Part of the Machine

about Items

In Diablo II everything seems to be about items and how to get them. Well, I never was interested in Magic Find and stuff myself, so there's just some listing of ressources, most of it in german.

references:

• Dropchances, by pmpch
• Dropchances of certain monsters, by pmpch
• Dropchances of Runes, by pmpch
• Magic Find Führer, von nobbie (german, don't have the English link)
• Drop Statistics, by Jarulf

A short listing of factoids:

• 1.10 re-invented the Questdrop you get when defeating Act Bosses the first ti,e to enter next act
• Magic Find also affects Chests and suchlike, but not the 'sparkling chests'
• 'sparky chests' will drop rares, sets or uniques with 12%, 6%, 2% chances, respectively
• wearing Magic Find stuff affects the probability of finding Magics linearly, but the probability of finding Rares, Sets and Uniques increases with diminishing returns
• Rune drops are not affected by Magic Find
• Countess' Rune drop are statistically better if less people are in the actual game
• Rune drops are statistically better if defeating ghostly monsters
• Act4, Quest2 (Hellforge) will drop Runes' range:
  • Normal
    • El to Amn
  • Nightmare
    • Sol to Um
  • Hell
    • Hel to Gul
• Countess may drop:
  • Normal
    • common Rune Drop: El to Ral
    • special drop: El to Ral
  • Nightmare
    • common Rune Drop: El to Ko
    • special drop: El to Io
  • Hell
    • common Rune Drop: El to Lo
    • special drop: El to Ist

carrying Gold

Character's maximum amount of gold in inventory is cLvl * 10 000. The Stash can carry ([cLvl / 10] + 1) * 50 000, if cLvl ≤ 30, and ([cLvl / 2] + 1) * 50 000, as soon as cLvl > 30 ist.
Dying will cause loss of all gold in inventory and additively some percentage of Stash gold.
With 1.13 a character of Level 1 is already able to store the maximum amount of 2,5 millions in the stash.

see also:

• Arreat Summit, Basics Section

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equipment's durability

Using an item will cause durability loss, the local blacksmith will repair most of the stuff. A little knight picture appearing in the right upper corner of the game screen will indicate urgent needing of equipped gear with yellow colour at the appropriate part of its armor. Red colour will indicate a destroyed item. As long as an item is destroyed the character won't gain any bonus from it. In inventory such an item has reddish background colour. Durability is the amount of hitpoints an item has, blacksmiths may repair it (restore durability to full amount).

Highest possible durability is 333, which you may find prominently on hidurares, which are failed Uniques.
Uniques found prior to 1.10 have much higher amount of durability than their 1.1x counterparts.

Some items don't have durability assigned, say missile weapons, Phase Blades and Jewelry. Further the suffix 'of the Ages' may spawn on other items, so they become indestructible. An item with sockets can become indestructible if you put a Zod Rune into it.

Ethereal items have less durability assigned than their unethereal counterparts, plus they cannot be repaired. They gain a bonus of 50% to damage or defense, weapons and armor pieces respectively. Since equipped to hirelings durability doesn't wear off this is a nice one.

Throwing Weapons don't show durability (but have values assigned) but stack size. Stack size does not only decrease by one with each throw, but also wears off in melee. The 'selfrefill' affix regenrates stack size similar to 'self-reapir' regenerates durability on other equipment, both affices don't count in all equipment, but just the piece with the affix assigned. Repairing such items will only cost one piece of gold. Ethereal Throwing Weapons can't be refilled at the blacksmith's similar to other ethereal items cannot be repaired. The aforesaid affices will regenerate them, though.

