Crafted items

[Spiritofmars]

I have seen most ppl starting out want the elite stuff,or atleast some of the unique items.Why don't ppl choose to craft items?Instead of trading online or doing meph runs,i decided to craft some of the gear i needed,and i managed to craft some really awesome stuff.I mean,you get all sorts of cool mods on it,but hardly anyone uses it.Why?Am i missing something? :scratch:

[nafsasp]

I have seen most ppl starting out want the elite stuff,or atleast some of the unique items.Why don't ppl choose to craft items?Instead of trading online or doing meph runs,i decided to craft some of the gear i needed,and i managed to craft some really awesome stuff.I mean,you get all sorts of cool mods on it,but hardly anyone uses it.Why?Am i missing something? :scratch:

No you arent missing anything...I think that most people just dont know how to craft, or just dont think that it is worth it. Unfortunatly most of the really cool recipies were gone before in 1.09!

[Ichorid]

Am i missing something? :scratch:

Actually, as you can see on diabloii.net crafted items page, most of them were nerfed back in 1.09, and their usefulness was doubted. Although I've seen in some guides a referance to caster or safety (crafted) items, most ppl think they 're not that good.

[jiansonz]

For those who play like me (no moving of items between characters, no repeating of areas/bosses), crafted items are a godsend! Here is a copy from a post I wrote on the Single Player Forum with some hints/tips for crafting:




Crafting

I like this a lot. Like AlterEgo once wrote, crafting seems to be made for us who don´t move items between characters. I´ll go over the item types in order:

Armor and Helm: In my opinion, not worth the trouble. I always seem to want to use either armor with many sockets (runes/jewels for resists, topazes for MF, rubies for life, or IAS jewel(s)), runewords or the occasional unique. Headgear are usually a rare circlet, a runeword or a set/unique. Magical/crafted/rare helms just can´t match them.

Shields: I have not used it much. Often, I want either a shield with high blocking ('Rhyme') or with high resists (triple-perfect-diamond). But if you are really lucky, you can (with the caster and hitpower shield recipes) produce a shield with up to 30%-units more blocking than the basic shield type and with some other goodies, including + Paladin skills and possibly 2 sockets as well. If you want blocking when crafting a caster shield, it should by done with a Luna, since the blocking of Small/Round Shield sucks. Safety shields (which is done with the Kite Shield types) have a very special modifier not found aywhere else: resist magic 5-10 %.

Weapon: here we have some pecualiar recipes. Blood weapon uses axes (1-handed, 2-handed or throwing). Life steal, +life and some slight +% damage, along with 1-4 more affixes can produce some really good weapons. Safety weapon uses an expensive rune (Sol) and is done with spears or javelins. The pre-set abilities of those are nothing to write home about but it can be a good chance to produce a decent elite rare equivalent. Hitpower weapon is very versatile, as it can be done in any blunt weapon except orbs. Extra damage, Frost Shield and attacker takes damage. Very common rune is used (Tir). Untwinked melee characters almost can´t go wrong with this recipe if they use it with their first magical Truncheons/Tyrant Clubs they find in late NM. Finally, the Caster weapon recipe is excellent for caster Necromancers if done with a wand. Also uses a Tir. The pre-set abilities all boost mana in some way.

Gloves: often a good choice, since gloves is an item type where an excellent rare can hold its own against most of the set/unique ones. Of particular note are the Blood gloves with +life, life steal and 5-10% Crushing Blow and up to four more affixes. There is certainly potential for some dream fighter gloves. Hitpower gloves always have Knockback, which is of use for some character builds.

Boots: a clear favourite. Perfect rare/crafted boots beat just about all the set/uniques ones for most builds, because of the excellent abilities that can spawn on rare/crafted boots. Up to 30% Faster Run, up to 25% MF, Faster Hit Recovery and individual fire/cold/lightning resists up to 40%. Blood boots (uses the very common Eth rune) can be good for just about any build with the +life and life regeneration. Safety boots always get 5-10% fire resist. Caster boots are a good mana boost for casters. Slightly less common rune for those, though (Thul).

Belts: another favourite. All except the Hitpower variant have great uses. Note that they should be done in exceptional/elite belts to get 16 potions slots. For casters with very little STR, the Safety and Caster belts can be really good. A Demonhide Sash or Sharkskin Belt only requires 20 STR! The best way to get the magical exceptional belts needed is to shop in the first two acts in Nightmare. Blood belts have +life, life steal and 5-10% chance of Open Wounds, which is great for fighting characters.

Ring: I don´t use these very often. Three of the recipes uses Amn and the fourth uses Sol. There is just so much more fun/useful stuff you can do with these runes and they don´t exactly grow on trees...

Amulet: About the same as ring, but slightly more useful. The runes needed are slightly more common, on average (Amn, Ral, Thul, Thul). Many of the affixes that can spawn on a rare amulet are very good. Some of the pre-set modifiers are interesting: 5-10% Faster Run (Blood), +1-10% blocking (Safety) and 5-15% Monster Flee (Hitpower). The caster amulet is clearly the cheapest in terms of the rune needed (Ral).