Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

[Thaurus]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

I have started playing Max, a Feral Rage / Fire Claws werewolf druid. When I first started playing I didn't work out exactly how the skill points would be distributed, but I was thinking in terms of Feral Rage, Fire Claws, and a maxed Summon Grizzly.

It seemed on further thought that wasn't a very good plan, assuming I actually wanted to be able to hurt any monsters in later difficulties. So, revised plan: Feral Rage, assisted by lots of points in Heart of Wolverine, with Fire Claws, synergized by 20 or so points in the elemental fire skills. This leaves no room for Summon Grizzly.

After rescuing Cain Max received his first quest reward, a bit of a disappointment.

Nonetheless, Max has to be considered a very lucky wolf. The battle against Andariel resulted in this drop.

The Axe of Fechmar! Max lost no time putting the Axe's monster-freezing capabilities to good use against Radament, and hopes to continue doing so in the Act 2 tombs.

Spoiler

Active:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ancalagon        BurnWithMe    Assassin   1 NM        48       58           3
Vague            Armsman       Barb       5 norm      33       54           1 
Purplelocust     Altjira       Paladin    2 NM        52       54          25
kestegs          Intangerine   Barb       4 Norm      26       37           0
Thaurus		 Max	       Druid	  2 Norm      22        3           0
Kretschmer       Furby         Druid      2 Norm      20        2           0
nemty            Craftsman     Necro      2 Norm      22        1           0
HappeningKT      Kaioken       Paladin    1 Norm       1        0           0
sequana          Running_Sushi Amazon     1 Norm       6       -2           0
Raver            Frenzy        Barb       1 Norm      16       -3           0
Tavaritz         The_HandyMan  Barb       1 Norm      15       -5           0

Deeds:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haerviu          Klondike      Druid      2 norm       27      11           0
ancalagon        Dernhelm      Assassin   3 Norm       22      ??           0

 

[purplelocust]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Well, after some waffling, I finally gave up the last of my non-crafted gear and set off into A2 NM with complete crafted gear, except for one earlier reward ring. I finally found a Sol for a blood ring craft which turned out well but the level requirement is too high and will have to wait. I'd been worried about getting gear that wasn't equippable from the level requirement but that is the first time it's happened so far. I crafted more Hit Power war scepters and out of the many that I have, the one that has ITD also has knockback, which is annoying for a zealot. The sewers were the first place with a fair number of fire immunes but that wasn't bad (at /players 1) and he's now standing at the Far Hills WP getting ready to head to visit the Maggot Queen.

29 quests * 2 + 52 WP - 58 levels for a total of 52 points.

Spoiler

Active:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ancalagon        BurnWithMe    Assassin   1 NM        48       58           3
Vague            Armsman       Barb       5 norm      33       54           1 
Purplelocust     Altjira       Paladin    2 NM        58       52          >40
kestegs          Intangerine   Barb       4 Norm      26       37           0
Thaurus		 Max	       Druid	  2 Norm      22        3           0
Kretschmer       Furby         Druid      2 Norm      20        2           0
nemty            Craftsman     Necro      2 Norm      22        1           0
HappeningKT      Kaioken       Paladin    1 Norm       1        0           0
sequana          Running_Sushi Amazon     1 Norm       6       -2           0
Raver            Frenzy        Barb       1 Norm      16       -3           0
Tavaritz         The_HandyMan  Barb       1 Norm      15       -5           0

Deeds:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haerviu          Klondike      Druid      2 norm       27      11           0
ancalagon        Dernhelm      Assassin   3 Norm       22      ??           0

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Pala enjoys her time in the sun, because she knows there will be much rougher times ahead. Her gear for A1 NM is great, she has over 600 life, good resists, the Impale damage is OK and her Decoys are nearly unkillable.

She used Crushflange for most of the Baal fight. There was never any danger in the fight, but Baal was highly annoying with lots of teleporting, Hoarfrosting and Double-Troubling.

She´s currently wearing Peasant Crown, some rare +20% IAS gloves and an amazing 29/56 Garnet Plated Belt of the Colossus.

