Item Properties
The difference between an ordinary piece of equipment and a high value one usually comes down to the magical properties it carries. To gear your character properly you need to learn what each property does.
What The Magical Properties Do
Resists - Resistance to damage is always welcome. Depending on who you are fighting, different resists matter more. Your maximum resist for each type is 70%. Extra resist is very valuable on armor, somewhat valuable on jewelry and barely worth anything on weapons.
Hit/Defence Chance Increase - In armed combat, Hit Chance and Defense Chance affect your fighting ability. These are among the high value properties on equipment.
Stat Bonuses - Strength, dexterity and intelligence bonuses are very useful. How much each stat matters depends on what kind of character you are.
Derived Stat Bonuses - Hit point, stamina and mana bonuses are not as valuable as regular stat bonuses. They are critical for players trying to push one particular stat up.
Damage Increase - Raises the damage your weapons deal; valuable for players who care about weapon damage.
Swing Speed Increase - This property raises a weapon's swing speed by a set percentage, which makes it more valuable on fast weapons than on slow ones. Even for slow weapons, though, it is very valuable.
Spell Damage Increase - Raises the damage your spells deal; very valuable for players who do most of their damage with magic.
Faster Casting - Probably the most important property for casters. Faster casting (FC) raises how quickly you cast. Experienced mages and Chivalry players wear jewelry adding up to 4 FC.
Faster Cast Recovery - As important for casters as faster casting. Faster cast recovery (FCR) shortens the delay between two casts. Almost every experienced mage wears 8 FCR.
Spell Channeling - This property lets you keep using your shield or weapon while casting. They do not drop out of your hands when you cast. A piece with this property usually also carries faster casting -1: a casting penalty. In rare cases the item will not carry that penalty because spell channeling and faster casting appear together; this is called "SC no pen (alty)". On top of that, you can meditate while holding SC equipment. Most mages consider it an essential property.
Lower Mana Cost - LMC reduces the mana you spend. Experienced mages generally aim to wear 40% LMC.
Lower Reagent Cost - LRC keeps you from consuming reagents and chivalry tithing. While wearing LRC, each cast has a chance not to consume any reagent or gold. Wearing 100% LRC lets you cast without carrying any reagents at all.
Regeneration - Raises your hit point, stamina or mana regeneration rates. Hit point regeneration and stamina regeneration are generally seen as minor properties, because you top your hit points back up with Healing and you refill your stamina by drinking a refreshment potion or casting divine fury.
Hit Spell - Hit spell (magic arrow, harm, fireball or lightning) is one of the valuable properties, because it is bonus damage that cannot be parried. On top of the damage, hit magic arrow and fireball also deal delayed damage, giving you an extra spell that distracts the target, which is particularly useful against mages.
Hit Area - Hit area (physical, fire, cold, poison or energy) is generally seen as a negative property. At first it looks good since it damages every creature in the area, but once everything around you takes damage and starts attacking you it stops being a good thing. For red players (murderers) in town, carrying a hit area weapon can mean a sudden death, since it damages everyone by accident and the town guards will kill them. Some players do find hit area useful, especially at champion spawns.
Hit Leech - Weapons with hit leech (hit point, stamina or mana) convert the damage the weapon deals and return it to you as hit points, stamina or mana. They do not reduce the target's hit points, stamina or mana. While every hit leech property is useful, hit mana leech is especially valuable. Hit points and stamina are easier to restore than mana. With hit stamina leech, the chance to leech depends on the intensity of the property, and when it triggers you gain stamina equal to the damage dealt. Mana leech and life leech work differently; the amount of mana or hit points leeched varies with the weapon's property intensity. Life and mana leech are reduced by a further 50% on ranged weapons.
Hit Lower Attack/Defense - Hit lower reduces your target's attack and defense capability for a short time.
Slayer - Using a weapon with a slayer property (such as snake slayer) gives extra weapon damage against that type of creature. Holding a spellbook with a slayer property gives extra spell damage against that type. See the Slayer page for more information.
Luck - Wearing equipment with Luck raises your chance of finding powerful items on a creature's corpse and your chance of an artifact dropping.
Reflect Physical Damage - The physical damage you take is turned back on its source, but you still take the damage. Some players find this property useful in PvP.
Mage Armor - Armor with this property lets you meditate without taking it off.
Mage Weapon - When you fight with a mage weapon, it lets you use the weapon based on your Magery skill instead. The mage weapon value is a negative modifier, so holding the weapon lowers your magery and therefore your fighting ability. You can use it while training magery.
Enhance Potions - Raises the effect of potions in proportion to the amount you are wearing.
Elemental Damage Conversion - This is not strictly a property on a weapon, more a modification of it. Weapons normally deal 100% physical damage, but weapons with this can deal up to 100% elemental damage.
Chaos Damage - Chaos Damage is not a damage type of its own. On each swing your weapon applies one of the 5 damage types at random.
Skill Bonuses - Jewelry with skill bonuses cannot push your skills above the skill cap, which makes it less valuable. It is used for skills you chose not to train.
Self Repair - This property reduces the wear your equipment takes. It effectively makes the item last longer, but it does not raise Durability over time.
