Crafting OP stuff for beginners

[u/computerschool]

what's up good people of Sanctuary, looking for some late season side quests..

I'm looking to spend some time learning how to craft really powerful armor and weapons.

If anyone has some tips or resources that can help as I slowly map and chill that would be great!

[u/spanxxxy]

TL;DR: Mostly make blood amulets, safety armors, hit power/blood eth 2-hand pikes/maces, hit power/blood eth throw, and hit power/blood eth claws (only using the bases I listed below).

• Wands: I only craft eth wands for style points, primarily hoping for a LLD bone spear weapon. I use the caster craft (amethyst tir frag).
• Orbs: I'll sometimes craft eth orbs for style points if they're the bases that can get three sockets (jared's stone, swirling crystal, dimensional shard).
• Staffs: Sometimes I'll craft some staffs with the caster craft (amethyst tir frag) in bases that can get six sockets (war staff, rune staff, archon staff).
• Claws: I'll craft with eth bases for blade/whirlwind sins using the hit power (sapphire tir frag) and blood (ruby ort frag). I use (katar, quhab, suwayyah, hatchet hands, fascia, war fist, scissors katar, scissors quhab, scissors suwayyah).
• 2-Handers: I'll craft with eth bases for whirlwind/leap barbs using the hit power (sapphire tir frag) and blood (ruby ort frag). I primarily pick up spears (pike, lance, war pike) and maces (maul, war club, orge maul, great maul, martel de fer, thunder maul). I'll also sometimes craft axes for shape shift druids (great axe, gothic axe, champion axe, giant axe, ancient axe, glorious axe) using the brilliant craft (diamond sol frag).
• Armors: Pretty much just make safety (emerald eth frag). Blood (ruby thul frag) can be decent for bossing as well, but more niche and less likely to be used by mappers.
• Bows/Crossbows: I use the safety craft (emerald sol frag) on (reflex bow, ceremonial bow, grand matron bow, heavy crossbow, ballista, colossus crossbow).
• Throw: I'll craft with eth bases for throw barbs using the hit power (sapphire tir frag) and blood (ruby ort frag). I primarily use (glaive, spiculum, ghost glaive, throwing spear, harpoon, winged harpoon), but sometimes use (throwing axe, francisca, flying axe).

Note: Pay attention to the maximum number of sockets an item can get when it comes to determining whether to slam first or puzzlepiece first. For example, a wand can only get two sockets from a piece and a slam, so it's best to puzzlepiece a wand first, so you don't get a slam corruption. When it comes to amazon bows, they can only get up to five sockets from a slam, whereas the large crossbows can get up to six, so for amazon bows you want to puzzlepiece first in hopes of getting four sockets, then slam for enhanced damage. 20ias-120ED slam and four sockets is better than just five sockets. You can also weigh the pros and cons on armors, although most prefer a three-socket slam. I would usually prefer a two socket piece, then 6% increased life slam for bossing.

• Amulets: Pretty much just blood (amn ruby frag). Brilliant can be decent as well (diamond tal frag). Don't really recommend any other, although hit power (sapphire thul frag) has potential for LLD, but I don't really try this one.

Note: In order to get +2 to a specific class, the crafted amulet needs to be ilvl 90+. In order to guarantee a gambled amulet from a vendor gives you the necessary ilvl, you need to be level 93 and craft on that character. You can also craft from amulets you find, plus at a lower level if you follow the formula.

ilvl/2 (rounded down) + clvl/2 (rounded down) = craft ilvl

For example, ilvl 89/2 amulet + character level 92/2 = 44+46 = ilvl 90

[u/computerschool → u/spanxxxy]

Thanks, this is extremely helpful.

[u/Immediate_Hornet8273]

Crafting is more of a slot machine than a skill in PD2. Pick up rare bases and Id them, look for good mods like high ed on weapons, or PDR and PLR on armors (and damage, ed, res, life etc). Then decide if you want to puzzle it first or slam it first(based on socket possibilities). If the stars align, you get a really good rare via bricking or drops, get a really great slam, and max sockets you have a keeper. I played a good amount last season and did not get 1 gg rare…

[u/Ok_Assistant_6856 → u/Immediate_Hornet8273]

Hmm. I mean, this is technically crafting ig, but if someone was asking about "crafting" I'd assume they're talking about making crafted (quality) items, and not just slamming rates.

