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Staff Mods

Last Updated:May 24, 2023|Changelog

Staff Mods and Auto Mods in Diablo 2 Resurrected are very powerful and chase bonus Stats on White, Ethereal, Magic, Rare and Crafted items! They add bonuses to Character Skill Levels, and additional powerful Stats like Resistances and Enhanced Damage. Because of the bonus Stats, these make the best bases for many Runewords! The game can be very stingy in giving you the Stats you want, but there are ways to tweak the RNG in your favor!

Staff Mods

Certain items can spawn with bonuses to specific Skills each Character has. These items are typically thematic and appropriate for the Character, or restricted to that Character. The game uses progressive logic to determine what Skills can spawn on these items. Lower Level Skills spawn on lower Item Level (iLVL) bases, whereas higher Level Skills spawn on higher iLVL bases.

  • Skills are broken up into Tiers which represent the required Level to put Skill Points into them:
    • Tier 1 - Level 1 Required
    • Tier 2 - Level 6 Required
    • Tier 3 - Level 12 Required
    • Tier 4 - Level 18 Required
    • Tier 5 - Level 24 Required
    • Tier 6 - Level 30 Required

Bases

The following item bases can spawn with Staff Mods, adding +1 to 3 Character Skill Level (sLVL) for Character specific Skills. Only Characters of the named class can benefit from these Skills.

The exception being, Characters using OSkills granted by Items.

CharacterItem BaseExample
AmazonNot Staff Mod Items-
AssassinClaws1Feral Claws
BarbarianPrimal Helms2Destroyer Helm
DruidPeltsHawk Helm
NecromancerWands3
Voodoo Heads3		Grim Wand
Zombie Head
PaladinScepters4Scepter
SorceressStaves
Orbs		Short Staff
Eagle Orb
  1. The following Claws cannot spawn with Staff Mods: katar, wristblade, hatchethands, cestus, claws, bladetalons, scissorskatar, quhab, wristspike, fascia
  2. Cannot normally spawn with Combat Skills. Due to coding issues, they can rarely spawn on this base.
  3. Cannot normally spawn with poisondagger. Due to coding issues, it can rarely spawn on these bases.
  4. Cannot normally spawn with holyshield or smite. Due to coding issues, they can rarely spawn on this base.

Possible Skills

There are restrictions on the Skills that can spawn as Staff Mods. The game uses SkillID tags for future calculations as well. We list each Skill, its SkillID, and any restrictions they have which normally impedes their ability to be a Staff Mod.

Calculate Skill Chances

When the Item spawns, it needs to determine three things:

  1. How many Skills does it try to add to the Item?
  2. What Skills are chosen?
  3. How many +x to Character Skills (x = 1 to 3) does it add?

These three determinations are mostly random. The iLVL of the base is used to determine the range of Skills that can spawn on the item.

The number of Skills the Item attempts to spawn with is a random number (Z) that is a roll between 0 to 99.

  • This value is only influenced by the Charsi Imbue Quest Reward. Our Z value instead = Z + iLVL when the item is generated by Imbue, and always adds at least 1 Staff Mod.
Z# of Skills% Chance
91 <= Z310
71 <= Z <= 90220
31 <= Z <= 70140
Z <= 30030

We'll use 72 as our Z value for 2 Skills, in the following example.

SkillID = SkillbaseID + 5 * Skilladd - 5 + rnd[5]

This equation is used to determine the ID number of the Skill that is added as a Staff Mod.

SkillID = The resulting value from the equation, which correlates to the labeled SkillID in the accordions above.

  • Example: warmth is SkillID 37.

SkillbaseID = The lowest SkillID of the Character's Skill list.

  • Example: firebolt is the lowest SkillID for the Sorceress at 36.

Skilladd = Calculated from a base number determined by the iLVL of the base, then modified by a random number according to a second roll. This is the only part of the equation that can be influenced, because you can set the iLVL of certain items from sources like Quest Rewards, and Horadric Cube Recipes.

  • The Base value (B) of this equation is determined by the iLVL of the base item.
    • If an Item's iLVL is 27 then the B value would be set to 4.
  • This B value is further modified by Z2 according to the 2nd table on the right, to give us our Skilladd .
iLVLB
37 <= iLVL5
25 <= iLVL <= 364
19 <= iLVL <= 243
12 <= iLVL <= 182
1 <= iLVL <= 111
  • The random modifying value (Z2) rolls a number between 0 and 99 to determine the modifier applied to B to calculate Skilladd .
    • If the roll is 82 then B is modified by +1. In our example, this gives us a Skilladd of 5.
  • Even with a -2 modification, Skilladd has a minimum value of 1.
  • For Lower Quality items, the result for Skilladd is limited to 4 as a maximum.
Z2Modifier% Chance
81 <= Z2 <= 99+ 120
31<= Z2 <= 80050
11 <= Z2 <= 30- 120
0 <= Z2 <= 10- 210

rnd[5] = A random number from 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Now let's calculate what our Skill would be using the Sorceress and the values from our example above. Remember:

  • Must spawn on a Staff or Orb type Weapon.
  • Our iLVL is 27 giving us a B of 4. Z2 rolled 82, giving us a +1 modifier. The Skilladd is 5. We'll use rnd[5] of 4.
  • Sorceress has a SkillbaseID of 36.

