Crafting guide by Bo$$ v.1.00

[Bo$$]

1 - What is Crafting?

Crafting is a cheap way to recycle useless magic junk into high-quality rares, which, depending on the recipe you use, will have 3-4 preset mods, plus 1-4 random mods and that sweet orange color. Crafted items range from utter crap to Godly. Crafting differs from rolling rares because you have a chance of getting sweet mods like +2 skills, 20% FCR and 10-60% all resists. Also, preset mods mean YOU get to decide half the mods your item will have. Still, crafting is a form of gambling. Crappy items are all-too-common; Godlies require patience and luck. So, don't expect crafting to be lika a Godly Item factory.

Why should you care about crafting? Speaking selfishly, I hope NONE of you do! For years, crafting supplies have remained ridiculously cheap, but as more people get into it, well...I see lots more people bum-rushing Lister to pick a flawless gem. Seriously, crafting is smart alternative for the gamblers among us, and can be a lot of fun (but usually just agonizing). It's also a great tool for people who love fine-tuning chars, who hate cookie-cutter builds, or just want to have an item that NOBODY else will ever have. I craft for all the above reasons.



2 - Crafting Benefits

- Cheap source of custom, high-quality rares. Aside from theft/botting, there's no way to get as many rares -especially with preset mods.

-Cheap Hobby! Crafting uses junk most people don't even pick up. Even If you gamble, your one expense is gold, which you mostly get back by selling bad crafts.

- You can wear crafted items all over. Each category has a recipe for Helm,Shield,Glove,Belt,Armor,Amulet,Ring and Weapon.

- Unlike magics/rares, you have control over the mods that can appear. Each recipe has a slightly different list of preset mods.

- You can get 12%L/9%M dual-leech on crafted melee weapons, amulets and rings.

- Many preset mods can't ever spawn on magic/rares OR that item type. Ex: Deadly Strike, Open Wounds, Crushing Blow, Fire Absorb.Also life leech on boots, Damage reduction on gloves and FCR on Belts that aren't Arachs.

- Recipes let you to craft using the normal/exceptional/elite quality of an item, so you can craft stuff for chars of all levels.

- Even crappy crafts are sometimes tradeable. They also make good freebies for friends or newbs.

- Random & preset mods stack: 10% FCR is max on a rare ammy, but Caster ammy/belt have a 5-10% FCR built in. If you get FCR as a random mod, it stacks, giving a max of 15-20%.

- Stacked mods can cheat an affix's level requirement, and thus great for LLD. Ex: A Blood ring can stack a 5%LL random mod with the 1-3% preset mod to get 8%LL with a 35 level req. To get 8%LL on a magic/rare ring, it could only be a single affix, which would have a 77+ level req.

- Crafts can outdo any rare, some uniques, and sometimes even a few runewords. With luck, you can craft an ammy that makes Mara's look like costume jewelry. I've done this dozens of times over the years.

- On rare occasions, crafted items CAN glitch (In a good way). The effect is usually either triple-stacking a single affix, or attaching 1-8(!!)extra random mods. 15 mods is the highest I've ever confirmed. This is a ridiculously rare occurrence, but it does happen. In the last 7 years, I've gotten 12 and 8 random mods once each, and 5 random mods dozens of times. Even with crappy mods, these items can be useful due to the sheer number of affixes. With good mods, they are beyond godly.

- No More Home Perm. I laugh @ sites sellling $17 "Godly" (and duped) crafts. News flash: You can make an equal or better item for free. One exception: Unless the item glitches +2 to two different class skills (Pally & Sorc) can't spawn on one item anymore. But IMO that's fine, since it's basically a wasted affix anyway. Make one yourself, save your cash and skip all that moronic perming.
You'll notice you have lots more playing time when you quit trying to stop your stupid cgrip from poofing.

- Crafted items help build unique characters. Your crafts will usually be one of a kind. People who hate cookie-cutter builds should love this possibility.




3 - Crafting Terms

There are some important terms used in this guide. To understand basic crafting, knowing these terms is a must. This will also make crafting MUCH more productive. Note: Some of Blizzard's names are confusingly similar. So, I've renamed a few to make it easier to tell them apart.

Affix: aka Mod. Affixes are random properties that can appear on magic/rare/crafted items. Each Affix has an Alvl that determines if it can appear on an item. See Xlvl.

Alvl / Area Level: A numerical level assigned to each game area/map. ALvl starts at 1 in Norm Act 1 Blood Moor and rises with each area to Alvl 85 in Hell WS Keep Lvl 1. Alvl is generally what sets the monster and item levels for an area. When a normal monster/chest drops an item, its Item Level (See Ilvl) will match the current Alvl.

