Blood Shard usefulness

General Discussion
1

I am an lvl 70 (paragon 48) character. I am finding that using blood shards to purchase “mysterious” weapons and armor has become useless. I NEVER purchase something that is better than what I already have. Is there a certain point in the game (or your character lvl) where blood shards become useless? Maybe you can do something else with them other than purchase things that does matter?
For that matter, the merchants NEVER have anything I can purchase that is better than what I currently have and the blacksmith NEVER can make anything that is better than what I currently have, except maybe set pieces (if you are willing to buy multiple items to complete a set).
Is there a certain point in the game where the only way to get something better than what you currently have is to randomly pick it up (1 in 100000 chance) or upgrade it in the Kanai Cube, which means the constant grind of the 5 lands to get the crafting materials?
Thanks

2

Using blood shards for weapons or jewelry is a waste. Kadala can give you nice armor or off-hands occasionally.
You don’t need Bounty mats to upgrade Rares.

3

You have to spend thousands of blood shards to actually get an upgrade. That is why it is called gambling.

1 Like
4

I believe the term is “The house always wins”? :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Thanks, Jammur. However, Kadala has flat advertised pricing for her goods. Usually 75 blood shards. I don’t see anything that is thousands. Where do I go to get something that cost thousands? Sorry for sounding so noob.

6

You don’t spend thousands per item. It is just that chances of getting something very good off Kadala for a weapon is low. You end up spending 75 blood shards over and over and over again trying.

You are better off using the cube to upgrade rare items to get the weapon type you want. It is much more specific and more likely to get you what you want.

Edit:

75 blood shards at Kadala gives you: random weapon that your class can use - can be blue, yellow, legendary, or ancient.

Upgrading a specific type of rare in the cube = a Legendary (normal or ancient) of exactly the weapon type you want. So if there are only 5 one hand scythes, for example, you know you get one of those - not some sword you don’t want.

1 Like
7

So yessquire, are you saying that at a certain point blood shards become useless, so you just ought to spend the 600 or so down to zero on useless things (at least you can then sell them for $thousands) and just don’t pick anymore up?

8

No, you have nothing else to spend them on, so you may as well keep trying. Just don’t spend them on weapons or jewelry.
Armor and off hands are only 25 each and she may surprise you.
I have a Necro in EU and the very first time I rolled for a Phylactery, I got an Ancient Iron Rose!
Don’t sell the yellows and blues she gives you. Salvage them for the mats.

9

Thank you Miss Cheetah. So I am right that blood shards become useless after a certain point in the game. Is that by design? Or do you see it as a game design shortcoming that can use a patch coming in the future that makes blood shards more useful?

10

The main purpose for Blood Shards is to target a specific armor item until you get the Ancient one you want. Once you do that, yes, Bloodshards are kind of pointless.

You will next focus on getting the Legendary Gems for your jewelry, leveling those, and leveling Leg gems to use for Augmenting your armor.

There is nothing I can think of to do with Blood Shards once you have the armor you want…unless you make another character and spend them using that char to get armor.

Edit

This is true. The materials you get from salvaging what she gives you are highly useful in the Cube to upgrade rares or re-roll items that don’t have the stats you want.

11

Thanks yessquire. Based on what you said, I have probably been making a noob mistake. I sell things that I don’t want/can’t use. Are you saying it is foolish to sell things. You should always salvage things for that mats. I only keep the legendaries for the Kanai Cube and sell everything else (or just don’t pick them up in the dungeons).

12

No, they never become useless. Just think of them as currency to buy lottery tickets with. Most lottery tickets aren’t winners either, but you might get lucky once in a while. I’ve had plenty of decent ancient legendaries from Kadala and even the occasional primal but mostly it’s blues, yellows, or bad legendaries that I salvage for materials that you’re going to need anyway for recipes like the Cube’s “upgrade rare to legendary”.

13

So, I can’t tell if you are primarily playing season (Wiz) or regular (DH).
Either way you are just starting out and have a bit of playtime ahead of you.
Some tips in no order
Spend 25 BS for finishing set pieces, not 75 for weapons
Save Puzzle ring to put into the cube for Goblin realm runs - lots of money & some items
You need to be in torment to get green drops, slowly ramp up difficulty get better drops
Don’t get too high and take too long though, until your ready gearwise
As you get stronger do higher greater rifts to upgrade your BS limit and level up your legendary gems
Use Bounty mats for extracting legendary powers for the cube and re-rolling duplicate set items to complete sets. Eventually you could try for ancient items but that usually comes after you get your character buffed out gearwise.
Might take a week to get this done, I don’t know how much you play though.
At my play speed I can do this on non-season in a week at a few hours a day (but I’m old)

14

Spend on rings, i got a few ancient puzzle rings this way…

15

I made that mistake at first. I stopped picking up “worthless” whites and grays. I then discovered that I had no Reusable Parts .

16

Yep. If you have whatever you want armor wise, the mats are still useful.

See the Kanai’s Cube recipe list and see how many mats are needed to upgrade rares (best source of good weapons) and reforge.

https://us.diablo3.com/en/game/guide/items/kanais-cube#recipes

17

That is true. If you have nothing else to spend them on Puzzle rings are always nice to get. Everyone likes a Vault run :slight_smile:

18

They don’t become useless, just slightly less relevant depending on the equipment slot you’re looking for. Think of them as a supplement for the game’s random loot drops. It was put in because targeting items via random loot drops is impossible.

Kadala is an intermediate means of targeting a specific slot. That’s what her purpose is, really. The Kanai’s Cube recipe mentioned above by others is what you want to use for targeting a specific item type. The cube recipe does take a bit more time to get materials for than just the blood shards, but again, it’s a more focused targeting approach than Kadala is and as a result has a more narrowly focused set of items to give you.

The basic rule most players follow is that you don’t worry about the blood shards until they’re capped. Then you spend them on whatever slot you want to get an upgrade for. It’s still weighted RNG just as if it were a loot drop, but only for the slot you picked. Once you have the materials required to perform the recipe for upgrading LV 70 rares to legendary, that’s what you use to target specific items.

19

Thank You Meteorblade. So are you saying just keep paying the 75 shards over, and over and over and over and over and over and over, until you die of boredom or randomly get an ancient? Is there a more effective/efficient way of getting ancients?

20

Use the cube to reforge a regular item. You have 10% chance of getting an ancient. (10% is not 1 out of 10).

Read the game guide if you are not familiar with Kanai’s cube.

https://us.diablo3.com/en/game/guide/items/kanais-cube#recipes