Life is good.


Destroyer Pala the Impalazon, level 49, NM Cold Plains next.

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Pala has completed Act I NM. :jig:

The monsters she had the most problem with were the rogue archers. They run away if something (me or the Decoy) stands next to them. I had to lure them, Slow Missiles them and "herd" them with Decoys to take them down safely. That did not always work.
(Wow, I happened to take the screenie just as the Decoy crumbled! This situation may look very dangerous, but Slow Missiles saved me. I had enough time to move away...)

What I want to do in these fights is to herd/lure an archer into a wall, place a Decoy that is more or less straight ahead of the archer (viewed from the wall; This way, the archer AI will not "understand" how to flee) and also placed so that every other archer is firing at it, and in a way so I can reach the archer with my spear. Like this.

Corners are even better, but not often available in the caves.


Andariel took while to take down. Decoys survived 1-3 hits, and I could usually get at least 2 hits in for each Decoy summoned.


Here was my crafting situation after my single pass clear of the first six acts. As you can see, gems are more sparse than runes. 16 possible crafting attempts in total.


Here are Pala´s stats pre-crafting, with just the Cain reward equipped.

Deciding what to craft, and in which order, was a very interesting process which I enjoyed a lot. Each outcome could affect the rest of the crafting.

Weapons were the most complicated. Mostly because this stage in the game is really far too early for weapons crafting. In most of the other item slots, it is perfectly possible to get something endgame worthy, but very much not so for weapons. I was mostly just interested in getting a spear and a javelin that are 'good enough' to progress to the more important level 61, when I can get Ferocious on bought + crafted Yaris.

I started out fine with two Blood crafts. Belt that got the Colossus affix, and gloves that got 10% IAS. Of course I wanted 20%, but this was better than expected for the first try.

Pondered the armor. Blood Armor is darn heavy, and the mods aren´t that great. Hitpower armor looks much nicer, with its medium weight and the useful FHR and Frost Shield abilities. The run speed penalty can be offset with a Blood amulet, so I crafed one of those. Nothing cool from the random affixes. Sigh...

But the armor craft was great. Fat dual resists!

Made a Simbilian* and a Hitpower Shield for the switch. Pretty much minimum result on the shield and the javelin only had replenishing and slight poison damage going for it. Freakin' base Simbilian damage...
(* would have preferred a Harpoon, but they are not for sale yet, and I didn´t feel like gambling for one already. I mostly use the javs for finishing off CE and FE bosses from afar.)

BTW, can you guess my most coveted affix on a shield (aside from extra blocking and resists)?


What kind of spear to try? I can get Ferocious damage on the normal types, but only up to Merciless (100% ED) on the exceptional ones.

I decided to try a Yari. Got one with +65% ED and +9 max. Not bad, Impale does around 400-950 - a little better than my Malice Maiden Pike (minus the OW). That should be enough to get by, at least if I can get a poison charm anytime soon.

The helm types that look the most interesting are Blood and Caster. Safety is not bad either, but I think I am getting short on emeralds. Caster helm is mostly useful if I don´t have mana steal from anywhere else. I was short on rubies so I crafted a caster helm. Got 1% mana steal...

Then I made some different boots. The Safety version was best, with 20% FRW along with the guaranteed fire resist.

My last ring craft made a ring with +6 STR. That makes Pala strong enough (just!) for a Lance. Looking at the IAS tables, I saw that a Lance with 10% IAS gives me a 44 frames attack. That´s godawfully slow, but the damage potential is much better than for a Yari. I decided that it was worth it to try a Lance craft. Who knows, I might get some IAS (or socket(s)) on it.

No such thing, but some decent ED. This baby should be able to take me a bit past this act and to the coveted level 61.

(That 1% mana steal on the helm is really quite useful since I do like 1000 damage per hit.)


Pala has played a couple of areas in Act II. The Lance really is a sluggish weapon, but I improved the kill speed considerably after I found a poison charm with 4s duration.


Pala´s current resists in NM are 51/11/45/22 and she has 632 life.


