The following item have item level of 54, but required level of 60.
How is that possible?
Diablo – How to an item level be lower than it’s requirements
diablo-3
Related Solutions
One of the folks over at the Diablo 3 Database Forums has provided a google doc for just this purpose!
And from that data, we get this nifty chart:
That big spike is at Level 50, just before Hell difficulty starts.
After several days worth of research, using the items offered at the Auction House as a guideline, I was able to determine that socketed items are generally available as low as level 15. It does not seem to matter what item is in question (armor, rings, weapons, etc) - you must be level 15 to equip something that contains a socket.
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Best Answer
These are two different things: The item level is a randomized number (based on where the item dropped, how it dropped, etc.) between 1 and (I think) 64. The required level is the minimum level you need to have to use the item (which is based on the base item and its stats).
When the random item is created, the item level determines how many bonuses and how high they can be. Every bonus added (base stats, too) has a specific "cost" in item levels and they're added on top each other till the available level is exhausted or the number of required bonuses is met (based on rarity).
As an example - this is based on made up numbers and I ignore the base item:
So an item with max. item level 15 and 2 bonuses could have any of the following combinations (there are more possible obviously):
Also note that this defines the minimum items a specific bonus can appear. For example - reusing the values from above - an item with a maximum item level of 7 could have one of the +10 or +17 stat bonuses, but not the +5 % life bonus (item level not high enough).