Difference between revisions of "Suffix"

Revision as of 21:06, 4 November 2008

Introduction

Suffixes work just as the did in Diablo. They can only occur after the name of the item type, and each suffix has certain prefixes it can and can not occur with. Similar levels work together, as they did in Diablo. One added complication is that Rares list all of their modifiers by effect, and they can have up to six modifiers, with a max of three prefixes or suffixes, so it can be difficult to tell what exactly is giving the item a given property.

Rare items can have up to three prefixes, but only one from each family of prefixes. Magical items have one or none. Magical items have a 50% chance of a suffix only, 25% chance of a prefix only, and 25% chance of both.

• No prefixes will occur with others from the same family on the same Rare item. So if you got +%Defense on some kind of armor, you would get either Sturdy, Strong, Blessed, Glorious, Saintly, or Holy, but never more than one on the same item.
• Alvl ( Affix Level): This figure is the level of the affix. The Ilvl of an item usually is equal to the maximum possible Alvl. For example a sword dropped by an Mlvl 50 creature would have an Ilvl of 50, and the highest affixes possible on it would be Alvl 50.
• Clvl req is 3/4 the highest Alvl on an item. So a Rare with with four mods, Ilvl 8, 22, 30, and 70 would require Clvl 52 to equip.
• Note on item types: Armor = Body Armors and Helms; Weapons = all damage-inflicting items except Bows, Orbs, Scepters, Staves, and Wands

+ points to Strength

Very useful mods, these can allow you to equip an item earlier than you would otherwise, add to damage with melee and throwing weapons, and put fewer points into strength, saving it for other stats. The level requirements were heightened in the expansion pack by substantial amounts, in order to prevent low level characters wearing super powerful items and clearing the acts like cutting through a bar of butter (which was the case in Diablo II classic).

Note: +Str on an item will not allow you to equip that item. Example: If you have 90 Str and need 103 to wear your armor, and the armor has +15, it will not work. If you equip a +20 Str helm, put on the armor, and then remove the helm, the armor will go red and your character will appear naked. You must have enough Str to equip an item from your stats + other items.

+ points to Dexterity

Very useful mods, these can allow you to equip an item earlier than you could otherwise, add to your defense and AR, and add to damage with bows, as well as allow you to put fewer stat points into dexterity. Like all the other mods, the level requirements got much higher than Diablo II Classic. Note: +Dex on a weapon will not allow you to equip that weapon. Example: If you have 110 Dex and need 118 to equip your Gothic Bow, and the bow has +10 Dex, it will not work. If you equip a +15 Dex helm, then equip the bow, it will work, but if you remove the helm the bow will turn red and be unusable. You must have enough Dex to equip an item from your stats + other items, no items can boost themselves to a usable level.

+ points to Minimum Damage

Useful mods, but compared to the hundreds of points of damage most attacks do for higher level characters, these are rather insignificant, though they are multiplied by skills and Str or Dex bonuses. Note: If you get +min and +max on the same item, it will display them together, I.E. "+1-17 damage" or "+4-3 damage". The added minimum damage can be higher than the added maximum, but the max damage on a weapon will always be 1 higher than the minimum, no matter the modifiers.

+ points to Maximum Damage

Useful mods, but less valuable than the much larger +% damage mods such as Kings or Merciless. The added damage is multiplied by multiplied by skills and Str or Dex bonuses. However, Evisceration suffix is one of the most damaging affix you could get in your weapons. Cruel Barlog Blade of Evisceration is most duelers' dream along with Cruel Colossus Blade of Quickness. Note: If you get +min and +max on the same item, it will display them together, I.E. "+1-17 damage" or "+4-3 damage". The added minimum damage can be higher than the added maximum, but the max damage on a weapon will always be 1 higher than the minimum, no matter the modifiers.

+ points to Cold Damage with Cold Duration

Very useful modifiers, especially on bows, since slowing down the monsters is always nice. The cold damage is negligible, it's the chill effect that's valued. The duration adds to any cold duration from other items, such as Eye of Etlich, Frostburns, Iceblink, etc, as well as cold or freezing skills. Note that cold damage occurs on fewer types of items than fire, lightning or poison, which can be found on rings, boots, and gloves as well. The cold duration range was changed for each suffixes, increasing by 1 second for each superior suffix.

Frost == 1-4 or 1-5. Glacier == 4-5, 4-6, 4-7, etc.

Monster chill/freeze times are 1/2 as long on Nightmare, and 1/4 as long on Hell.

