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:](https://d1hnj6esvk269c.cloudfront.net/en/d3/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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.
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?
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
Use the Kanai’s Cube recipe to upgrade rares to legendary if you’re hunting for a specific item. Use Kadala to offload blood shards once you’ve maxed them out. You can combine the two methods to increase the chances you’ll get the item you want. Outside of that, the only way to get more ancients is to increase your difficulty to Torment 1 or later. The higher the Torment level, the more legendary items drop, thus naturally increasing the possibility of getting ancient versions of the items.
The chance to be ancient does not increase with difficulty though, only the number of items that drop. Whether it be from Kadala, the cube recipe, or a natural loot drop, items have a 1 in 10 chance of being ancient (that chance is [b]per attempt, you will not get one for every ten tries - that isn’t how probability works), regardless of the difficulty, with the exception being that natural loot drops below Torment 1 cannot be ancient.
Thank you TheTias for the excellent explanation. So just keep spending the 75 shards to Kadala until you get something useful, then upgrade in Kanai cube.
I am pretty low in the game ( I have trouble getting past Torment IV monsters). Do you reach a certain point in the game where you can’t progress in the game unless you have an ancient armor/weapon/ring or two. The monsters just become too powerful?
You don’t need to spend much time with Kadala.
Just hover the cursor over the item type and spam right click until you get something decent or run out of shards. Then run to Haedrig and bulk salvage the yellows and blues.
You will also get “junk” legendaries which salvage for Forgotten Souls.
It’s only 25 each for armor and OH…
Only spend the shards at Kadala once you have maxed them out. Use the cube recipe first and as your primary means to target an upgrade of a specific item. Use Kadala if the cube recipe attempts were unsuccessful. Then, if you still didn’t get your item from Kadala, salvage the blues/yellows from her for further cube recipe attempts. Also salvage any legendaries she gives you that you know you won’t use.
Special note on Kadala: Don’t spend shards on weapons except as a last resort. Use them for other far less expensive slots instead. You’ll find upgrades drastically faster that way than spending on weapons. Only spend shards on rings if you are desparate for a ring that you don’t have yet, like one of the two rings in the Bastion of Will set (Focus/Restraint).
Kadala should never be your primary means of upgrades, and her weapon prices are absurd. That’s only for when you’ve upgraded everything else and have nothing left to spend shards on but you need an ancient of the weapon you already have.
Thank you TheTias. I have been noticing that I am getting more Set (green) drops than I use to. I haven’t gotten any ancients (after going through maybe 100 dungeons and killing thousands of monsters) and legendaries are still very rare for me (seems like less than 1 in 10). I get tons of Rare (yellow) and Magic (blue).
By the way, is there a chart (on the web or someplace) that ranks the sets or tells you which ones are better than others. When I compare one Set with another ( must have 6-7 listed that the blacksmith can build for me), it is like trying to decide is a Red Delicious better than a Fiji?
With the exception of pushing ultra high Greater Rift levels, which you’re nowhere near ready to tackle just yet, it’s less about which is better and more about what playstyle you like.
The biggest mistake new players make is going off a list of “what’s best”, when instead they should focus on “what do I like?”. What’s best doesn’t necessarily equate to what works best for you. Experiment. Try them out and learn for yourself. You’ll get a feel for what works best fairly quickly.
While it does come down to numbers in the end, for the bulk of the game, it’s going to come down to what you like to use. For instance, for Demon Hunters, the Marauder set with certain builds (like grenades) can actually push higher in Greater Rifts than the more “run and gun” Unhallowed Essence (UE) set. But for me UE is more fun.
Until you’re ready to actually make a run for super high Greater Rift levels, just go with your gut and use what you enjoy playing with. The game becomes a lot more fun when you let go of the numbers. It’s a trap I wish more players would avoid when they start out in games like this.
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IMHO, most of the Smith crafted green sets are pretty lame and are not worth the price( with a couple of special exceptions). They pale in comparison with what a Class Set bonus will give you.
Mostly just spend my blood shards on any of the 25 shard items. Weapons and Ammys are just a waste of shards and generally you’ll have more luck with upgrading vs shard gambling. I also tend to use my shards after my first character’s set of gear is decent to start building an alt’s set. Just get to full shards, swap to alt and gamble em away and can generally get most of a set after a few full sets of shards.
Thanks TheTias. It IS just a game after all, don’t over analysis. Its just that for some games, a decision/mistake you make 40 playing hours ago, might come back to haunt you later in the game, with no way to correct it. Diablo doesn’t seem like that kind of game. Seems like you can always get what you need, eventually, with enough money/luck/shards/mats.
I have 2 of each class. My NS DH is my fastest and most efficient. I run her through GR’s, upgrade gems, get shards. When capped, I log in one of my other toons that needs gearing, visit Kadala, salvage or keep as needed, wash/rinse/repeat. My Necro is almost geared up to the point she can share in the GR duties. My Barb is, but she’s boring to play…Bloodshards aren’t useless.
Hi OP.
You’ve been given some good advice in this thread, and I also recommend you read the New Player’s Guide we put together in the Barb forum: [Guide] New + Returning Player's Guide (Season 20)
Regardless of which class you play, that guide will help you get up and running with as little frustration as possible. There’s a lot of good info there, so feel free to give it a read!
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I just love the fact that you cant downvote anymore hahaha.
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If you have not collected all the powers for your cube you can aim for them.
Really? I think that is one of the worst changes myself.
Unless a weapon/jewelry is the absolute LAST item you need to be full ancient, never, ever gamble for those.
First, gamble for whatever non-weapon/jewelry pieces you need for your set.
Then gamble to hopefully get an ancient version of whatever non-weapon/jewelry piece you have equipped.
Then gamble for weapon/jewelry ancients (By the time you got full ancients in all other pieces, well, you’ll already have your weapons and jewelry).
Then gamble for other sets besides what you are using.
Then gamble because otherwise you are capped, and you may as well get the extra mats.
I have never gotten anything useful. She’s a source of a very small amount of gold, and a very small amount of forgotten souls - nothing more.