In 1.09 an empty stack of ethereal Throwing Weapons regenerated, though couldn't be used anymore.

weapon's durability loss

Every successful melee attack has a chance of 4% to reduce character's weapon durability by one. While dual-wielding two weapons during an attack either one, or both, or none will loose durability.
A Throwing Weapon has a chance of 10% to loose one durability point. If all points are lost, the stack is reduced by one. So 'effective durability' is stack size x durability.
Amazon's Impale doesn't reduce durability but stack size (see Wurfspieße und Haltbarkeit, german).
'hidurare' Throwing Weapons also have enhanced durability, ethereal ones' is decreased. Both isn't visible ingame as well.

other equipment's durability loss

Every successful melee attack has a chance of 10% to reduce durability of one of defender's armor pieces.
Following probabilities step in for each equipment slot:

1.1x equipment's durability loss probabilities

Helm	20%
Armor	30%
Shield	20%
Belt	10%
Boots	10%
Gloves	10%

If defender doesn't use equipment in all slots probabilities will shift. Unused slots are not checked. Sum of equipped pieces' probabilities is the new 100% - thus those will lose durability faster than with a fully equipped character.
Shield block won't cause durability loss. Attacking Kicks including especially Assassin's Combat Kicks won't wear durability of attacker's equipment down, for the defender they count as melee combat. Blade Shield and Weapon Block skills will wear down durability of attacker's claws.
All ranged attacks and all attacks without physical deliverage won't decrease durability.
Paladin's Smite attack wears down his actual weapon, not his shield.

see also:

• Haltbarkeitsverluste von Gegenständen, by mfb of indiablo.de
• how is durability loss calculated? in Phrozen Keep (presumably outdated?)

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repair cost

As long as an item isn't destroyed it is possible to repair it partly. This won't work if the item grants Charges. If the item is destroyed it can only be fully repaired.
Repair cost increases with durability loss. Elite items will cost a lot to repair, also some affices shoot repair cost through the roof. This comes to an extreme with runewords in superior items, which also grant staffmods.
I'm only aware of a very detailed german posting about vendor and blacksmith prices by Dosbis.
Non-ethereal weapons may be repaired along with an Ort Rune in the Horadric Cube; add any Chipped Gem and cubeing will also restore Charges.
Similar method works with armor pieces, just add a Ral Rune instead of an Ort; and add any Flawed Gem to restore Charges.

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normal item quality

Only white and grey items are differentiated in several qualities. Without explicit naming it is an item of 'normal' quality. 'low quality', 'cracked', 'crude' and 'damaged' quality items have lower figures in damage, defense and/or durability. 'superior' weapons will gain up to 15% enhanced base damage and a little bonus to Attack Rating; 'superior' armor pieces will gain up to 15% enhanced defense and a little bonus to durability.
Since 1.10 superior items will spawn with maximum durability of normal counterpart before boni.

ethereal items

Being ethereal grants an item a bonus of 50% to base weapon damage, respectively base defense. Such items have a decreased durability and cannot be repaired. Strength and dexterity requirements are decreased by 10 points each. They are always spawned with maximum durability possible.

dura_eth = [dura_norm / 2] + 1

dura_eth: durability of ethereal item dura_norm: (max) durability of normal counterpart

Items without durability and all set items will not spawn ethereal. The only existing exception is upgrading an ethereal rare or unique Crystal Sword or Dimensional Sword to a Phase Blade.

Items which spawn with 'indestructible' affix won't either spawn as ethereal. Since 1.10 there are some exceptions in Unique pool which will always spawn with both modifiers. They're both assigned in UniqueItems.txt, 'ethereal' is no subject to random spawning here.

In 1.10 ethereal armor pieces lost the 50% defense bonus via upgradeing.

Since 1.11 ethereal armor pieces of lower quality will cumulate another 50% defense bonus if upgraded to 'normal' quality..

