Unique item Level and Level Required

[Joan1412]

Hello,

I would like to talk about items level requirements, when creating new unique items.

I started from scratch with new unique items, but I am still struggling with the level and level req columns.
Some vanilla items have very high level (I understand as way to make them rare and undroppable in generic areas), but what about level required?

do you have a general rule while making your items?

is it dangerous just to stick with lvl/lvlreq parameters from weapons.txt and armor.txt ?

thanks for any reply.

[Ogodei]

Hello

I haven't approached to items modding for now,
But I made a few in order to test the capabilities of item related txt's.
This is the general rule i'm going to follow: To make almost every unique item "unique", meaning it will be designed for specific purposes. For example, I created a ring which doubles the number of enemies hit by chain lightning, and another one that increases the number of summonable minions. it depends on what you want Unique items to be. You can create new stats, new properties and interaction between them and even equip monsters with uniques or special items, so the possibilities are unlimited. I think it's up to your imagination as well as the class balance and role in your mod. . I hope this helps!

P.s as for lvl req and lvl, it looks to me like the lvl req is the level the player/mercenary has to be in order to start using the item, while the "lvl" is the minimum level the of monsters to drop it. (I'm uncertain about this, so I'd be happy if someone can confirm or rectify this ^^')

[Joan1412]

Hello Ogodei,
I wanted to ask what decides that your ring will be level 50 and required level 60?

For example:
Shadowkiller drops in Hell Act1 Mausoleum (ilvl 85)
Cutthroat drops in Normal Baal (ilvl 50)

but bartucs is better as all-around item and can be upgraded.

[Ogodei]

Yes. That is because Bartuc's Cutthroat requires a level 50+ monster to be killed in order to drop (lvl column).
If items are better or worse, that's due to how Blizzard has set the vanilla itemization

[Joan1412]

So, what is your opinion on that itemization?

Would you design the item levels differently? That is what I wanted to ask in this topic.

[Ogodei]

My opinion is that in D2 every end game build relies on runewords and crafted items (except for a very few uniques). That's not so good, because you end up discarding almost everything as "a trash item" to get a CoH or a Enigma or similar runewords and therefore sets and the rest of uniques are treated as fillers.
In my 1st reply I said that I'm going to rethink uniques, giving them unique properties that affects skills, stats and make interactions between them. In this way, players will have much more variety in terms of builds , items and skill usage.