Welcome new players and veterans returning to the Diablo community alike! If you’re unfamiliar with Diablo 2 items or are in need of a quick overview, you’ve come to the right place!
The variety and depth of items in Diablo 2 is staggering, even when compared to its modern contemporaries. If Diablo 2 (D2) is the king of ARPGs, it’s loot and crafting system is its crown jewel.
Loot quality ranges from Normal (with exceptional variants), Magic, Rare, Crafted, Set, to Unique (with exceptional variants). Don’t expect World of Warcraft’s ‘Epic’ purple and ‘Legendary’ orange quality, Blizzard hadn’t come up with it yet! Instead Diablo 2 items are color coded differently with few similarities:
Magic Items
(Blue Letters)
The first and most common magical type of loot, D2 Magic Items drop with 1-2 magical properties. Game changing, or at least worth selling early on, these guys are almost wholly ignored late game.
Rare Items
(Yellow Letters)
A slightly fancier drop with 2-6 magical properties, impressive at earlier levels but not as game changing later on.
Rare Items become the bare minimum required to stop and check during mid game. During late game you’ll find yourself ignoring the drops that have less than 4 properties: The market for D2 Rare Items with 4-6 properties (Affix) is a little pricey because of how useful they are.
Crafted Items
(Orange Letters)
Created in the Horadric Cube, these items will have fixed characteristics and random magic properties based on the recipe.
Set Items
(Green Letters)
These items each have a custom graphic/in-game appearance, are named, and provide some magic bonuses depending on the item and how many items of the set you have equipped.
Unique Items
(Gold Letters)
The most powerful items in the game, these named items are logically the most difficult to find. Some players grind for a very long time before ever seeing one drop, but are well worth the wait as no other items come close in terms of sheer value and damage potential.
Socketed Items
(Grey Letters)
A few ‘vanilla’ variants of this subtype of item pop up in early to mid game, in either superior/normal quality. Every D2 player’s endgame equipment and weapons will normally be socketed variants of Unique and Set Items.
These sockets are used to permanently upgrade stats on the item, using a Gem, Rune, or Jewel of any quality. These seemingly endless combinations of Runes/Gems/Jewels are completely dependent on your class/character’s build, and popular builds for every class normally require specific Runewords/Gems/Jewels.
The more sockets the better, and in regular Diablo fashion the best items are only found during late game of the hardest difficulty.
Developers limited sockets on dropped loot, with a maximum of 4 for Armor and 6 for Weapons (this is also affected by character level and item rarity), meaning that adding more sockets will require small amounts of theorycrafting: Some Set and Unique items will give you an extra socket, or spamming the first quest in Act 5.
This method of grinding A5/Quest 1 will only reward you with giving 1 socket to a rare/magic item. There is a 50% chance to get 2 sockets if you socket an item that had none to begin with.
Remember, the quest will only allow you add one socket, and it won’t allow you to add a socket to it over the maximum it drops with.
Set/Unique/Crafted items drop with a maximum of 1 socket, and normally cannot have more added unless otherwise stated on the item. Rare items can spawn with 1-2, while Magic items can spawn with up to 4.
Grinding out the minutes or hours needed for specific iterations of an item via Horadric ‘cubing’ or purchasing/trading are generally the fastest methods.
Socketed items are surprisingly counterintuitive compared to other item categories, since the lower MF (preferably Zero MF) affords more socketed drops.
For the masterlist of sockets by item, by level, click here, and scroll down to the last category.
Diablo 2 Gems
Once socketed into place on an item, each of the 7 types of Gem will afford powerful magical stats permanently (you can only add gems to gear, unsocketing them by ‘cubing’ the item with a Hel rune and TP scroll).
These stats depend on quality/grade of the gem and the type of item: Weapons get damage stats, Armor/Helms buffed attribute stats, and Resistances/defensive buffs on Shields.
The 7 Different Types of Gems by Quality
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(Table compiled by D2Boost, Images obtained from: https://diablo.gamepedia.com/Gems_(Diablo_II))
Upgrading Gems
Touching a gem shrine can upgrade your gems on the go, but you’ll probably do most of your combining and upgrading using the Horadric Cube.
