Rune ilvl

[Jarulf]

Thanks for your replies.

Concerning ilvl, I was completely false so :( (there is a glitch on dii.net where ilvl is told to be clvl for gems and runes.)

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Just a few comments on the whole issue of levels. The game has tons of numeric values that in some way can be said to be levels, or indicating how "good" something is. Typically the higher this level value is, the better sort of. Now, to help making discussion clear, people add some sort of meaning to the level and says "character level" when they talk about the level of a character/player. When we talk about the level of a monster, we say "monster level". When we talk about the level of a base item (like short sword), we usually say the quality level and so on.

This is great when having text, but when we want to write down formulas, or make tables telling how different levels are calculated or used, it gets cumbersome, so we make up some sort of abbreviation to use instead. For character level, we use clvl, for monster level, mlvl and so on. This is all good, however, with some many different levels and so many different people and sites, it will no doubt exist different abbreviations for the same thing and an abbreviation might mean different things. In addition we only have so many letters to put in front of "lvl". Thus, always try to see how a specific abbreviation is defined.

Also, always try to avoid using the abbreviation when there is no formula or table to be written. That way one avoid having people toss around ilvl not really understanding what it mean or relate. Instead of asking what the clvl of a rune is, try writing, what is the character level of a rune. That way one would immediately realise that something is wrong (a rune would not have a character level) and that somewhere something is wrong in whatever formula, table or text one saw it. That avoids many confusions.

What is bad about diabloii.net is that they use multiple different meanings and definitions of the abbreviation "ilvl". In addition they are simply wrong on some relations about different levels and how item creation works. So I can understand your confusion.

Lets try to make some sort of summary of different levels and their abbreviations. I will try to use the meaning and use that has existed since back in the Diablo 1 days.

character level - clvl, the level of player's characters

monster level - mlvl, the level of a monster

skill level - slvl, the level of a skill or spell

area level - ????, the level of a specific named map area in the game (Diablo 2), I am not familiar with any abbreviation, alvl could be used, but it is already in use as the abbreviation of affix level, so could be confusing. In Diablo 1, since we had dungeon levels, the abbreviation dlvl was used. Had I written a guide to Diablo 2, I would probably have used that.

quality level - qlvl, the quality of various item properties. This is primary used today for the level of the base items, that is the items as they are with no additional properties, like a short sword, a circlet and so on. Each has such a quality level. Even items that can't have magical properties has such a quality level, like a rune and even keys and such. However, the quality level for non magical items (that is those that CAN be magical) is for the most part uninteresting and not important or even used. Back in the Diablo 1 days, and I think even for Diablo 2, quality level was also used as the level of the different affixes. Each affix has a level that in some way tries to tell how good it is. Typically the higher such quality level, the higher are the modifications on it. Don't confuse this with "affix level". Affix level is as far as I have seen something completely different, see below. Also, each unique and set property an item can have also has a level which typically is referred to as the quality level of the unique and set. Consider unique and set, not as special items themselves, but really a base item with a unique or set property added to it (that is really how the game do it). So a unique item is one that instead of a prefix, got a unique property. The quality level of unique and set is used to tell if a specific dropped item is good enough to get the unique or set property, see more below.


Now, all the above are fixed values, set in stone so to say and are always the same for all items and cases. They can be looked up in data files and listed in tables and so on. Sure, Blizzard can change them in a patch, but they don't vary from game to game, or item to item and so on.

So lets look at the more variable levels.

Item creation level or item level - ilvl, one of the most misunderstood levels and also one of the most misused and wrongly defined abbreviation I would say. The item creation level (or simply item level as many say) is a numeric value assigned to each item when it is dropped. This value is set based on the source of the item, and is used by the game to determine what magical (and non magical) properties the item can possibly have. This is usually done by either direct comparison of the quality levels of properties and the item creation level, or through various formulas and calculations that turn the item creation level and the quality level of the base item into a new value that is then compared to the quality levels of item properties (yes, confusing, but it is a bit complicated, I won’t go into detailed item creation here though).

This value is specific for each item created by the game and even otherwise identical items, can in fact have different item creation levels. There is really no way inside the game to know the value of this level although, if one knows the source of the item, one can often know its value. For example, if the item comes from a monster, the item creation level will be set to equal that monsters level. If you buy an item in town, it will be based on that characters level and so on.

affix level - alvl, just as with item creation level, is a value inherent to each individual item that determines how good affixes the game could pick for the item. As I mentioned above, when an item is to have affixes (prefixes or suffixes, the game uses a relatively complex algorithm to transform the items item creation level and the base items quality level into a new value, or level. This new value is the one that is compared to see what affixes is possible. People writing formulas and wanting to explain this wanted a new name and abbreviation in formulas for this and apparently came up with affix level. So it is really just a modified item creation level, used to compare with the different quality levels of affixes.


That is basically it. Sure, there are other levels as well, but these are the important ones to most people. One thing that might be seen above, is that there is no real relationship, numerical or formula for determining what base item is possible for a specific item drop (from monster, chest and so on. The reason is that base item determination can, from a practical point of view, does not really factor in the quality level of the base item. Instead a highly complex treasure class system is used, which in itself would need a post far greater than this one to explain with all its own internal levels and so on.


So, going back to your initial question, on were to find a Cham rune, there is really no direct connection to the Cham runes level (each rune is its own base item with a quality level, but the quality level is really of no use or importance). Runes are by the game inserted into various rune treasure classes which in turn is assigned to various monsters and areas through higher treasure classes (as explained some previously in this thread). As Thrugg explained, there is really no formula or so to go from the Cham rune to what areas can drop it. One have to basically dissect the treasure classes and its system to pick item and end up with a “yes or no” answer or information (for nightmare and hell difficulty) on what area level is needed for it.


I really think the above might not have turned out as well and clear as I intended. Feel free to ask or comment on it so we can clarify. I should probably post a very brief explanation on how the different levels relate for item creation for example.