One well-known quirk of Alvl selection is on Circlets. These items have what is called a "magic level", which is actually a bonus to the Alvl that can occur on them. Circlets: +3, Coronets: +8, Tiaras: +13, Diadems: +18 (All Diadems are always Alvl 99, so can always get any mods.) This is for the mods found on that item only, it's not a bonus to all items while you are wearing the Circlet. This means that if you gambled a Tiara at Clvl 77, or had an Mlvl 77 monster drop it, the potential max Alvl would be 90, due to the Diadem bonus (before other adjustments, such as the -5/+4 to your Clvl on gambling.) See our Circlets Page for more details. Normal/excep wands, all staves and orbs have a +1 magic level as well, but no other weapons or armor. Amulets had +2 in earlier versions of the game, but not after v1.09.
=Uniques and Sets=
The game only checks for item quality after determining the item type, as described above. The order of checking item quality is the same as checking for TC, the least likely to occur is checked first, and then on down. The game rolls for:
Unique > Set > Rare > Magical > Normal, in that order.
So if you find Bramble Mitts, the game will check to see if they are Unique (whether or not there is a Unique of a given item type doesn't matter at this point), if that fails then Set, if that fails then Rare, and so on. If the roll for Unique or Set succeeds and there is not one of that base item (which happens quite often with Elite Uniques, and can happen with Elite, Excep, or normal sets) a lower quality item with bonus durability will be generated. Details:
* A triple durability rare
= failed unique
If you roll a Unique when one of that type does not exist or from a monster not high enough to drop it, you'll get a Rare of that type item with 3x the normal durability.
* If you roll a Set when one of that type does not exist or from a monster not high enough to drop it, you'll get a Magical of that type item with 2x the normal durability.
** Both of these can also happen when monsters aren't high enough to drop the given set or unique.
** This also happens with Uniques, if the same one is selected to drop more than once in a game. Since it can only drop once, the 2nd, 3rd, etc times it will drop to a 3x durability Rare.
Jewels don't check for Unique or Set, just Rare or Magical (Not that it would matter if they did). Charms are always magical. Items that can't be magical, such as Runes, Keys, Potions, and Scrolls don't check for anything.
For a monster to drop a unique or set item, the monsters' level, (Mlvl) must be equal to or higher than the Qlvl of the Unique and the Qlvl of the set.
You can only find a given Unique once per game. Uniques on characters in the game do not factor into anything anymore, but for actual drops/gambles, one of a given Unique per game. In theory this could help with finding Unique rings/amulets, since each time you found one it couldn't drop again that game, but the odds of actually finding 4 or 5 unique rings or amulets in one game is extremely remote, and it
Uniques it's straight forward, you can see the Ilvl of every Unique on our items pages, and can compare that to the mlvls for the monsters listed on Darkness. If a Unique is Ilvl 50, like Skullder's Ire, a monster must be Mlvl 50 or higher to drop it. It's not guaranteed that a monster over Mlvl 50 can drop that item though, since you need to check the TCs also. And remember that monsters very very seldom drop anything from their highest possible TCs; the odds of them dropping from a TC increase as you go down.
Sets are slightly more complicated. The monster must be high enough level to drop the base item, and its Mlvl must also exceed the Ilvl of the Set requirement.
In some cases one or two items in a set will be much lower or higher level than the level of the whole set, and therefore harder to find. Sander's Cap is one example, since the cap is a very low level item, but the set is Qlvl 20. Most monsters over Mlvl 20 don't often drop caps, and the monsters that do often drop them aren't high enough level to drop Sander's Cap.
This isn't the same thing as a set item that's just a very rare base item. The IK Armor, for example, is virtually impossible to find, but that's because it's in Armor 90, which very few monsters in the game can drop.
* According to Blizzard, you will only find one of a given Unique per game. Uniques you might be using or have in your stash don't matter for Unique dropping anymore, though they did in D2C v1.07 and earlier. (This rule is debatable, we've had many reports of people finding two or more of the same Unique in a game.)
*
The Cow King's Leathers can only be dropped in the Secret Cow Level. It's not a great set anyway, mostly a curiosity, though the boots have some popularity. [Top]
Unique and Set Jewelry Odds
Here is a list of the 1.09 rings and amulets (set and unique). The Item Level is the minimum ilvl need to spawn that item. The rarity is the relative rarity of the item. The total rarity is a cumulative total, the sum of all rarity levels up to that point. The odds of a particular item dropping is it's rarity divided by the total rarity of all the like items a given monster can drop.
For example, a lvl 14 monster can drop only a Civerb's Icon amulet, while a lvl 20 monster can drop Civerb's, Cathan's, Angelic, Vidala's, and Arcanna's. The odds of any particular ring/amulet being dropped decrease as you kill higher level monsters.
This info courtesy of Ruvanal.
* Ilvl: The Item Level. A monster's level must be equal to or higher than this to drop that item.
