A little confused regarding crafted item benefits, in respect to item level.

Hey folks,

Apologies first off, I never quite understood how to create an in-line image on this site, so I hope you will take a look anyway and comment if you can see the image link below..







The image is comparing a sword I crafted to two other swords, 1 and 2 levels above mine. The basic dps stats remain the same for the 'stock' swords, as ever, however the bonuses for the swords are shown and they puzzle me.

What I don't follow is why my level 6 sword seems as good or better than the level 8 that I purchased. I was of the understanding that if you can take an item up a further 2 levels (I can't right now due to the failure rate vs my skill level), the bonuses would be fairly dramatic.

I seem to have an extra buff on it, despite not yet having attuned it, which I will do once I get it up a few more levels, plus most of the stats seem better than the 2 level higher sword.

My level 8 sword is old, very old. Have there been some stat bonus adjustments (upwards) for crafting since I bought it?

Many thanks.
Steevo

 

Hey Steevo, I'll try to give some answers to the best of my knowledge. (Can't see the picture btw.)

The stat bonuses grow a bit according to the skill level of the crafter. There are also minor and major stat buffs from enchanting (major being twice as large). As far as I know it's just randomness which one pops up in the enchanting process once you are high enough to get the major. (Could also be increased chance with skill?)

There are so many different combinations of master works/enchantments and materials that the number only doesn't necessarily say much about the power of the item. Also a single master works/enchantment can add +1, +2 or more, depending on how it's valued by the game and the amount of durability it subtracts, so two +8 items doesn't necessarily have the same amount of master works/enchants.

I'm not sure if there are different stats on weapons from older versions of the crafting system, or if they were modified automatically.

 

You can gain +1 on the initial crafting of a weapon when you get lucky and its exceptional(+50 durability). You will also get +1 when you add a gem to the weapon.

You can then enchant the weapon with 5 gold ingots and 10 mandrake root per attempt. The minor enchantments add +1, and are minor focus, minor health, minor dex, minor Intel, and minor strength.

Once the player gets skilled enough they can also start getting +2 versions of each of the enchantments above and they are essentially twice as powerful.

After socketing a weapon with a gem, if you have a high enough skill you can also get special procs that are +3. For example on a wand with the sorcery gem(fire), you can add an enchantment that increases fire damage. You can also get a durability enchant once your skill is at 98 that makes the weapon last longer and adds +3.

Each masterwork attempt uses 5 silver ingots. Most masterworks add +2, except there is also a durability mw that adds base durability (+15 for gloves, boots, helm and +30 for legs, chest, and weapons) and this is a +3. Most masterworks are good except focus and health, so you almost never see them applied since you get 3 choices.

All of these options are completely random, each attempt you are given 3 choices out of the many available.

For an example you could put 3 enchantments on a sword, minor focus, minor health, and minor Intel that would make it +3. And another example you could have minor strength and strength to give it a +3. The first would add small amounts of focus, health, and Intel and be pretty much worthless, while the latter example would add 8-10 strength depending on the crafters skill level.

So while the number can be an indicator of how much work has been done on an item, the actual buffs are what make something valuable.

 

@Adam Crow covered most of it perfectly.

I would only like to add a couple notes:

1. Based on your OP where you said you would "attune" it after you get it up a few more levels... In general, it's best to socket the newly crafted weapon with a gem FIRST. If it has a gem in it, you will then get chances at the special procs when you master work it. Without the gem socketed, you are limited to the basic stat buff options.

2. Depending upon your intentions, you should modify your weapon in the following orders:
Crafting a single weapon that you hope to use right away and/or you are just skilling up your MW/Enchant skills
A. Add a Gem on Alchemy Table
B. Master work 2 times on the appropriate Table (BS or Carpentry)
C. Enchant 2 times on the Alchemy Table

Crafting many weapons to get at least 1 really good one (Helps a lot if these are "Exceptional" with +50 Durability)
A. Add a Gem to all of them on Alchemy Table
B. Masterwork all of them once on the appropriate table (BS or Carpentry) - raising your MW skill(s)
C. Masterwork all of them again - raising your MW skill(s)
D. Masterwork all of them again - RISKY STAGE where you may lose most if not all of them - raising your MW skill(s) --- If you lose them all, make another batch of weapons and start over with A.
E. Enchant all of the remaining weapons once on Alchemy Table - raising Enchanting Skill(s)
F. Enchant all of them again - raising Enchanting Skill(s)
G. If you feel brave and if they have enough durability left, Enchant all of them once more.

The reason behind the method for multiple weapons is that in order to have a great weapon, you should have at least 3 masterworks and 2 or 3 Enchants. It will save you some gold ingots this way if you don't Enchant them before attempting the 3rd MW (which is very likely to explode and you will have wasted the gold ingots from 1 or 2 Enchants). So, get a small crop of 3 MW items before trying to Enchant any of them.

You could also do 3 Enchants first, then start MW... but silver ore is easier to get than gold ore IMO so it's better to take more risks with the MW part.