+ points to Fire Damage

A very minor mod, the damage is tiny compared to weapon damage, especially since most monsters resist it. Even 10-20 Burning == 15 average, 75% resist == 4 damage. The high Clvl requirements that Flame puts on gloves, rings, and amulets makes it very unpopular on those. Flame == 1-2 or 1-3, etc. Fire == 2-6 or 2-7, etc. Burning == 10 or 10-11 or 10-12, etc.

+ points to Lightning Damage

Not especially useful mods, since there is no minimum damage increase, and most monsters resist lightning. 1-32 == 16.5 average and if 75% resist == 4 damage. Useless. Shock is very unpopular on Amulets, Boots, and Rings, for the large Clvl requirements it adds. The damage was upgraded significantly in the Expansion set, but charms could provide better damage.

+ points to Poison Damage

Very unpopular mods. The damage is very small, works over time, and Blight adds huge Clvl reqs to Amulets, and Rings. One benefit is that poisoned monsters do not regenerate hit points, which can be quite important in multiplayer Hell games. There is a bug with Poison damage in Diablo II, that no poisoned monster can ever be stunned. For this reason poison damage on weapons is very unpopular, though cold damage can largely mitigate the un-stunnable bug. This is fixed in the Expansion.

+ Attack Rate [Speed]

Very popular modifiers on all types of weapons, especially bows. Useless with skills that ignore item speed, such as Whirlwind and Jab. The increased speed is only for attacking with the weapon, it has no effect on spell-casting rate when on wands, staves, or scepters. The Paladin's Smite speed is based on weapon speed.

+ to Cast Speed

Very popular modifiers for spell-casting characters, especially Sorceresses. Fastest is worth 2 Fast, see full tables for all character spell-casting rates here. Note: There was a 'Faster' suffix on some Uniques pre-v1.04. It was identical to "Fastest" and has now been changed.

Attack Ignores Target's Defense

Piercing is extremely useful for Paladins on scepters, since Paladins find it almost impossible to raise their Attack Rating enough to hit successfully in Hell difficulty, lacking the passive +AR skills the Amazon and Barbarian have.

Attacker Takes Damage of

Generally worthless after early normal difficulty, especially in multi-player games.

Monster Knockback

A generally-hated modifier, since most characters want the monsters to stand still and be hit, but some Whirlwind Barbarians like. Can be useful to stun lock bosses.

Prevents Monsters Healing

Note: All monsters heal over time in DII other than Super Unique boss monsters. Since regeneration rates can be quite high for monsters with a lot of hps on hell, this can be very useful at times. This does not keep teleporting bosses from healing themselves when they teleport, however, nor does it prevent healing from other monsters, such as Sextons or Greater Mummies.

+ points to Life

Much valued modifiers, among the most popular to find on most types of armor. Can be annoying on weapons, adding rather high Clvl requirements in some cases.

+ points to Life (based on character level)

+ points to Energy

Very useful modifiers, at times more for combat characters than spell-casters, since Barbs and Amazons very seldom put any points into Energy, so need all their bonus mana from equipment, and don't wear any of the +%mana uniques like SoJ or Frostburn. These can stack with the mana adding prefixes to yield up to 90 (88 due to n-1 bug) mana on a given item.

+ Life Regeneration

One of the least-balanced modifiers in the game, given the enormous Clvl requirements. +10 to regen == about 1 hp per second, and with red potions so common, and leech, these are very second-class modifiers. Add in the enormous Clvl reqs, and these are dreaded.

+ % Life Stolen [per hit]

Probably the most valued mods in the game for combat characters. Life leech keeps melee characters alive. Leech works with all types of physical damage, melee or ranged. Elemental damage on weapons or from skills doesn't count for the leeched value, nor does damage dealt by minions. Example: If you had a sword that had 5% life steal and you hit a monster inflicting 50 damage you would steal 2.5 points of Life. Leech stacks and you get the total percent from weapon + jewelry.

Life and mana leech are cut to 1/2 on Nightmare and 1/4 on Hell difficulty. As a result, most characters find they need to increase their leech % once they reach Hell, barring a very high damage weapon.

+ % Mana Stolen [per hit]

Among the most valued mods in the game for combat characters. Mana leech is mandatory to use skills in combat, though a smaller % is needed as your character advances and does more damage. (4% of 500 damage is more than 10% of 100 damage, for example.) Leech works with all types of physical damage, melee or ranged. Elemental damage on weapons or from skills doesn't count for the leeched value, nor does damage dealt by minions.Example: If you had a sword that had 5% life steal and you hit a monster inflicting 50 damage you would steal 2.5 points of mana. Leech stacks and you get the total percent from weapon + jewelry.

Life and mana leech are cut to 1/2 on Nightmare and 1/4 on Hell difficulty. As a result, most characters find they need to increase their leech % once they reach Hell, barring a very high damage weapon.

