One of my friends told me about

[Myradin]

some recipe for a 3 socket balrog blade. Well I have a balrog blade now and he said there was a thing I could do by transmuting the blade with gems? Is he correct?

thanks in advance.

[Fercil]

The only way to get 3 sockets normal balrog blade is the recipe Ral + Amn + perf amethyst + weapon but you would have only 1/6 chance of getting 3 sockets since max for balrog blade is 4 sockets. My guess would be that your friend is remembering the old 1.09 recipe 3 chipped gems + magical sword = magical sword of same type with rerolled stats and 3 sockets. That however doesn't work on latest patch anymore.

[krischan]

Apart from the problem of getting the right number of sockets, check here (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/runewords.shtml) for runewords. Don't forget to read all the comments at the top and the bottom of the page.

I suggest not to invest any expensive rune, as long as you don't know exactly what you are doing. Better ask in these forums before, e.g. "I want to put runeword X into weapon Y, what do you think about it ?".

A good and fairly cheap runeword for a 3 socket sword is Crescent Moon, for example, mainly because of its chance to cast static field (lightning sorc skill) on a hit. It still depends on which character the weapon is intended for.

[Myradin]

Ah great, thanks alot for the info guys.

[Masterchriswong]

So there's no recipe for mixing swords with gems to hopefully get a better sword now? Well in means of 3gems of some sort +sword. I notice a lot of people want perfect gems now instead of chips how come?

[Orphan]

So there's no recipe for mixing swords with gems to hopefully get a better sword now? Well in means of 3gems of some sort +sword. I notice a lot of people want perfect gems now instead of chips how come?

Thats because of this recipe:

3 Perfect Gems (of any type) + 1 Magic Item = 1 New Random Magic Item of the Same Type

What it basically does is rerolls the magic item and gives it new stats (for better or for worse). Almost everyone uses this recipe to reroll grand charms, in the hopes of getting a +skill tab, althought it can be used with other magical items as well.

[jiansonz]

So there's no recipe for mixing swords with gems to hopefully get a better sword now? Well in means of 3gems of some sort +sword.

Yes, there are! And they now work with all weapons.

* 1 magical weapon + 3 chipped gems => new magical weapon with 1-2 sockets (50/50 chance)

* 1 socketed weapon + 3 regular gems (i.e. Ruby, Skull, etc.) => magical weapon with 1-2 sockets (50/50 chance)

* 1 magical weapon + 3 flawless gems => new magical weapon with 1-2 sockets (50/50 chance)

Because of how affix levels are calculated, you need a weapon with a quality level of 76 or more to have a chance for the weapon to get Cruel on it. That´s basically the three 'highest' elite weapons of each weapon type. Check d2data.net for quality levels of the different weapons. As an example, Crusader-, Ward-, Hydra Bows, the same three 2h- and the same three 1h-swords that worked in 1.09 can get Cruel.

Note that if you have used one of those recipes on a weapon, all three of them can be used for subsequent cubing of this weapon, as it´s now both magical and socketed. Also note that the middle recipe can be used on ANY weapon with a socket, even uniques (which will also turn into a magical weapon of that type, with 1-2 sockets)


So you won´t get 3 sockets any more, but these recipes can still be very useful, especially if you play untwinked (character only uses what he/she finds). This can be useful already in act 2 Normal with early sorceress orbs, as the +skills will also be rerolled, and you´ll get at least one socket in it.