Gear

Read this before a build’s gear list

Build pages already talk in Greater Affixes, Aspects, Tempers, Capstone and Crafted Mythics. This primer is the shared dictionary. Farming owns drop tables and the craft costs we have verified; this page teaches what the systems are.

Wear

Affixes on the piece

Imprint

Aspects from the Codex

Upgrade

Temper, then Masterwork

Costs

On Farming

• No Unique→boss tables here. Those live on Farming.
• Exact temper names and masterwork priorities stay on the build. This page only unlocks the vocabulary.

Slots, base, affixes

Every endgame piece is a slot, a base, a set of affixes, and (for Legendaries) an Aspect. Build pages assume you can read those layers without a second glossary.

What the colours and numbers mean

Chase Ancestral pieces with Greater Affixes in Torment — not endless Item Power climbs.

• Rarity ladder: Rare → Legendary (with an Aspect) → Unique → Mythic Unique. Ancestral is a quality band on top, not a separate colour in the old sense.
• Around level 70, monsters drop Item Power 850 loot consistently. After that, shop for Ancestral pieces rather than hoping IP climbs forever.
• Torment unlocks Ancestral Legendaries at Item Power 900+ with Greater Affixes.
• Greater Affixes appear on Ancestral Legendaries and Uniques from Torment 1 up. Ancestral drops always carry at least one GA; up to four are possible. A GA is 1.5× (+50%) the normal affix strength. You cannot Enchant a GA onto a piece — it must drop (or land as a lucky Temper GA).
• Why builds care about GAs: each one adds a Temper charge, and Capstone can stack with a GA on the same affix. Read GA as “bigger number + more temper attempts,” not a full optimisation guide.

When to imprint

Legendaries drop with an Aspect. Salvage at the Blacksmith stores (and upgrades) that Aspect in your Codex of Power. Imprint at the Occultist onto a Rare — it becomes Legendary — or onto a Legendary to overwrite its Aspect.

• The Codex keeps your best roll of each Aspect so you can imprint it again later.
• Imprint costs materials and gold at the Occultist — check the in-game prompt. Do not confuse imprint with Enchant (rerolling a normal affix); those are different benches and different costs.
• Aspects are slot-typed. Offensive powers sit on weapons, gloves, rings and amulets; defensive on helm, chest, pants, shield and amulet; resource on ring and amulet; utility on armour, gloves, boots, shield and amulet; mobility on boots and amulet.
• Power notes: a two-handed weapon doubles Offensive Aspect power; an amulet adds +50% to the Aspect it carries.

Upgrades after the drop

Temper first for the extra affix your build wants, then Masterwork the piece. Costs and verified craft tables live on Farming — this section is the system only.

Tempering

• One Temper affix from a Tempering Manual / recipe you have learned at the Blacksmith. Manuals are permanent and reusable once learned.
• Eligible gear: Rare, Legendary, Unique and Mythic Unique can all take a Temper. Uniques are temperable — ignore older advice that says otherwise.
• Charges: base 3 on a Legendary, +1 per Greater Affix, up to 7 with four GAs.
• You pick a Tempering recipe / manual category at the Blacksmith. Exact affix behaviour inside that recipe is shown in the in-game UI — follow what the Blacksmith presents, and let the build name which temper to take.
• Scroll of Restoration gives more temper attempts when the item is locked out of charges — check the in-game tooltip for the current rule.

Masterworking

• Quality ranks 1–25. Each rank adds +1% to base damage, armour or resistance and to affix values — +25% at rank 25.
• Capstone Bonus at rank 25: +50% to one random affix. That roll can land on the Temper affix. Capstone stacks with a Greater Affix on the same affix.
• The old 4 / 8 / 12 crit ranks are gone. Capstone at 25 replaced that system. Do not plan Masterworking around mid-ladder crit ranks from older patch notes.
• Obducite is the Masterworking material — farmed from endgame activities such as Nightmare Dungeons, Undercity Tribute of Refinement and Infernal Hordes.
• Pace is random when you upgrade — you do not always gain the same number of ranks per click. Watch the Blacksmith prompt.

Reading a gear block

Endgame build pages use the same headings. Once you know the dictionary, the block reads left to right.

• Before / starter Aspects — an all-legendary loadout to imprint early so the build functions before Uniques arrive.
• Legendary aspects — named powers with slot notes; imprint from the Codex when you have the base.
• Uniques table — priority pieces, sometimes tagged Mythic or Crafted. Crafted means the Cube Upgrade Direct route; remember the one-Crafted equip rule.
• Stats, gems and paragon — roll order on the piece, then gem colours / runewords, then a pointer into Paragon.
• Hard targets — numbers that stop being “more is better” (chance caps, breakpoints, resource floors). Defined on the Damage primer; figures live on the build.
• Tempering & masterworking — which temper manuals and which affixes to push with Capstone. Follow that list; do not invent your own from this page.
• Progression — the order to farm and slot pieces as you climb Torment.

What stays on build pages / Farming

• Unique → boss tables, Lair Boss keys, and Cube / Jeweler numeric costs → Farming
• Which Mythic to Upgrade first, and seasonal Crafted context → Season 15 and the build
• Exact temper names, masterwork slot priorities, and hard-target percentages → the build page
• Full Tempering Manual databases
• Drop-rate percentages — never published here
• Contested temper and Capstone material costs — omitted until figures agree

New to the season checklist? Start on Season 15, then Farming for where it drops, then open a class build. Damage vocabulary lives on Damage.