Crafting involves taking a Magic Item and converting it into a new item with properties that can range from the incredibly sucky to the incredibly useful. There are a few things to know about Crafted items though:
- They cannot be re-rolled with glyphs
- They can be socketted just like rares
- They can end up with some pretty high lvl reqs
- They are dependant on the lvl of the person creating the item as well as the lvl of the item
- Eth items will lose their ethreal nature when crafted (major suckage)
- The gemstone you need depends on the item level - normal items require perfect gems, exceptional require starstones, elite require moonstones
#4 is an important one. The higher the character that actually crafts the item, the higher the item level will be. This means that it is generally best to craft with high level characters.
Just about any magic item can be used for crafting from Barb helms to rings, boots, and orbs. You cannot however craft charms or jewels (bummer!).
To craft you simply need to know the recipe for the type of item you want to make and they aren't terribly complex. You will need an Adament Hammer, a magic jewel and a Perfect/Starstone/Moonstone gem. The recipes apply a certain fixed mod and then random modifies that would normally spawn on a rare version of the item apply. These fixed variables are listed below along with the type of gemstone and item you need to get those variables.
The utility is that your item will *always* have these properties. So say you want to try and make a godly ring, but you know that it MUST have +str. If you make a Blood Ring, it will always have between +10 and +20 strength in addition to all the properties that a normal rare item of that level will get (ie. +skills, life, etc)
The following tables have 3 columns - one for each of the gem qualities.
Diamond (Holy) All Holy Items have an Aura on Equip except rings
Skull (Death) Note: All Death Items have a negative property associated with them
Ruby (Blood) 
Emerald (Safety) 
Topaz (Elemental) 
Saphire (Power) 
Amethyst (Caster) 
Notes: there may be a few errors here and there as the excel files can be tricky to read, so please feel free to point out any errors; preferably in a polite fashion. The Power of Crafting On casual inspection, Crafting may seem to be a waste of time. One needs to remember though that all the mods of a godly rare can also spawn on an item. So for example, those g0dly +500% Enhanced Damage Zerkers and such can spawn with an *additional* +120% Enhanced Damage and 40% IAS if you use the Deadly recipe. Or a +3 sorc, 20% fast cast amulet with massive life can become a +3, 40% fast cast amulet. The ability for extremely powerful items to be created through crafting is really quite impressive and I look forward to seeing what people create.
Some of the most popular choices of crafted items are:
- Death Craft Weapons: The big benefit here is the ability to get more than 40% IAS on a weapon. This is very important to ShapeShifted druids for example since they recieve very little benefit from IAS that is located off their weapon.
- Holy Craft Weapons: The redemption aura is extremely powerful - especially early in the game. The aura also gives -25% curse reduction, a feature that some characters use to obtain curse immunity at low levels
- Holy Craft Armor: Sanctuary allows melee characters to ignore physical resistances when attacking undead monsters - so this craft is a great way for characters to deal with Physical Immune undead monsters. Combine in the curse reduction and this armor is a real winner.
- Blood Craft rings: Strength is highly desired on rings and you will always get a good chunk of it on a Blood craft ring. People often hope to roll a blood craft ring with +skills on it, but there is also the desirable option of getting a good dual leech ring.
- Holy Craft boots: Lets face it, having vigor is just plain old handy for getting through long areas. Many people choose to put these boots on a merc to share the aura effect.
- Caster Gloves: +20 mana per kill early in the game can solve a lot of problems for characters.
That is by no means the end of the the neat things you can do with Crafting, I just wanted to give you few ideas that you might not have though of. Definetly explore around with crafted gear though - it can provide some very powerful combinations.
Examples of CraftingHere are some items that I have crafted - some are really powerful for their level and for certain characters. Don't forget - these items can also be socketted (like the shields for example):
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1 - I would like to see this changed to "6% / 4% / 2%"
2 - I would like to see this changed to "Slowes enemies by 5/10/20 %"
3 - I would like to see this changed to "Prevent Monster Heal"