Readouts for gear listed below:
(minus ilvl, game version and fingerprint, as I don´t think they are of any interest to you)

Spoiler

Corpse Shell
Mask
Defense: 17
Durability: 20 of 20
Required Strength: 23
Required Level: 47
+10 to Life
+15 to Mana
Regenerate Mana 8%
1% Mana stolen per hit
14% Chance to cast Level 5 Nova when struck
Repairs 1 durability in 33 seconds

Wraith Scarab
Amulet
Required Level: 46
+16 to Life
+1 to Maximum Damage
Damage Reduced by 1
4% Life stolen per hit
+1 to Sorceress Skill Levels
8% Faster Run/Walk

Pain Wrack
Lance
Two-Hand Damage: 40 to 171
Durability: 15 of 25
Required Dexterity: **
Required Strength: 110
Required Level: 32
Spear Class - Slow Attack Speed
+1 to Strength
+7% Enhanced Defense
+50% Enhanced Damage
+59 to Attack Rating
Damage Reduced by 3
Magic Damage Reduced by 2
+1 cold damage over 2 seconds

Havoc Suit
Field Plate
(Endgame worthy!) :thumbsup:
Defense: 105
Durability: 17 of 48
Required Strength: 55
Required Level: 32
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +22%
Cold Resist +25%
Attacker Takes Damage of 7
14% Faster Hit Recovery
5% Chance to cast Level 4 Frost Nova when struck

Shadow Clutches
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 6
Durability: 4 of 14
Required Level: 49
+15 to Life
2% Life stolen per hit
Replenish Life +4
10% Increased Attack Speed
Half Freeze Duration
8% Chance of Crushing Blow

Death Eye
Ring
(Cain reward)
Required Level: 16
+9 to Energy
+10 to Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +8%
Cold Resist +11%

Grim Chain
Mesh Belt
Defense: 65
Durability: 8 of 16
Required Strength: 58
Required Level: 41
+73 to Life (<- biggest +life I´ve ever had on a crafted belt)
+5 to Mana
+59% Enhanced Defense
2% Life stolen per hit
10% Chance of Open Wounds

Plague Finger
Ring
Required Level: 49
+6 to Strength
+2 to Vitality
+42 to Attack Rating
Damage Reduced by 2
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Poison Resist +26%

Plague Tread
Greaves
Defense: 28
Durability: 17 of 24
Required Strength: 70
Required Level: 35
+66% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 4
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
Fire Resist +8%
Poison Resist +26%
20% Faster Run/Walk


Weapon switch

Doom Dart
Simbilan
Throw Damage: 27 to 50
One-Hand Damage: 8 to 32
Quantity: 40
Required Dexterity: 80
Required Strength: 80
Required Level: 37
Javelin Class - Slow Attack Speed
+10% Enhanced Defense
Damage Reduced by 3
Magic Damage Reduced by 1
+7 poison damage over 3 seconds
Level 3 Sacrifice (9/27 Charges)
Replenishes Quantity

Armageddon Rock
Gothic Shield
Defense: 60
Chance to Block: 46%
Durability: 34 of 40
Required Strength: 60
Required Level: 43
+5% Increased Chance of Blocking
Magic Damage Reduced by 3
Poison Resist +7%
Attacker Takes Damage of 6
5% Chance to cast Level 4 Frost Nova when struck
+27 to Defense (Based on Character Level)

Destroyer Pala the Impalazon, level 54, NM Far Oasis next.

 

[Insane Wayne]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Deciding what to craft, and in which order, was a very interesting process which I enjoyed a lot. Each outcome could affect the rest of the crafting.

Very complex and dynamic planning, right up your alley! :thumbup:

BTW, can you guess my most coveted affix on a shield (aside from extra blocking and resists)?

How about Mechanic's? Terror?

 

[purplelocust]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Excellent update, jiansonz! I'm happy to have multiple passes and a lot more crafting ingredients, so I don't need to plan as carefully!