The standard recipe is 3 Gems of one tier combines into 1 Gem of the next highest tier.
Diablo 2 Jewels
Similar looking to Gems but with little in common, other than being a socketable item, Jewels are a heavy theorycrafter’s dream: they can add stats to an item without changing depending on the item like Jewels or Skulls.
Each Jewel has a random 1 to 4 magical properties that it bestows once socketed into ANY item: From armor, weapons, shields, to helmets, the properties your Jewel provides are the same once socketed.
Unfortunately two Jewels that do the same thing are tough to come across: all Jewels’ bonus properties are generated from 39 prefix names and 27 suffix names, meaning there are over 1 million different combinations due to the way they’re created by the loot engine.
Jewels come in three different qualities Rare/Magic/Unique. All 8 Unique Jewels are named ‘Rainbow Facet’, but depend on their main power (On Lvl up or on character death) and element (elec./fire/ice/poison).
The most sought after effects are Damage increases (magical or physical), Increased Attack Speed, or Resistances. These bonuses normally pale in comparison to their Gem and Runeword counterparts, but because of their innate adaptability are still used competitively.
You can even ‘cube’ your Jewel into another item, so keep a hold of them for late game crafting if you aren’t using them.
Diablo 2 Runes and Runewords
Runes can be used to craft gear via the Horadric Cube, and by socketing them in the same item in a specific order you can create a Runeword.
Arguably the most powerful boost available, Runewords are the keystone in most builds: They can bestow ridiculous buffs to your class powers or even allow you to use powers normally unavailable to your class.
For example: Runeword Enigma (made by socketing Runes Jah+Ith+Ber together) allows any Diablo 2 character to teleport, once socketed.
Diablo 2 Ladder Items
A few items, runes, and competitive ‘High Runes’ are only available if you created your character for Ladder.
Diablo 2 Ladder Items have their own category or identifier on most websites and auction houses.
This also means that certain Runewords are only available in Ladder mode, so plan ahead before getting locked into a build.
If you’re struggling to create the last Runeword your build requires, you can always take a peek at our D2 Ladder section to complete it.
Diablo 2 Charms
These items provide bonuses just by holding them in your inventory, no equip required!
Inventory management is a must in ARPGs, so plan ahead: Small Charms take up one slot, Large charms take two, and Grand charms take up to three.
All sizes are available in either Magic or Unique quality but only give bonuses inside your Inventory not Stash or Horadric Cube. Remember to rotate the ones in your inventory and Stash/Cube depending on what you’re facing.
Because of their size Small Charms are normally the most sought after, though some attributes are only available on Large or Grand ones.
Diablo 2 Unique items
The most overpowered, popular, and difficult to find item type in D2. These items are core to most endgame builds, provide the biggest bonuses, and allow you to drink buckets of your enemies tears in PvP.
Crucial to your damage potential, some Unique items are Ladder Character only or Exceptional quality, meaning they’re only dropping in D2 Lord of Destruction.
Some Unique items have such a low drop probability that it can take years of grinding to drop, even once (like Tyreal’s Might), so be patient.
If you don’t have years then check out our Diablo 2 item store and pick one up in just a few clicks and keystrokes.
Trading
Disclaimer: Some players might trick you by trading you an item of lesser quality but with the same graphic/appearance as the one they’re offering in chat, ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK THE ITEM BEFORE ACCEPTING A TRADE!
Streamlined in functionality from its first iteration, Diablo 2’s trading is secure and easy. Simply left click another player in town and place your item(s) to trade in the window.
Once both players have accepted the trade, the transfer is instantaneous, but either player can cancel at any time.
Ways to trade:
Trade in your game: Ask your buddies/clan/party-mates/randos if they can help you out in chat.
Join or Create a Trading game: If you’re searching for something more specific, you can join or create a game with the specific trade as the game title. ‘Trade’ should always be in the game’s title.
Trading Forums and Message Boards: You can post about the items you need on the forum or message board of your choice.
Auction Sites/Online Stores: You can either bid or instantly buy Diablo 2 items, Runes, and Gems (oh my!) on various sites including ours.