Much needed Crafting Improvements for Season 4

General Discussion
1

The lost art of Diablo 2 that only few really invest it… Time to change that and open it up with more options on bases, less restrictions on requirements, and much, much better end results! Crafting is an end game item, make it really worthwhile.

GG Crafting items can be really game changing, but they are extremely restrictive to get to properly with the sheer amount of runes, gems, jewels and the bases you need to collect to really invest into it. Not to mention, you need specific bases to craft what you want, so;
Improvement 1:
Remove the item specifics requirements. You can now use any blue base, to craft gloves, belts, helms, ect.

Improvement 2:
Ease the formula requirements. Remove gems.
Runes + Jewels + Base is enough of an investment to craft. Gems are already used for enough, shouldnt have to choose between socketing, crafting, upping runes, re-cubing charms, ect.

Improvement 3:
Improve underused and lackluster recipe’s to build up the crafting demand.
Currently, most just craft rings, amulets, and gloves. The other items and recipes like the entire Safety group, arent as beneficial.
Time to boost these under used recipes and add more suffix possibilities like various skill proc’s or even new, more expensive recipes that add x level aura to the items.

How sexy would a hit power built be with level 1-3 might for the cost of say, Ohm + Tal + Jewel + belt choice.

Work on some of these for S4 PTR, and hopefully add in the much requested currency tab to open up crafting even more!

4 Likes
2

I was theory crafting (pun intended) about something just like this the other day, but as a new set of exceptional crafting recipes. I was thinking of it as a way to get commonly used 0skills on easier to get gear.

Adept Items: Any Magic/Rare Exceptional/Elite item of proper type + jewel + low rune + mid rune

  • Weapon: +1-3 Battle Orders (Ral/Io) - keeps the familiar pre-buff routine
  • Body Armor: +1-3 Fade (Sol/Ko)
  • Head: +1-3 Lower Resist (Tal/Lum)
  • Hands: +1-3 Burst of Speed (Thul/Shael)
  • Feet: +1-3 Leap/Leap Attack (Nef/Fal) / Vigor (Eld/Hel)
  • Waist: +1-3 Life Tap (Amn/Dol)
  • Shield: +1-3 Conviction (Eth/Um) - thematic for Pally, useable on A3 Mercs (but pretty weak)
  • Amulet: +1-3 Teleport (Ort/Lem) - replaces Teleport charges on Ammys
  • Ring: +1-3 Decrepify (Ith/Pul)

They could have additional fixed attributes or not, but would still get other random attributes like other crafted gear.

It may seem like the rune cost is low, but keep in mind that people would probably have to craft the same item a ton of times to get +3 to the skill plus other decent mods. On the other hand, the initial the barrier to entry is pretty low for probably a crap item that at least has the 0skill on it.

1 Like
3

An easy improvement they could make for Crafted items would be to introduce a cheap cube recipe that lets you socket them.

1 Like
4

I like it! Adds new elements to potential end game crafted items. Even add a 25% chance to even obtain these +1-3 for the rune cost. Makes crafting much more addicting and adding that element to end game.

Now that I like… good for the helms, weapons, shield.

5

Recipes are underused because the minimum level where it’s worth using crafting recipes is 95. Most people are not going to hit that. Most people will finish their builds aside from crafted pieces by the time they ever hit 95. If you want more people participating, the crafting formula needs to change to allow earlier access, in terms of character level, to make worthwhile crafts.

I’d say that anyone who currently has a level 95 to craft is doing it regularly, they’re just part of a small handful of players.

1 Like
6

You can still craft some useful stats under 95… But you are right. Im not too against this because, at level 95 and enhancing the buffs to crafting, it should be end game items for an end game level…

There could be some wiggle room in there though.

7

I’m saying that for players who have this access, they use the systems regularly. To increase participation, the level to roll “gg ammys” would need to be lower to like 90-92. Most people aren’t going to grind beyond that, generally.

8

Well, you are right to a point, but the ones who would grind through, are the ones that would benefit.
TZ has really opened up the Ilvl, now you can find those ilvl amulets or rings with a level 93.

9

s3 not even started yet

10

I don’t like the idea of removing trade values. Perfect amethysts and rubies are only worth something because of the crafting recipes.

This would just have the effect of having the best base used for crafting. So pretty much the same as changing it to the best base.

I can see it for weapon crafts though.

I also agree with reworking the underused recipes.

3 Likes
11

I think a lot of people don’t understand how the level requirement is calculated and so think the way you do. The truth is that only a few very specific affixes, on a ring and amulet will push the level requirements into the 90s. Namely max life/mana steal on rings and amulet and +2 class skills on amulet.

Other crafted gear often have much more manageable level requirements. A max tri-res crafted boots, can technically roll as low as level 37.

Of course most people want to wait until at least level 71 so you always roll 4 affixes.

3 Likes
12

Well there certainly is no chance they can make any crafting adjustments between now and Feb 16th… lol , thus, put it on their radar for S4.

Hmm, fair point, I guess the amount of requirements from charm re roll, crafting, ect add them value.

Right? lol, or the best one with the str requirements and such, or in helm/shield case, for the look but keeping the same aesthetic.

1 Like
13

I think given the power creep of RW the crafting recipees could certainly have a balance pass, even if it was just improving the range of some of the guaranteed mods, like leach on blood items, and improve the damage %ed on all the crafted weapons to make them worthwhile.

