Player Level and Act + Difficulty in drops and crafting

If there is no hard data, the experiences of seasoned players input most welcome on this question.

Examples

1) Does a level 60 player have a better chance at favorable crafting rolls such as socketing than say a level 30 player?

2) Does farming in Act 1 yield the same odds for drops as Act 2 or 3, while in the same difficulty level?

3)Does farming in Normal yield the same number of crafting mats as Cruel or Merciless?


Thanks in advance

"

rpgpoe wrote:

If there is no hard data, the experiences of seasoned players input most welcome on this question.

Examples

1) Does a level 60 player have a better chance at favorable crafting rolls such as socketing than say a level 30 player?

2) Does farming in Act 1 yield the same odds for drops as Act 2 or 3, while in the same difficulty level?

3)Does farming in Normal yield the same number of crafting mats as Cruel or Merciless?


Thanks in advance

1) The player level does not matter for crafting. What matters is the item level of the item you want to craft. To find this info pick up the item on your cursor and type /itemlevel. This affects what mods you can get on items or the number of sockets.

2) Zone levels are what matters for drops. The items that drop have the same item level as the zone you are in. Exceptions are magic and rare monsters. Magic monsters drop the zone's level +1, while rare monsters drop the zone's level +2.

3) You can get the same amount of crafting materials/orbs in the first zone as compared to merciless. The only difference is that orbs such as Cartographer's Chisel only drop in merciless. But you can find an exalted orb from any mob in the game.

OK this is great, thanks.

So to be clear, if I wanted to farm for say Orbs of Fusing, I could just go to Normal Act 1 and repeatedly clear any zone, and have the same odds as in Merciless in any Act 3 zone (assuming the same number of monsters were killed)?

Is that correct?

No, that is not correct. After you are zone + 2 levels above the zone level you see a -2.5% reduction per level in currency (orbs) dropped. So to do what you are suggesting, you would need to keep making new characters to stay on level with the content.

Also, you can not farm for Exalted Orb in Tidal Island, and I believe not in Terrace either. It was in a patch a while ago as a way to discourage bots. You'd have to search for the exact one.

I totally forgot about the penalty - thanks for pointing that out!