As most of you probably know, you can upgrade the base item of rares and uniques using the horadric cube. For example if you had a rare light plate, you could upgrade the item to a mage plate and then an archon plate using the cube. I learned a brutal lesson today regarding a non-intuitive “feature” of the cube when upgrading a unique armor with enhanced defense.
Typically when an armor has an “enhanced defense” it assumes the maximum defense of the base item. For example, the Vampire Gaze unique grim helm always has 100% enhanced defense, so it will always have 252 defense (not exactly, but a rounding error away from double the maximum defense of 125 for the grim helm base item).
Apparently, upgraded items do not follow the same rule of using the maximum base item defense. With respect to upgraded armors, they appear to roll then defense stat (instead of taking on the maximum) and then apply the enhanced defense modifier.
I learned this the hard way when I upgraded a one-stat-off perfect ethereal Vampire Gaze from an exceptional “grim helm” (125 max base defense) to an elite “bone visage” (100-157 defense range). The defense of the item DROPPED from 378 to 338.
Well, that was painful and expensive lesson to learn, but I hope I can inform others about this feature.
I went through your post history and of your 46 posts a total of zero provide any useful information to anyone. Consider being less of a troll and less pathetic - if possible. If being pathetic is a part of your DNA, feel free to carry on as usual.
No the bug is that you upgraded an ethereal, the recipe doesn’t recalculate the ethereal bonus so you ended up with the same defense as a non-ethereal elite vamp gaze. Thanks for the sacrifice btw, I was wondering if the bug was still there.
That’s not true. I’ve upped two different eth Vamp Gazes and they got different defenses. In one instance I gained about 30 defense (~407 def) and in the other I lost about 40 defense (338 def). 407 defense if well over double the maximum defense a bone visage base can have (157 defense), so the ethereal bonus must of been added.
If i remember correctly that is the way it always worked. Back in D2LoD, i once upgraded my barb’s perfect 200/6 Arreat’s face from exceptional to elite and the def barely changed at all.
An item especially armor has a range that it’s defense can roll. So when an item is upgraded it is given a new range and it rolls from that range again. This can potentially result in a lower or almost no change in the defense of the item as you could have rolled a perfect high roll in it’s exceptional state and roll the absolute lowest possible defense roll when it re-rolled in it’s elite state. that defense is the base that is then multiplied by the Enhanced defense affix if available.
This has been know for years, when an item spawns with enhanced defense, be it rare , set, unique, or superior white, its base automaticaly gets max defense + 1 of the base item.
That property is not true of the upgraded version!
For body armors this is not really an issue, the range is not that large and elite version have far more defense than exceptional (not that large for ornate vs sacred, but still no overlap)
For other pieces, there is an overlap and upgrading an item such as Vampire gaze, areat’s face or Herald of Zakarum CAN result is a defense LOWER than before the upgrade.
Vampire gaze has the worst chance here, its base has 126 defense and the upgrade has a range of 100-157
It depends on your build and the content you are focusing on.
For an infinity-wielding merc paired with a javazon (my build), the Vampire Gaze is the best helm in the game. I don’t care about my merc doing damage, I just need his aura. I need to him to survive until Treachery’s face proc and the damage reduction Vampire Gaze gives him let’s him do just that. It’s crazy how tanky my merc is. He is never dying even in 8-player cows with fade up. (I just have to be a bit careful when fade is not procced.)
I provided a useful service. I fought back against a troll and his post is now flagged.
I still fail to understand why you would want an extra 100def or so on a helm for your merc. It will virtually make 0 difference whatsoever. we’re not even talking about doubling the helm defense, not that even a 300 def difference will make a real change.
That’s wasted ressources in my opinion. Your merc will be as tanky with a base Vampire Gaze.