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Sockets

base rules

iLvl ranges

1 ≤ iLvl ≤ 25

26 ≤ iLvl ≤ 40

41 ≤ iLvl

1. items which already have sockets can't get additional sockets
2. some items aren't allowed to get sockets
   • - Throwing Weapons
   • - Belts
   • - Gloves
   • - Shoes
   • - Jewelry
   • - Charms
3. there's a limit on each item class for maximum sockets
4. there's a limit on each item's internal level for maximum sockets,
   have a look at adeyke's Calculators for weapons and armors
5. a given unique, set or rare item may only get one socket, magical items may get two
   some will spawn with more sockets, but that doesn't affect this rule
6. ethereal items work similar

Larzuk

Larzuk will drill only one hole into Uniques, Sets or Rares. Magicals will either get one or two sockets, this is completely random (that is, if item allows two sockets). White (or ethereal grey) items will get maximum allowed socket count, but remember that maximum is subject to iLvl rules, too.
also refer to Atair's tables
The amount of sockets Larzuk grants is not dependent from difficulty or character level or anything other than item's internal level.
Keep in mind that a low quality item enhanced to a normal quality item via Horadric Cube will change to iLvl = 1, thus it gets only mimimum socket count.

Cube recipes

There's quite a bunch of recipes involving the Horadric Cube which have to do with socketing.

socketing recipes

recipe	result	note
3xPSks + Rare + SoJ	adds a socket	see rules 1 and 2 item stays same, plus socket
3xSGs + any socketed weapon	magical weapon of same base item plus one or two sockets	new weapon has iLvl = 30
3xCGs + magical weapon	magical weapon of same base item plus one or two sockets	new weapon has iLvl = 25
3xFGs + magical weapon	magical weapon of same base item plus one or two sockets	new weapon has iLvl = 30
1xTal + 1xThul + 1xPT + normal armor	normal armor with sockets	'normal' like in normal quality, ethereal items are also usable; random socket count {1, ..., 6}, if a figure beyond maximum socket count of item is rolled, maximum is taken
1xRal + 1xAmn + + 1xPA + normal weapon	normal weapon with sockets
1xRal + 1xThul + 1xPSa + normal helm	normal helm with sockets
1xTal + 1xAmn + 1xPR + normal shield	normal shield with sockets
1xHel + Scroll of Town Portal + socketed item with filling	removes filling	fillings are destroyed
also interesting
1xEld + 1xCG + low quality weapon	normal quality weapon	iLvl = 1, will only get minimum count of sockets
1xEl + 1xCG + low quality armor piece	normal quality armor piece

In 1.09 all circlets couls only get one socket. Since 1.10 Circlets and Coronets may gain two, Tiarae and Diadems even three sockets (rare quality also allows just two here).

see also:

• Sockelungen auf d2wissen
• all about sockets, by posterboy
• Arreat Summit

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Runewords

Putting successfully a runeword into an item some conditions must be met.
Those are

• you need the runes and the item ...
• you'll have to put the runes into the item in name order
• your item must have grey appearance, Runewords aren't allowed in Magicals, Rares, Sets or Uniques
• your item's socket count must exactly match needed rune count
• your Runeword must be allowed on that item,
  keep in mind there's a difference between
  • - Blunt Weapons, everything which works with Barbarian's Mace Mastery
  • - Maces (Club, Spiked Club and Mace, further Flail and respectively their exceptional and elite appearances)
  • - Hammers (War Hammer and its exceptional and elite appearance, further all two-handed Hammers)

see also:

• Runenwortsektion of d2wissen
• Runeword Section of Arreat Summit

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time to live of stuff on the ground

assumed time to live of dropped items in network games

stuff	includes	optimistic	pessimistic
white	white (normal)	10 min	5 min
	grey (socketed)
	grey (ethereal)
	grey (Runeword)
	Key
blue	Magic	20 min	10 min
	Runes
	Gems
colored	Rare	30 min	30 min
	Set
	Unique
Quest	Quest Items	never	see colored
Gold	Gold	see colored	see white

Especially since 1.10, and of course regarding network games, these are guiding rules only! A process called 'garbage collection' causes the game engine to check in varying pulses if there's any stuff left on the ground. This is no longer subject to player's activity or absence. Oldest stuff will be deleted, even in town, even if player's character stands right beside it. Only counteraction is touching stuff with mouse pointer from time to time; it is not necessary to put it into inventory, if there's no space left, the attempt of collecting stuff is enough.
Time to live for dropped items in Singleplayer mode is well documented via digging through the game code by Nefarius.
All the time data is without warranty of any kind in Multiplayer mode, don't come to me to complain.