I've bumped down to /players 1 often with no clear plan for the future. I would like to level more before getting my normal rewards but I gained less in A2 NM that I would have with a single /players 8 Baal run in normal, I think. Hopefully A3 will go OK. There were some scary moments in A2- not where I expected (I took great care with the fire immune skeletons near Radament) but with getting mobbed by skeletons to way to the orifice. It felt like I was poisoned the whole act (with -30 native resists, 20 with the antidote buzz that he kept going pretty much continuously.) No additional crafting but I accumulated some more ingredients. Now that I've met Ormus, I can shop for divine scepters now as possible crafts.


34 quests * 2 + 57 WP - 58 levels for a total of 67 points.

Spoiler

Active:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purplelocust     Altjira       Paladin    3 NM        58       67          >40
ancalagon        BurnWithMe    Assassin   1 NM        48       58           3
Vague            Armsman       Barb       5 norm      33       54           1 
kestegs          Intangerine   Barb       4 Norm      26       37           0
Thaurus		 Max	       Druid	  2 Norm      22        3           0
Kretschmer       Furby         Druid      2 Norm      20        2           0
nemty            Craftsman     Necro      2 Norm      22        1           0
HappeningKT      Kaioken       Paladin    1 Norm       1        0           0
sequana          Running_Sushi Amazon     1 Norm       6       -2           0
Raver            Frenzy        Barb       1 Norm      16       -3           0
Tavaritz         The_HandyMan  Barb       1 Norm      15       -5           0

Deeds:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haerviu          Klondike      Druid      2 norm       27      11           0
ancalagon        Dernhelm      Assassin   3 Norm       22      ??           0

 

[Thaurus]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Max pressed on in Act 2. The Axe of Fechmar continued to be very useful wherever undead were being resurrected. But as time went on it was taking longer and longer to kill monsters.

As a result, Max actually had a hard time killing these guys. Before he could finish clobbering one of them the others would all converge on him. Eventually the various minions were distracted enough by a spirit wolf cast repeatedly.

Clearly it was time for a new weapon, courtesy of Fara.

Ran into the first physical immune of the game in the last of the false tombs. Fortunately it was easy to kill this monster with a level 3 Fire Claws.

I did just about everything wrong against Duriel that it was possible to do - starting with fighting with the wrong weapon (easy to do when your character is in wereform). As if that wasn't enough of a handicap, I forgot to drink thawing potions and also forgot to recast the HoW spirit after Duriel killed it. However, despite all the mistakes Max eventually prevailed.

Duriel's drop was even moderately useful - a rare belt Max is currently wearing, and a rare ring that might come in handy at some point.

On to Act 3!

Max, Fire Claws / Feral Rage Druid, level 28, 15 points, Kurast Docks

 

[Aznagroth]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

I've decided to enter this tournament to have some fun. Going to play an avenger called Glamdring even though I'll probably use 2h maces.

Spoiler

Active:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purplelocust     Altjira       Paladin    3 NM        58       67          >40
ancalagon        BurnWithMe    Assassin   1 NM        48       58           3
Vague            Armsman       Barb       5 norm      33       54           1 
kestegs          Intangerine   Barb       4 Norm      26       37           0
Thaurus		 Max	       Druid	  2 Norm      22        3           0
Kretschmer       Furby         Druid      2 Norm      20        2           0
nemty            Craftsman     Necro      2 Norm      22        1           0
HappeningKT      Kaioken       Paladin    1 Norm       1        0           0
sequana          Running_Sushi Amazon     1 Norm       6       -2           0
Raver            Frenzy        Barb       1 Norm      16       -3           0
Tavaritz         The_HandyMan  Barb       1 Norm      15       -5           0
Aznagroth        Glamdring                1 Norm       1        0           0

Deeds:

Forum Name       Character     Class      Act       Level   Points      Crafting
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Haerviu          Klondike      Druid      2 norm       27      11           0
ancalagon        Dernhelm      Assassin   3 Norm       22      ??           0

 

[WoRG]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

LOL...Glamdring seems very appropriate for a 2H mace wielder, as the Orcs named it 'Beater'...

You should make a sword weilder named Orcrist, then you'd have both biter and beater

WoRG

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

@Insane Wayne: Yes, I was thinking of Terror charges.


