Best uses for amethysts and rubies

[Ax2Grind]

Best uses for amethysts and rubies

Here are the possible uses specifically for perfect amethysts:

Nine crafting recipes - one for each item type;
Prismatic Amulet (one of each non-skull perfect);
Weapon socketing (Ral + Amn + weapon);
Original rare armor upgrade (Ral + Thul + armor);
Exceptional rare armor upgrade (Ko + Pul + armor).

I have no rare armors worth upgrading that I know of (usually high to very high RLvl affixes on low grades of armors), no weapons to socket and Prismatics this late in the season make no sense. So, the questions are:

1. Should I try trading them or just craft ASAP?
2. Which crafts are worth doing and in which order?
3. How many should I save for weapons/armors I'll find in the near future?

Same questions for rubies, with the only non-crafting recipes being Prismatic Amulet, Garnet Ring and shield socketing.

 

[Evrae Altana]

The people that buy those gems in bulk are usually crafters, with caster amulets the most popular for PAmethyst crafts. For PRubies, blood belts, gloves, and rings are pretty popular. You can make a decent profit trading the gems in bulk, or you could try your hand at crafting. Who knows, a single lucky craft could net a few dozen runes. :wink3:
As for saving some gems for socketing armors/weapons, I'd say maybe 5 is enough. If you need more for some reason, you can always make more.

 

[helvete]

For amethysts:
1. Amethysts sell at around pul per 20 IIRC - nice crafts sell for dozens of HRs
2. Amulets and belts only. Perhaps boots, but gambling rares are just as good, if not better.
3. Always keep one or two around, you never know. Keeping a lot of them around is a bit waste of mule space. You find more amethysts than weapons worth running the socket recipe, if you have my kind of luck.

For rubies:

1. trade value is about that of amethysts, but for some reason, they seem to be in lower demand.
2. Belts and rings are the most profitable, but I'd also look into gloves, amulets and axes. Blood boots are cool, but again, rares... The ultimate blood belt (80 life 10%open wounds 24%FHR 30str 40%to one resist) would be priceless. As would a ring with 90mana 25str 15dex 60life 11res all.
3. Save some for socketing monarchs. Not many, crafting is great.

The non crafting recipes are all crap, I wouldn't bother with them.

 

[helvete]

Btw, trading pgems for a pul, sorting out the craft gems, and then use the rest for rerolls usually nets 20 amethysts and 20 rubies pretty fast, which can then be sold for pul again, which nets you more rerolls per pul.

 

[Ax2Grind]

I'll get to work

Caster amulets = Ral;
Caster belts = Ith (thought Arachnid's Mesh trumped these);

Blood amulets = Amn (can't remember what used to trump these);
Blood axes = Ort (thought The Scalper trumped these);
Blood belts = Tal (thought String of Ears and Verdungo's Hearty Cord trumped these);
Blood gloves = Nef (thought Dracul's Grasp trumped these);
Blood rings = Sol (thought Bul-Kathos' Wedding band trumped these).

Well, no extra Amns any more, and limited Sols, for sure. Rals aren't limited, but I've a lot fewer than amethysts, and I always cube my Iths since I have an Arachnid's Mesh. Orts I tend to save for hitpower gloves, the third type of crafting (remind me to ask about that later).

I need to get my Edge and Gheed's Fortune on the same character before I make some of these trades. Looks like that Spirit swap tanked on me, so I need a lot of space.

Edit: just got a gamekill and lost a bunch of ****, so you won't be hearing from me for a while.

 

[helvete]

Caster belts are "trumped" by arachnids for PvM, but not necessarily for pvp. 10%FCR 30str 24%FHR 60life 40mana? No way arachnids comes near that.

Blood axes are the best candidates to make a 510%ED weapon, look at the style points of this:

"zomg craft"
Berzerker Axe
510%Enhanced Damage
250 to attack rating
socketed (2), 0 used
+20 to maximum damage
40%increased attack speed
4% life stolen per hit
8% mana stolen per hit
+20 to life

Blood amulets are the only ones to get FRW, and often get dual leech of another world. Great life on them too.

Blood belts are awesome for PvP, few use string or even dungo if they have access to a str/FHR/life belt with open wounds (open wounds are important to kill ES sorcs and opponents with high poison resists) since open wounds cannot be resisted, even with DR.

For blood gloves, yes, draculs best them, BUT draculs don't have IAS and all blood gloves have built-in leech and CB. Ultimate ones:

"omfgz l33t"
Heavy Gloves
10%chance of crushing blow
20%increased attack speed
6%life stolen per hit
+2 to (martial arts/amazon skill tab)
+15 to strength (or dex for that matter)

Blood rings are for the true elite. BK rings only have the skill to make them worth anything. (BK life/clvl is not BOable)

"sh17 d00d" or
Ring Ring
+25 to strength +25 to strength
+60 to life 12%life stolen per hit
+90 to mana 6% mana stolen per hit
10%FCR +20 to life
4% life stolen per hit 11% to all resistances

The possibilities are endless, and the chances to craft such things are small, but once you do, concider yourself a wealthy player.