Damage Reduced by

Generally ignored modifiers, since the values are so tiny, compared to the huge damage monsters deal. -Magical Damage is much more useful. Blizzard considered adding these as default properties to most types of plate mail, but this feature did not make it into the final game.

Magic [elemental] Damage Reduced by

A very useful mod in certain situations. It's great against damage over time such as from Firewall, Meteor, and Diablo's pink lightning. These items are great due to their reduction being calculated every frame, (25 FPS D2 runs at), so something that deals 100 damage per second might deal 4 per frame, and could be totally absorbed by Negation. No fire resistance but several -MD points and you can stand in the firewalls in the Arcane Sanctuary and take literally zero damage. Less effective against elemental projectiles, since they do all their damage in one frame, much like physical damage.

Poison Length Reduced by

Not highly-valued, but not bad to have on Rares. More useful than poison resistance in most cases. The poison damage you take is a set amount per second for several seconds, so reducing the time directly reduces the damage. These add up, with the max reduction capped at 95%. The normal -20 and -50 penalties to resistance on Nightmare and Hell apply, so you'd need 115% for NM and 145% for Hell to keep the max 95% reduction. Two items of defiance is enough forever, basically.

Freeze Reduction

Much like the Poison Length Reduction mods, these are useful, but not really sought out. High cold resistance appears to lessen chill time as well. Cold spells can have very long chill times in hell difficulty, especially the Frost Nova when a Cold Enchanted monster dies, and your character is vulnerable when cold. These do not help against the Holy Freeze Aura Duriel and some other Aura Enchanted bosses have, nor against Paladins with it in PvP.These stack just like the Poison Length Reduction modifiers. One cuts the time to 1/2, another to 1/4, then 1/8, etc.

+ % Chance to Block

The most useful property of a shield is the blocking, so these are just about mandatory on a Rare shield. Most people using shields go for a Unique or Set, or else a three diamond tower/pavise, so Rare shields aren't that often used, but they have the potential to be much higher blocking %, and have very good stats as well.

Hit Recovery

Very useful mods, some points in this is just about mandatory for most characters. Fastest is worth two fast, and generally one fastest is good enough, but with more you can cut your character's stun time to almost nothing. Each character has a different length of stun time when hit; a Sorc would need a couple of these to be as fast as some other chars with none at all. The fastest hit recovery on Bloodfist unique gloves is actually worth three Balance, more than Stability.

- % to Item Requirements

Extremely valuable modifier on high end items, such as the top Exceptional armor and weapons. Lowering their requirements allows a character to spend a lot less points in pre-reqs, and allows them to being using the item much sooner. For example, Ornate Plate requires 170 Str to equip, but would be 136 with Ease or 102 with Simplicity. A grim scythe would go from 140/140 to 84/84 with Simplicity, saving an astounding 112 stat points.

Faster Walk/Run Speed

Most consider faster or fastest run on boots to be mandatory, but it's just a convenience in many cases. Wearing heavy armor and/or carrying a tower shield slows running speed as well. These stack with the fast run bonus on Blinkbat's Form, as well as faster running skills, such as Vigor or Fast Run.

Repair

+ to Light Radius

Useful mods to have, but not really sought out. They can stack with the +light radius prefixes on the same item, and multiple +light items stack as well.

+ % Chance of getting magical item [from monsters]

Increases the odds that an item, when dropped, will be magical, Rare, Set, or Unique (rather than cracked, normal, or superior.) Basically it upgrades normal items to magical ones, and also normal to superior, so can make finding socketed items harder, ironically.

• Does not work for kills by minions (including Hydras, Revives, Skeletons, Valks, Mercs, Converted, etc) or by poison damage over time. (Poison damage kills are fine, it's the X damage over X seconds that doesn't work.)

• Works with ranged attacks and spells.

• Having +100% does not mean you get an item for every monster. It means that whatever % chance an item drop would be magical/rare/set/unique is doubled. So if you had a 5% chance of a dropped item being magical, 1% chance of it being rare, 2% being a set and .5% being Unique, you would now have a 10% chance of it being magical, 2% chance for rare, 4% for Set and 1% Unique. All figures are hypothetical, just for this example.

+ % Extra Gold From Monsters

Useful mods for gaining gold in a hurry, though generally much less valued than +find magic item. These stack, and with a few Rares with 100% or so each, the gold stacks in hell difficulty can be quite impressive, easily surpassing 6000-8000 from Champions.

% Chance to Cast when Struck

% Chance to Cast on Attack

% Chance to Cast on Stricking

Charges

Replenish

Indestructible