How does augment ancient items work?

How does augment ancient items work? 

After throwing all of this in the cube, the Legendary Gem is destroyed and it adds it’s level * 5 worth of main stat permanently to your item. This means that every augment level you gain on your items is equivalent to gaining a Paragon level beyond 800, as they also award +5 main stat.

, the term “augment ancient items” seems to be associated with the game Diablo III, specifically with Kanai’s Cube, a powerful artisan device in the game. Keep in mind that game mechanics may change with updates, so it’s always a good idea to check the most recent information in the game itself or on official patch notes.

In Diablo III, Ancient Items are a higher tier of gear with improved stats compared to their non-Ancient counterparts. Augmenting Ancient Items involves using Kanai’s Cube to enhance them further with additional stats.

Here’s a basic guide on how to augment Ancient Items using Kanai’s Cube in Diablo III:

  1. Obtain an Ancient Item:
    • Find or acquire an Ancient Item. Ancient Items have a golden border and generally offer higher stats than non-Ancient items.
  2. Collect Legendary Gems:
    • Level up Legendary Gems by completing Greater Rifts. You need a Legendary Gem of at least rank 30 to use it for augmentation.
  3. Open Kanai’s Cube:
    • Visit Kanai’s Cube, a special crafting device located in the Elder Sanctum in the Ruins of Sescheron (Act III).
  4. Place Ancient Item:
    • Insert the Ancient Item you want to augment into the “Weapon” slot in Kanai’s Cube.
  5. Add Legendary Gem:
    • Insert the Legendary Gem of your choice into the “Gem” slot in Kanai’s Cube.
  6. Craft:
    • Transmute the items in Kanai’s Cube. This process consumes the Legendary Gem and empowers the Ancient Item, adding a significant amount of main stat (Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence) based on the type of gem used.

Keep in mind the following considerations:

  • Gem Level Matters: The level of the Legendary Gem affects the bonus added to the Ancient Item. Higher-level gems provide more powerful augmentation.
  • Gem Type: The type of Legendary Gem determines the main stat that will be added to the Ancient Item. For example, an Emerald adds Dexterity, a Ruby adds Strength, and a Topaz adds Intelligence.
  • Augmentation Limits: There is a cap on how much an Ancient Item can be augmented. The maximum bonus is determined by the level of the Legendary Gem used for augmentation.

Always check the latest patch notes and in-game guides for any changes to game mechanics, as Diablo III is regularly updated by its developers, Blizzard Entertainment.

So basically, what this recipe does is make your current ancient item better.

The legendary gems are the critical component in this recipe; you receive +5 points to an attribute chosen by Flawless Royal gem (Amethyst for Vit, Ruby for Strength, Emerald for Dex, Topaz for Int, regardless of item type) for every rank of your legendary gem. So, a rank 50 legendary gem will give you an additional 250 to your primary stat (chosen by standard gem type). You aren’t able to augment twice to double the effect, though. If you augment a second time, it just overwrites the first augment.

These augments are extremely important for endgame content. They are one of the keys to progressing into the upper greater rifts. As the accepted answer states, you get +5 for every rank of the gem. The result is a unique blue stat name on your item called “Caldesann’s Despair” (the name of the cube recipe for augmenting), as well as the rank and bonus to the stat.

So, for example, let’s say you used a level 42 legendary gem with an emerald. The added blue stat would be:

+210 Dexterity (Caldesann’s Despair Rank 42)

These are the correlations for gems to stats:

  • ruby (red): strength,
  • Amethyst (purple): vitality,
  • Emerald (green): dexterity,
  • topaz (yellow): intelligence
  • diamond (white): not available

Having enough gems is essential. You should be taking your off stat gems (as in, if you are a Demon Hunter and don’t use Topaz) and using Convert Gem to get them to your primary stat type.

  • If you want to augment a weapon, the legendary gem you use must rank 30.
  • If you’re augmenting jewelry, the legendary gem you use must be at least rank 40.
  • If you want to augment armor, the legendary gem you use must be at least rank 50.

However, it doesn’t mean that you should use a 30, 40, or 50 ranks gem. It means that once you reach grift 30, you should absolutely augment your weapon if it is ancient, and then every 5-10 grifts re-augment it.

The same goes for jewelry and armor. By 60, you may be augmenting every several grift levels you earn, as each +5 or +10 is noticeable during progression.

Attack Bonus 5e On Weapons

How Do You Augment Ancient Items?

An ancient item is already pretty awesome since it’s better than legendary. But if you want to up your game, you can augment your ancient items.

To do so, you’ll need a legendary gem and three flawless royal gems. Do note that they’ll destroy them.

For the flawless royal gems, you should use gems level 100 and ones that your build doesn’t use for the legendary gem. The higher the level, the better. You’ll get +5 primary stat per level you have it on.

