Crafting Compendium [1.2]

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This was written to consolidate knowledge around various types of crafting. There are many sources of information scattered around the forum; tucked away in build guides, independent threads, short questions thread, etc. Hopefully this will provide a centralized resource to redirect common inquiries, and reduce duplication throughout the forum. Sections are anchored to allow easy navigation and external linking.

Table of Contents
1 - Runeword Crafting
2 - Shrine Crafting
3 - Jewel Crafting
4 - Related Concepts
5 - Final Comments






1 - Runeword Crafting



Section Contents
1.1 - Runeword Requirements
1.2 - Runeword Preparation
1.3 - Runeword Creation Process
1.4 - Preparation Strategies



1.1 - Runeword Requirements



1.1.1 - Rune Types

There are four types of runes which cater to various game progression phases. Normal runewords are useful during the leveling process, Great and Elemental runewords mid/late game and beyond, and Kabraxis' Stone (Xis) runewords during late game.

Normal & Great Runewords
Can be completed using between 1 and 6 socket(s), pre-filled with jewel(s).
Gameplay: Early/Mid game
Runes Used: Normal or Great
Level Requirement: 11 - 100
Fill Patterns: [R/G], [J][R/G], [J][J][R/G], [J][J][J][R/G], [J][J][J][J][R/G], [J][J][J][J][J][R/G], [G][G][G][G][G][G] (Eternal)
Examples:
Rebel

Rebel
Body Armors

'ZolSilSilLo'
Runeword Level: 100
15% Combat Speeds
Adds 6-10 Damage
Weapon Physical Damage +(80 to 100)%
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
+(151 to 200) to Strength
+(151 to 200) to Dexterity
-75 to Vitality
-75 to Energy
+60 to Mana
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
Elemental Resists +(40 to 50)%
,
Kali
Kali
Gloves

'LumKo'
Runeword Level: 48
15% Chance to cast level 13 Seal of Fire on Kill
+2 to All Skills
+15% to Summoned Minion Resistances
-214 Defense
5% to Strength
Maximum Fire Resist +4%
Fire Resist +25%
,
Nero
Eternal


Eternal
Median 2005-2012
Thanks everyone!
Body Armors

'TahaLewGhalFelQorKa'
Runeword Level: 110
+4 to All Skills
+15 Spell Focus
+10 to Maximum Damage
-(10 to 15)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
+1 to Disco Inferno
5% Deadly Strike
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
10% to All Attributes
+2 Life on Striking


Elemental Runewords
Can be completed by filling all sockets with specified Elemental Runes.
Gameplay: Mid/Late game
Runes Used: Earth, Magic, Fire, Ice, Light, and Poison
Level Requirement: 100
Fill Patterns: [E][E], [E][E][E], [E][E][E][E], [E][E][E][E][E][E]
Examples:
Doomguard
,
Cut
,
Khalim's Protector

Khalim's Protector
Shields
Except Barbarian Shields

'VenLoVenAmn'
Runeword Level: 100
+(1 to 2) to All Skills
2% Base Block Chance
60% Block Speed
-15% to Enemy Poison Resistance
+(171 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
Maximum Poison Resist +4%
Poison Resist +25%
+50 Life after each Kill
50% Bonus to Defense
,
Hellfire Plate

Hellfire Plate
Body Armors

'IgnJahGurRhal'
Runeword Level: 115
+1% Innate Elemental Damage per 250 Strength and Dexterity
15% Chance to cast level 9 Life Spark on Melee Attack
20% Attack Speed
+250 Fire Damage
-(11 to 15)% to Enemy Elemental Resistances
+(171 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
Maximum Life +(3 to 5)%
Maximum Elemental Resists +(1 to 2)%
Fire Resist +(10 to 20)%
Lightning Resist +(10 to 20)%
Cold Resist +(10 to 20)%
Poison Resist +(10 to 20)%
Physical Resist (7 to 10)%


Enhanced Runewords
Can be completed using between 2 and 6 socket(s), pre-filled with jewel(s).
Gameplay: Late game
Runes Used: Normal and Kabraxis' Stones
Level Requirement: 121
Fill Patterns: [R][X], [J][R][X], [J][J][R][X], [J][J][J][R][X], [J][J][J][J][R][X], [X][X][X][X][X][X] (Natasha's)
Examples:
Void (Xis)
,
Hierodule (Xis)
,
Natasha's Legacy (Xis)


[J] = Jewel, [R] = Rune, [G] = Great Rune, [E] = Elemental Rune, [X] = Xis Rune

See Gems And Runes documentation page for a list of available runes.
See Runewords documentation page for a list of available runewords.



1.1.2 - Base Item

Runewords can only be made with Normal quality Tiered or Sacred items. Socketed Normal items will turn grey. Each item class/type vary in maximum possible sockets. Runewords do not require a base item with maximum sockets, rather just enough for the runes listed. However, if the base item contains more sockets than required by the runeword, jewels must be inserted before the appropriate rune(s) to fill all available socket slots.