Pala moves on in Act II. She met this boss that had an appropriate name (which soon were to become even more accurate. :badteeth.

The breeding chamber was tedious for this build. It´s not that I can´t overcome the maggots. Insane Wayne has tested them and found out that there is indeed a limit to the number of maggots that Coldworm will spawn. Each maggot will lay two eggs. Certainly an army of young, but there is an end to it. My problem is that my attack is single target, and slow. Plus the repairing is annoying. Even when you get Impale to level 20, there is still 25% risk of durability loss for each stab. To keep the repairs to a minumum, I switched to javelin/shield and used Jab on the young maggots. You can Jab all day long and through the night as well with a javelin pack and some mana steal. With only base Simbilian damage, even the young required seveal Jabs each. Impale would typically kill them in one hit, sometimes two.

"Aren´t they thinning out a little, eh?"

"Oh yeah, that´s how it´s done"

Even so, I still needed two repair trips during my Impaling of the adult maggots. Total time for this room was something like 20-25 mintues. I´m not looking forward to this place in Hell. Yuck...

Bottlenecks rock! Very useful, since the Decoy can´t handle the onslaught of this many strong hitters. Also, when they are too many/large to fit in a ring around the Decoy, Pala is rarely left alone for her stabbing.

I was wary of Fangskn´s lair. When I arrived, it was quiet. I went around the corner to the chracter's right and waited. Still quiet. Took two steps forward, and Ms. Green-and-Speedy came storming. Cold Enchanted. I got a Decoy up and started to stab Fangy, but I was prepared for her minions to show up any second. Which they soon did. I left them to play with the Decoy, darted off to the other side of the center platform and took a TP out.

When I got back, I was met by four regular snakes. Slightly problematic and hurtful, but to my relief, none of the bosspack came over here. I continued along the lower edge of the place. Found an Embalmed pack and killed them.

With slow approaches towards Fangy´s pack, I managed to split them up, and never needed to deal with more than 3 at a time.


One small item improvement: crafted another Hitpower shield. This one had +10% blocking instead of +5%.


Destroyer Pala the Impalazon, level 56, NM Palace next.

 

[Krazy_Solo]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

I have a few questions about this tourney.

1- Is version 1.13 ok without c? Cannot update due to no connection with pc.

2- Is Smite banned? Didn't feel like ready entire topic.

3- Quest rewards cannot be cubed at all or just after act 1 nm?

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

I have a few questions about this tourney.

1- Is version 1.13 ok without c? Cannot update due to no connection with pc.

2- Is Smite banned? Didn't feel like ready entire topic.

3- Quest rewards cannot be cubed at all or just after act 1 nm?

1. IIRC, rune drops are lower in 1.13 than in 1.13c, so I can´t see why it should not be OK.

2. Since Assassin kick skills are OK, I think Smite is fine.

3. The quest rewards that come in the form of a rare item can´t be upgraded or rerolled. This is both before and after the crafted-only line.

 

[Aznagroth]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

I had a suspicion runes dropped more often nowadays. At least I feel like I don't get that many el's from Countess any more.

There is something I have been wondering about for a while now. How does affixlvl, itemlevel and qualitylevel relate? I have come across problems calculating optimal level used for crafting. I have found a calculator on a german site, but it is tedious to backtrack and guess to find an apropriate level.

For instance a matriarchal spear has a qlvl of 61, an ilvl= area where it was found. Required level to equip is 45. The lancer's mod (+3spears) is alvl 60 and required level to equip 45. I have tried asking about this on lurkerlounge but no reply there. The only thing I could find was an undocumented comment about lancer's mod only being able to appear on ilvl 80+ items. From my logic it should be available from ilvl 61.... I have tested this and confirmed a required ilvl of 80+ though.. not sure if it is 80 exact or 81 or whatever, but surely not 61.

Wich brings me to the real reason why this question arises. I do quite a lot of crafting, mainly gloves but also rings. Blood. I did some calculations on what characterlvl I needed to craft items assuming a minimum lvl of gambled items to be clvl-5. After comparing those to this site I realized I was wrong in my assumtions but I couldn't figure out why or how. I just resorted to using my highest available character for crafting.

