Guide:Charms v1.10, by Kronos: Difference between revisions

|co-author= Corax and the SPF braintrust  

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Charms are something a lot of players underestimate the worth of. There is at times a good deal of confusion as to what constitutes a good, great or fantastic charm, and how to go about getting them.

Most new players disregard charms entirely, focusing on accumulating their hoard of sets/uniques, and can often sell/not pick up/give away a great deal of wealth inadvertently by doing so. This guide aims at educating those who never really paid much attention to charms, about what mods are considered valuable, and how to get them.

I do not intend this guide to become any sort of currency-definition when dealing with charms. It was not made to be used as a law of trade values, to be referred to when so-and-so player refuses to trade you his Stormlash for a Pestilent small charm of Anthrax. The values I have given to each prefix and suffix are my opinion only, backed up by a long time playing the game and an understanding of generally what is worth what in a good trading community. The intention of this guide is to give those who've never really understood the value of charms an understanding of what is worth keeping or throwing away, what to cube for, and roughly what to expect to be able to trade them for. Keep in mind different people value things differently, and you should never insist a charm is worth something in a trade just because I have suggested it is here. Now, with that out of the way, let's proceed.

Note: The charm analysis was based with twinking in mind, so charms listed as 'worthless' can still be very valuable to an untwinked player for that little bit of extra damage or an easy way to stop monster regeneration.

A standard (blue) magic charm can have up to two mods on it. A prefix and an affix. This is determined randomly when the item is dropped but the odds are along the lines of:

* 25% Prefix only

* 25% Prefix & Suffix

Its often surprising to new players, but small charms can often be more valuable than any of their larger cousins. Why? Because the benefits they provide from their prefixes and suffixes available are better per inventory space than those provided by the larger charms. You'll get far more life, for instance, from 3 small charms of Vita than from one grand charm of Vita, which occupies the same amount of space. This makes certain mods more valuable to have on a small charm than any other.

* Good Luck: (6-7)% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items, ilvl 61

Now, this suffix is excellent. Even plain small charms of Good Luck with 6% MF are worth keeping, and plain ones with 7% are tradable and often in demand. With a good prefix and the full 7% MF, one of these could easily be worth an elite unique.

Large charms are often the most overlooked of all 3 kinds, since small charms are more often than not worth more per inventory space, and only grand charms can be skillers. There are times when the large charm is worthwhile, though. Not all that often, mind, but there are times. I'll go through all the available prefixes and suffixes available on large charms, with a brief comparison of value between them and the small/grand charm equivalents.

* Greed: +(11-22)% Extra Gold From Monsters, ilvl 27

A perfect large charm of greed would be worth keeping, as it has a higher maximum than two small charms of greed provide. Otherwise it only adds slightly to a good prefix's worth.

The favourite of many, since [[skillers]] are almost universally popular. In some instances the benefits on a grand charm can surpass those on 3 small charms, and sometimes the reverse, though in almost all instances a grand will surpass a large. The one major difference between Grand and small charms is that, above ilvl 50, grand charms don't really have any truly excellent prefixes or suffixes to aim for, whereas Small charms are the reverse. I'll list all the prefixes and suffixes available on grand charms and give a brief note about the usefulness of each.

* Anthrax: +50 Poison Damage Over 6 Seconds. Ilvl 21

Yes, they are all worthless too. Leave elemental damage to the world of small charms. An elemental affix could add slightly to the value of a high quality GC, like a skiller with a perfect ‘of storms’ Suffix.

The above lists should help with valuing the mods on the charms you find - this section will provide some basic guidelines to cubing for valuable charms. For each category of charm, there are certain ilvl milestones in which the majority of useful prefixes and suffixes are attainable, and when cubing you'll want to look for charms that reach these milestones, and decide whether you want to try for a charm with the mods available. If all you're after is Fine small charms of Fortune, for example, you'd lower your chances immensely by using ilvl 99 small charms dropped from Baal. Use the following milestones to guide your charm-hunting efforts to make sure you're using charms with an ilvl that suits your purpose. For each milestone, I’ll also include the areas best to search for charms of that ilvl. The areas listed all have an area level equal or slightly above the ilvl, meaning that all normal monsters in them will drop exactly that ilvl.

*Act 1 Hell, Countess tower level 3 and cave level 1 (in the cold plains)

*Act 2 Hell, Lost City

No 1.10 charm guide would be complete without a brief section on Gheed's Fortune and Annihilus, the only unique charms. Of the two, only Gheed's can be found in Single Player. Annihilus can only be dropped from 'Uber Diablo' on the Battle.net Realms. Here are the stats for the two:

*NM Baal

Remember Gheed's is a unique, so the more Magic Find you have on your character, the higher your chances of finding it will be.

I hope you find this guide useful and informative. If you have any questions, comments or constructive criticism(or even just want to abuse me some for being so damn awesome), you can contact Corax at traviswoodATgmail.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide.