Augmenting Ancient Legendaries in Diablo 3: Unleash Your True Potential
Augmenting an Ancient Legendary item in Diablo 3 allows you to significantly enhance its power by adding bonus stats to it. Specifically, it adds 5 points of a primary stat (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Vitality) per rank of the Legendary Gem used in the augmentation process. This is a crucial part of maximizing your character’s strength and pushing to higher Greater Rift levels.
Understanding Augments: The Key to Endgame Power
Augmenting is a cornerstone of Diablo 3’s endgame. It allows you to take already powerful Ancient Legendary and Primal Ancient Legendary items and push them even further. Without augmenting, you’ll quickly hit a wall in terms of your character’s capabilities, especially when tackling the highest difficulty levels.
The Augmentation Process: A Step-by-Step Guide
The augmentation process requires a few key components:
- An Ancient Legendary or Primal Ancient Legendary item: This is the item you’ll be augmenting. The type of item doesn’t matter; you can augment weapons, armor, jewelry, and off-hands.
- A Legendary Gem of rank 30 or higher (40 for weapons): The rank of the gem directly determines the amount of stat points you’ll receive. The higher the rank, the more points.
- Flawless Royal Gems (3 of one type): The type of Flawless Royal Gem used determines which stat will be added. Topaz adds Intelligence, Emerald adds Dexterity, Ruby adds Strength, and Amethyst adds Vitality.
- A Kanai’s Cube recipe (Caldesann’s Despair): This recipe is used to perform the augmentation.
Here’s the step-by-step process:
- Acquire the necessary components: Ensure you have the Ancient or Primal Ancient item, a Legendary Gem of sufficient rank, and the required Flawless Royal Gems.
- Open Kanai’s Cube: Access the cube in Act III, Ruins of Sescheron.
- Place the items in the Cube: Add the Ancient or Primal Ancient item, the Legendary Gem, and three Flawless Royal Gems to the cube.
- Transmute: Click the “Transmute” button. The process will consume the Legendary Gem and Flawless Royal Gems, permanently adding the augmentation to your item.
Choosing the Right Stat for Your Augment
Selecting the right stat for your augment is crucial for optimizing your build. Generally, you’ll want to augment with your character’s primary stat (Strength for Barbarians and Crusaders, Dexterity for Demon Hunters and Monks, Intelligence for Necromancers, Witch Doctors, and Wizards). However, there are some cases where augmenting with Vitality might be beneficial, particularly for builds that rely heavily on survivability.
Important Considerations:
- Primary Stat: Almost always the best choice for damage scaling.
- Vitality: Can be useful for survivability on squishier classes or builds. However, it’s generally better to focus on damage to clear content faster and avoid taking damage in the first place.
Legendary Gem Ranking: A Time Investment
Ranking up Legendary Gems requires running Greater Rifts. The higher the Greater Rift level you complete, the better your chances of upgrading your gems. It’s generally recommended to run Greater Rifts at a level where you can consistently complete them in under 5 minutes for efficient gem leveling.
Tips for Efficient Gem Leveling:
- Focus on one or two gems at a time: This allows you to maximize the number of upgrades per run.
- Use Greater Rift keys efficiently: Coordinate with other players to share keys and run multiple Greater Rifts in a row.
- Consider using Gem of Ease: This gem allows you to level up characters quickly, enabling you to farm higher Greater Rifts more easily.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can I remove an augment from an item?
No, once an item is augmented, the augmentation is permanent. You cannot remove or replace it without destroying the item. Therefore, be absolutely certain before augmenting.
2. Does the type of Legendary Gem affect the augmentation?
No, the type of Legendary Gem used only matters for its rank. A rank 50 Bane of the Trapped will provide the same augmentation value as a rank 50 Enforcer, assuming you’re using the same Flawless Royal Gem.
3. What is the highest rank Legendary Gem I can use to augment?
There is no hard limit on the rank of the Legendary Gem you can use for augmenting. However, higher-ranked gems require significantly more effort to level.
4. Does the quality of the Ancient Legendary (close to perfect stats vs. not) matter before augmenting?
Yes, it matters! You should only augment well-rolled Ancient or Primal Ancient items. Augmenting a poorly rolled item is a waste of resources.
5. What happens if I augment an item with a Legendary Gem that’s higher than level 150?
While you can theoretically level a Legendary Gem beyond level 150, the augmentation will still only apply 5 points of the stat per rank. So, a level 200 gem and a level 150 gem will give very similar stat boosts. There are no additional bonuses beyond the standard progression.
6. Is it worth augmenting every item on my character?
For pushing high Greater Rifts, absolutely yes. Augmenting every Ancient or Primal Ancient piece of gear is essential for maximizing your character’s potential.
7. What are the best Legendary Gems to use for augmenting?
The “best” Legendary Gems for augmenting are simply the highest rank gems you have available that you aren’t using in your build. Popular choices include gems leveled specifically for augmenting, like those leftover from other builds or after optimizing your main build’s gems.
8. Can I augment a follower’s gear?
Yes, you can augment the gear your follower uses. This provides a significant boost to your follower’s abilities and overall effectiveness.
9. Does augmenting affect the item’s level requirement?
No, augmenting an item does not change its level requirement.
10. Can I augment set items?
Yes, you can augment set items that are Ancient or Primal Ancient.
11. What if I accidentally augment the wrong item?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to undo this mistake. The augmentation is permanent, and the consumed Legendary Gem and Flawless Royal Gems are lost. Double-check everything before transmuting.
12. How does augmenting compare to other methods of increasing my stats?
Augmenting is one of the most powerful and efficient ways to increase your stats in the endgame. While paragon points also provide stat increases, augmenting provides a significantly larger boost per item slot.
13. Are there any class-specific considerations when augmenting?
While the general principle of augmenting with your primary stat applies to most classes, some builds may benefit from augmenting with Vitality for increased survivability. This is highly build-dependent, so research your specific build before making a decision.
14. Can I augment the same item multiple times?
No, you can only augment an item once.
15. Where can I find more information about specific builds and augmentation strategies?
Diablo 3 community resources such as Icy Veins, Maxroll.gg, and various class-specific subreddits offer detailed guides and build recommendations that include optimal augmentation strategies. These resources are invaluable for optimizing your character’s performance.