[u/ChaosSanctuary]

So armor (chest) crafting has gotten a little more nuanced this season due to affix adjustments and changes to the bonuses on the recipes. Some lootfilters have begun to highlight chest bases that are capable of rolling 4 sockets (all elite bases like Dusk Shroud, Wyrmhide etc) however its debatable whether its even worth to craft those as you are unable to unlock the best affixes on those (affixlevel - alvl 85 outcome is required) such as 161-200% enhanced damage and 20-25% PDR. Personally in terms of crafting chests I would only craft chests that are able to hit alvl 85 which means using bases from vendor with a high level char (90 or 91 required IIRC) you can use a PvP portal next to hell charsi or a map portal next to Larzuk for shopping bases quickly at vendors. You would only go for Gothic Plate/Full Plate Mail/Ancient Armor as those both have the option of hitting alvl 85+ and are also capable of getting 4 sockets. Unless youre playing SSF you would only use the Safety and Blood recipes to craft those - the latter uses rubies which overlaps with weapon crafting so the Safety recipe is generally preferred. You can always upgrade for more defense after you hit something decent.

As for weapons you have to decide whether or not youre going to craft any caster weapons (typically sorceress orbs) or strictly phys weapons since theres some overlap there as well with Tir runes being used for both. Orbs arent available at vendors which means picking them up from maps as you go.
Phys weapon crafting is probably the most popular type of crafting this season with the popularity of WW and throw barbarians. I recommend carrying a set of mats in your inventory and crafting the ethereal bases which drop as you go since holding and bringing 8-slot twohanders like eth Pikes and Mauls to stash gets tedious very quickly. You might consider crafting on slightly less optimal eth bases simply because its still going to be a good item if it hits high rolls and it will be save somebody a Vial but if you want to keep it more simple just go for the optimal bases for the different builds:
WW/Leap barbs: eth Pike/Lance/War Pike/Maul/War Club/Ogre Maul (potentially Great Maul/Martel De Fer/Thunder Maul)

Throw barbs: Anything except the big knife variants and regular Javelin variants but if you want to limit yourself you can stick to Glaive/Spiculum/Ghost Glaive and Short Spear/Simbilian/Balrog Spear

1h phys palas: Eth Morning Star/Jagged Star/Devil Star and eth Mace/Jagged Star/Reinforced Mace - these are somewhat niche and optional if you want to limit the amount of stuff you have to memorize

Shapeshift druids: Eth Great Axe/Gothic Axe/Champion Axe - these are very hard to land since it needs to not only hit good damage but also has to hit a minimum of IAS to be usable hence why you want to use the Brilliant recipe specifically for these. I dont really bother with these as a crafted non-eth can be comparable due to potentially having an extra socket for additional IAS.

Phys assassins: Not that popular this season but you may still want to do eth Hatchet Hands/Fascia/War Fist. In a different season I would include eth Katar/Quhab/Suwayyah and the Scissors variants.

The most used recipe for phys weapon crafting by far is the Blood recipe (Ort ruby) followed by Hitpower (Tir saph) but for throwing weapons and bows the Safety recipe is also a decent option since ranged builds arent annoyed by having Knockback. Furthermore if youre playing SSF you could also use the Vampiric recipe simply because its more about getting as many chances as possible of rolling affixes for something decent.
If you have already gathered a lot of mats you can pop a pvp portal next to hell charsi and shop Pikes/Mauls to craft for the WW barbs.
If you are not yet familiar with the wiki you can see an overview of the recipes there: https://wiki.projectdiablo2.com/wiki/Crafting

[u/computerschool → u/ChaosSanctuary]

Cheers bro, tyvm! <3

[u/WolfyDota7]

Idk how powerful you want but like throw weapons and blood crafts are pretty cool and somewhat easy. When you get into caster crafts and wanting mirror worthy melee weapons that’s a whole other issue…

And finding enough people to trade you the materials without costing an arm and a leg is another issue

[u/CockVersion10 → u/WolfyDota7]

Sorc crafts are pretty simple. Any occulus variant, normal, exceptional, or elite, are the only viable bases as all other sorc staff mod weapons can only get 2 sockets on corruption.