Class Skills: Affix that gives +X Skills to a specific character class, i.e. amazon, druid, sorceress, paladin. Not to be confused with All Skills. The Class Skills random affix is used frequently throughout this guide in crafting formula examples.

Clvl / Character Level: Your character level, from 1 to 99. This is what you see on your screen. If you didn't know this one, you're so not ready for this guide.

Failed Craft: A crappy/worthless crafted item.

Ilvl / Item Level: A numerical level on an item that determines what affixes can or can't appear on it. ALL items are given an Ilvl when they spawn. What that Ilvl is, works like this:

Normal monster/treasure chest drops: Ilvl = Alvl (Area Level) where the item dropped.
Champion/Unique/SuperUnique monster drops: Ilvl = Mlvl (Monster Level) of monster that dropped it. See Mlvl below.
Gambled items: Ilvl will be a random number from -5 to +4 of the gambling character's Clvl.
Purchased items: In Nightmare/Hell, Ilvl will generally be the purchaser's Clvl +5.
For ALL items: If the Ilvl is lower than: Alvl, Mlvl or Quality Level (Qlvl), it is set to whatever number is the highest of the three.
NOTE: Ilvl is NOT the level requirement needed to find/use an item, nor does Ilvl affect an item's level requirements.
Ilvl is CRITICAL for a crafter to understand. If nothing else, DO learn how Ilvl works.


Magic Prefix: An affix that can only appear BEFORE "of" in an item name; e.g. Shimmering, Arch-Angel's. Also called a Mod.
Magic Suffix: An affix that can only appear AFTER "of" in an item name; e.g. of the: Whale, Anthrax. Also called a Mod.

Input Item: The blue magic item you use to craft.

Mlvl / Monster Level: A numeric level given to each monster in each difficulty. Think of Mlvl as character Level for monsters. Mlvls range from Mlvl=1 for Quill Rats in Normal Act 1 Blood Moor, to Mlvl=99 for Hell Baal. Usually Mlvl=Alvl where the monster is; with three exceptions: Champions (Mlvl=Alvl+2), Uniques (Mlvl=Alvl+3) and Bosses/Superuniques: (Depends on boss. Ex: Pindle is -1, Baal is +14).

Note: If a monster's Mlvl is higher than the Alvl he's in, his drops Ilvl will be his Mlvl i.e. Ilvl=Mlvl.
Ex: #1: Baal's Mlvl=99 is higher than the Throne's Alvl=85, so Baal's drops Ilvl will be his Mlvl: Ilvl=99.
Ex: #2: Baal 1st wave = Colzenzo, a Warped Shaman: Mlvl=83. But, Colenzo is Unique: Mlvl=(Alvl+3) = Mlvl=88 and his drops are Ilvl=88
Colenzo's Fallen groupies are normal monsters (I think), so their Mlvl=Alvl. Therefore: Fallen groupies: Mlvl=85 and drops: Ilvl=85.


Mod: A general term for affix, magic prefix and magic suffix, I use it when affix sounds stupid. Ex: "fixed affix".

Olvl / Ouput Ilvl: A variable only used by a crafter to predict a crafted item's Ilvl.
When an item is crafted, the input item's Ilvl does not transfer over to the crafted item. Crafted items get a NEW Ilvl based on half the original item's Ilvl plus half the crafter's Clvl. I call this "new Ilvl" the Olvl. Olvl is what determines which random mods can appear on the crafted item. Olvl is needed to avoid confusing the Input Item Ilvl with Crafted Item Ilvl. You'd use it before crafting to see if the crafted item's Ilvl will be high enough to get a specific mod; or when finding the optimal Clvl+Ilvl combo to get several mods. Once you craft, Olvl becomes Ilvl and ceases to exist.

Olvl (aka the crafted item's Ilvl) is calculated by: (1/2 Clvl) + (1/2 Ilvl) = Olvl. Fractions round down.

Ex: A character about to craft an ammy really wants +2 Class Skills as a random mod. He knows that affix can only spawn on an Ilvl=90+ ammy. However, the input magic ammy he's using came from Hell Lister, so it's only Ilvl=88. Not good. BUT: His character is Clvl=92, so maybe that'll make a difference. He checks using the above Olvl formula: ( clvl92 / 2 ) + ( ilvl88 / 2 ) = 46+44 = Olvl=90. Sweet. His crafted item will be Ilvl=90, so +2 Class skills can appear as a random mod.

Output Item: aka crafted item. The sexy orange item you end up with after crafting.

Preset Mod: An affix that will always appear on any crafted item. Each recipe has 3-4 preset mods, which vary depending on the recipe and item type used.

