I took the item Cathan’s Mesh, and used the new set item upgrade recipe to upgrade it to Mesh Armor.
One of the item’s effects is “requirements -50%”.
I am level 25 and the item with its modified requirements requires Strength 46 and Level 25. I have more than enough strength to use it, the game is showing the item with a blue background, but it does not equip when I attempt to. Dropping it on my hireling causes her to say “I can’t use that yet,” but again it shows as equippable for her (rogue) as well.
I have also seen other reports of items with requirements -X% not being able to be equipped at their minimum level.
The displayed Level requirement is wrong. You have to be level 32. I think.
the original official diablo II game guide lists the base level for mesh armor at 25.
Normal-tier items don’t have a level requirement (Level requirements are determined by the affixes on the item). Requirements -X% actually only modifies strength and dexterity requirements as it turns out, not the level requirement.
The issue may be connected to the fact that the set item has a level requirement that the base item does not. but even then, the minimum level for any given item effect isn’t increased by the base level requirement as far as I know. So I suspect it’s actually an incorrect Strength requirement value.
The item say requires Strength 46. Even excluding the strength on the armor already equipped, I more than meet that requirement.
Regardless, the game indicating that I can equip an item (blue background) while not actually allowing me to is a bug. It doesn’t even say “I can’t use that” for the player character, it just doesn’t equip. The only time I observed this happening in the original game was when the item you were swapping out was needed to meet the stat requirements.
Upgrading set items increases the level requirement just like upgrading uniques does. Normal tier → exceptional tier increases the level req by 5, exceptional tier → elite tier increases it by 7 (additive to the penalty from upgrading normal to exceptional, so upgrading from normal to elite increases the level req by 12 levels).
So upgrading Cathan’s Mesh from chain mail to mesh armor increases the level req to 30 (level req 25 for mesh armor + 5). If you were to upgrade it to a boneweave the level req would be 59 (level req 47 for boneweave + 12).
The bug is that the displayed level req isn’t updated to reflect this fact, it only updates after you equip it on a character that’s a high enough level.
I see then. It goes a little further than being a display bug however, because the game client doesn’t treat it the same way as other items you don’t meet the requirements for.
The client believes you can equip it which is why it’s displayed with a blue background, but the server disagrees because the level req is higher than what the client knows.