Diablo II (v1.03)
Guide v1.0 by Spider Eternal (Spider0@Juno.com)
Last Update: 1/18/01
Check next to each title of the section to see the date of the last 
update!



Table of Contents
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I.	Introduction
II.	Imbuement Guide
III.	Common Mistakes
IV.	Side Comments
V.	Credits
VI.	Copyright


I. Introduction
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Ever get puzzled by what you should imbue? Or when you should 
imbue it? Or why some imbues came out great and others were absolutely 
horrible? Overlooking the fact that you give Charsi better items with 
each difficulty, there is another factor which determines imbue 
quality. And most people think it's the difficulty level that does it. 
That in fact, is wrong.


II. Imbuement Guide
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	The reason most people think imbues are better in higher 
difficulties, is because they are, in a sense, but its not difficulty 
that influences the imbuement, it's the level of the imbuer. If you 
think about it, it makes perfect sense. If a level 10 imbues an item in 
normal (or any difficulty for that matter), the item will be imbued to 
suit his needs. If a character level 20 imbues on any difficulty 
whatsoever, he will get a better item than the level 10 because he 
needs better items. So, the higher your level, the better the 
imbuement, it's that simple.

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A different way of playing can really make a difference, and could save 
you a lot of grief and boredom.
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The main reason people get not-so-good items from imbues, is the 
fact that a lot of them rush through the game. So being a lower level, 
they might imbue a great item, but will probably be disappointed. If 
you want to receive better imbues faster, take your time with the game. 
Sounds like an oxymoron, but its not. If you find an area in the game 
where you can level up easily and kill the monsters there with fair 
ease, then stay there. Once the experience starts going down, don't 
leave the area. Instead of rushing to the next area, join or make games 
that will have 8 people join them. For the most part the monsters will 
get a little harder, but they will still be easy to kill, and you will 
get good experience from them. The trick is to stay solo, that way you 
get the maximum experience possible. Try making games that will have 
the 8 people coming in play in a different act than you are. That way 
you will have 8 people total in the game and an entire Act full of 
experience for yourself. Once that area or act doesn't give you much 
experience with maximum players, then its time to move on. Playing in 
this consistent and thorough manner truly makes it an entirely 
different play experience. I've seen level 44 characters in Hell 
difficulty, and I've seen level 44 characters starting Act 2 in 
Nightmare. I myself have stayed in Normal, and found decent experience 
in hell with 8 people up until I hit level 37. Most people starting 
Nightmare are in their 20s.
	The best time to imbue is farther away than you might think. My 
recommendation is to imbue at least after level 45. If you want to get 
the best of the imbuements, imbue after level 60. Don't forget that 
chance still does play a big role in these imbuements, but your chances 
of getting a very good item are extremely higher than if you imbue 
within the levels of 30-45. I do realize that doing so deprives you of 
a rare item during your progression of the game. Still, wouldn't it be 
better to have a great item that you keep for a long time, instead of a 
mediocre item that you use for a little while and then sell off? You be 
the judge. I found that this strategy works great for me, imbues are 
rare and quite far in-between, I made the most of them.
	And finally, as to what items themselves you should imbue, that 
is really up to your character class. I recommend imbuing only the 
exceptional types of equipment, such as chaos armor, executioner 
swords, grim shields, etc. (Check out the specific stats on exceptional 
types of items at the official Diablo 2 website, or try www.diabloii.net)


Common Mistakes (Updated 12/4/00)
***************

You've all seen them before, people auctioning off exceptional superior 
imbuable items that are sold for sickeningly huge amounts of gold or 
good items. DON'T FALL INTO THIS TRAP!! Items lose all their properties 
once they are imbued, so getting a superior sword imbued, or a cracked 
one makes no difference whatsoever, the item type is what determines 
the imbued item. So an exceptional piece of equipment is different from 
a regular piece of equipment since it's already a different type to 
begin with, and having it imbued will produce a higher quality item 
altogether. The ONLY exception to this rule is with 
wands/staffs/scepters. The regular vs. exceptional rule still applies, 
but if you find one of these and the item is non-magical, (meaning the 
text is white) and that item possesses magical properties, such as 
additions to skills, (but improved damage or durability properties WILL 
be lost after the imbue) these spell properties will PROBABLY be 
retained in the imbuing process. In addition they might be improved or 
more skill adding properties will be added. Chance is a factor here 
again, so the perfect wand that you imbue might not keep the spell add-
ons that you'd like it to, but then again, it just might. :)
Another area where people could get misled is when imbues add the 
improved damage/durability/defense. If you gave a superior item that 
contained these attributes to Charsi, and she gave back an imbued item 
that still had those properties, you might be misled into thinking that 
they are kept during the imbue process. That's simply not true, what 
really happened was the item was stripped of its attributes, and then 
those properties were re-added to the item, giving the appearance that 
they were kept. I suspect that it might work the same way as the wand 
addition to skill feature, that sometimes it is kept, others it is not. 
I'm currently in the process of checking whether this is true. At the 
moment though, I would assume that all superior properties are lost, so 
avoid spending big money on superior items.