Normal items can have one of three modifiers: Low Quality, Regular, or Superior. Superior Modifier offers extra affixes that boost item Damage/Defense. Almost all items dropped by monsters have a chance to roll the Ethereal property regardless of quality. However, Indestructable affix prevents this possibility.

Superior Modifier
Superior quality can add up to two possible affixes from a predetermined list.
Weapon: [Increased Maximum Durability, 10-35% Enhanced Damage, 10-150% Attack Rating]
Armor: [Increased Maximum Durability, 10-35% Enhanced Defense]

Ethereal
There is a 5% chance for items dropped from monsters to roll as Ethereal; the Damage/Defense bonus is multiplied independently from other affixes.
Items that are predetermined with the Indestructable affix cannot roll Ethereal
Cannot be repaired
+50% Base Damage/Defense
Decrease Maximum Durability -45%


See Base Item documentation for Damage/Defense and max socket specifications.
See Calculating Bonuses for an explanation of Enhanced Damage/Defense calculations.




1.2 - Runeword Preparation



1.2.1 - Acquiring Runes

Hunting runes can vary from easy to difficult depending on the rune type. % Magic Find does not increase rune drop chances. Normal Runes are relatively simple to obtain once reaching level 120. However, Great and Elemental Runes only drop in more dangerous environments that require greater damage and defensive capabilities to survive.

Kurast 3000 BA has high drop rates for normal runes, shrines, gems, jewels, rings/amulets, and Sets. Great and Elemental Runes have very low lower drop rates and can only be found in Fauztinville and Toraja. The six Elemental runes, Earth, Magic, Fire, Ice, Light, and Poison, are created from combining components dropped only in Teganze.

Normal Runes can be Upgraded and Downgraded. A common practice is to only keep stock of highest available runes. Less storage space is needed when runes can be downgraded to the desired level.

Rune Upgrade And Downgrade
Rune Upgrade/Downgrade cube recipe will consume the provided runes to return higher or lower versions.
These recipes do not work on Great, Elemental, or Kabraxis Stone (Xis) Runes
Same Rune x2 → Rune one level higher
Same Rune x4 → Rune two levels higher
Same Rune x2 + Rune one level higher → Rune two levels higher
Rune → Rune one level lower


Normal Runes
Drop in most all zones; higher level monsters can drop higher level runes.
Kurast 3000 BA (Torajan Jungles, Act 2: Kurast Docks) - High drop rate for runes, less difficult than Fauzt
Fauztinville (Stony Tomb, Act 2: Rocky Waste) - Drop bias towards runes

Great Runes
The six Great Runes are found in Fauztinville and Toraja on Destruction difficulty with low drop rates.
Fauztinville (Stony Tomb, Act 2: Rocky Waste) - Taha, Ghal, and Qor runes.
Toraja (Torajan Cemetery, Teganze) - Krys, Auhe, Sha'ad runes.

Elemental Runes
Components used to create Elemental Runes are found in Tenganze on Destruction difficulty with low drop rates.
Teganze (Torajan Jungles, Act 3: Kurast Docks) - Elemental Essences and Runestones
Elemental Essence + Runestone → Elemental Rune

Kabraxis Runes
Kabraxis' Stones (Xis) are created by combining all six Elemental Runes.
Elemental Runes (all 6 different) + Runestone → Kabraxis' Stone Rune



1.2.2 - Acquiring Base Items

Tiered and Sacred items can be acquired from monster drops, but only tiered items can be acquired from vendors. Gambling provides a consistent method for obtaining specific tier levels. Sacred items start dropping during the early acts of Terror difficulty. Since drops are mostly random, any location with high density works well for item hunting. Trading generally only occurs with well rolled Ethereal items. See d2stats for customizable drop notifications.

Duncraig, Tran Athulua, Kurast 3000 BA and Cow Level are common Uberlevel farming locations. If these prove to be overwhelming, try above-ground Act 5 zones; they frequent Elite monsters which have above average drop rates for Rare items.

Ethereal base items give the highest potential Damage and Defense output, typically used in Late Game Kabraxis' Stones (Xis) runewords. Since they cannot be modified through traditional cube recipes, their stats must be naturally rolled within acceptable affix and socket parameters.

Farming Locations
Duncraig (Subterranean Passage, Act 1: Cold Plains) - Drop bias towards Sacred items
Tran Athulua (Island of Skartara, Act 2: Halls of the Dead) - Drop bias towards Uniques quality items, high monster density
Cow Level (The Secret Cow Level, Act 1: Rogue Encampment) - No drop bias, high monster density.
Act 5 - No drop bias, high Elite monster frequency

Trading
Trading with players is possible but typically only occurs with well rolled Ethereal base items.

Gambling
The Gambling NPC is an easy way to obtain specific tiered items, but the maximum tier of spawnable items during gambling is dependant on character level.
Sacred items cannot be generated
Max item quality level = character level + 4

► Gambling Calculation Examples

See Base Items documentation page for item quality levels (qlvl).
See Base Item for details about Ethereal items.



