Should I socket, or imbue, or up, or...??

Should I socket, or imbue, or up, or...??

Found two things today which I believe can be useful if I only knew what to do with them:

Matriarchal Bow
Two-Hand Damage: 20 to 47
(Amazon Only)
Required Dexterity: 187
Required Strength: 87
Required Level: 39
Bow Class - Fast Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 80
Fingerprint: 0x49d1829
+3 to Bow and Crossbow Skills (Amazon Only)

Dimensional Blade
One-Hand Damage: 19 to 52
Durability: 11 of 11
Required Dexterity: 50
Required Strength: 75
Required Level: 25
Sword Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 69
Fingerprint: 0xa1c09889
Ethereal (Cannot be Repaired)

From reading these forum notes I suspect there is something correct I SHOULD do with them, but I could be mistaken. I have lots of Charsi imbues saved up, plenty of socket quests from Larzuk, and some runes to "up" them if that's the call. Let me know what you think.
Thanks.

 

Well you can't "up" them as they are normal items. Only uniques can be "upped" with the cube recipies. That leaves imbues and socketing quest rewards. Personally I wouldn't use the socket reward on these items, normally I save that for high level uniques/set items.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe if you imbue the bow you have the chance to lose the +3 bow skill stat as it is replaced by whatever Charsi wants to add.

Not really sure what I'd do with them either, the bow is nice if you wanted to make a runeword out of it, but that would require either using the cube recipe to create sockets or the socket quest reward depending on the number of sockets you need.

 

Uniques and rares can be upgraded. That's why the ethereal Dimensional Blade is one of the most popular items for imbuing. Just make sure that it has a high enough item level to be able to get nice mods, like 400+ enhanced damage. When upgraded, it will still have it's ethereal status, with the in-built 50% ed to the base damage, but it will also be a Phase Blade, and indestructible as such. There's no use socketing the Dimensional Blade on the other hand, or at least any that I could think of.

Yes. That's something that one should consider when rolling class-specific items.

The socket reward always makes the maximum amount of sockets in the white item you choose to socket, as long as it has a high enough item level, so unless you're REALLY desperate to get a 5 open socketed +3 Matriarchal Bow, I would suggest you just stick with the cube recipe, where you get a random number of sockets. Maybe you'll get three for Melody?

 

For some reason I thought the rare recipe for upgrading included an SOJ, which is why it wasn't worth mentioning. Oops, my mistake...

 

Hmm..... I must be missing something. I can find a recepie for adding sockets to a RARE item, and the 3 chippies +magic weapon, and the 3 flawless gems + magic weapon..... but I don't see one for a white item like this matriarchal bow. Can you point me straight?

So, I imbued the dimensional blade (ilvl 69) and.... it turned into a BLAH weapon, STILL a Dimensional Blade and not a Phase blade. Don't see how I could have messed that one up, but now I'll have to wait until I find another one to try again.

And, sorry about the "up" question; consider it a nOOb thingy

 

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/cube.shtml

Max Sockets for a Mat bow is 5.

You have 2/6 chance of 5 sockets and 1/6 chance of 4, 3, 2 or 1 socket.

IF you get 4 (I didn't) make a Harmony bow to put on swap for your 'zon who is stuck in hell.

Harmony
4 Socket Missile Weapons
Tir + Ith + Sol + Ko
Level 10 Vigor Aura When Equipped
+200-275% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+9 To Minimum Damage
+9 To Maximum Damage
Adds 55-160 Lightning Damage
Adds 55-160 Fire Damage
Adds 55-160 Cold Damage
+2-6 To Valkyrie (varies)
+10 To Dexterity
Regenerate Mana 20%
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+2 To Light Radius
Level 20 Revive (25 Charges)

That'll add a lot of ele damage to your attack. It'll also be useful on swap as the vigor will make returns to town a lot faster, and you'll also get a nice bonus to your Valk when you summon her.

The ultimate 'zon bow is Faith, but the runes are higher level.

Faith
4 Socket Missile Weapons
Ohm + Jah + Lem + Eld
Level 12-15 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped (varies)
+1-2 To All Skills (varies)
+330% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target's Defense
300% Bonus To Attack Rating
+75% Damage To Undead
+50 To Attack Rating Against Undead
+120 Fire Damage
All Resistances +15
10% Reanimate As: Returned
75% Extra Gold From Monsters

DM

 

As for the Matriarchal Bow I'd use the socketing recipe on it and hope for 3 sockets.

The recipe is: Ral + Amn + Perfect Amethyst.

It will give a random number of sockets with a 1/6 chance of getting 3.

Good luck :thumbsup:

Edit. Owned... AND I forgot to mention that it would of course be for melody runeword - Shael - Ko - Nef

Awesome for a frostmaiden

One more edit.

I saw you asked in your trade thread about/for poison charms to handle PI's.
I personally prefer to use lightning damage sc's and/or atma's acarab amulet (chance to cast amp)
The reason for me not using poison damage is that quite a lot of undead have high poison and physical resistances.

 

Got 3, so I made the Melody. It hurt to use a Ko, because I don't have a lot of high runes, but it came out nicely, with +6 to bow skills.
And, thanks for the tip on small charms- I'm using Atmas, but I can add some light dam sc's.

 

I think the idea is to first imbue the dimensional blade, then if the result is good, up the rare to phase blade - but if the imbue was BLAH then it's probably not worth the runes.

 

D'oh!!
What a nOOb. On rereading his post, I now see the "when upgraded" phrase. Well, live and learn, and thanks for getting my mind right.

 

i would socket the bow and hope for 3 sockets then make a melody !