Affixes and Gems Explained in Mistfall Hunter
Affixes are the modifiers that make one Legendary sword better than another. There are 44 of them, and they divide almost evenly into three groups: 15 offensive, 15 utility, 14 defensive.
Gems are how affixes reach your gear. There are 320 of them in two levels — 52 at level 1 and 268 at level 2 — and each one grants a specific affix when socketed.
The useful thing to know before you start sorting loot is that affixes are not equally common. Some appear on over a hundred pieces of gear; others on a handful. That changes what is worth holding on to.
The three groups
| Group | Affixes | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Offensive | 15 | Damage, penetration, critical damage, conditional damage windows |
| Utility | 15 | Speed, cooldowns, energy costs, buff and debuff duration, loot |
| Defensive | 14 | Resistances, maximum health, block, shields, damage taken |
The split matters because a build usually wants two groups and can ignore the third. A Blackarrow standing at range has little use for block affixes; a Withered Knight holding a line has little use for chanting speed.
The affixes you will see most
These five roll on the largest number of gear pieces in the game, which means they are the ones you will be offered again and again.
Affixes written for one class
Most affixes are general. One is not: Burst raises the damage of the Withered Knight's Wither execution and does nothing for any other class. If you are not playing a Withered Knight, it is a dead roll.
Several others are conditional rather than class-locked, and read as dead until you check the condition — Ranged only pays past a distance, Wrath only below a health threshold, Fervid only above one, Sky Piercer only on skills cast in the air. A build that never meets the condition gets nothing from them.
Deciding what to keep
- Check whether your build meets the affix's condition before valuing it. A conditional affix on the wrong build is a blank.
- Prefer affixes that scale something you already do a lot of. Damage that stacks after each hit is worth more on a build that lands many hits than on one built around a single heavy swing.
- Two groups, not three. Pick the two your build actually uses and stop treating the third as a bonus.
- Rarity of the affix beats rarity of the item when you are short on space. A common affix will come around again.