1.2.3 - Modifying Base Items

Finding the correct base item can be tedious. These item modification options reduce search time by transforming otherwise incompatible items.

Reduce Item Quality
Affix Burn cube recipe will downgrade any item quality to Normal. This recipe is especially helpful when finding Magic or Rare versions of a desired base item.
Ethereal property will be removed
Any weapon/armor + Catalyst of Destruction + Rune → reroll item as superior quality + Catalyst of Destruction

Increase Normal Item Quality
Upgrade to Non-magical Item cube recipe will upgrade Normal quality.
This also rerolls the socket count on the item
Low quality weapon/armor + Oil of Enhancement → reroll item as regular
Regular weapon/armor + Oil of Enhancement → reroll item as superior


Increase Item Tier Level
Uptier cube recipe can aid in obtaining specific tier levels; convenient for quickly boosting under-tiered items. This version of the formula below is intended for Normal quality item prep, not Unique quality items.
Ethereal property will be removed. Cannot create Sacred items
Any non-Sacred weapon/armor + Arcane Crystal → return item as next higher tier

Adding Sockets
Socket Punch cube recipe will add sockets to unsocketed items. Does not work on Ethereal items; use Siege on Harrogath reward instead.
Does not work on items already containing sockets. Excess jewels are wasted. Will not add more than the max natural sockets an item can have. Lower tier items have a lower socket count.
Non-socketed item + jewel x[1-6] → returns item with [1-6] sockets

Siege on Harrogath
Act 5 quest that offers socketing an item as its reward. It can only be used once per difficulty; which does not affect the outcome. Each item quality has different socket outcomes.
Cannot be used on Socketed Items. Can only add sockets to items that allow sockets. Maximum sockets depend on item type and level.
Normal quality item → Normal quality Item with maximum sockets

See Battle.net Docs for details about Siege on Harrogath.
See Cube Recipes documentation page for more recipe details.



1.2.4 - Preparing Jewels

Any jewel can be used to complete a runeword: Magic, Rare, Crafted, or Unqiue. Crafted jewels provides a method for obtaining specific jewel affixes, often used to reach a mimumum threshold for certain stats.

See Jewel Crafting.




1.3 - Runeword Creation Process



The process of preparing a base item involves four main enhancement steps: Reroll Base Stats, Lucky/Magic Bonus, Additional Damage/Defense, and possibly Adding Sockets. The first two are the most frustrating steps of the process, consuming the majority of time invovled.

Once an acceptable base item has been prepared, Runeword Creation is simply inserting the proper components. The additional runeword affixes may not roll acceptable values, which will require further Runeword Rerolls through resocketting. Then, Final Enhancements using any remaining Level Requirement space with Mystic Orbs.

This process may take many tens or hundreds of attempts at obtaining an acceptable combination of well-rolled stats.

See Preparation Strategies for recommended target values.



1.3.1 - Reroll Base Stats

This recipe will Reroll an item, consuming an Oil of Renewal each attempt. This is equivalent to a brand new item dropping, which removes Already Upgraded!. The Normal item will need to have Superior modifier to roll Enhancement affixes.

Reroll
Reroll Modifiers cube recipe will reroll a Normal or Magic quality item.
Ethereal property will be removed
Normal or Magic item + Oil of Renewal → reroll item

See Base Item for item requirement information.
See Calculating Bonuses for an explanation of Enhanced Damage/Defense calculations.



1.3.2 - Lucky/Magical Bonus

Using Lucky Bonus or Magical Bonus recipes will consume an Oil and add Already upgraded! to the item description, preventing further upgrade attempts. Items must be completely rerolled in order to attempt another Lucky/Magic Bonus roll.

Lucky Bonus
Lucky Bonus cube recipe has a 20% chance to apply additional stats. Each stat is rolled independently.
Lucky upgrades will only work on items without any previous upgrades
Any item + Oil of Luck → returns item, may add bonuses

Oil of Luck
Purchased from vendors on any difficulty: Gheed (Act 1), Drognan (Act 2), Alkor (Act 3), Halbu (Act 4), and Larzuk (Act 5).
Weapon Bonus: [+20% Enhanced Damage, 100% Bonus to Attack Rating]
Armor Bonus: [+20% Enhanced Defense, Damage Reduced by 1%]

Magical Bonus
Magical Bonus cube recipe has a 40% chance to apply an additional stat.
Magical upgrades will only work on items without any previous upgrades
Any item + Oil of Conjuration → returns item, may add bonuses

Oil of Conjuration
Dropped from monsters on Destruction in: Icy Cellar (Act 5: The Ancients' Way), Abaddon (Act 5: Frigid Highlands), Pit of Acheron (Act 5: Arreat Plateau), and Infernal Pit (Act 5: Frozen Tundra).
Weapon Bonus: +10% to Spell Damage



1.3.3 - Additional Damage/Defense

Since each Mystic Orb increases Level Requirement by four, this step depends on the type of runeword being created and character level. Due to Mystic Orb Limitations, it's standard practice to add Enhanced Damage/Defense on base items before the runeword is created to reach over 200%. Double check Level Requirements before adding any MOs to gear.
Do not increase the Level Requirement past an equipable level. Level 100 runewords can only accept five MOs before reaching 120.

