Building a suit on a budget

In a previous post I talked about the costs and benefits available from socketing. Here I'm going to use that to do some calculations about how to maximize a given stat on a budget.

So the key here is to consider how much % and how much + you get for your ¢. At the maximum you will have spent the same amount on % as on + when you consider your innate bonuses as virtual ¢. If you run out of slots you switch to the next cheapest way of adding % and +.

Clear as mud? Here's an example: We're going to take a level 30/30 LUK based character with no LUK skill and give him a cheap set. I'm going to assume that he's got 16 slots of t2% epic LUK equipment, fully enchanted with t2+ LUK. This kind of equipment should be pretty cheap to come-by and pretty cheap to enchant ( a couple of million max ).

Now adding a t1% rune is going to be the cheapest way to get % and I'd estimate one as costing about 1.5M, or 2.3/1.5 = 1.53% per million. Adding a t2+ rune is the cheapest way to get + and I'd estimate the total cost for one to be about 1M, so about 25 per million. (In contrast t1+ costs about 750k for 12.5, so 17 per million, and t3+ costs 1.6M so 24 per million - If you can get cheap t3+ then that'd be better)

Now lets say we have 100M to spend on adding runes/socketting etc. We have a total of $60 + 4 \times 16 = 124$ slot to fill, so we know we wont fill them all on this budget.

Here's my working table

	Innate	Innate ¢	Equip	Equip ¢	Total ¢
+	390 $30 \times 3 + 60*5$	15.6M $390/25$	1200 $16*3*25$	48M $1200/25$	63.6M $15.6 + 48$
%	100	65M $100/1.53$	68.8 $4.3*16$	44.9 $68.8/1.53$	110.3 $65.4+44.9$
TOTAL					$63.6 + 110.3 = 173.9$M

So we have a total of 173.9M in virtual cash spent, and we have 100M more to spend. For that spending to be split evenly between each type of enchant we need to have spent $(100+173.9)/2 = 137$M on each type. To work out what that means in terms of runes we use the following table

	Virtual	Target	To spend	# runes
+	63.6	137	73.4	73
%	110.3	137	26.7	26.7/1.5=17

So according to the table we should maximize our luck if we buy 73 t2+ uncs and 17 t1% uncs. Since we've got only 60 rune slots, we'll need to socket 30 runes. This configuration will give us $390 + 1200 + 73*25 = 3415$ base stat, and $100 + 17*2.3 = 139$% muti, for a total of 4746 of the stat.

However a non-luk skilled toon would be a bad choice for this, so lets assume we're getting 40% from our skills - Then the tables would become:

	Innate	Innate ¢	Equip	Equip ¢	Total ¢
+	390 $30 \times 3 + 60*5$	15.6M $390/25$	1200 $16*3*25$	48M $1200/25$	63.6M $15.6 + 48$
%	140 $100+40$	93.3M $140/1.53$	68.8 $4.3*16$	44.9 $68.8/1.53$	138.2 $93.3+44.9$
TOTAL					$63.6 + 138.2 = 201.8$M

	Virtual	Target	To spend	# runes
+	64	151	87	87
%	138	151	13	13/1.5=9

This gives a grand total of 3765 base, and 165%, for a grand total of 5835.

Can we do better if we switch to t3% epics, or legends?

Yes, but only if you get those items cheaply.

If you can grab yourself a t3% epic rather than a t2% epic you gain $5.6-4.3 = 1.3$%, which is "worth" about 2M. So if you pay less than 2M for the t3% epic you'll be ahead.

The cost associated with using a legend instead of an epic is trickier to calculate. You can consider it as converting one t2+ rune into a spare space in the legend. The saving in freeing up that t2+ rune is about 1M. Thus if you spend less than 1M on a t2% legend, or 3M on a t3% legend, you're ahead.

However the calculation for legends is only valid since we're not fully socketing everything, a legend adds 0.1M in cost per socket, and you'd need to use 3 sockets to reach the same total number of slots, reducing the price you should pay by about 0.3M.

Can we do better if we switch to myths

No. Simply put, you're better off scrapping the myth and increasing your budget by 3.5M. A nilla myth will cost you 4.3%, but gain you +75. This works out to a net of +0.14M, while selling it will get you +3.5M. This is even before you add in the large socketing cost for myths (1M+ per socket)

How much should I pay for a t6% epic? Or a t6% rare?

A t6% epic will change your stats by $5.6*2-4.3=6.9$%, $-25$. This is worth $6.9/1.5 - 1$ or 3.6M (to this suit). So if you can get it for less than that, go for it.

A t6% rare will change your stats by $5.6*2-4.3=6.9$%, $-50$. This is worth (to this suit) about 2.6M. Again if you can get it for less than that, go for it.

Things to watch out when using non t2% epic equipment

The prices calculated above are approximate value when replacing a piece in the t2% epic suit. If you replace one or two pieces only then these value should be accurate, However if you replace too many pieces you may push yourself away from the optimum balance of % and + enchants and your overall score may fall. Just rerun the calculations with the new equipment to find out what you need.