A good answer to this would probably also explain why lvl3 lower resist only can spawn on wands with ilvl 99.

I take it jiansonz will be able to answer my question if he feels like it, but I don't mind if anyone else answers too. It would be much appreciated!

 

[jiansonz]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

There is something I have been wondering about for a while now. How does affixlvl, itemlevel and qualitylevel relate? I have come across problems calculating optimal level used for crafting. I have found a calculator on a german site, but it is tedious to backtrack and guess to find an apropriate level.

I am going to quote an old post from Thrugg that really made me understand how it works. It´s a bit long, but very well written:


Originally posted by Thrugg
All items of one base type (eg Short Swords) have the same qlvl (Short Swords are qlvl 1 in fact). In a sense, qlvl measures "what the item is". The equipment TCs actually group together these qlvls in sets of 3 (eg TC3 is all qlvl 1, 2 and 3 equipment items). Even non-equipment items have qlvls though - anything that can spawn random mods (eg charms, jewels, rings) has to have one.

Each individual item has its own ilvl, which depends on its source and is obviously different from item to item. In a sense, ilvl measures "where an item comes from". Typically ilvl = mlvl of the monster/container that drops it, but cube recipes can also change it, and there are rules for shopped/gambled items too. (Shopped item: ilvl=clvl+5, but capped at ilvl 12, 20, 28, 36, 45 in the different acts in Normal; Gambled item: clvl-5?ilvl?clvl+4)

When the game tries to spawn random mods (this is on the creation of any new magic, rare or crafted item), it uses both the item's ilvl and the qlvl. It combines the two into another number called alvl, which indicates how high the mods are it can get.

The first step is to find the highest of ilvl and qlvl, as I mentioned above. Call that X.

Next, the game decides if the item is "high level" or "low level". This is basically a test to see whether X is more than 99 - (qlvl/2). Round down after the division, as always in D2. A qlvl 1 item is always "low level", and an item which is qlvl 66 or more is always "high level". In between, it depends on the ilvl.

If an item is "low level", then its alvl = X - (qlvl/2).

If an item is "high level", then its alvl = (2 * X) - 99.

This looks like a bunch of maths but isn't too hard to get your head around if you play with it a bit. A qlvl 1 item like a Short Sword, or more usefully, a GC or amulet, is always "low level" because ilvl is always at least 1 and less than 99. So for them, alvl = ilvl, and it is reasonably simple to work out which mods they can get.

For a qlvl 28 item like a SC, the first step means that any SC that is less than ilvl 28 can get the same mods as if it is ilvl 28, because in that case the qlvl takes over. SCs are considered low level up to 99 - (28/2) = 85, so for most of the time they are alvl = ilvl - 14. That means that for SCs,
if ilvl <= 28, alvl = 14
if 28 <= ilvl <= 85, alvl = ilvl - 14
if 85 <= ilvl, alvl = (2*ilvl) - 99.

So how do you decide if you can get a mod like Cruel? Well, Cruel on rares is alvl 56. For a high level item to get to alvl 56, it just needs to solve (2*X) - 99 > 56, which means X is at least 78, ie if either ilvl or qlvl are 78 or more, you're good.
But you could also get Cruel as a low level item. For that you need ilvl - (qlvl/2) > 56. In this case, unintuitively, it is better to have a low qlvl. A Short Sword can get Cruel at ilvl 56. However, a Long Sword (qlvl 20) needs to be ilvl 66, a Battle Sword (qlvl 40) needs to be ilvl 76, and by the time you get to Rune Sword (qlvl 44) you need to be a high level item anyway.

