Short Questions Thread

After playing around (and reading through the docs) there are some general questions of whether I am reading the game ... correctly? I mean, experimentation is fine, but I wouldn't want to spend hours and hours of reinventing the wheel of how something works and where are the tricky parts.

Etheral equipment with sockets
Is it as cool as always (vanilla diablo, I believe)? Or should I ask: are these the best material for runewords (assuming I have access to indestructible jewel)? I am guessing that honorific/shrine-crafted items are out of the question as they will reroll my etheral status, so no orbs for this one.

Rings/amulets/jewels upgrades
I am trying to wrap my head around them. I mean: how to approach them? In case of ring and amulet: just find a nice rare and sprinkle orbs at them? What about jewels - can anything be done to them apart from shrine blessing?

Poor man's MF
What is a valid plan for gearing for MF (and how much MF is truly needed)? I mean, turquoise in shield is a no-no as I use two-handed; triune trophy is out of my league. So the only valid option I found is either get lucky with some high body armor/weapon suffix (up to 50%), hope for 10% jewel or just put Lum everywhere.

Stats
Another tricky one for me. Are there any guidelines for these? Put in dex/str as much as you need for gear and rest in vit? And looking atrequirements for some high level armor it requires tons of strength. So a lot of +% str a must? Can one get away from high dex in case of str-based xbows trying to reach high AR with some +AR% skills/items (I've seen many examples of +100% AR boosters, so it seems that this one should be easily coverable).

red1939 wrote:
► Show Spoiler
After playing around (and reading through the docs) there are some general questions of whether I am reading the game ... correctly? I mean, experimentation is fine, but I wouldn't want to spend hours and hours of reinventing the wheel of how something works and where are the tricky parts.

Etheral equipment with sockets
Is it as cool as always (vanilla diablo, I believe)? Or should I ask: are these the best material for runewords (assuming I have access to indestructible jewel)? I am guessing that honorific/shrine-crafted items are out of the question as they will reroll my etheral status, so no orbs for this one.

Rings/amulets/jewels upgrades
I am trying to wrap my head around them. I mean: how to approach them? In case of ring and amulet: just find a nice rare and sprinkle orbs at them? What about jewels - can anything be done to them apart from shrine blessing?

Poor man's MF
What is a valid plan for gearing for MF (and how much MF is truly needed)? I mean, turquoise in shield is a no-no as I use two-handed; triune trophy is out of my league. So the only valid option I found is either get lucky with some high body armor/weapon suffix (up to 50%), hope for 10% jewel or just put Lum everywhere.

Stats
Another tricky one for me. Are there any guidelines for these? Put in dex/str as much as you need for gear and rest in vit? And looking atrequirements for some high level armor it requires tons of strength. So a lot of +% str a must? Can one get away from high dex in case of str-based xbows trying to reach high AR with some +AR% skills/items (I've seen many examples of +100% AR boosters, so it seems that this one should be easily coverable).

1) Yes Eth items are the best for runewords, because the base defense is 50% higher.
2) Yes, you just find nice amu's and put orbs on it. Jewels can be orbed as well, but the additional level requirement will add up on the item you're socketing the jewel into. For example: Weapon A was already mo'd 5 times, adding 20 required level. You socket a jewel with another 20 required levels --> Now your level requirement is boosted by 40.
3) There are some nice MF items like

Hratli's Craft

Hratli's Craft
Ring Mail (Sacred)
Defense: (6628 - 7311) to (7292 - 8043)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 330
Item Level: 105
+1 to All Skills
25% Cast Speed
50% Hit Recovery
+(41 to 50)% to Summoned Minion Life
+(172 to 200)% Enhanced Defense
+75 to Dexterity
Physical Resist 10%
40% Magic Find
Requirements -40%
Socketed (6)

for example. Everything else can be done with Lum runes (20% MF per rune) or crafted jewels (up to 20% + lots of other nice modifiers). In general you don't want your MF gear to affect your killspeed by a lot. In the best case scenario you get 300 MF and still farm as fast as you would without any MF at all.
4) In median it depends on what your weapon says. There is either the Dex or the Str bonus modifier, which adds more damage the more Str/Dex you have. In case of Xbow, you want to get lots of Str and get AR by using multiple jewels with 50% Bonus to attack rating or even the "ignore target defense" modifier found on some items. In case of Dexterity based weapons, you just put into str enough to equip your items, and the rest into dex. Vita: Depends on the build. Ene: boost this stat if you use a caster build, because in MXL energy directly affects your damage output of spells, but it's only worth so much thanks to diminishing returns.

Actually ethereal bases are best but for XIS runewords which got rlvl of 121 so you dont MO it.

For any other runeword you want white/grey base and make it superior, then roll it with Oil of Reneval till you get 35%ED (plus AR% if weapon), then cube with Oil of Luck for chance to get 20%ED (plus 1%DR on armor piece or AR% on weapon). After you get 55%ED (and second add of your wish) you are going to make runeword or add mystic orbs with %ED if runeword got potential to get over 200%ED with it (including your 55%ED base).

Does increased playerload affect Rodeos chance to drop UMO?

Unda wrote:Actually ethereal bases are best but for XIS runewords which got rlvl of 121 so you dont MO it.

For any other runeword you want white/grey base and make it superior, then roll it with Oil of Reneval till you get 35%ED (plus AR% if weapon), then cube with Oil of Luck for chance to get 20%ED (plus 1%DR on armor piece or AR% on weapon). After you get 55%ED (and second add of your wish) you are going to make runeword or add mystic orbs with %ED if runeword got potential to get over 200%ED with it (including your 55%ED base).

I once made a calculation about that:

► Show Spoiler

tl/dr: Even without mytic orbs, the eth armor is worth it, because the eth factor and the 200% ED (= multiplier of 4,5) are always better than the 330 % ED (= multiplier of 4,3)
But yes, I agree that eth armors especially shine in XIS runewords, since you can't mo an eth armor anyway

If you are taking armor into consideration with 200%ED in formula, lets look on it in practical way. There are only Erawan (Max 171% roll) and Hellfire (Max 200%ED roll) from mid-game rws with so high ED% and Hellfire doesnt make much sense in eth as it will poof very fast in mid-game ubers grind and your sweet roll you finally got will be cursed. So you are left with Erewan 171%ED in that case and maybe Truce belt (200%ED) and Nephilim boots (171%ED) worth to mention if both suit build. You should also add 1%DR to non-eth piece formula as its not hard to roll 50%+ with 1%DR, for me its easier even to roll 55%ED+1%DR than find ethereal sacred ancient armor (without any or with max sockets). For other rws with lower requirements its definitely better to have option to add other needed MOs to non-eth armor pieces than using eth.

I just rolled an amulet that's not even on the drop table. Jerhyn's Tawiz. +23% Damage to Demons, Replenish Life +100, and +20% EXP gain with no level requirement. Was this supposed to be a possible drop? Is it hard to get? Are there any other hidden uniques like this?

yes , it is an amulet not listed , but it can be rolled or droped . yes , there are other unique/sacred unique rings/amulets/jewels that can drop like that and are not listed .

http://median-xl.wikia.com/wiki/Secret_Items

Aero wrote:http://median-xl.wikia.com/wiki/Secret_Items

Is this a reliable and up to date list? I've looked up some information on that site before and some of it was a bit dated which is why I was mainly relying on the documentation.