 

[jabarony]

Hey, am I missing something, or on your best possible rings list, does Attack Rating not mean much? I think 100+ AR on a ring would be a very nice stat.

 

[helvete]

Hey, am I missing something, or on your best possible rings list, does Attack Rating not mean much? I think 100+ AR on a ring would be a very nice stat.

My rings are posted very messy. Yes, AR means much on a ring, it just depends on what you are using it for.

 

[Eilo Rytyj]

helvete, don't forget that the maximum number of random mods on a craft, on top of the auto-mods, is 4.

That fancy berserker axe of yours has a few too many mods on it.

The "ultimate" (IMO) one of those would be:

510% ed
250 AR
2 sockets (unused)
40% IAS
4% life leech
20 Life

socketed with 2 Ohms it would make 610% ed

but a perfect EBotD would be 415% x 1.5 = 622.5% ed, plus all those juicy other mods.

 

[helvete]

That fancy berserker axe of yours has a few too many mods on it.

The "ultimate" (IMO) one of those would be:

510% ed
250 AR
2 sockets (unused)
40% IAS
4% life leech
20 Life

socketed with 2 Ohms it would make 610% ed

but a perfect EBotD would be 415% x 1.5 = 622.5% ed, plus all those juicy other mods.

Yes, that mana leech will have to go.

I'd rather socket with 2x Lo runes, for 40% deadly strike (which means 40%more total damage) or use 40/15 jewels for 590%ED and 70%IAS which in turn beats the crap out botd. At least style-point wise.

 

[IMCanadian]

Couldnt your axe get a fools? Max dmg and ar based on lvl iirc?

IMC :grin:

 

[psych]

No, it will loose the 510%ed for it (well 150% of that at least, for a possible max of 360%)

 

[Ax2Grind]

Not the point

First, if it wasn't for a trade I have to make space for I wouldn't even be responding. Second, you missed the point of the thread; I know all about the possible combinations of crafting. Third, didn't you calculated the items wrong?

You caught the axe affixes, and IAS will allow more damage than maximum assuming not already at highest attack speed, but aren't the formulae (not counting the rounding):

{24 to 71 (47.5)} * 7.1 = {170.4 to 504.1 (337.25)};
({24 to 71 (47.5)} * 1.5) * 5.15 = {185.4 to 545.9~548.475 (365.65~366.9375)};
Not, {24 to 71 (47.5)} * 7.225 = {173.4 to 512.975 (343.1875)}.

Now, what I'm having trouble with is gold and gambling. I checked the vendors several times and found mithril coils about as available as vampirebone gloves - that is to say not at all. So, I gambled and came up with precious few of either while running completely out of gold. The only question is: what is the frequency of crafted sharkskin gloves and mesh belts (do people care), and are the chances any better to get good affixes on them versus the elites?

I'm running out of time.

 

[helvete]

People will not want mithril coils because of str. reqs.

Formulae you are right about, as far as I can see.

 

[Ax2Grind]

Sunk quite a few rubies and Tals earlier

People will not want mithril coils because of str. reqs.

Formulae you are right about, as far as I can see.

There's a PC in the Trade Values subforum, if you'd like to take a look. The top six are the best crafted belts I had, sold the rest because they looked worse. The bottom six are rares, with plenty of others on a few different mules I haven't collected or listed yet. Probably only one or two that are trade worthy, though. Give me an opinion either way so I know what to look for in the future.

 

[Ax2Grind]

What about this kind?

The belts you speak of are more for a Sorceress defense, seeing as it's possible to cause hit recovery and getting out of it quickly and laying open wounds on her is absolutely necessary, but what about a Necromancer? Poison doesn't cause hit recovery, but can drain life very quickly, all the while he teleports around with Enigma. Would something like this be viable?

*%LS, *%OW, +(51-80)Life, +(6-9)RL, +(21-30)PoisonR, 25%PLR

Is there a belt specifically used against this opponent?

 

[helvete]

Replenish Life is a mod that is totally unnecessary. Life replenish is way too slow to make a difference when you have more than a couple hundred life.

PLR is very critical when fighting necros, because the -%to enemy poison resist from trangs shield, dweb and facets will lengthen poison duration.

I'd say you'll need roughly 265% PLR to make up for hell penalty (175% needed for lowest poison duration) and the opponent necros gear (facet perfect dweb + 2 facet circlet + facet trangs shield = 95% more) This is of course not realistic, but you really really need stacked poison resist, and as much PLR as you can get without sacrificing very vital parts of your gear.

No, I do not know of a belt specifically used against poison necros, but you will want Open Wounds on it, no doubt.