SkillID = 36 + 5 * 5 - 5 + 4
SkillID = 60
SkillID 60 = chillingarmor

Our example Skill result is chillingarmor and now we must determine what the second Skill on the item is.

  • Nothing from the previous rolls impacts the selection of the following Skills. You can roll the same value for Z2 and rnd[5].
  • If the same Skill is selected, the game rerolls these 2 values in an attempt to roll a different SkillID .
    • If the Same Skill is selected 6 times in a row, then the game replaces the previous Skill with the same Skill.
      • This counts as one of the Skill rolls. Even though our result for Z said we should have 2 Staff Mods on the item, this replacement means the item spawns with only 1 Staff Mod.
  • This same process occurs when the selected SkillID is restricted by Item type.
    • A Scepters cannot normally spawn with HolyShield because this Skill is restricted to spawning on Shields.
    • If the SkillID roll would select holyshield 6 times in a row, then the game forces the item generation, anyway.
    • These outcomes are incredibly rare, but do occur.

After selecting the Skills that the item spawns with, we must decide the + value (1, 2, or 3).

  • This final step is another random value (Z3) that's determined by a roll between 0 to 99.
  • When the item is generated from Charsi Imbue, Z3 instead = Z3 + [iLVL / 2].
    • The highest base Z3 bonus of an Imbue, would be iLVL 99 adding 49 to the roll.
Z3+x Character Skill% Chance
90 <= Z3+310
60 <= Z3 <= 89+230
0 <= Z3 <= 59+160

Because of the relationship between B, and Z2 modifier, we can build a table that shows the chances that an item generates with certain Tiers of Skills based off the iLVL of the base item.

  • B is determined by the iLVL of the base, and can only be increased by a maximum of 1, and reduced by a maximum of 2 based on Z2.
  • If B is 5 (iLVL of 37+) it can reach a maximum value of 6, and a minimum value of 3.
  • Gear with iLVL of 37+ can only spawn with Tier 3, 4, 5 or 6 Skills. It cannot spawn with Tier 1 and 2 Skills.
iLVL123456
iLVL <= 1180%20%----
12 <= iLVL <= 1830%50%20%---
19 <= iLVL <= 2410%20%50%20%--
25 <= iLVL <= 36-10%20%50%20%-
37 <= iLVL <= 99--10%20%50%20%

Important Notes

  • If a new item would be generated from the Item base, whether from Charsi Imbue, Horadric Cube Recipes, or Crafting, the Staff Mods are rerolled. The base Item's Staff Mods are not preserved.
  • If the base Item would be used to create a Runeword, the Staff Mods are preserved.
  • You can never have Tier 6 Staff Mods spawn on an item with Tier 1 or Tier 2 Mods.

Auto Mods

Auto Mods are a set of Stats that always spawn on certain Item bases. These Stats are in addition to any normal Affix, or Staff Mod that can spawn on the item.

  • These Stats can spawn on White, Ethereal, Magic, Rare, and Crafted items.
    • The Affix Level (aLVL) of the item must be equal to or higher than the required aLVL of the Auto Mod for the item to have a chance of spawning with that Mod.
    • Typically, the highest Affix Level (aLVL) required Stats cannot spawn on Rare and Crafted items.

To calculate an item's aLVL then you need the Item Level (iLVL) and Quality Level (qLVL).

  • iLVL = Monster Level of the monster that dropped it, or determined by the Craft / Recipe / Imbue that generated it.
  • qLVL = a static value based on the Base Item.
  • If the item has a Magic Level (mLVL), then aLVL = iLVL + 1.

If ilvl < 99 - int(qlvl / 2) then
alvl = ilvl - int(qlvl / 2)
Otherwise
alvl = ilvl * 2 - 99

  • The % Chance of any Auto Mod spawning on an item is calculated:
    • % Chance = (X / Y) where:
      • X = Frequency of the desired Auto Mod.
      • Y = Sum of Mod frequencies that your aLVL meets the requirements of.

Summary

Staff Mods and Auto Mods can be incredibly powerful, but also very rare. There's only so much you can do to influence your chances of spawning a GG item. This level of randomness makes for super chase items, that if found, can be worth a fortune. Good luck hunting for the perfect item bases!

Credits

Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Teo1904

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