Soc'ing question

[jozipper]

So, I need a 5 soc double axe for my Neccy. I pop in to norm, go visit Fara, second try she has a white double for cheap. Ok, good so far, but here's where I get confused.

Larzuk will give max sockets, which is 5, unless the ilvl is too low.

From this page:
http://www.diabloii.net/items/sockets-list.shtml

If it's ilvl is 25 or above I'm golden. However, I have no idea what the ilvl of an item shopped from norm Fara is. Is there any way to tell. Perhaps someone has a list of what ilvl's item's shopped form NPC's are according to area lvl.

Or, you can just ignore all of that and just let me know if this axe will get 5 socs or not.

If not, is there a better place I should be shopping for one?

[muzzz]

Sorry, it won't. If you're still interested in vendor ilvl details, check out the relevant chapter in the item generation tutorial. As usual, the clicky's in the sticky.

[jozipper]

Thanks oodles. For some reason I missed that guide and I couldn't find the relevant info under the Knowledge section in the sticky.

From the relevant Chapter :winks::
All items at shops have ilvl=clvl+5. In normal difficulty there is ilvl caps for every Act: 12 for act 1, 20 for act 2, 28 for act 3, 36 for act 4 and 45 for act 5. In Nightmare and Hell item levels are not capped

So, if I'm readind this right, any Double axe I shop from Act3 Norm on will get the 5 soc's for me?

[krischan]

No, because from character level 20 on (resulting in ilvl 25 items in shops), vendors won't sell nonmagical items anymore.

[helvete]

You might want to try a few NM cows. Little or no danger, easy to kill, and double axes drop frequently.

[jozipper]

Ughh .. ofcourse it couldnt be that simple.

In normal difficulty all normal monsters have fixed levels, that may be found in monstats.txt file. In Nightmare and Hell difficulties all normal monsters have levels equal to area levels, where they are placed.


All monsters have treasure classes, written in monstats.txt file. When you kill a monster in normal difficulty the game simply uses his TC to drop items

These two quotes seem contradictory to me. I think it would be more clear if I had the monstats.txt file. The author keeps alluding to it, but it seems incomplete in the guide. Where can I get this file? It also seems like I need a list of weapons lvl's. For example if a monster is mlvl=x, but the item I'm looking for is ilvl=x+1, then that particular monster would not be able to drop it, right?


Also, is this true--> TC = ilvl? ... a normal monster in a tc 25 would then drop items of an ilvl of 25? Or is it that Tc = mlvl and those monsters can drop any item that is of an ilvl of equal or lesser value to their mlvl? Just for normal monsters I mean. From what I read, it seems that normal monsters may have a fixed level that is possibly lower or higher than the TC of the area they are placed in.

And then from the tc's listed in this post:
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=416239

It looks like a tc of 25 and above starts in Durance lvl 3, unless you count the Moo moo farm. So I think maybe Norm cows would be my best bet?

Sorry, if I'm way off, but all this stuff is new to me. Thanks for all the help so far.

@Helvete - thanks, I'll give it a shot.

[muzzz]

A monster's TC determines what item types it can drop. The game uses the TC, as well as some other stuff and lots of random numbers, to determine what sort of item to drop. Once it's done that, it sets the new item's ilvl to the level of whatever dropped the item. If necessary, the ilvl is then used to determine things like magic affixes or maximum sockets.

[thegiantturtle]

ilvl and tc are not related. ilvl = mlvl of the monster that dropped an item. If hell baal drops a small sword, it's an ilvl 99 short sword, even though the sword is from TC3.

In general most monsters drop from a max TC slightly higher than their mlvl. You can use ATMA (A single player muling utility with a handy drop calculator available in the single player forum) to figure out exactly what TC each monster can drop from and what monsters and drop what items.

In your case, you want a double axe (TC 15). And you want it to have ilvl in the range [25, 40]. Luckily, all monsters in that ilvl range can drop from TC 15.


Note that you will never see a 5 socket item drop in normal. The maximum number of sockets that can drop on an item in normal is capped at 3. This in now way affects the socket quest in normal or socketing items dropped in normal.

[jiansonz]

IIRC, Normal Hell Bovines are level 28, so that ought to be a good place to go.

I don´t know what character helvete is playing with, but NM cow level is usually a nerve-wrecking and damn dangerous place to be for me...

[helvete]

IIRC, Normal Hell Bovines are level 28, so that ought to be a good place to go.

I don´t know what character helvete is playing with, but NM cow level is usually a nerve-wrecking and damn dangerous place to be for me...

IIRC you don't rerun areas? :D I do, so I play with a lot of different characters. My TO necro can clear NM cows in a minute. However, the king dies, so he can't open it himself...

[helvete]

ilvl and tc are not related. ilvl = mlvl of the monster that dropped an item. If hell baal drops a small sword, it's an ilvl 99 short sword, even though the sword is from TC3.

In general most monsters drop from a max TC slightly higher than their mlvl. You can use ATMA (A single player muling utility with a handy drop calculator available in the single player forum) to figure out exactly what TC each monster can drop from and what monsters and drop what items.

In your case, you want a double axe (TC 15). And you want it to have ilvl in the range [25, 40]. Luckily, all monsters in that ilvl range can drop from TC 15.


Note that you will never see a 5 socket item drop in normal. The maximum number of sockets that can drop on an item in normal is capped at 3. This in now way affects the socket quest in normal or socketing items dropped in normal.
Isn't 5 sox max for a double axe? I'd think the sockets would go 3-4-5 for the ilvls 1-24, 25-40, 41+

[krischan]

Actually it's 4/5/5 for double axes (see here (http://www.diabloii.net/items/sockets-list.shtml)), but perhaps was the final paragraph of thegiantturtle's posting which you didn't understand ...

The 3 socket cap on items *when they drop from monsters/chests/whatever* in normal mode is independent from the ilvl cap. Items which get socketed by the reward or by the recipe in that difficulty level aren't subject to that cap and they aren't limited like that if found in normal and being socketed with the cube or the reward. Only their ilvl matters in that case.

[helvete]

The part that confused me was that he said "you want it to have ilvl in the range [25, 40]". When he should have said "you want it to have ilvl 25 or greater".