mana
6% mana regeneration rate
+1 mana per kill
+1 strength
+18% enhanced damage

In other words, a big steaming pile of poo. I got the absolute minimums for two of the three preset mods, and the two bonus mods were anything but stellar.

Like I've said - only about 20% of crafts give you good, useable items. This one falls into the other 80% category.

 

steaming piles of poo sums most crafted items up quite nicely.

 

Well, my next set of crafts will be coming up shortly. I already have the ingredients for several crafts ready to go, but I'm holding off for a bit because my character is currently level 49. If I wait two more levels I guaranteed at least 3 bonus affixes instead of 2. In fact, crafting is going to be the order of the day from here on out. I already made a prismatic amulet (with +18 resist all - not too shabby, but no suffix), so really, I have no pressing need for any other rubies, sapphires, amethysts, or emeralds other than to craft stuff.

 

Hey, the third time is a charm for the crafts! I made a caster belt last night. In addition to getting average to above average results on the preset mods (unlike the minimum presets I got on previous attempts), the bonus three mods included some resists, and +30 to life - not bad at all!