Mystic Orb Limitations
Unlike the addition of runeword bonux affixes, MOs will not increase Enhanced Damage/Defense past 200%. Often, a runewords affix range is near the MO 200% Enhanced Damage/Defense soft-cap. If space is available, always apply Enhanced Damage/Defense MOs before runeword creation to reach over the 200% MO soft-cap.

► Mystic Orb Soft Cap Example

See Rune Types for details on Level Requirements.



1.3.4 - Adding Sockets

An item should have zero or max sockets after enhancements, since the Socket Punch cube recipe only works with non-socketed (zero socket) items.

See Modifying Base Items for cube recipe details.



1.3.5 - Runeword Creation

If extra socket space is available, insert jewels before rune(s).

See Rune Types for details.



1.3.6 - Runeword Reroll

Since most runeword stats are chosen from within a range, rolls may not be ideal and warrant a remake. Obtaining another chance at affix rolls requires Runeword Unsocketting and resocketting of the components.

Runeword Unsocketting
Unsocket cube recipe will unsocket an item, returning the separated item and components. The runeword version of this recipe requires an additional three Perfect Gems.
Any Mystic Orbs added before runeword creation will remain, however, any added after creating the runeword will disappear
Socketed normal item + Oil of Disjunction + perfect gem x3 → separate normal item and socket fillers

Oil Of Disjunction
Purchased from vendors on any difficulty: Gheed (Act 1), Drognan (Act 2), Alkor (Act 3), Halbu (Act 4), and Larzuk (Act 5).



1.3.7 - Final Enhancements

Once the completed runeword has rolled acceptable stats, any remaining Level Requirement space can be filled with Mystic Orbs.

See Mystic Orbs wikia page for a list of available orbs.




1.4 - Preparation Strategies



Preparing a base item to its maximum potential is tedious, and mildly expensive. This makes extensive base item preparation much more difficult during early stages of progression. For this reason there multiple strategies for base item preparation: Early Game and Mid/Late Game. The choice of Enhancement Oils depends on the builds damage type.

Enhancement Oils
Weapon Enhancement
There are two choices based on build type. Abilities that calculate output damage based on weapon damage stats benefit from Oil of Luck, while abilities that do spell damage benefit from Oil of Conjuration.

Armor Enhancement
Improving Defense with Oil of Luck greatly improves survivability regardless of build type. However, some builds use alternative means of damage mitigation that do not rely on Defense and can safely ignore certain Defense related stats. When Enhanced Defense is applied on an armor, the maximum armor value will be used during Defense calculations.

See Calculating Armor Defense for enhancement calculation details.
See Lucky/Magical Bonus for Oil details.



1.4.1 - Early Game

This category is during the leveling process. Most likely financially limited and struggling with less than ideal gear, obtaining upgrades is far more important than tuning out any one specific item. Avoiding heavy investment is recommended because most gear will be replaced during Mid/Late Game.

1. Renewal: Any % Enhanced Defense/Damage, 0 or enough sockets
2. Luck: Single attempt, continue regardless of outcome
3. Mystic Orbs: Only if Level Requirement space for MOs + jewels + runeword
4. Sockets: Socket Punch cube recipe if zero sockets
5. Runeword Creation: Insert socket components properly to create Runeword
6. Runeword Reroll: Re-insert socket components if weak affix rolls
7. Final Enhancement: Fill left over level Requirement space with MOs


1.4.2 - Mid/Late Game

Mid-Game is after reaching level 120 where gold is plentiful and gear upgrades are slow; investing into decent rolls is necessary for endgame survival. Late-Game typically refers to level 121+ where few gear upgrades options remain; there is a shrinking list of things to do, and every percent of extra stats is worth the sleepless nights investment.

1. Renewal
(Mid-Game% / Late-Game%)
Armor: (30+% / 35%) Enhanced Defense
Weapon: [(30+% / 35%) Enhanced Damage AND (100+% / 125+%) Attack Rating]
Both: 0 or Max sockets
Keep rerolling until meeting the requirements above

2. Luck or Conjuration
Armor: [20% Enhanced Defense AND 1% Damage Reduction]
Weapon: [20% Enhanced Damage AND 100% Attack Rating] OR [10% Spell Damage]
If this fails to occur, restart back at step 1

3. Mystic Orbs: For runewords under level 100 add 5x Enhanced Defense/Damage MOs, skip if using Kabraxis' Stones (Xis)
4. Sockets: Socket Punch cube recipe if zero sockets (otherwise max from step 1)
5. Runeword Creation: Insert socket components properly to create runeword
6. Runeword Reroll: Re-insert socket components if affix rolls are unacceptable
7. Final Enhancement: Fill left over Level Requirement space with MOs




2 - Shrine Crafting



Section Contents
2.1 - Shrine Craft Requirements
2.2 - Shrine Craft Preparation
2.3 - Shrine Crafting Process
2.4 - Crafting Strategies



2.1 - Shrine Craft Requirements



2.1.1 - Shrine Types

There are 16 types of shrines which tailor to many critically important stats. Below is a simplified overview grouped by similarity; taken from the Shrine Bonus documentation page.

