Yeah, it’s a combination of all of those. Basically, pick your weakest item that costs 25 bloodshard and gamble at Kadala.
For items that cost more than that (usually weapons), upgrading via the cube is useful, especially since you can target a specific type of weapon.
Reforging can be useful for very rare items, but once you get to ancient items, it becomes really expensive to reforge since it can take a lot of rolls to get another ancient.
Thanks. I figure I’ll reforge the regular legendary items…but once ancient unless they are terrible for the build I’ll probably just keep them. Don’t expect to push leader boards at all but do want to do better this season than last (which was my first),…and I’m on target
Another source of gear drops is using a Puzzle ring (Greed’s realm portal) and Bovine Bardiche (Not So Cow Level portal) where you drop them in the Cube without anything else. It will open up a portal to riches (dependent on the difficulty level=higher, more drops). Ancient/primal puzzle ring will change all enemies to goblins. Farming for goblins is also another way to get drops depending on the type. Good luck !
Thanks, after this weekend I’m doing pretty good…still have 4 pieces that aren’t ancient yet…and now I have to decide when I augment…what main stats I should drop in. But I’ll ask that when I have the gems ready.
In almost all cases, it’s your main stat. The only other option is vitality, but you can always use your paragon points for that, unless you are really low in health.
Single Flawless Royal (initial gems needed): 27x Imperials) produces (9x Flawless Imperials) produces (3x Royals) produces (1x Flawless Royal)
If you are running low on the gem types you use, the merchant Squirt the Peddler in Act 2 Hidden Camp sells Cube gem conversion recipes (Essence of XYZ … where XYZ is the gem type). These recipes can be used to change gems to the desired type (in groups of 9). E.g., take your stack of unused Topaz, throw it into the cube with a Essence of Ruby recipe, and it will remove 9 Topaz and give you 9 Rubies.
These recipes are not limited to Augments. They are also useful for crafting Flawless Royals for any armor or weapons socket slots.
Gems are converted in groups of 9. Crafting mats are converted 100 at a time.
A good strategy is to level up gems as high as you can before converting, as long as you can make at least 9 of them. So if you don’t have enough gems to make a stack of 9 royal gems, then make 9 flawless imperial before converting.
I’m referring to English terms here. (I’m not sure how it translates from other languages). You should probably use the term “upgrade” for Gems. You “augment” an item using the Caldesann’s Despair Recipe in Kanai’s Cube. (Just to save confusion).
Peeked at your profile, noticed you don’t have Rend on your skill bar. Ambo’s Pride applies a basic Rend but w/o rune effects. You might want to replace Sprint with Rend / Bloodbath?
Ahh … I see … in my Augment (Caldesann’s Despair Recipe in Kanai’s Cube) example … I was pointing out initially that 81x Imperial gems were needed (when starting from scratch) to produce 3x Flawless Royal gems for the Augment recipe. The equation shows the combine process progression to get the the end results. Likewise for a single combine process to a single Flawless Royal gem. Will add more detail. Thx again.
