Gems + Skulls + Jewels + Runes . . .

[diablo1ks]

Hi,

First of all I have got my information from this site:
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/

I am just curious which of these I should use and which are worthless really, I understand that it depends on your character class and what you already have . . . Any response would be appreciated B)

Note - I am currently using Diablo2LOD (unmodified)

PS - Is this 'Topic' in the wrong place ?

[MMAgCh]

These are pretty much all worth hanging on to for some reason or another.

Gems are pretty handy for stuff like crafting, rerolling magic items, upgrading uniques/rares (in 1.1) and so on. For the most part these all use perfect gems, so usually you should try and get your gems upgraded as often as possible. The Arreat Summit has both crafting and cube recipes documented reasonably well, so check them out.

Jewels are used in crafting recipes as well, though those will accept any magical jewel. For that reason alone it's worth holding on to a number of "junk jewels" if you decide to take up crafting.
Some jewels, such as those with enhanced damage and IAS, or resist all, may also be worth keeping for use in socketed items, but they aren't very common.

Runes are used for crafting, runewords (and upgrading items in 1.1). Again, depending on which crafting recipes you want to use, you should keep some of the required runes in your stash. I don't pick up runes below Tal unless I need them for recipes or runewords. Once you're in about Act 5 Normal, stuff in the Eth-Shael range drops fairly regularly, and those are the runes that are "consumed" in recipes the most. Some of them, like Amn and Shael, also are put into socketed items (weapons, mostly).
The runes from Dol on are fairly rare, and I'd keep them just because you don't know when you're going to see them again. :)

Bottom line: gems are almost always useful as long as they're perfect, jewels are used for crafting but can also have good magic mods themselves, runes have a number of uses, but most don't do anything worthwhile by themselves.
I'd suggest browsing the AS some more, look at the crafting and cube recipes, the rune words. Like you said, it depends on what character(s) you have. Once you know what you can do that way, you'll know which of these miscellaneous items to keep and which to sell.

[diablo1ks]

Thanks for the reply (It has being extremely helpful)

PS - I noticed that 40 people have viewed this Topic and only '1 post' !
Please . . . even the smallest facts will be helpful :)

[Bob]

so usually you should try and get your gems upgraded as often as possible

Decent advice, but don't apply it to chipped gems, these are far more valuable unupgraded, and since you'd need 81 to make a perfect...

oh, and with the new rune upgrade recipes, you may have to keep some in other qualities
Chips have 3 uses now:

1) the sword recipe (3 chips + magic sword = rerolled mods on the sword and 3 sockets)

2) rune upgrading (sometimes the new recipes require chips)

3) trading, lots of people will accept chips for trade on low-ish level stuff (when you're most likely to find chips), it's value to them is usually for the sword recipe (almost all my trading has been done with chips)

-Bob

[eppie]

Thanks for the reply (It has being extremely helpful)

PS - I noticed that 40 people have viewed this Topic and only '1 post' !
Please . . . even the smallest facts will be helpful  :)

Okay, my own use of thoses small stone-like things.

That runeupgrade is very nice. I like the shael rune a lot (I tend to start new characters quite often, so I have just one Hell character in 2 years playing,) form to low level ones at least.
That increased attack speed is for a barb very handy, with a few of these it is possible to play comfortably with a normally slow attack speed axe or something.. Some runes give just some extra fire damage or so, in that case a perfect ruby is just as well. But like shael there are runes that give you these "special" mods (is that the right word?)

And about that three gems and a magic sword recipe, is that also working with other blue items now?.

Anyway, jewels ver often are not good. You want the ones with 2 or more mods on them, because like 5 to extra damage is a waste of a socket.

When I have a nice (but not super) weapon with 3 or more sockets I usually put some perfect gems in them for elemental damage, also because these perfect gems are not ver rare.
And most important, if you have a good, rune, gem or whatever, don't waste it on the first sockted item you see, be sure you will use the item for some time otherwise you have thrown away a nice rune/gem.

Aah , and find all the cube recipe for the version you are playing, crafting and cubing are very nice ways of doing something worthwhile with your runes/gems.jewels.
Sorry about the layout of my reply but I hope it helps you a bit.

[adeyke]

In 1.10, the chippy recipe's gone. It also becomes much less clear what should be upgraded and what shouldn't. There's a recipe somewhat like the chippy one that uses standard gems and one that uses flawless gems. So there are times when these shouldn't be upgraded. In addition, the rune upgrades theoretically use everything from chipped to flawless gems, so if you want to use one of the recipes, you'll need some of every type of gem.