► Shrine List



2.1.2 - Base Item

Shrine Craft: Requires a Rare or Crafted Sacred item.
Shrine Bless: Requires a Rare, Crafted, or Honorific Sacred Item.

Blessing does include Honorific items, providing yet another method for obtaining heavily customized gear.




2.2 - Shrine Craft Preparation



2.2.1 - Acquiring Shrines

Monsters starting mid Terror and above can drop shrines. % Magic Find does not increase shrine drop chances. With a large pool of shrine types, acquiring a specific type is limited to improving killing speed. Farming on Terror difficulty is recommended unless gear is adequately powerful for Destruction. Another option is Trading unused shrine stockpiles with other players. See d2stats for customizable drop notifications.

Kurast 3000 BA has a high drop rate for shrines. Fauztinville has a drop bias towards shrines. High monster density zones like Tran Athulua and Cow Level provide great farming areas as well.

Farming Locations
Kurast 3000 BA (Torajan Jungles, Act 3: Kurast Docks) - High drop rate for shrines, less difficult than Fauzt
Fauztinville (Stony Tomb, Act 2: Rocky Waste) - Drop bias towards shrines
Tran Athulua (Island of Skartara, Act 2: Halls of the Dead) - Drop bias towards uniques quality items, high monster density
Cow Level (The Secret Cow Level, Act 1: Rogue Encampment) - No drop bias, high monster density

Trading
Trading with players is a common practice for acquiring specific types. Although, some shrines have more valuable stats and will be less available.



2.2.2 - Acquiring Base Items

Rare Sacred items can be aquired from monsters drops starting around mid Terror difficulty. Since drops are mostly random, any location with high density works well for item hunting. See d2stats for customizable drop notifications.

Duncraig has a drop bias towards Sacred items, while zones with high density like Tran Athulua, Kurast 3000 BA, and Cow Level are also common Uberlevel farming locations. If these prove to be overwhelming, try above-ground Act 5 zones; they have large areas and are dense with Elite monsters which have above average drop rate for Rare items.

Another option is the one-time Rare Upgrade Quest from Charsi in Act 1. Upgrading Normal (and Magic after Affix Burn cube recipe) versions of desired Sacred items can greatly reduce hunting time.

Farming Locations
Duncraig (Subterranean Passage, Act 1: Cold Plains) - Drop bias towards Sacred items
Tran Athulua (Island of Skartara, Act 2: Halls of the Dead) - Drop bias towards Uniques quality items, high monster density
Kurast 3000 BA (Torajan Jungles, Act 3: Kurast Docks) - High monster density and drop rate
Cow Level (The Secret Cow Level, Act 1: Rogue Encampment) - No drop bias, high monster density
Act 5 - No drop bias, high Elite monster frequency

Rare Upgrade Quest
Tools of the Trade is an Act 1 quest from Charsi. The reward will upgrade an item quality from Normal to Rare. It can only be used once per difficulty; which does not affect outcome. The items resulting Item Level (ilvl) is dependant on character level.
Does not work with Magic, Rare, Set, or Unique items
Normal quality item → Rare quality item (Resulting item level = character level + 4)



2.2.3 - Modifying Base Items

Not many cube recipes apply to Rare items. Rare Downlevel is the only available recipe for preparing shrine Crafts.

Rare Downlevel
Rare Downlevel cube recipe will reduce the Item Level of any Rare item to one.
Rare weapon/armor + rare amulet + rare ring → reduce Item Level to 1 and reroll

This will not change the item type, tier or quality, but only its Item Level (iLvl). Item Level determines the quantity and quality of affixes. This property is different from Level Requirement, which gets calculated based on the generated affixes. Fewer affixes mean lower Level Requirement and more space for customized stats via Mystic Orbs. An items Level Requirement is the greater of these two results: base item Level Requirement, or the result of the Required Level Formula.

Required level Formula
(Level Requirement of the rare affix with the highest affix level) + 10 + 3 * (number of random rare affixes)

► Downlevel Example

See Prefixes and Suffixes documentation page for affix details.




2.3 - Shrine Crafting Process



The use of example stat attributes is for conceptual purposes only and in no way recommended. Every build requires very different stat and value thresholds, which is outside the scope of this document.

The Shrine Crafting process involves two recipes, Shrine Craft and Shrine Blessing. After an acceptable crafted item has been made, any left over Level Requiremenent space will gain double bonus for Mystic Orbs. Identifying each items available affix pool is critical for optimizing stat gains, potentially adding up to three of the same affix on one item!