For a quick reminder, ruby is for strength, Topaz is for intelligence, emerald is for talent, and amethyst is for vitality. In general, you should stay away from using amethyst unless you’re doing group meta support.

Put all four gems into the last page in Kanai’s Cube. It will destroy all your gems and will augment your ancient item.

What Is An Augment Ancient Item In 2024?

Augmenting an Ancient or Primal Ancient Ring or Amulet requires a Legendary Gem of Rank 40 or higher, while augmenting an Ancient or Primal Ancient piece of armor requires a Legendary Gem of Rank 50 or higher. The higher the rank of the Legendary Gem used, it will add the more attribute points to your item.

You aren’t able to augment twice to double the effect, though. If you augment a second time, it just overwrites the first augment.

The only way to get ancient items in Diablo 3 is by playing on Torment level difficulty. Your character also needs to be level 70. Once you get ancient items, you can augment and give them to your lower-level characters using the techniques above.

Ancient items can come from monster and chest drops, blacksmith crafting, gambling, Kanai’s Cube, and Horadric Caches.

Proficiency bonus in 2024

What Are Ancient Items?

Ancient items were something that introduces in early 2015, with Patch 2.1.2. Essentially, ancient items are legendary items that are modified to have even better stats. It made them extremely valuable to get.

Ancient items are only available on level 70 items. However, there are ways to use them before then.

First, you can have a -CLVL req modifier. Also, you can use it from level 1 if you use a Gem of Ease or Work of Cathan cube recipe.

To get the Gem of Ease, you need to kill Great Rift Guardian. It was initially exclusive to Season Two, but now, you can get this gem for recurring characters.

For the second option, you need to find Kanai’s Cube in Kanai’s Throneroom, in The Elder Sanctum, Ruins of Sescheron, Act 3. Once you get the cube, you put the item and a rank 25 or higher Gem of Ease in. That’ll remove the level requirements.

Restrictions On Gem Of Ease And Work Of Cathan Recipe

With the Gem of Ease, you can only socket it in weapons. When it’s below rank 25, it only increases the EXP gained through kills. However, once you reach rank 25 or above, you can use it to reduce the character level requirement of your weapons to 1.

With the Work of Cathan cube recipe, you can’t use Gem of Eases under rank 25. But if you use the cube recipe, you can put in any item to reduce the requirements to level 1, not just weapons.

However, the main caveat to using the cube recipe is your Gem of Ease gets destroyed in the process. By socketing it instead, you’ll get to keep your gem.

Augment ancient item

What Are Augments In Diablo 3?

Augments let you sacrifice a legendary gem (the one you get from a GRift guardian – I’m sure there’s a better name) + some gems of your choice (i.e., emerald, ruby, etc.) to increase that stat on a weapon or armor or jewelry. It’s a way to boost your primary stat.

With good enough gear, the only way to progress and do higher GRs is by stacking the primary stat (strength, agility, intelligence). On top of the farming pinnacle, you have an option to augment your ancient pieces of gear.

To do that, you need a legendary gem and three flawless royal gems. Type of the gem dictates what stat added to your gear: Ruby for str, Emerald for dex, Topaz for int, Amethyst for it (not advisable unless on some group meta support setup).

The gem was destroyed in the process of augmenting. Each level of the gem adds 5 points to a chosen stat. Augmenting doesn’t stack, and new augments overwrite the old ones.

For example, augmenting with a level 50 gem will give you 250 mainstays, but if you augment the same piece of gear with a level 60 gem, you will only have 300 extra mainstays from augmenting, which is why it’s best to do it with the highest possible levels of the gems.

Do not use the gems your build is using – gem gets destroyed in the process, and after finishing the next GR, you will drop a new, level 0 one. Generally, it’s advised to start augmenting with gems around level 100.

1. Find Kanai’s Cube

  1. Start a game in adventure mode
  2. Open the Map (M) or step on a waypoint
  3. Go to Act III > The Ruins of Sescheron
  4. Navigate to the Inner Sanctum
  5. Once you find the chamber containing the Cube, interact with it
  6. When you teleport back to town, you will find the Cube next to Zoltun Kulle

To start augmenting your gear, the first thing you need is the device to augment ancient items.

The Cube is a powerful artifact created by Zoltun Kulle and used by the Horadrim. As its corruptive powers became apparent, the Horadrim hid the Cube on Mount Arreat, entrusted to the Barbarians living there.

In its place, they created a less powerful artifact, called the Horadric Cube, which The Adventurer used in Diablo 2.