OK, unglaze your eyes, I'm almost done.
There is one group of items that are a big exception to this rule. They are "magic level" items, which are basically all circlet types, all staves and orbs, and all wands except for the elite ones (which is probably a bug). These guys each have a value called maglvl, and they skip the whole low/high level thing, and just have alvl = X + maglvl all the time. This lets them get better mods earlier than you would expect.
maglvl = 1 for all the weapon types that have it, but for the circlets, maglvls are
Circlet 3
Coronet 8
Tiara 13
Diadem 18
You may also observe that Diadems are qlvl 85, and so X is always at least 85, and so alvl for Diadems is always maxed out at 99 (tries to be 103 but it is capped). Diadems can always spawn all mods.

For instance a matriarchal spear has a qlvl of 61, an ilvl= area where it was found. Required level to equip is 45. The lancer's mod (+3spears) is alvl 60 and required level to equip 45. I have tried asking about this on lurkerlounge but no reply there. The only thing I could find was an undocumented comment about lancer's mod only being able to appear on ilvl 80+ items. From my logic it should be available from ilvl 61.... I have tested this and confirmed a required ilvl of 80+ though.. not sure if it is 80 exact or 81 or whatever, but surely not 61.

Actually, Lancer´s can be available at ilvl 60 - if it is on a Javelin (qlvl=1). It depends a lot on the qlvl of the spear/javelin in question.

Lancer´s is magic-only, so you can´t get it on a rare/crafted item.

Wich brings me to the real reason why this question arises. I do quite a lot of crafting, mainly gloves but also rings. Blood. I did some calculations on what characterlvl I needed to craft items assuming a minimum lvl of gambled items to be clvl-5.

In this tourney, it´s usually better to shop the items than to gamble them, since shopped items have ilvl=clvl+5. Many of the lower qlvl item types (like Heavy Gloves for Blood crafting) can be bought in Nightmare but not in Hell.

Although it´s not possible to buy rings and amulets, of course.



I do not know how the game determines the level of charged skills.

 

[Aznagroth]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Thanks a lot for a quick and thorough reply! I'm in love!:cloud9:

Concerning charged items: from arreat summit

"To determine the level of the skill charges:
Let M be the second number in each set of brackets (i.e. the 10 in [30/10]). This is the intended maximum level of charges the item can have. (in some circumstances, it can actually go higher)
The item's ILVL determines the level of charges on the item. Let R equal the level required to use the skill with its own class (indicated in parentheses below next to the suffix name). Let T = (99 - R) / M, rounded down. An item can gain SLVL N charges at ILVL R + T*N.
For example, a wand of Lower Resist [60/3] can gain SLVL 1 charges at ILVL 53 (as well as all levels below it), SLVL 2 charges at ILVL 76, and SLVL 3 charges at ILVL 99."

Wich means for lower resist:
M=3
R= 30
T = 99-R/M = 99-30)/3 = 69/3 = 23

R+T*N

30+23*3 = 99

Guess I'm off to try to calculate optimal clvl for crafting bloodgloves with 20ias +2passive or jav +ml. Not quite sure what best 4th property would be, but maybe +str or dex. or some resistance.

edit: now I know that with my clvl 89 ama I would need an ilvl 98 ring to craft a ring with 6% ml. good thing I've been saving those sols!

edit2: if I don't care about the 4th mod I will be able to do a craft that gives me a 0,0200023% chance of getting +2jav or passive +20%ias +3%ml and will make sure I get 4 affixes. 20% ias is alvl 43. (X/2)-99>43 => X=71. To get an ilvl of 71 I will need (0,5*clvl)+(0,5*ilvl))=outputlvl
Assuming ilvl 84 (gambled by my 89 or dropped from area84 or higher) I will need a clvl = (71-(0,5*84))*2 = 58 to craft my gloves. That is new knowledge to me!

I will however not be able to get str or dex like this, but resistances are still available and I almost double my chances of getting what I want! Oh, and incidentally ilvl 71 is minimum for always 4 affixes.

 

[crazy_bear]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

I haven't been playing much and it shows.... :\

The reason I haven't updated Anders in a while was lack of progress followed by a very sudden :tombstone:

Earliest that I have ever lost a HC Char. He was really rolling along, even with the slow attacks he was killing fairly quickly and everything was going great... got the cube and staff, was in the Lost City and looking for the Ancient tunnels when a boss pack of extra strong saber cats came at him. My instincts were off by a bit, and I ended up accidentally getting Anders trapped against a wall. He was surrounded and stuck, and quickly ran out of potions. very preventable and probably escapable if I was a bit more on the ball.