This process may take many tens or hundreds of attempts at obtaining an acceptable combination of well-rolled stats.

See Prefixes and Suffixes documentation page for affix details.
See Shrine Types for details on shrine bonus'.



2.3.1 - Shrine Craft

Shrine Crafting consumes a shrine charge and appplies two rounds of affixes. First, the item is rerolled using special rules for Crafted Items Affixes, then the shrine bonus stats are rolled and applied. Crafted items always have maximum sockets and receive a double bonus from Mystic Orbs. The first reroll step is equivalent to a brand new item dropping, which removes Blessed status.

Shrine Crafting
Shrine Craft cube recipe will reroll a Rare or Crafted item, then roll and apply bonus stats.
Rare/Crafted Sacred item + Shrine → reroll item as crafted + Shrine (-1 charge)

Crafted Item Affixes
Crafted items cannot have more than 3 prefixes or suffixes. Each affix has a 1/2 chance to be a prefix or suffix, chosen randomly from the item class' available Rare affix pool.
Crafted Item level (iLvl) 1-30: 40% chance of 1 affix and 20% chance each of 2, 3 or 4 affixes
Crafted Item level (iLvl) 31-50: 60% chance of 2 affixes and 20% chance each of 3 or 4 affixes
Crafted Item level (iLvl) 51-70: 80% chance of 3 affixes and 20% chance of 4 affixes
Crafted Item level (iLvl) 71+: 100% chance of 4 affixes


► Shrine Craft Example 1
► Shrine Craft Example 2



2.3.2 - Shrine Blessing

This recipe will add, without rerolling, extra attributes to any Rare, Crafted, or Honorific Sacred item. The shrine type used for Shrine Blessing does not need to match the shrine used for the Shrine Craft stage. Items can only be Blessed once and will fail to transmute any further attempts; unfortunately there is no explicit visual marker added after Blessing. Rolling poor Blessing values typically warrants restarting the process with another shrine Craft reroll.

Shrine Blessing
Does not work on items previously blessed
Rare/Crafted/Honorific Sacred item + Shrine + Arcane Crystal → add Shrine bonuses + Shrine (-1 charge)

► Shrine Blessing Example

Knowing the Blessed status of an item can be tricky. In the Shrine Blessing Example, status can be derived with simple math. Since Cold Spell Damage/Resistance affix cannot spawn on boots, the maximum possible addition from Sacred Shrine would be (base 0% + crafted 8%). In this case the item must have been Blessed to reach over the initial crafted limit of 8%.

Knowing is much harder in other situations. Perhaps the Blessing process resulted in a low +7% to Cold Spell Damage total. Without knowing the item history, the affixes could have been from an initial craft, (0% + 7%), or after a blessing, [(0% + 2% + 5%), (0% + 3% + 4%), (0% + 4% + 3%), or (0% + 5% + 2%)].



2.3.3 - Final Enhancements

Any available Level Requirement space can be filled with double bonus from Mystic Orbs.

See Mystic Orbs wikia page for a list of available Orbs.




2.4 - Crafting Strategies


Determining if stat rolls are acceptable depends on the build, which is too complex to cover here. Acceptability could determined by simply obtaining a specific affix, or more complicated factors like current gear state and stat requirements. Generally Mid Game allows for a larger acceptable stat roll range while Mid/Late Game warrants higher percentile roll values.

High threshold crafting can be extremely frustrating, costing large quantities of shrines and time. Just getting the correct combination of affixes is rare, but also obtaining acceptable values for the affixes, shrine bonus, and blessing? May RNGesus be with you, Comrade.


2.4.1 - Mid/Late Game

Hope for near max rolls for both desired affix and shrine bonus!

1. Shrine Craft
Base Affixes: Desired stats with acceptable values
Shrine Bonus: Acceptable shrine bonus values
Keep rerolling until meeting the requirements above

2. Shrine Blessing: Acceptable shrine bonus values
If this produces unacceptable values, restart back at step 1

3. Mystic Orbs: Fill available Level Requirement space with Double Bonus effect






3 - Jewelcrafting



Section Contents
3.1 - Jewel Craft Requirements
3.2 - Jewel Craft Preparation
3.3 - Jewel Crafting Process
3.4 - Crafting Strategies



3.1 - Jewel Craft Requirements



3.1.1 - Jewel Type

Jewels can drop as Magic, Rare or Unqiue quality. Any quality can be used for crafting jewels. The jewel Item Level (iLvl) determines the available pool of affixes, which gets reduced each reroll.



3.1.2 - Rune Type

There are 16 available stat bonuses for the crafting process, each mapped to a specific rune. Below is a simplified overview grouped by similarity; taken from Cube Recipes documentation page.

► Stat Bonuses



3.1.3 - Shard & Oil

Besides a jewel and rune, there are two consumed components required for the crafting recipe: Arcane Shard, and Oil of Craft.