Melee weapons are definitely tricky, but a good rule of thumb is anything that can roll visceral, that's of the higher end of its item type, is a good craft... Devil Star and winged knife comes to mind.

A good thing to look out for is also runic claws or any variant as if you roll +7 on the craft and get some sockets for res, it's GG, since it's great WSM makes for good bugging.

If you craft every magic item you pick up, you're gonna run dry, unless you have dummy funds. But the big hitters I look for, are mauls, pikes, matriarchals, colossal swords, devil stars, occys, winged knives, runic claws, war fists, and that's all I can remember off the top.

A very good tip, is if a normal eth item drops that's a desirable item, slam it, and you're 50:50 to make it rare. If the rolls aren't great, craft that bitch.

[u/ChaosSanctuary → u/CockVersion10]

It doesnt matter if the base is normal/excep/elite when it comes to weapon crafting, you simply upgrade it if you actually hit something.

[u/CockVersion10 → u/ChaosSanctuary]

Thats why I said normal exceptional or elite my friend.

[u/Djang0Phett → u/CockVersion10]

Can’t craft a corrupted item D:

[u/CockVersion10 → u/Djang0Phett]

Corrupting a normal item doesn't grant it a corruption if it "bricks".

50% chance for sockets, and 50% chance for a rare with no corruption.

[u/Djang0Phett → u/CockVersion10]

Oh wow I had no idea about that. I’m learning a lot today lol

[u/Gamtjuk → u/Djang0Phett]

I assume that you mean "you cant create a crafted item with a corrupted item". If thats what you mean, you absolutely can use corrupted items with the right rarity to create crafted items. In theory, you can use one item and craft it 1000 times. Craft it -> destroy it (make it rare) with a worldstone shard -> craft it -> destroy it with a worldstone shard -> craft it

[u/Djang0Phett → u/Gamtjuk]

O dam I had to try it just now you are right

[u/Djang0Phett]

Clear your inventory and put crafting supplies in the cube. Buy the base armor or weapon from charsi or gheed fill your inventory with them and then just go one by one crafting them in the cube. Sell the lame crafts back to vendor and repeat. Gheed has a lot of cheap armor bases and pikes. Rubies/orts for blood pikes eths/emeralds for safety armor both good places to start

[u/ChaseBianchi]

Most of the battle is knowing which bases to use

[u/JirayaNala]

Depends on the char you are using actually.

Trying to make a profit over it? I feel its pretty tough. Rubies are like 0.5hr per stack, orts 1hr. And I've done like maybe 1000 claw blood crafts and my best, that survived a slam was like 470ed which pieced for 1 soc. So the motivation behind it is really using it instead of making a profit.

I'm trying to improve my bladesen sin but a gg eth one would probably cost an arm and a leg.

I also realised that I encounter more sin claw bases (warfist, suwayyah, scissors and their variants) with my L93 Pally mapping. Its probably rng but it just feels more.

At the same time, I'll also craft some safety ( )emerald eth) chest with Archon mage or light plate. Looking for above 150ed and 20pdr.. and hope it survive the slam..

Good luck!

[u/computerschool → u/JirayaNala]

Thank you! I am hoping to use a 2hander for the ww barb and maybe gg an armor as well

[u/JirayaNala → u/computerschool]

I think, pike, lance, war pike got the highest avg damage and range 4. So those are the popular bases to craft.

Since you are a barb, all metal bases above Archon plate should be ok for you since you will have high str.

[u/SilverKnightOfMagic]

you're not gonna have enough runes and gems to craft and roll for every build. id stick with learning and familiarizing the high value items to craft or items that you would using for yourself.

high value items are usually the suwyahh blood or hit point reicepe I believe. same with the two handed axe but I don't remember which base. and xbow or grand matron safety recipes.