Questions I have not answers

Deadalready · Post by **Deadalready** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:49 pm

I've been out of the loop for a while and I've forgotten things as well as never learnt certain things. I just have a few questions that I don't know the answers to and would like some wisdom and advice.

1: Does the Ancients Pledge (?) (Ral+Ort+Tal) Shield combination work in Paladin shields?

2: For a poor Hammerdin is it better to have items that give +mana for killing or simply mana regeneration?

3: I vaguely remember something about Grand Charms, Act 3, nightmare and creating +1 to all. I've done some hunting in Act 3 for +1 to all charms but little avail. Additionally I've tried a little horadric cubing to use up my useless gems, I take it that I need to use a high level charm to get a high level charm back??? I'd like more info on this.

4: Is it my imagination or am I having an extremely hard time finding runes now. I seem to remember having much less trouble finding them but now I'm only finding El and Eld runes in Nightmare...

5: Is there a formula to upgrade set items, in any way? It's possible to upgrade Uniques and Rares, is there a formula for set or even magic items?

Noober · Post by **Noober** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:35 am

1. Yes, so long as the shield is non-magical.
2. Meditation + Mana Pots

3. IIRC A3 NM Spider Forest is the best place to find Grand Charm of sufficient level to re-roll (x3 pgem + charm) into skillers.
4. Imagination
5. Magic and Set items cannot be upgraded.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:09 am

[QUOTE=Deadalready]4: Is it my imagination or am I having an extremely hard time finding runes now. I seem to remember having much less trouble finding them but now I'm only finding El and Eld runes in Nightmare...
[/QUOTE]
What version you use?
I'm playing with 1.11, and have exactly same feeling about runes...

moltovir · Post by **moltovir** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:13 am

2: The best way for any character to get mana is an Act 2 Mercenary and equip an Insight Polearm (Ral Tir Tal Sol). The runes can easily be harvested from the nightmare Countess, and the weapon will give your merc a constant meditation aura that will keep your mana ball full all the time. If you put it in an ethereal elite, his damage will also be fairly decent even in Hell mode.

3: Charms with the +skilltree prefix need to be of item level 50 or higher to be able to spawn that prefix. In Nightmare and Hell, item level equals area level so the earliest place you can harvest for skill charms is the Arachnid Lair or Spider Cavern in Nightmare. Since those places are rather hard to reach (you have to get through the Spider Forest which is only alvl 49, so no skillers), it's more profitable to clear the Great Marsh and Flayer Jungle instead.

The 3 perfect gems + magic item does not change the item level of a certain item, so you can keep rerolling the same charm again and again, the chance of getting a +skill charm is always the same.

Deadalready · Post by **Deadalready** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:51 am

Erg, well I rolled a level 41 charm and somehow it became a level 31 one, then it suddenly became a level 15 charm...

Isn't 3 perfect gems supposed to reroll an item at the same level or level <30? If so, why does the base charm matter?

~

Is insight available in single player?

(Yeah I'm playing 1.11)

moltovir · Post by **moltovir** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:05 am

The level you're referring to is alevel or affix level: the level needed for a certain affix to spawn, and its associated required level. The item level is the theoretical maximum level of affix that can spawn on that item. If you have a Grand Charm with ilvl = 50, that means that it's possible that alvl 50 affixes can spawn on that item, but its also very possible that an alvl 1 affix will spawn. It's a little more complicated than that, but this is the basic explanation.

Rerolling with 3 Pgems will not change the item level of an item, so there will always be the possiblity of getting a +skill prefix, but the fact that it's an ilvl 50 charm doesn't mean that it'll always get level 50 affixes.

Sadly, Insight is a ladder-only runeword, so you can't use it in SP. Look on the bright side: you now have yet another reason to abandon SP and make a bnet account

For your mana problems, I'd follow Noober's advice: put some points in Meditation, and activate it after a fight to replenish your mana.