I like the idea but think for these, since we already have CTA and Treachary, that we should explore other things bonuses. Melee already are weaker, why not make the weapon bonus more damage focused? Fade on armor is also already a thing with Treachery, so rather than undermine that, something like Salvation Aura or Natural Resistance might be cool options.

yeah that would be neat. I also think it might be cool to be able to make an existing white item ethereal, just to give us more options to get around RNG, but it would probably have to be fairly expensive to not make those items too common.

1 Like
14

Blood crafting has crushing blow and life steal. Caster has FCR.

Safety and hit power have less useful stats and are not as popular.

For safety, I was thinking they could add the chance to get one charge skill from a list such as: teleport, cloak of shadows, decrepify, holy shield, cyclone armor, etc. as low level charges randomly. An additional source of teleport charges with a good number of teleport charges (perhaps 50) might help non-sorc classes with mobility pre-enigma. Other skill charges could be useful for providing other sources of useful skills for defense. In addition, a chance at 1-5 DR % might help this group. Of course, repair costs may still be a problem or perhaps people will find really good usage of ral/orts and chipped/flawed gems.

For the hit power group, perhaps FHR can be default on all equipment types with varying amounts. Since existing traits here cause damage back on the enemy, iron maiden seems like a good chance to cast or low level charges options. Additionally, other options for CTC or charges could be amplify damage, lower resist, mind blast, etc.

Both sets of suggestions could overpowered so they’d need to weigh the options and consider low level versions of skills or decrease charge counts depending on how they do it.

I do see the problem with level 95 being required for some crafting options so perhaps they could help alleviate a little to make this more an option for higher 80s and lower 90s players.

1 Like
15

Just make circlets replaceable with any crafting helm item, and allow runes and gems to stack.

There. I fixed crafting.

1 Like
16

it is lvl 88 for 2 skills rolls right? just use blue amus dropped from tzones with that and above. what i was doing, it is alot easier, well for the amus anyway as the item is based on the base item level.

2 Likes
17

I think the ability to roll those affixes is the appeal of crafting over gambling. It seems wasteful to burn recipe mats at a lower character level, effectively making worse items for the same investment. Really though, all the level requirements around crafted items, from making them to equipping them, are overblown. If we’re going to use existing unique jewelry and their level requirements for use, the crafted pieces have insane requirements.

I make them, I use them, but it’s always going to be a minority with how those sought after affixes are calculated.

2 Likes
18

For Caster recipes that target scepters and wands, I think staff mods should stay on the craft. This has the added benefit of making gold more useful as it’ll be more efficient to buy bases from drognan/akara/ormus:
> add faster cast rate 10-20% (this means with an apprentice roll 40% fcr)
> increase maximum mana 5-7% (from 1-5%)
> regenerate mana 5-10%
> +40-60 to mana (from 10-20 seriously negligible amount)

Caster armors, shields, helmets should have fcr, + to character skill levels, increase max mana %. Armors should have a chance to roll O skills such as warmth, elemental mastery, teleport, etc.

Hit power and safety should be consolidated. They fill very similar niches and I don’t think we need a crafting recipe set for thorns players only. Buff thorns damage by 1000% and it’ll still never be meta. Give FHR, DR%, faster block rate/increased chance to block, magic damage reduced, etc.

Change Safety crafts to greed and change emerald to topaz required. Roll MF, extra GF, socketed (1-3), vendor prices reduced by % (cap it at 50%, no infinite gold).

I have thought about crafting alot in this game. Maybe they could even introduce empowered crafts that require from Lum-Um + unique jewel for a better chance at target rolls.

bloods reworks need to coincide with melee buffs. But Could improve with adding CB, deadly strike, prevent monster heal, ignore target defense, and other useful mods.

I despise get X ingredients for Y effects in games. It makes crafting more of a chore, like grocery shopping, than fun. D2’s crafting recipe is very simple and akin to gambling, so maybe making the rolls more narrow would help it alot. But making good rolls exceedingly rare like 2/20 ammies and 2/20/10 blood gloves still gives me the rush of finding a rare TC87 item. We are all gamblers at heart.

3 Likes
19

It depends a lot on how and what you play. If you’re the kind of player that does the very multiplayer meta thing where you’re blowing through Normal/Nightmare/Hell in an afternoon, or trading for cheap leveling gear, or using a character where gear doesn’t matter much, I can see how it would appear to be a waste.

However, if you’re doing mostly solo-self-found, or your character is very gear dependent, it’s not uncommon to hit moments where your character is kind of dragging and a crafted item can help quite a bit. For example, if I don’t have a good weapon for my melee character, and I’m really slowing down, I like to roll a Blood axe as soon as I’m able. Or if my resists are pretty rubbish, I’ll take a stab at rolling some Safety boots.

I’m not against revisiting some of the rules around level requirements for crafting, I just think sometimes the discussions is a bit overwrought because people are hyper focused on those GG amulets and rings.

3 Likes
20

Yeah I like this as well… Cyclone armor, bone armor, chilling. That would be a nice boost to any character.

Yeah like I said, remove that one specific item requirement… Instead of Mask, make it any helmet, your choice.

A currency tab fixes all.

2 Likes