Can someone explain to me the 'Tiers' of gear

[Tomhvk]

So, from what ive read:

Lets say you are in Act1 Inferno, that has chance to drop 'Act4 Hell, Act1 Inferno, Act2 Inferno' gear

So does that means that each act has an internal 'item level' (used in the broadest sense) so if you were to roll dex/vit/all resi on a peice of gear in Act1 Inferno and the same on an Act2 inferno piece, technically the Act2 one should have more stats?

Of course I know its RNG based, but im guessing theres a better chance of higher stats from higher up?

Also does anyone know where blacksmithing fits in here? I have Plans : Exalted Shoulders and Chest does anyone know what 'leve' of gear the crafted items will be? or is it totally random?

[Deleted]

I believe it works something like this (exactly how, I don't think they've fully divulged)

Act 4 gear is item level 63
Act 3 gear is item level 62
Act 2 gear is item level 61
Act 1 gear is item level 60

When you farm an act, you have a chance to approximately get the act below you, or above you. There may even be a very small chance to get an act 2 levels above you - I'm not sure. But on average, if you're in act 1 you're probably going to see Act IV Hell stuff (which can be anywhere between 53 and 59 I think), and Act 1 stuff (item level 60 level 60s), and then possibly Act 2 stuff (item level 61 level 60s).

An item level 61 should have a higher budget than an item level 60. That's not to say it'll have better stats, but potentially, if it was a perfect item, it would be better than a perfect item level 60 because it has a slightly higher budget. A low proc item level 61/62 could still potentially be a fair bit worse than a perfect level 60. Likewise a good proc level 61/62 blue could potentially be better than a level 60 rare.

Not sure about blacksmithing to be honest! Some of the plans seem to have 5-6 stats on them whilst your average rares I've seen in Act 1/2 inferno have 4 stats on them.... I don't think they've told us what the highest ilevel your BS gear can proc, but I don't believe it is ilevel 63 stuff.

[Harsesis]

The term "tiers" is only used in the sense that the items go together artistically. The art that is given to a given item is determined by a range of ilvls. Ex: items ilvl 40-45 will have the same art but items ilvl 46-50 might have new art. There are also sets (which have green names) that actually work very much like the tiers from WoW, with set bonuses and all.

[Tomhvk]

I did presume that items from higher acts had better item budgets, but i was just checking, im guessing you cant see the 'ilvl' of gear, and its just internal?

[Lathais]

I did presume that items from higher acts had better item budgets, but i was just checking, im guessing you cant see the 'ilvl' of gear, and its just internal?

You will be able to in a future patch they said. Because people are complaining about Items in higher Act having lower stats and saying it's lower level when it's not, it just got a bad roll on it's stats, Blizz said they are going to make it displayed so you can see. I think it's the the article where they are talking about game design. Currently you cannot though.

[Deleted]

Afaik,
Act I is up to Ilvl 62
Act II is up to 63
Act III and IV are also 63, just the chance to get Ilvl 63 gear is higher than on the lower acts.

The higher the act/difficulty, the higher the chance for more of the higher Ilvl gear to appear.

The higher the Ilvl of an item, the higher is the budget of stats it can possibly roll on.
Since that budget always has a range, lower Ilvl items can sometimes roll on better stats than higher lvl ones, happens quite often actually.

[Deleted]

Well just to add to the confusion I was under the impression that its:

Act 1: Up to level 61
Act 2: Up to level 62
Act 3/4: Up to level 63

How true that is I don't know. I can attest to definitely seeing higher levels of loot in Acts 3/4 than I ever did in 1 or 2. I don't mean stats wise, I mean the baseline piece itself is such that it never drops in earlier acts. Of course all places drop gear from lower levels too just to increase the chance of RNG screwing you.

[Dhrizzle]

I read a quote recently that said (as an example) Hell Act IV has about the same chance of giving you Inferno I gear as Hell III.

[Raphtheone]

My impression was what Shamanic listed, but that the current act sets the ceiling on how good items you can get (IE, you can't get loot from the acts above). I think each act simply adds its own loot to the available loot table.

[Deleted]

My impression was what Shamanic listed, but that the current act sets the ceiling on how good items you can get (IE, you can't get loot from the acts above). I think each act simply adds its own loot to the available loot table.

It was stated somewhere (something official) that inferno is supposed o have just 3 new tiers and since (according to the Game Guide) both Act III and IV mobs are lvl 63, i guess Act III and IV is both Ilvl 63.