* Rarity: A number in the game code that determines how likely that item is to drop.
* Total Rarity: A number that is the sum the Rarity of all types of that item.
* Odds: The % chance of a monster of that level dropping that item. Rarity divided by Total Rarity.
* Final Odds: The % chance of a monster that can drop every ring/amulet dropping that particular ring/amulet. Rarity divided by Total Rarity for every item of that type. (These are the odds past mid-Act 3 Hell.)
Set Rings Ilvl Rarity Total Rarity Odds Final Odds
Cathan's Seal 15 7 7 100% 70%
Angelic Halo 17 3 10 30% 30%
Set Amulets Ilvl Rarity Total Rarity Odds Final Odds
Civerb's Icon 13 7 7 100% 15.6%
Cathan's Sigal 15 7 14 50% 15.6%
Angelic Wings 17 7 21 33% 15.6%
Vidala's Snare 19 7 28 25% 15.6%
Arcanna's Sign 20 1 29 3.4% 2.22%
Iratha's Collar 21 7 36 19.4% 15.6%
Tal Rasha's Adj. 26 1 37 2.7% 2.22%
Tancred's Weird 27 7 44 15.9% 15.6%
Telling of Beads 39 1 45 2.22% 2.22%
This is why your best bet to find an SoJ is to kill monsters that are lvl 39-52, since they can't drop Dwarf Star or Raven Frost, which would cut your odds of a SoJ considerably. You have a 1/31 chance of a unique ring being an SoJ from Normal Diablo (40) or Nightmare Andariel (45), but Normal Baal (60) or Nightmare Mephisto (59), your odds are only 1/51. You never have better than 1/52 odds of a Bul Kathos ring, and only monsters in late Nightmare and Hell can drop it at all.
Unique Rings (View) Ilvl Rarity Total Rarity Odds Final Odds
Nagelring 10 15 15 100% 28.8%
Manald Heal 20 15 30 50% 28.8%
Stone of Jordan 39 1 31 3.2% 1.9%
Dwarf Star 53 10 41 24.4% 19.2%
Raven Frost 53 10 51 19.6% 19.2%
Bul Kathos 66 1 52 1.9% 1.9%
Constricting Ring* NA NA NA % %
* The Constricting Ring has never been enabled in D2X. If it were it would be a 1 on Rarity, with an Ilvl of 95, so virtually the same odds as Bul Kathos, but only findable from Hell Baal/Nihlathak.
Unique Amulets (View) Ilvl Rarity Total Rarity Odds Final Odds
Nokozan Relic 14 20 20 100% 28.6%
Eye of Etlich 20 5 25 20% 7.1%
Mahim-Oak Curio 34 10 35 28.6% 14.3%
Saracen's Chance 55 5 40 12.5% 7.1%
Crescent Moon 58 5 45 11.1% 7.1%
Cat's Eye 58 5 50 10% 7.1%
Atma's Scarab 60 5 55 9.1% 7.1%
Highlord's Wrath 73 5 60 8.3% 7.1%
The Rising Sun 73 5 65 7.7% 7.1%
Mara's Kaleidoscope 80 5 70 7.1% 7.1%
The hardest to find Unique Amulets are still much more common than an SoJ or Bul Kathos ring, though you have to kill things in late Hell to possibly find Mara's.
Misc Item Selection
Misc items are all items besides, weapons, armor, and Runes. Runes have their own treasure classes, 17 of them, 2 each in the first 16, with Zod solo in 17.
Potions and gems and the qualities they drop in are easy to observe just by playing. You get little ones early in normal, and almost all supers/flawless in hell. Check our Potions page for more details.
Charms and jewels are relatively common drops by all sorts of monsters. Small are a bit higher level than medium, which are a bit higher level than grand, but this isn't noticeable past act 2 normal or so. In nightmare and hell you should get even numbers of all charm types. The big factor with charms and jewels are their modifiers, and higher level mods are dropped by higher level monsters; easy enough.
From a chest in Durance 3.
There are several Charms mods (2 biggest +hps on grands, and biggest +cold damage on smalls) that shouldn't be possible to drop, since they are higher than any monster can drop. These charms are thought to come from chests, but in the game code chests are said to be maxed at Ilvl=75, which would be much too low. This shot is of a charm I found myself, from the chest in the left side of Durance 3, by the High Council guy. So there is some sort of bug it would seem. [Top]
Affix Selection
Prefixes and Suffixes are relatively simple. The maximum level of possible affixes is set by the Ilvl of the item. This is usually equal to the Mlvl of the monster that drops the item. You can see Mlvls here, and prefix and suffix levels on our modifier pages. Items sold by NPCs obtain their Ilvl based on the Clvl of the character that spawned them. See the NPC Item Generation section on this page for more details.
There are of course strict limits as to which modifiers can occur on which types of items, as well as which can be found on Rare/Crafted items. These are detailed on our modifier pages.
The highest Alvl that can occur on an item is determined by the Ilvl and the Qlvl of the item and is usually lower than the higher of the two (Alvl = Ilvl only when the Qlvl=1 for items without a magic bonus, such as weapons or circlets.)
Affix levels aren't of that much use to many players, since it's not like you're going to kill specific monsters based on the prefix or suffix you want to find. Item type is more important than affix in most cases, and most players want elite items with high quality affixes.
The reason you need to know the Ilvl of something is mostly for use in cube recipes, especially the 3 perfect gem + 1 magical item = new magical item. This one is Ilvl = 100 for the mods, which means the Ilvl remains constant each time. So if you have an Ilvl 50 item it will stay at that level, and not be eligible for higher level modifiers.
When an item is generated that has affixes the Alvl is calculated* from Ilvl and Qlvl as follows
if (Ilvl>99) then {Ilvl=99}
if (Qlvl>ilvl) then {Ilvl=Qlvl} ;** see note below
if (magic_lvl>0) then {Alvl=ilvl+magic_lvl}
else
{
if (Ilvl<(99-qlvl/2))
then {Alvl=Ilvl-Qlvl/2}
else {Alvl=2*ilvl-99}
}
If (Alvl>99) then {Alvl=99}
*all calculations use integers so there are no fractions at any step.
** this new Ilvl value is only used for the duration of this calculation. The Ilvl value that is stored in the items data file will remain unchanged.
To quote Ruvanal:
<blockquote>To determine the affixes available use the level column in automagic.txt, magicprefix.txt and magicsuffix.txt files as the minimum alvl required. Filter the version (1 for D2C games, 1 or 100 for expansion games), spawnable (1=yes, 0=no), maxlevel (a few cannot appear on higher alvl items), and the appropriate itypes and etypes (excluded item types). For rares and crafted items you will need to select only the affixes with rare=1 and need to exclude any affixes that have the same group number as an already selected affix. Then to determine the chance of getting an affix you will need to sum the frequencies for that particular type (automagic, prefix, suffix) and get the chance of that particular affix by affix_frequency/frequency_sum.</blockquote>
The biggest difference between Affix selection and TC selection is that there's far less weighting for higher or lower level affixes. You are extremely unlikely to get an item from the highest TC a monster can drop, but an Mlvl 50 monster is as likely to drop a lvl 48 affix as a lvl 14 affix in most cases. (There are some weighted affixes, making them more likely to occur. There are also some low level/junky prefixes with max level settings, which means you won't see them on very high Ilvl items at all. Most players would like this max cap added to far more of the low level/crappy mods.)
One well-known quirk of Alvl selection is on Circlets. These items have what is called a "magic level", which is actually a bonus to the Alvl that can occur on them. Circlets: +3, Coronets: +8, Tiaras: +13, Diadems: +18 (All Diadems are always Alvl 99, so can always get any mods.) This is for the mods found on that item only, it's not a bonus to all items while you are wearing the Circlet. This means that if you gambled a Tiara at Clvl 77, or had an Mlvl 77 monster drop it, the potential max Alvl would be 90, due to the Diadem bonus (before other adjustments, such as the -5/+4 to your Clvl on gambling.) See the Circlets Page for more details. Normal/excep wands, all staves and orbs have a +1 magic level as well, but no other weapons or armor. Amulets had +2 in earlier versions of the game, but not after v1.09.
=NPC Item Generation=
Higher level characters see more Exceptional and Elite items offered for sale.
<blockquote>Exceptional: (<100*(Ilvl-Qlvl)/2>+1)/100 % Elite: (<100*(Ilvl-Qlvl)/4>+1)/100 %</blockquote>
Which works out to about:
<blockquote>Exceptional: (Ilvl-Qlvl)/2 % Elite: (Ilvl-Qlvl)/4 % </blockquote>
In this formula, Ilvl = (Clvl - 5 + Rnd<10>), Rnd<10> is 0 to 9. Qlvl is the level of the base item picked (that is of the exceptional/elite item we are checking to upgrade to).
In simplest terms, the higher your level the more Excep/Elite stuff, and you need to be about the level of the item you are trying to see to have any chance to see it for sale. I.E. Qlvl 75 Colossus Sword, you need to be Clvl 75ish to have any hope, and higher is better. A quote from Ruvanal:
<blockquote>To determine what the exceptional or elite item is the game looks up the corresponding code from the ubercode and ultracode columns in the appropriate files. Note that there are 2 typos that dectgap found in the weapons file. The first is they are caused by someone who accidentally wrote "7b7" (Champion Sword) instead of "7o7" (Ogre Axe), and "7fb" (Colossus Sword) instead of "7gd" (Colossus Blade). The first does not matter for store sales (but will in the gambling section) as the Bardiche is upgraded by the first method to Halberd in nightmare and a War Scythe in hell. The second though means that whenever a Great Sword would have been upgraded to an elite version you will get a Colossal Sword instead of a Colossus Blade. </blockquote>