(Updated 1/18/01)
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Higher is not always better? The common opinion is that imbuing between 
the levels of 30-45 is better than the higher levels because you don't 
get as many damage dealing properties in items, instead they would be 
more geared to resistances and regeneration. Another belief is that a 
higher level simply expands the suffix and prefix pool, so after a 
certain level you'll get more crappy items and chances of a good item 
drop.
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I am not sure if this is correct or not, but I've gotten numerous e-
mails about it. From what I have heard, there are designated levels at 
which imbuing a certain type of item increases. For example it is said 
that imbuing a weapon is best at level 29, because chances of a good 
high damaging weapon increase dramatically. And imbuing for a shield is 
best at level 8-12, that way you get good defense multipliers. I am 
beginning to see a pattern in these e-mails I have gotten from people, 
telling me the best levels to imbue certain items etc. From what I can 
conclude, the game still gives you what you need. If you are at level 8 
and you imbue a shield, the game is going to boost the defense 
significantly because your defense absolutely sucks. When you are at 
level 29 and you imbue a weapon, the game is going to give you a damage 
boost because the weapon you currently have is not going to last you 
very long in nightmare difficulty (unless you have a godly weapon 
equipped). 

Here is what I can derive from all this:

Imbuing a shield at level 29 isn't as good as it is at level 8-12 
because at level 29 your defense is quite decent, it's the damage the 
game is going to worry about since at level 29 the monsters get more 
life, and you need to deal more damage. The imbuement process could 
possibly be based on your stats when you imbue an item. So imbuing a 
shield when you have 600 def armor is probably not going to yield you a 
shield that has a good defense rating, instead its going to give you a 
shield with regeneration and elemental protection statistics. Getting a 
higher level opens up more of the suffix and prefix pool, and most high 
level characters complain that they get shit for items when they imbue. 
That could be because they are already wearing great equipment so the 
game sees no need to boost their damage rating (for example) in an 
imbue. Had they imbued while completely naked, the results could have 
been very different. That would explain the reason why the game 
sometimes gives you items that you can't use based on your base stats, 
but wearing the equipment you have you are able to, whereas if some 
people imbued items they couldn't use at all, they commonly got the -% 
requirements attribute. Getting a higher level expands the 
suffix/prefix pool and allows the game to have more to choose from when 
it comes to giving you what you need at the time. 
My theory seems very likely to be true, so in addition to 
following the tips mentioned in the guide, see if imbuing while you are 
naked (and have no items in your inventory or possibly your stash) 
makes a difference in the quality of the imbue.

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For those of you curious to find out why you get certain items in 
certain levels read the small section below.
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The Diablo 2 game stops dropping items after a certain monster level. 
What I mean is socketed exceptional items, for example, will not be 
dropped (or very rarely) in the hell difficulty because the game 
considers those items to be too weak to be dropped. So in order to get 
them you have to go back to hell on nightmare difficulty. For this same 
reason you don't see cracked items dropped in the later difficulties. 
Certain items stop dropping according to difficulty only because 
difficulty is what determines the monsters' levels. So your imbue in 
normal should still be just as good as the one in hell, since its based 
on YOUR level. This does not affect unique items (not in my experience 
anyway, send in comments if you know otherwise people!) so don't worry 
about it not being possible to find any.


Side Comments (Updated 12/4/00)
*************

I am a very open minded individual, so if you think I have posted some 
incorrect information here, please let me know so I may update the 
Guide. Provide your name and e-mail and you shall receive credit for 
your help. Also any suggestions about how to improve this Guide, 
feedback of any kind, be it positive, negative, or even neutral; will 
be read and responded to. Basically, ANYTHING that you consider 
worthwhile to send, whether it would be a letter telling me to rot in 
the bowels of hell, a spelling mistake, or a compliment on my work, 
please send it. (No I'm not implying you send me hate mail just for the 
fun of it! Although I do enjoy the occasional chuckle.)


CREDITS (Updated 1/18/01)
*******

At the moment I wish to thank some of the ladder players on the WEST 
Realm whose names I can't remember but nevertheless, your advice helped 
me create this Guide. I also give credit to Andross who helped me 
update the guide in the particular area regarding wand imbuements! I'd 
also like to thank Daniel Farina and Luke Bentson for informing me of 
the unlocking of prefixes and suffixes! And thanks to all who sent in 
your comments! Please, send any thoughts you have at all. I'd like to 
hear them!!! The more input I get, the more often I can update this 
guide, and make it better for you guys. Be sure to send me any 
experience with imbues, patterns, reoccurring attributes, anything like 
that!


COPYRIGHT NOTICE
****************

This document is copyrighted to Spider Eternal 2000. I will grant 
permission to reproduce this guide freely provided you mail me asking 
for it and tell me where you will be posting it. It is also required 
that the document remains whole and unmodified, and the original author 
is credited, along with anyone else that contributed to the Guide. 
Also, by asking for this guide (and not stealing it) I will provide you 
with a modified MS Word version. It will make the guide easier to read 
with some of the enhancements that are added, so it will look like a 
real guide on your site, not a huge text file.
