Rare item creation

[adeyke]

It makes perfect sense now.  I just didn't realize that the rarity of each group added together to form a higher rarity.  I thought that each group had its own rarity associated with it when determining what group to choose.  It, in fact, does, but by the added rarities of each of the affixes in each group. 
I'm interested in where you found the rarities for these affixes though.  I currently use d2data.net for its item/affix/tc database, but it didn't mention anything about rarity on anything other than unique/set items.

To find the rarities, I looked it up in the Affic Calculator.

Another question on item creation regarding Ilvls and Alvls.  I rushed my char to act 5 really fast and did anya's quest.  When I got the rare claw from her, I was surprised to see that I couldn't use it.  From my understanding, Alvl can not be higher than the Ilvl, and since my assassin was at level 1 when she got the claw, I assume the Ilvl would be 1.  But the Clvl req on it was 4, meaning there was an Alvl of 6 or 7 on the claw.  It could be like how small charms of life can spawn with an Ilvl of 1, but require a Clvl of 14, but I haven't seen any affixes like that on claws/weapons.
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Your assumption is wrong. The alvl can be higher than the ilvl. Generally speaking, the alvl cannot be higher than max(qlvl, ilvl). However, even for this, there are exceptions. Some items have a magic_lvl. In these cases, the alvl will be equal to max(qlvl, ilvl) + magic_lvl (capped at 99). It so happens that all sorceress orbs have a magic_lvl of 1, so the alvl will always be max(qlvl, ilvl) + 1 for those.

The magic_lvl is also the cause of the diadem effect. Diadems have a qlvl of 86 and a magic_lvl of 18. So their alvl will always be max(86, ilvl) + 18, which is greater than or equal to 86 + 18 = 104 (though it's then capped at 99). So regardless of ilvl, the alvl will always be 99.