That was a week or so ago... turned D2 on again today, yup, not a bad dream, Anders is a ghost.
He was lvl 23 when he died... 6 quests complete, 14 wps, I think that means a final total of 3 pts!!!

RIP Anders, lvl 23 Werebear

I'm going to start a new char and see if I can't do a bit better this time (both in time and progress) ... need to think of a name, but I'm going with an avenger for build.

 

[Krazy_Solo]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Don't feel bad bear...

Lost 6 toons this month in first two acts. Wasn't until today my current druid has go pass the wall of death.

 

[purplelocust]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

1. IIRC, rune drops are lower in 1.13 than in 1.13c, so I can´t see why it should not be OK.

I asked if I could play 1.12 and there were no objections, so presumably 1.13 would be fine as well!

@crazybear: sorry to hear about your loss! An avenger seems like a good plan and you'll have the scepter or ax possibilities for weapon crafts.

 

[kestegs]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

Intangerine, the Frenzy Barb, has finally made some progress!
After reaching Nm act 1 he proceeded to run countess from level 40-52, I ended up with A LOT of runes, way more than I needed, that's for sure! But my main goal was to get to level 52, for 2 reasons:
1. I have a good chance of gambling a magical naga
2. I have a good chance of most gambles reaching the lvl 51 craft breakpoint

The real problem was my lack of Pgems, after mass cubing of every gem I ever found I ended up with 14 Pgems in total, Oddly enough I had 5 Pruby, 5 Pammy, 2 Pemerald, and 2 Psaph. That was good, as Blood was my most wanted recipe. Spent a llloooonnnnggg time gambling for 2 Nagas! got my first one on my third gamble, and then it took me about 20 more to get the second one, fortunately they were both over ilvl 50. The good thing is that no matter their mods the craft would be about double the damage of my current weapons. Neither came out great, but they will work fine, only one of them got IAS, which is painful, since I couldn't come up with any IAS gloves either. My resists ended up pretty low, but all positive, with poison being greatly stacked. I'm going to put my next few points into natural resist to get them up a bit. I haven't used any Imbues yet, but am considering a Barb helm, to maybe get some useful plus skills. I killed Andy with my new gear on and moved on to act 2, I'm going to pass through here quickly to act 3, where I can shop for Naga's, and maybe some exceptional armors too! And of course LK, to maybe get some more Pgems.
Currently sitting at Arcane WP, at level 53.

 

[purplelocust]

Re: Tournament - The Craftsman's Children

An update: Altjira completed A3 and has been running LK for gems and charms quite a lot. One plan is to get a bunch of elemental damage charms and use Conviction with zeal for fire immunes. He doesn't have any hard points in Conviction yet but he does have a crafted scepter with +1 Conviction, so I can try that out for a bit and so far it is OK but not impressive. He has found some decent charms, including several (non-pally) skillers, but things are often tantalizing. His only ITD scepter (in fact the one he currently has on switch) is the one with the +1 Conviction staffmod, where ITD isn't really needed, also has knockback, which is a real pain in the neck with zeal. And not many of his scepter crafts have had IAS. Another tantalizing thing is that his good elemental damage charm drops have been mostly poison damage (which Conviction doesn't help with) and fire (and non-fire immunes are not as much of a concern.)

He's been crafting both war scepters and divine scepters and invariably he gets good ED on the war scepters instead of the divine scepters. It's premature, but I looked at a shopping calculator and the one plan for an eventual weapon is a crafted caduceus, but those won't be shoppable until A3 Hell, although there is a chance one would drop running A1 Hell Mausoleum for example.

He crafted some wands in hopes of either getting lower resist charges (not very likely) or some huge elemental damage modifiers. No luck yet, but I think those big elemental damage modifies turn up more on wands because wands etc. can't get as many melee-type affixes like more IAS or big ED/AR ones.