3.2 - Jewel Craft Preparation


% Magic Find does not increase jewel, rune, and Arcane Shard drop chances. However, the affix does increase the chance for an item to roll Unqiue quality, which can be disenchanted into shards.



3.2.1 - Acquiring Runes

See Acquiring Runes in the runeword section.



3.2.2 - Acquiring Jewels

Drops from most all monsters. Higher level monsters can drop higher Item Level (iLvl) jewels, restricted between 1 and 99. Max iLvl jewels can be found after and including Terror The Chaos Sanctuary (Act 4), and some uberquests before. High iLvl is critical for high-level affixes.

Farming Locations
Kurast 3000 BA (Torajan Jungles, Act 2: Kurast Docks) - high drop rate for jewels, less difficult than Viz-Jun
Viz-Jun (Act 3: Kurast Bazaar) - Drop bias towards jewels



3.2.3 - Acquiring Arcane Shards

Arcane Shards are obtained from disenchanting Unqiue items and killing Act Bosses.

Farming Locations
Tran Athulua (Island of Skartara, Act 2: Halls of the Dead) - Drop bias towards Unique quality items, high monster density
Mephisto (Durance of Hate, Act 3: Travincal) - Drops Unique items and Arcane Shards
Nihlathak (Halls of Vaught, Act 5: Harrogath) - Drops Unique items



3.2.4 - Acquiring Oil of Crafts

Purchased from vendors on any difficulty: Gheed (Act 1), Drognan (Act 2), Alkor (Act 3), Halbu (Act 4), and Larzuk (Act 5).




3.3 - Jewel Crafting Process


The Jewel Crafting process involves two recipes, Jewel Craft and Jewel Upgrade. After an acceptable crafted jewel has been made, a single upgrade can be attempted. Since the upgrade bonus only gives a tiny stat boost, a failed attempt is not worth restarting the process. Identifying potential affixes is critical for creating powerful crafted jewels.

This process may take many tens, hopefully not hundreds, of attempts at obtaining an acceptable combination of well-rolled stats.

See Prefixes and Suffixes documentation page for affix details.
See Rune Types for details on rune bonus'.



3.3.1 - Jewel Craft

Jewel Crafting applies an iLvl Penalty, and then applies two rounds of affixes. First, the jewel is rerolled, then the rune bonus affixes are rolled and added. The first reroll step is equivalent to a brand new jewel dropping, which removes Already Upgraded!.

The order of operations is important: the iLvl is reduced before the affixes roll. One of the popular affixes, % Bonus to <attribute>, requires an aLvl (iLvl) of 82. With an iLvl 99 jewel, only three rolls will disqualify the affix roll chance. Always know the current iLvl before rerolling!

Jewel Craft
Jewel Craft cube recipe will reroll a jewel at the cost of an Oil of Craft, Arcane Shard, and jewel iLvl Penalty.
Every time you craft a jewel, its item level is reduced by 5%, rounded up and capped at 1 and 99
Jewel + Rune + Oil of Craft + Arcane Crystal/Shards → Rune + Arcane Shards (-1) + Crafted Jewel with added bonuses

iLvl Penalty
Each jewel Craft reroll reduces iLvl by 5%, and is applied before affix rolls.
► iLvl Penalty Example



3.3.2 - Jewel Upgrade

This recipe has a chance to add extra attributes, also adding Already Upgraded! to the jewels description, preventing further upgrade attempts. A jewel must be completely rerolled in order to attempt another Lucky Bonus roll.

Lucky Bonus
Lucky Bonus cube recipe has a 20% chance to apply additional stats. Each stat is rolled independently.
Lucky upgrades will only work on items without any previous upgrades
Jewel + Oil of Luck → returns Jewel, may add bonuses

Oil of Luck
Purchased from vendors on any difficulty: Gheed (Act 1), Drognan (Act 2), Alkor (Act 3), Halbu (Act 4), and Larzuk (Act 5).
Jewel: [+2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +2 Energy]




3.4 - Crafting Strategies


Determining which stats to roll depends on the build, which is too complex to cover here. Some of the common stats are: % Bonus to Attribute, % Faster [Run, Hit Recover, Attack Speed, etc], and % Resist. With such a small affix range, max rolls are preferred, but not critical. A jewel can be disgarded once the ilvl falls below the target affix minimum level.



3.4.1 - Mid/Late Game

1. Jewel Craft
Base Affixes: Desired stats with acceptable values
Rune Bonus: Acceptable rune bonus values
Keep rerolling until either: meeting the requirements above, iLvl too low for desired affix

2. Jewel Upgrade: Accept any result, not worth effort to reroll





4 - Related Concepts



Section Contents
4.1 - Calculations



4.1 - Calculations


Calculations use integer arithmetic, which means floating point operations are truncated.

► Truncation Example



4.1.1 - Calculating Bonuses

Most percent adding affixes (+%) will apply their value to a running total before calculations happen. For instance, adding +121% Enhanced Damage to a weapons base 100% Damage output would result in 221% Damage (2.21x).