 

Hey folks, thank you all. I wish I could work out how to show the image

 

I've found that sometimes, when you copy the location of an image to the clipboard, then paste it into the IMG dialog, the file extension doesn't paste, which will prevent the image from showing. Some sites also have dynamic images which aren't directly a displayed image (meme generators, for one; often the image with text is being generated by a script) which means there is no link to a specific image file. Also, some hosts are picky about the difference between .jpg and .JPG.

 

• You were trying to share a dropbox link, the instructions should be in the interface of dropbox.
• I quoted your post, turned it into BBS code, then took your link and removed everything after and including the '?'
  from:
  "https://www.dropbox.com/s/heoiv1z9z3jhkpf/sword_comp.gif?dl=0"
  to:
  "https://www.dropbox.com/s/heoiv1z9z3jhkpf/sword_comp.gif"
• Then I used that link as an url to get to the image in your dropbox
• Then I right clicked the image and selected "Copy image address"
  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/c...5I2EUcd2X1N55&raw=1&size=1024x768&size_mode=3
  Which is the 'share' link of your dropbox pic.
• Then I took that and put in the image link

 

There is a lot of focus on the number of "pluses" that the item has, but that is not the only part of the equation. There is also the craft materials used, which can have a big impact on the items capabilities.

Components are broken into three tiers:

• Tier 1 is available in most scenes, and includes Iron, Copper, Maple, Pine, Cotton, plain Leather.
• Tier 2 requires special materials in order to refine it, and includes Bronze, Constantan, Meteoric Iron, White Iron, Crimson Pine, Grey Pine, Hard Maple, Rock Maple, Carapacian, Fustian, Supple Leather, and Hardened Leather.
  • Between T2 and T3 are special recipes that don't really match either tier, like Bone Plate and Obsidian gear.
• Tier 3 are drops and/or salvaged from drops, and includes things like Elven Bow Strings, Bandit Blades, etc.

Higher tiers tend to have better stats associated with them. You can craft two items with the same Enchants and Masterworks, and have one be much better than the other if it is created with better materials.

 

Did you mean to black out both swords crafters names?

Also hold CTRL while hovering on the item to see what each + represents.

 

If you hold down control, you get an expanded view that shows each buff separately. From what I'm seeing, your +6 does more blade damage overall, but the +8's will do more damage with the stone arrow spell. Especially if you dual wield them at the same time, they would add 31.6% damage to stone arrow. If you don't use stone arrow a lot, I would probably stick with the +6.

That being said, they are all pretty similar, so you shouldn't see a huge difference while using any of them. They're all nice swords.

 

..No its ok, the named one is me. I didn't feel i had the right to disclose name of the other maker, plus it wasn't relevant to my query.

All of you taking your time to explain has helped a great deal. The randomness, which I theoretically understood, hadn't really sunk in, in practice. I see now how a weapon with a lower + value can in practice be better than a higher one.

Thanks to Spoon, you can see the image of the two words side by side. Which is the better weapon?

 

The better weapon is all personal _ I still can not see the pictures but I can tell you any two +11 items can be extremely different. One may be Awesome for one person and totally useless to the other.

Now when you are crafting - if you want specific properties from gems add them first, if you want base properties wait on the gems.

While shopping remember that you have to first understand your own play style - do you want Str, Dex, or intel. Do you use death magic and Fire, or are you a swords man. Are you an archer who uses life to heal?

Does that make more sense since items can be crafted to have very different and specific additions the more +(s) you have means it took more effort and ones that balance out things like a really good magical one. Focus, spell crit, additions to specific spells. of if you are a mele guy Damage, Damage resist, str . . . .

That is why I say that two +11 can be great and terrible at the same time.

As for what they at worth - well the economy is still in flux and will take a lot of time to balance out.

 

Hold down the control key to see the itemized bonuses for that stuff that made the item. Every enchant/masterwork gives you a choice of three random bonuses, plus there are bonuses based on the materials used.

 

I've noticed the same thing as Steevo. Submitted is a screen shot of the first decent copper plate armor that I ever crafted. Notice that it's max durability is still at 170 in spite of the enhancements that have been added. Beside it is a White Iron breastplate that I made much later with a much higher skill and although the enhancements are greater the amount of durability that it took to get them there, with no failures, seems to be a lot more. In addition to this I haven't been able to help but notice that I have to repair the better armor far more often than I ever recall repairing the Copper armor since around the time of the patch that changed the durability of all items was installed. Keeping in mind that my skills to preserve my armor have also increased greatly since wearing the old stuff as well.

My shield takes it the worse.

My old copper piece is almost like an artifact compared to my much newer white iron piece.

 

The copper chest is exceptional and it has fewer buffs on it, that's why it has so much more durability. The white iron piece started with only 150 durability instead of 200 like the copper one and the strength bonus at day is a special proc that removes 30 durability. Most buffs only remove 10-20 durability when applied, but those special ones remove 30.

 

Since to my knowledge at the masterwork station, the gem socket makes no difference in the choices offered, it makes sense to complete your masterwork before socketing. This will save some gems which would be lost on masterwork failure. After getting your masterworked equipment done, socket the items with the desired gem before enchanting.

 

Slight addendum to Aldo's comment: Don't socket the gem before enchanting an item if you don't want any of the additional gem-specific enchants (meaning you only want the attunement bonus from the gem.)