maximum TimeToLive of dropped items in Singleplayer mode

stuff	includes	time frames	time minutes
Quest	Quest Items	never
colored	Rare	45 000	30
	Craft
	Tempered disabled
	Set
	Unique
blue	Magic	30 000	20
socketable	Gems	30 000	20
	Runes
	Jewels	see Magic and Rare
Gold	piles' value >10 000	30 000	20
Gold	piles' value ≤10 000	15 000	10
other	Books	15 000	10
	Scrolls
	Potions Elixirs
	Keys
	other

see also:

• evaporating items, beware, huge illustrations
• dropped item timers by Nefarius at the Keep

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corpse management

Game engine will manage up to 16 corpses of a very unlucky player.
However, if that unlucky player leaves the game one way or another, only one corpse is stored. It's the corpse which contents the most valuable items in terms of vendor prices. Those are not necessarily most valuable items in terms of player's opinion.
All other corpses will poof. Items stored with that corpses will pop to the ground.
This doesn't affect player's inventory.
Of course this FAQtoidlet is less important to the community of Hardcore mode players.

Leaving the game in a hurry using [Alt]+[F4] or [Cmd]+[Q], respectively, may cause player character being in full equipment, but with empty life bubble, and he's sometimes affected by experience and gold loss, sometimes isn't.
In Hardcore mode this may cause loss of your character's avatar in chatroom and lounge, and you can't enter a game anymore with this character. This character is lost then. You may call him Ex-Parrot.

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item colour

Coloured items will tint character's avatar, but only at some body parts, some of them very small. Leather caps will always look brown, but give a tint to avatar's face (causing seasick appearance of avatars wearing Harlequin Crest). White and grey named items don't have a tint, same for Runewords. Socketing runes won't change item colour or item tint.
Magicals and Rares will gain their colour by the affices, first generated affix will determine colour.
Socketed grey items will inherit colour of first socketed Gem or jewel affix.
Sets, Uniques, Rare and Magicals won't change colour due to socketing stuff into it. Uniques' and Sets' colours are defined regardless of affices.
Crafted items don't get a color assigned due to a bug.
In Patch 1.13 crafts can get the colour of socketed gems.

see also:

• item color in Amazon Basin
• Fashion Show indiablo.de, they've used uncoloured items as equipment, but you get an idea of different equip's appearance

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magical bonuslevel (magicLvl, aka bLvl)

Some items gain a special chance of getting better affices when spawned. Once upon a time this was called bonus level or short bLvl. In 1.1x context bLvl is used to talk about skill synergies, so to avoid confusion the bonus level is now called magic level (magLvl, magicLvl, whatever you want).
This magLvl is assigned to base items individually. In unmodified game this affects all circlets, two-handed staves, Orbs and all normal and exceptional Wands (but not the elite * ones here). See table for reference.

To calculate possible affices on an item with assigned magLvl you don't just take internal level (iLvl) to determine affix level (aLvl), but you use iLvl + magicLvl, thus increasing the affix pool.
This only affects spawning of such an item. Wearing a Tiara instead of a Bone Visage won't increase your gambling odds or affect your Magic Find when killing monsters.
Also calculations for Charges aren't affected by magLvl.

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quality codes

quality codes

1	low quality	low quality cracked crude damaged
2	normal	- omit addendum -
3	high quality	superior
4	magic	- omit addendum -
5	set	- omit addendum -
6	rare	- omit addendum -
7	unique	- omit addendum -
8	crafted	- omit addendum -

To add some fun for those readers eager to dig around in configuration data Hammerman gave quality codes used in some files.

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Credits

• Atair
• Blanchefleur
• Corugen
• Crystalion
• Hammerman
• ilkori
• mfb
• Myrdinn
• Nefarius
• nookiestar
• posterboy
• RTB
• Tub
• ]gta-maloy

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Contact me via E-Mail, if you like.

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