► Enhancement Examples



4.1.2 - Calculating Armor Defense

Enhanced Defense affix will cause calculations to ignore the rolled defense value and use (maximum armor value + 1) instead.

► Verifing ED Mechanics






5 - Final Comments


As this document evolves, constructive criticism is very welcome.

Contributions
Big thanks to those who contributed constructive criticism and suggestions: Fumbles, Unda, Nitz, krys, Quirinus, WarzZ, and EarthBounder.
Edited by ryunp 4 years.
Unda
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Should include info about Oil of Conjuration for weapons as second choice in place of Oil of Luck.

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ryunp
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Unda wrote:Should include info about Oil of Conjuration for weapons as second choice in place of Oil of Luck.

Thanks! Updated lottery phase to show multiple weapon options.
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Nitz
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Luckily, the Affix Burn cube recipe allows converting any quality down to Normal, especially useful for Sacred items due to their scarcity. Finding Magic or Rare quality versions of a desired item are completely viable base items after performing the Affix Burn recipe.


Add the recipe.

Reroll Base Stats with Oil of Renewal


You forgot to mention that armor rolls a defense value too. An armor can have a base defense of say 2400-3000. A 2400 armor with +35% ed has as much defense as a 3000 armor with +8%. When rolling an armor you should look at the defense number, when rolling a weapon look at the enhanced damage value.

Add Extra Stats with Mystic Orbs


Mention level caps. Lvl 100 runes can have 5 MOs, xis runes are lvl 121 and should not get MO'd before.

Any mystic orbs added after creating the RW will disappear when you unsocket it with the recipe. This can come in handy. You only need to add enhanced damage/defense before creating the RW, the rest can be added afterwards.

4. Add Sockets


Add recipe.
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krys
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Enhanced Runewords - could specify that xis rune has be socketed as the last rune and maybe change patterns to distinguish xis ([J][J][R][X])

AQUIRING BASE ITEMS - when gambling as low level char you can get item with max Quality level = Character level + 4 (for example to get Naginata (qlvl 9) you have to be at least lvl 5). You can find item qlvl in docs

Enhancement Strategies - include some info about ethereal items (50% higher defense/damage), their use (usually xis RW, some lvl100 RWs) and adding sockets (i think only lazruk can be used). usually only superior (with good ED roll) ethereal are worth tho
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shnurr214
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cool guide. however I was expecting some mention of shrine crafting since segolias guide is a little out of date now and this guide only seems to talk about runewords for the most part. Shrine crafting is extremely simple in MXL however a lot of noobies don't really grasp the concept or how potentially powerful the mods can be on crafted gear.

It might be nice to include some sections on useful crafted mod "protips" and things that certain slots can get. for instance most vets know this but new players may be unaware boots cant get local pierce as a rare mod. So unless your trying to hit + skills or some specific rare mod generally zomg shrinecrafted booties are the way to go. Knowing things like this or adding a helpful hints sections might be nice

other ideas for the helpful hints are including good oskill mods that can appear on gear ie (apocalypse, tantrum, hailstorm, whirlpool, dr on shields etc..)

if this is going to be a true "crafting compendium" try to branch out from just runeword creation or maybe rename the guide.
Unda
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You missed his Table of Contents and Jewel/Shrine crafting TODO on the end of list.
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ryunp
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This thing is becoming a monster. Tried to split dense sections where needed, so hopefully overall structure is still intuitive and/or usable. It was initially created as a simple structure to aid newcomers, but it's size is becoming more intimidating with all the added details. Hmmm.

-Split dense information into separate sections
-Updated Runeword example patterns to distinguish between rune types
-Added more formulas and cube recipes
-Added superior and ethereal information with examples
-Added info about weapon damage and armor defense range
-Added info about MO required level caps and unsocketting behavior
-Expanded Early/Mid/Late game recommendations (needs more work)

krys wrote:Enhancement Strategies - include some info about ethereal items (50% higher defense/damage), their use (usually xis RW, some lvl100 RWs) and adding sockets (i think only lazruk can be used). usually only superior (with good ED roll) ethereal are worth tho

Although using Ethereal for Xis runewords isn't explicitly instructed, I feel much of the newly added information should allow deduction of using Ethereal and Xis together. I may add it under Late Game in the future for brevity.
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Nitz
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ryunp wrote:This thing is becoming a monster. Tried to split dense sections where needed, so hopefully overall structure is still intuitive and/or usable. It was initially created as a simple structure to aid newcomers, but it's size is becoming more intimidating with all the added details. Hmmm.


https://www.lucidchart.com/invitations/ ... e537936a92

Pretty sure that new players hate reading that much and get confused. Structure it easier, first a very simple algorithm of what to do for an example RW, then a XIS RW etc. Then afterwards the explanation why you did that.
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ryunp
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Added section index to title and increased separation space between them. Much cleaner and navigable space. Also mentioned the use for Ethereals as XIs runewords in 1.2.2 - AQUIRING BASE ITEMS.
Edited by ryunp 5 years.