Questions from a returning player

hi, I have recently returned after around 2 years away and some things have changed and I can't find any threads on them specifically in this forum so was hoping someone could help me?

1. Are platinum lines just high gold lines like >95% lines? because I have found one items with a yellow line that seem brighter than other lines ive found, but I have lines that are a higher % than that yellow line yet they don't appear as bright yellow?

2. What are the different coloured gem schematics for? I found the green royal gem craft the other day and I see there is also a blue one? Im guessing its similar to the items colours in that normal(grey)<green<blue. but can u drop a 'green' or 'blue' gem? or only craft them?

3. Also I have been farming parallel world on excruciating at the moment to get items an glyphs but I see people saying for farm in the great desert at infernal difficulty until more powerful? what is the thought behind this tactic?

4. are the difficulty levels in normal maps easier that PW or is for example excruciating difficulty the same in PW and in normal world maps?

thanks for any replys

 

Hi! I've been in your shoes, welcome back

1. I believe platinum lines are +80%. With that being said, for start, golden lines are gonna serve you well. Later on, you will probably want to switch to platinum lines, but look for at least 96%; crafting platinum lines is relatively hard and costs a lot of gold, so you wanna make sure it's worth the trouble - and 83% platinum line, for example, is not.

2. Those are for improved and magic royal gems; here is more info. Only craft.

3. Great desert is awesome for glyphs/gold farm because bosses spawn, you get tons of items, it's easy, drop is good - it's a better option than exc.pw, yes. Then you go pw as needed for uniques etc, depending on what items you need.

4. I think normal maps are easier in the same mode than pw maps, it only makes sense.

 

1. I'm not 100% on the definitions for Gold and Platinum, but Platinum only appears on Extraordinary equipment. For green and blue gear, max Gold is 82%. I've seen Platinum in the mid-80%s. I think BP has applied an inconsistent font palette so some Platinum is bold yellow, some is standard yellow, some is standard gold, some is bold gold, and it's not easy to tell visually the difference between the standard yellow and standard gold. That said, if you want to craft some interim pieces, go for gold between 80% and 82% while you're looking for exo drops with 96% to 99% platinum. Crafting will most likely take a year or two to get 3x or 4x platinum, so settle in for the long haul.
2. Green & Blue gems are only craftable, can't be dropped
3. see also #4 ... drops seem better in scaling natural world for a lower effort (slightly weaker mobs, definitely weaker sentinels and bosses) ... as for Great Desert, you can even completely avoid the sentinel if you wish, just killing mobs & champions around the outer circle
4. SNDs are easier than the same difficulty PW dungeons. The difference is more obvious when it comes to comparing SND "sentinels" (boss-like foe who pops-up after you kill all mobs in the dungeon) and PW true bosses. PW bosses have become more and more difficult to kill due to their beefed up defensive stats and your weakened stats. I can easily run PW m1 & m2 mobs in Fatal without any essence or buffs, but must be extremely alert and use at least blue essence and one or two defensive buffs in order to spend upwards of 5 minutes killing a PW boss in Fatal mode ... in SNDs, I usually forget to switch to even white essence when killing Fatal sentinels in a few seconds. Compare killing Medusa in SND Fatal versus PW Fatal ... SND definitely less of a struggle.