I'd like to share something I figured out today, that may or may not already be known by many people here. Apologies if I'm late to the party on this one.
Starting with the first helm, the second helm was crafted 100% deterministically, without metamods. This process is useful for two situations:
1. You're playing SSF, with limited access to Exalted Orbs for Prefixes Can't Be Changed + Scour.
2. You wish to raise your odds of target removing certain affixes, with or without tags.
The process is as follows:
Get your base. In this case our base is +2 Minion Gems, Supported By Minion Damage, Strength, Int. We wish to convert Strength and Int into resistances without the use of exalted orbs.
Step 1: Craft Accuracy Suffix
+2 Gems
Minion Damage
Str
Int
Accuracy (crafted)
Step 2: Augment Life w/ Seed
Life
+2 gems
Minion Damage
Str
Int
Accuracy (crafted)
Step 3: Remove a non attack mod and add an attack mod - x2
This is the key to the process. You may be afraid of losing one of your powerful prefixes at this point; however this is not possible. It cannot remove a prefix and add an attack prefix, as there are no possible attack prefixes on an Elder helmet. It cannot remove a prefix and add a suffix, as that would then result in a 4 suffix item, which is also not possible. The helm then appears as such:
Life
+2 Gems
Minion Damage
Socketed attacks have 2% Increased Crit
Accuracy/Light Radius
Accuracy(crafted).
Step 4: Remove the crafted mod, and seedcraft remove attack mod x2 leaving you with a clean 3 prefix 0 suffix base. Add whichever resistances you fancy through well known seedcrafting methods.
Of course, this example has been very specific to this Elder helmet base, however it applies to a massive variety of situations. If you're struggling to remove a tagless mod by normal means, look to see how you can improve your odds by using tags that only appear as a prefix or a suffix on the item. Most commonly, this will let you remove bad suffixes like stun/block recovery on the helm/chest and boots slots by taking advantage of Cold/Fire/Lightning mods only being available as suffixes in the form of Resistances.
Thanks for reading. I hope this is useful to some of you. Happy crafting!