2. Gather the required materials to augment ancient items

  1. Augment ancient and primal ancient weapons: Item to augment + Legendary Gem level 30 (minimum) + 3 x Flawless Royal gems
  2. Augment ancient and primal ancient rings or amulet: Item to augment + Legendary Gem level 40 (minimum) + 3 x Flawless Royal gems
  3. Augment ancient and primal ancient armor: Item to augment + Legendary Gem level 50 (minimum) + 3 x Flawless Royal gems

The three Flawless Royal Gems will determine the primary stat applied by Cladesann’s Despair:

  1. Flawless Royal Ruby will use strength
  2. Flawless Royal Topaz will apply intelligence
  3. Flawless Royal Emerald will apply dexterity
  4. Flawless Royal Amethyst will apply vitality

Augmenting an ancient item will apply the primary stat and what the augmented item already has.

Remember that the gems will be consumed on each augment, so you will need a new legendary gem and three flawless royal gems for each subsequent augment you do.

Beware of the hidden cost of augmenting ancient items in Diablo 3. While you will not need gold for the augmentation itself, you need to upgrade the gems to the top tier. This cost can add up when you’re just starting.

3. Use the recipe to augment your items

  1. Click on Kanai’s Cube
  2. Click on the book icon
  3. Use the arrow buttons to scroll to page 10
  4. Place the materials in the Cube
  5. Click on Transmute 

The item will be returned to your inventory and you will see an extra stat appear in the description. Keep in mind that if you re-augment an ancient item, it will replace the previous augmentation.

4. Augment ancient items when needed

Once you gain access to item augmentation, you will be temptes to augment often. You can do your first round of augments when you have the legendary gems available; afterward, you will want to do it every 10-15 levels.

Naturally, this pace will slow down as you go past legendary gem level 60, and from here, you can do it every five levels or so, depending on how many mats you have available.

The legendary gem you use for augmentations does not impact the final result. The only thing to consider is the legendary gem’s level, as each level will add 5 points to the primary stat added to the last item.

Diablo is a game that has become synonymous with the ARPG genre. It is a series that is still thriving, with new players joining the eternal conflict regularly.

If you’ve just started playing Diablo 3 and you need some help getting around, sound off in the comments section below, and we’ll be sure to help you out.

Conclusion

In Patch 2.4, added a new recipe for Kanai’s Cube called Caldesann’s Despair. Through this recipe, you can take any Ancient piece of gear along with three max tier gems (based on the stat you want – so Ruby for Strength, as an example) along with a baseline minimum level Legendary gem and sink those gems to “augment.” Your item with the level of the Legendary Gem x5 of the stat matching the three regular max tier gems you used.

So an Ancient weapon with a Level 60 Bane of the Trapped, for instance, that combined with three max tier Rubies, would give that Ancient weapon an additional affix of 300 Strength! You can continually replace this affix with a higher value as you get better gem levels, too.

Caldesann’s Despair is a Kanai’s Cube added in Diablo 3 patch 2.4.

This recipe allows players to use Legendary Gems to boost an Ancient or Primal Legendary item with a five main stat bonus multiplied by the rank of the Legendary Gem used. An item can only have one bonus at a time, and applying another bonus will override the previous one. The bonus is applied as a separate affix, and it’s not affected by any other affixes. The materials required are:

  1. A rank 30 Legendary Gem or higher for Weapons
  2. Rank 40 Legendary Gem or higher for Jewelry
  3. A rank 50 Legendary Gem or higher for Armor
  4. 3 Flawless Royal Gems of the same type: Ruby for Strength, Topaz for Intelligence, Emerald for Dexterity, and Amethyst for Vitality

How does augment ancient items work?

Can you augment an ancient item twice?

You aren’t able to augment twice to double the effect though, if you augment a second time it just overwrites the first augment. The whole purpose of this is to just inch closer and closer to complete BiS (Best In Slot).

Can you make a legendary item ancient?

Hey Scar, just wanted to jump in here to confirm that it is possible to create Ancient versions of craftable Legendary and Set items. It may take several tries, but it’s entirely doable, and the odds are the same regardless of the difficulty in which you’re playing.

What does augmenting mean in Diablo 3?

Augmenting itself adds a bonus to the ancient or primal equipment item, the higher the legendary gem the better. The Stat is determined by the color of flawless royal gem.

Augments are a vital part of your success in Diablo 3. They provide a massive damage and toughness boost unlike any other in the game, and can be completed very early in a Season. They’re also one of the most misunderstood topics by newcomers and veterans alike, which is where we come in. This guide will go over everything you need to know about augments, allowing you to make the strongest characters you’ve ever had! Let’s dive in so you can get back to blasting.

The Basics of Augments

In Kanai’s Cube, the final recipe is called Caldesann’s Despair which applies an augment to an item. It requires the following materials:

  • An Ancient (or Primal) version of the item you want to augment
  • A leveled up Legendary Gem (more on this under FAQ)
  • 3x of whichever gem you’d like to augment
  • Flawless Royal Amethysts augment Vitality
  • Flawless Royal Emeralds augment Dexterity
  • Flawless Royal Rubys augment Strength
  • Flawless Royal Topazes augment Intelligence
  • Flawless Royal Diamonds cannot be augmented

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