cubing magic items

[yramrag]

Hi, I have some questions about cubing magical items, and I was wondering if I understood it right.

For example, let's say I'd like to cube "shimmering" grand charms: looking on the arreat summit site, it says they have a qlvl of 35 for [13..15]% resit all.
Using the "3 perfect gems + 1 magic item" cube recibe, we know that input ilvl = output ilvl.
So, in order to narrow the range of possible affixes, the best way to proceed would be to find a grand charm with a ilvl of 35.
Looking at nobbie's magic find guide, Halls of Vaught in Normal Act5 and Blood Moor/Cold Plains in NM Act1 have an arealvl of 36, which means that charms dropping from normal monsters, chest, etc. should have an ilvl of 36.
Since there are no affixes for grand charms with qlvl=36, there should be no difference between (grand) charms with ilvl=35 or ilvl=36.

Is it right, or am I completely lost?


yramrag

[adeyke]

The AS affix pages are worthless Even if it's sometimes right, it cannot be trusted to always be right. In this case, though, yes, the 13-15% resist all Shimmering grand charm affix does require alvl 35+.

You're also mixing up terminology. qlvl = the level of the base item. Grand charms always have 1. alvl = affix level, calculated from both qlvl and ilvl.

With qlvl 1 items, alvl = ilvl. So you do need ilvl 35+. An ilvl 35 grand charm has a 0.310559% chance of Shimmering. An ilvl 36 grand charm also has a 0.310559% chance of Shimmering.

In normal difficulty, monsters don't have their mlvl set to the area's level. So, while Halls of Vaught are level 36, the normal monsters there happen to be mlvl 37-40. Blood Moor and Cold Plains in nightmare do have mlvl 36 normal monsters.

[yramrag]

Thank you for the quick reply :)
Yes, I thought I was missing something on ilvl/qlvl/alvl... but also I thought at least the info on AS pages were correct... :/

btw, are there any "suggested reading" to have a more in-depth view of game mechanics?

[Caaroid]

btw, are there any "suggested reading" to have a more in-depth view of game mechanics?

adeyke's posts :)

It would be nice if one could arse him into puting it all to one page, but alas no such luck so far.

Thankfully, he'll answer your questions fast enough, so there :)