[Cougar]

If I'm reading the Arreat Summit right, the chips+sword formula has now been changed to suit all magical items, and you now need perfect gems. Unless I just accidentally missed the old sword formula, this will really change the gem economy.

[adeyke]

The AS is wrong. The description of the 3 perfect gem is wrong. The recipe is 3 perfect gems + magic item = new magic item of same type and same ilvl (and no added sockets). This existed in 1.09 and still exists in 1.10.

As I said above, the chippy recipe is replaced by standard gem and flawless gem recipes:
3 standard gems + socketed weapon = new magic weapon of same type and ilvl 30, with 1-2 sockets
3 flawless gems + magic weapon = new magic weapon of same type and ilvl 30, with 1-2 sockets

[Occhidiangela]

1 staff
1 kris
1 belt
1 chipped diamond (or flawed, etc.)

Yields a Savage Pole Arm. These are handy weapons to put onto your act II merc or to give to a Werewolf Druid in Act II or III.

I recently cubed a 10-100 damage Lochbar Axe using that recipe. :) Handy for my merc until I find an uber pike or a lance.

A great Runeword for your merc is

Malice

Ith El Eth in a three socketed Pike or Poleaxe, even better if Ethereal.

Why is it so nice? While it does not have uber mods, the Prevent Monster Heal, Open Wounds, and - Targets DR are very handy for stoppin monster regeneration.

My other favorite easy to get Rune Word is Strength: Amn Tir

With a two socketed lance, preferably Ethereal, this gives your Act II merc

25% Crushing BLow
7 % Life Leach
+ 20 to Strength, which means yet another 20% addition to base damage

The Life Leach goes a long way toward making your merc a self healing machine. :)

[diablo1ks]

Please excuse the irrelevance of this topic, but I didn't want to spam the forums with newb questions :unsure:

I am now on act 4 and have large amounts of runes collecting up in my stash, most of which are 'Eld' and 'Tir'. How can I upgrade them?

Note - I am currently using Diablo 2 LOD (Unmodified)

[MMAgCh]

I am now on act 4 and have large amounts of runes collecting up in my stash, most of which are 'Eld' and 'Tir'. How can I upgrade them?

Put three runes of the same type into the Horadric Cube and hit 'Transmute'. Voila, one rune of the next higher level. This works up to Thul, in 1.1 it's possible to do this all the way to Zod, though the recipes are slightly different.

[diablo1ks]

Put three runes of the same type into the Horadric Cube and hit 'Transmute'. Voila, one rune of the next higher level. This works up to Thul, in 1.1 it's possible to do this all the way to Zod, though the recipes are slightly different.

I thought that I had already tried this but I tried it again anyway . . .

I placed the following into the cube and flicked the trasmute button . . .

My Results:

3 Tir: No Change

3 Eld: No Change

3 El: No Change

Maybe it's my version, I did say that I was on Diablo 2 LOD (Unmodified) :(

[unless]

Have you updated your game to the most current version? Perhaps this recipe was added in after the initial release.

[diablo1ks]

I think it would be better if I downloaded a patch now to save any further problems. A few questions if you don’t mind:

- Which patch shall I dl?
I currently play Diablo 2 LOD Single Player

- Would it be worth dl 1.10, before I get used to an earlier version?

- The computer I play Diablo on is not connected to the internet so I will have to save it onto a disk then transfer it, will it take up more than 1 floppy disk?

[adeyke]

1.10 is still in the beta stage. There's no guarantee that save games will be compatible between the beta and 1.10 final (they weren't between the two betas, so about all items disappeared). It's for testing, not playing.

I'd download 1.09b, which is rather like the newest final patch (1.09d) except that a bug has not yet been added. The patch is about 1.7 megs for Windows or 4.7 megs for Macs.

[unless]

On the other hand, 1.10 is a lot more fun (imo), and getting used to 1.09 may be somewhat senseless for a new player. Your call, really.

[Occhidiangela]

Most of the current info on the game covers that patch, most of the info at Arreat Summit aims toward that patch, and most forums have plenty of folks well educated in the nuances of 1.09d. The other advantage is that if you want to play on bnet, you need 1.09d to do it.

[diablo1ks]

1.09d it is then :)