Chips? Perfects? What's the difference for cubing?

[codzilla]

I know that 3 chips or 3 perfects will "reroll" a magic item, but what exactly is the difference between rerolling with chips and rerolling with perfects?

[Jaimes]

Late nighter like me huh? (or diff timezone, at least)

As far as I understand it... 3 pgems will reroll a magic item, and 3 chippeds will reroll/add sockets. Here are the formulae I found from battle.net/diablo2exp:

3 Chipped Gems + 1 Magic Weapon = Socketed Magic Weapon (ilvl=25)
3 Flawless Gems + 1 Magic Weapon = Socketed Magic Weapon (ilvl=30)
3 Perfect Gems (of any type) + 1 Magic Item = 1 New Random Magic Item of the Same Type (ilvl=ilvl)

From the formula, nothing seems very special about the 3 chipped gems recipe to me. Anyone else have any input?

Edit: changed formulas to formulae :D

[Shade]

3 Chipped Gems + 1 Magic Weapon = Socketed Magic Weapon (ilvl=25)
3 Flawless Gems + 1 Magic Weapon = Socketed Magic Weapon (ilvl=30)
3 Perfect Gems (of any type) + 1 Magic Item = 1 New Random Magic Item of the Same Type (ilvl=ilvl)

From the formula, nothing seems very special about the 3 chipped gems recipe to me. Anyone else have any input?

If you remember back in 1.09 that a certain 6 swords were used with the 3-chip recipe in an effort to create Cruel weapons with 3 sockets, you can see why it can be useful.

The 3-chip recipe now only adds 1-2 sockets, but it can also allow weapons with high Quality Level (qlvl) to obtain high affixes - like Cruel.

To get Cruel weapons you'd need to use a weapon with qlvl >= 75. You can check qlvls at d2data.net in their Base Item section.

[Gorny]

Also, if you are playing on ladder on one of the realms and you want to upgrade one of the runes that is higher that Thul( 3 runes of the same type = next hghest rune), you will need a specific gem. Depending on which 3 runes you are upgrading, you may need specific chipped, flawed, or other gem grade.

[Ragnar the Unknowing]

Doesn't that rule apply in Single Player and other forms of play as well?

[xOSERx]

Yes, the "Ladder Only" recipes work for single player characters and Ladder Characters on the realms. Not sure about anything else, though.

-Oser