Anatomy of an Item Icon

If you've ever wondered what all those decorations are on your items, this guide is for you.

Introduction

Item icons are getting complicated these days so I wrote this little guide to explain what each piece means. That way you'll be able to know at a glance what you're dealing with rather than staring in dumbfounded confusion for a few minutes as you try to figure it out. Sound good? Good!

Components of an Icon

Here's a diagram of an item icon. If it looks weird, don't worry, I'll show real examples later.

• Enchanted items will have a coloured outline and at least one coloured diamond in the item frame. In order of increasing power, the colours are green, blue, purple and yellow.
  
• The background shade of the item indicates the tier of the item. In order of increasing tier, the colours are grey, tan, green, blue, red, orange, yellow and white.
  
• The Roman numeral in the top left circle also indicates the item tier; I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII.
  
• The colour of the bottom right circle indicates the durability of the item. In order of decreasing durability, the colours are white, green, yellow and red.
  
• When worn by a player with some degree of mastery, a specialisation star will be displayed in the top right corner. The fancier the star, the more fame (exp) that player has with that item.
  
• The frame of the item indicates the crafted quality of the item. In order of increasing quality, the frame will be stone, iron, bronze, silver and gold.
  
• The number in the bottom right circle indicates how many items are in the stack. Most items will stack up to 999 but some will be limited to smaller stacks.
  
• The centre of the icon will be occupied by a graphical representation of the item itself. This graphic will be completely red if you cannot use the item.

Tiers

Virtually every item in the game belongs to one of the eight tiers. Players start with the ability to use items of the lowest tiers and gradually unlock higher tiers as they gain fame (exp). Consult the Destiny Board for more information on that. Here's what tiers look like:

As you can see, the colour of Tier I is grey, Tier II is tan, Tier III is green, Tier IV is blue, Tier V is red, Tier VI is orange, Tier VII is yellow and Tier VIII is white.





While officially these tiers have Roman numerals, they are interchangeably known by their Arabic numerals, 1 through 8. The higher the tier of an item, the more Item Power it provides and the greater the Mastery Modifier it applies.

The Tier 7 and Tier 8 swords in this image are red because I cannot yet equip them.

Enchantments

Many items in the game can have some degree of enchantment. There is no particular fame requirement to use enchanted items. Here's what enchantments look like:






As you can see, an unenchanted item is unadorned. The first enchantment (uncommon) has a green outline and a single diamond. The second enchantment (rare) has a blue outline and two diamonds. The third enchantment (epic) has a purple outline and three diamonds. The fourth enchantment (pristine) has a yellow outline and four diamonds.

The higher the enchantment level of an item, the more Item Power it provides. Pristine weapons can be Awakened and gain even more powerful advancements. While it is possible to increase the enchantment level of most items, items cannot be made pristine in this manner.

Quality

Crafted items will have some degree of quality. There is no particular fame requirement to use items of any particular quality. Here's what quality looks like:






As you can see, the frame for 'normal' items is stone, the frame for 'good' items is iron, the frame for 'outstanding' items is bronze, the frame for 'excellent' items is silver and the frame for 'masterpiece' items is gold.

The greater the quality of an item, the more Item Power it provides. The original quality of an item is imbued by the talent of the player who crafted it but quality can be increased with some luck and expenditure at your local repair station.

Durability

Items gradually lose durability as they are used and if you are knocked down, everything you are carrying will take a durability loss of 5%. An item in perfect condition will have a white circle. The circle will be green between 99% and 50% durability. Below 50%, the circle will turn yellow and the Item Power of the item will be reduced by 100. Below 25%, the circle will turn red and the Item Power of the item will be reduced by 200. Below 10%, the item will become unusable until it is repaired. Repairing an item restores any lost Item Power.

Specialisation

Unlike the other elements detailed in this guide, specialisation medals are not a quality of the item but a quality of the user. The more you use an equipped item, the more fame you gain towards mastering that item. This is called specialisation. Specialisation unlocks new abilities and access to higher tiers. When you see a star-shaped decoration in the top right of an item's icon, this indicates that the person using that item has achieved some level of mastery of that item. An enemy wearing items decorated with gold or blue stars, for instance, will have much greater Item Power from fame levels than an enemy wearing items decorated with bronze or silver stars. This information can help you decide who to tangle with and who to avoid.

Here you can see items with a variety of specialisation medals:

Item Power

Item Power is a general measure of strength. It comes from a combination of gear and specialisation. Equipped items will confer an amount of Item Power based on the quality, enchantment and tier of that item. Specialisation confers an amount of Item Power based on how many levels a player has in that specific item and all of the items in the same category. Item Power from specialisation is also multiplied by the mastery modifier of an item and this modifier scales with tier. You can read more about it on the wiki here[wiki.albiononline.com] or just check out this handy cheat sheet from Kanatur:

Notation

In common parlance, items are referred to by their Tier and Enchantment level. For instance, a Tier 6 Sword with the second enchantment level (blue/rare) would be called a T6.2 item or simply a 6.2 item. For low levels of specialisation, as you can see above, equivalency of Item Power is obtained by adding the two numbers. A 7.2 item would be considered equivalent to an 8.1 item or a 6.3 item, for instance. This is because these items provide approximately the same amount of base Item Power if you ignore specialisation. If you include specialisation, the higher tier item is usually going to be stronger.

Final Words

If you find an error or omission in this guide, please let me know!
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