Qlvl / Quality Level: A numerical level all items have that you should forget exists for Part I. Qlvl is an item's quality. Normal items have low Qlvl, which increases up to Elites. Qlvl plays a part in In Blizzard's Ilvl/Alvl formula. Qlvl can raise an item's Ilvl, and decrease an item's Affix Level, and thus the possible affixes on an item. This formula seems complex at first, but it's not. Since Qlvl's effects are negligible for our purposes here, forget it exists. I will explain the evil Qlvl in Crafting Part II.

Random Mod: An affix that is randomly chosen when a crafted item is created, and thus can be influenced by manipulating a crafted item's Olvl. Each crafted item will have between 1-4 random mods. The actual number also depends on the crafted item's Olvl.

Xlvl / Affix Level: A numeric level given to each magic affix that marks the LOWEST Ilvl where that affix can appear on a given item. Xlvl is NOT the Level Requirement, and does not affect a lower level character's ability to find/use items with that affix. Note: An affix's Xlvl may vary depending on item type and the affix's range. (16-20% Resist All has a higher Xlvl than 3-7% Resist All; and Resist All has a higher Xlvl to be on a ring than a circlet.)

Ex: Shimmering (+3-7% All Resist) is Xlvl: Shields(6), Amulets(8), Circlets(8), Rings(45). Yellow means this prefix can ONLY appear on magic or rare versions of those item types, and the numbers mean it can appear only if the item Ilvl is equal or greater than the Xlvl listed for that item type. So, for a given affix to appear:
- Dropped by normal monster/treasure chest: The Alvl where the item dropped must be equal or greater to the affix's Xlvl for that item type.
- Dropped by Champion/Unique/Superunique: The Mlvl must be equal or greater than the affix's Xlvl for that item type.
- Gambled: The Ilvl of the item must be equal or greater than the affix's Xlvl for that item type.



4 - Crafting Recipes

Blood Recipe
Ingredients: Perfect Ruby, Any Jewel, Runes from Eth thru Sol, Magic item.
Focus: Life-related mods; regeneration, sweet damage mods unavailable on magic/rares.
- Preset Mods: + Life, 1-4% Life Leech, Life Regen, and damage: Deadly strike, Crushing blow.
- Notes: Sasy 1-3% LL, but it's actually 1-4%. Good for dual leech rings, skill/IAS/leech/CB gloves & skill/leech/frw/resist amulets.

Caster Recipe
Ingredients: Perfect Amethyst, Any Jewel, Runes from Tir thru Amn, Magic Item.
Focuses: Mana-related mods, faster casting and increased blocking.
- Preset mods: +Mana, +% Max Mana, Mana regen, Mana Leech, Mana per kill, FCR, % Increased Blocking.
- Popular recipe since the Hdin explosion. Uses more common runes, and is a great all-purpose recipes.

Hit Power Recipe
Ingredients: Perfect Sapphire, Any Jewel, Runes from Tir thru Amn, Magic Item.
Focus: Defense, blocking, hit recovery, damage, protective and retributive mods.
- Preset mods: Def vs missile, Def vs Melee, Dmg to Mana, Monster flee, FHR, %+ block, +Dex, Knockback, % Enh. Dmg on weapons.
- Not that useful, IMO. Most commonly use: Hit Power Gloves for the Knockback preset.

Safety Recipe
Ingredients: Perfect Emerald, Any Jewel, Runes from Eth thru Amn, Magic Item.
Focus: Increased defense, resists, dmg reduction, magic dmg reduction, + Vit and blocking
- Preset mods: % Enh. Def, Single resists, Dmg reduced, Magic dmg reduced, + vit, half freeze duration.
- Useful, but 3 recipe's item types suck. Safety Shield was (may still be) the ONLY D2 item with % Magic resistance: (5-10%)!




5 - Affix / Area / Item / Monster Level


Crafted Items Basics
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/crafteditems.shtml


Affix Level Calculator - 1.11version - a bit outdated but still work
http://diablo3.ingame.de/spiel/expansion/itemdb/affix_index.php?lang=en&version=lod&patch=111

Area Levels List & Monster Mlvls
http://www.d3jsp.org/viewtopic.php?p=310524#310524

Magic Prefixes and Suffixes
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic/pre.shtml
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/magic/suf.shtml

6 Credits

thanks for Germania and Kel for helping me to make this guide

Enjoi

feel free to correct my mistakes
feel free to donate me if i helped

[Dark_Mage-]

Feel free to give credit to the real author.

http://www.edgeofnowhere.cc/viewtopic.php?t=394138

[Bo$$]

[xxShibby123xx]

Thanks.. This guide Helps out alot..

[Max Cavalera]

thanks for help