Artisan Wind
On this server there is essentially one way to put a socket into a piece of equipment: get lucky while upgrading it. Every successful upgrade — level or quality — rolls a small chance to punch a new socket into the item.
Quick reference
| Where | What you're upgrading | Chance of a socket |
|---|---|---|
| Market — Magic Artisan | Quality (DragonBalls) | ???????? |
| Market — Magic Artisan | Level (Meteors) | ???????? |
| Twin City — Artisan Wind | Quality (DragonBall) | ???????? |
| Twin City — Artisan Wind | Level (Meteor) | ???????? |
| Twin City — Artisan Wind, during Lucky Time | Level (Meteor) | ???????? |
Quality upgrades are four times more likely to give a socket than level upgrades. If sockets are your goal, upgrade quality.
Artisan Wind — Twin City
The classic one. Drag a Meteor onto an item in your inventory to raise its level, or a DragonBall to raise its quality. You have to be standing near him.
The upgrade itself can fail — the chance depends on the item's level and quality, and gets brutal at the top end. The socket roll only happens on a success; a failed upgrade gives you nothing and costs you the Meteor or DragonBall anyway. Worse, a failure roughly halves the item's durability, and has a 5% chance to knock a point off its maximum durability permanently. Expect to repair between attempts.
Using a Meteor Tear instead of a Meteor gives +30% to the upgrade success chance. It does not improve the socket chance — but since sockets only roll on success, more successes means more socket rolls.
Magic Artisan — Market
His whole selling point is that he never fails. You talk to him, pick the slot, and the upgrade happens — guaranteed, with no durability penalty. In exchange he charges considerably more, and he has two extra conditions:
- the item has to be worn, not sitting in your inventory,
- you need to be able to actually wear the upgraded version (level and stat requirements).
His price scales inversely with how likely the upgrade would have been at Artisan Wind. A cheap upgrade costs a couple of Meteors; a difficult one costs a great many.
Both NPCs use the same socket odds. Because the Magic Artisan cannot fail, every payment you make to him is a guaranteed socket roll — which makes him the more reliable route to sockets even though he's more expensive per upgrade.
Rules for the socket roll
- The socket is created empty. You then embed a gem into it yourself.
- It fills the first empty socket slot. If the item already has one socket, a second successful roll gives it a second socket.
When it happens, the whole server is told:
As a really lucky person, X upgraded his/her Item and got the first gem socket!
...and fireworks go off around you.
What doesn't give sockets
- DragonBall level upgrades on level 100+ gear. The high-level upgrade path (spending DragonBalls to push a level 100 item to 110 or 120) does not roll for a socket at all.
- Composing (+1, +2, ...), repairing, enchanting or blessing an item.
Max levels he will upgrade
| Slot | Max Level |
|---|---|
| Armor | 100 → 110† |
| Helmet | 97 → 112 |
| Helmet (archer) | 110 → 117 |
| Shield | 100 → 110 |
| Melee Weapon | 110 → 115 |
| Bow | 115 → 120* |
| Necklace | 112 → 120 |
| Bag | 112 → 116 |
| Ring | 110 → 116 |
| Heavy Ring | 113 → 117 |
| Bracelet | 105 → 115 |
| Boots | 110 → 120 |
† Armor tiers differ by class. Warrior/Trojan go 100 → 110, Taoist robes go 100 → 115, Archer coats go 107 → 112.
* Dont ask why bow goes to 120 and no other weapons do. I know, it's dumb.