Durability Bonus - Gives your equipment higher durability.
Hit Dispel - Destroys a summoned creature.
Best Weapon Skill - When you wield a weapon with this property, your highest weapon skill is used regardless of the weapon's type. Wrestling is not included since it is not a weapon skill. It does not apply to bows either.
Night Sight - Wearing equipment with this property makes the world look as bright as daytime, no matter the hour. It is not a very valuable property.
Lower Requirements - Lowers the strength requirement needed to use the item. This property is worth almost nothing.
Balanced - Found on two handed weapons; it lets the wielder drink a potion without lowering the weapon.
Velocity - Found on ranged weapons (bows and Throwing weapons). It is a chance to deal extra physical damage based on distance. The farther the target, the more damage.
Battle Lust - If you are wearing an item with this property, every time you take damage from an enemy, at most once every 2 seconds, your weapon damage goes up by 1%. The bonus caps at 15% per nearby enemy: up to 45% in PvP and up to 90% in PvM.
Hit Curse - Affects the target like the curse spell. Lasts 30 seconds.
Hit Fatigue - Applies extra fatigue loss to the target in proportion to the damage dealt.
Hit Mana Drain - Drains the target's mana in proportion to the damage dealt.
Splintering Weapon - Lands a wounding hit on your enemy and forces them to walk for 4 seconds.
Reactive Paralyze - When you parry an attacker's blow, there is a chance the attacker is paralyzed.
Casting Focus - A chance to avoid having your casting disrupted.
Resonance - If your equipment's resonance type matches the damage type of the attack that hits you, you get a chance to avoid having your casting disrupted.
Soul Charge - The damage you take has a chance to restore your mana.
Blood Drinker - The bleed attack you land with your weapon heals you.
Damage Eater - Damage you take of the given type (physical, fire, etc.) can be eaten and returned to you as hit points; the cap is 30. If it just says Damage Eater it applies to all damage types, with a cap of 18.
Brittle - Powder of Fortifying (POF) cannot be applied to items with this property.
What The Magical Properties Do
Resists - Resistance to damage is always welcome. Depending on who you are fighting, different resists matter more. Your maximum resist for each type is 70%. Extra resist is very valuable on armor, somewhat valuable on jewelry and barely worth anything on weapons.
Hit/Defence Chance Increase - In armed combat, Hit Chance and Defense Chance affect your fighting ability. These are among the high value properties on equipment.
Stat Bonuses - Strength, dexterity and intelligence bonuses are very useful. How much each stat matters depends on what kind of character you are.
Derived Stat Bonuses - Hit point, stamina and mana bonuses are not as valuable as regular stat bonuses. They are critical for players trying to push one particular stat up.
Damage Increase - Raises the damage your weapons deal; valuable for players who care about weapon damage.
Swing Speed Increase - This property raises a weapon's swing speed by a set percentage, which makes it more valuable on fast weapons than on slow ones. Even for slow weapons, though, it is very valuable.
Spell Damage Increase - Raises the damage your spells deal; very valuable for players who do most of their damage with magic.
Faster Casting - Probably the most important property for casters. Faster casting (FC) raises how quickly you cast. Experienced mages and Chivalry players wear jewelry adding up to 4 FC.
Faster Cast Recovery - As important for casters as faster casting. Faster cast recovery (FCR) shortens the delay between two casts. Almost every experienced mage wears 8 FCR.
Spell Channeling - This property lets you keep using your shield or weapon while casting. They do not drop out of your hands when you cast. A piece with this property usually also carries faster casting -1: a casting penalty. In rare cases the item will not carry that penalty because spell channeling and faster casting appear together; this is called "SC no pen (alty)". On top of that, you can meditate while holding SC equipment. Most mages consider it an essential property.
Lower Mana Cost - LMC reduces the mana you spend. Experienced mages generally aim to wear 40% LMC.
Lower Reagent Cost - LRC keeps you from consuming reagents and chivalry tithing. While wearing LRC, each cast has a chance not to consume any reagent or gold. Wearing 100% LRC lets you cast without carrying any reagents at all.
Regeneration - Raises your hit point, stamina or mana regeneration rates. Hit point regeneration and stamina regeneration are generally seen as minor properties, because you top your hit points back up with Healing and you refill your stamina by drinking a refreshment potion or casting divine fury.
Hit Spell - Hit spell (magic arrow, harm, fireball or lightning) is one of the valuable properties, because it is bonus damage that cannot be parried. On top of the damage, hit magic arrow and fireball also deal delayed damage, giving you an extra spell that distracts the target, which is particularly useful against mages.
Hit Area - Hit area (physical, fire, cold, poison or energy) is generally seen as a negative property. At first it looks good since it damages every creature in the area, but once everything around you takes damage and starts attacking you it stops being a good thing. For red players (murderers) in town, carrying a hit area weapon can mean a sudden death, since it damages everyone by accident and the town guards will kill them. Some players do find hit area useful, especially at champion spawns.
Hit Leech - Weapons with hit leech (hit point, stamina or mana) convert the damage the weapon deals and return it to you as hit points, stamina or mana. They do not reduce the target's hit points, stamina or mana. While every hit leech property is useful, hit mana leech is especially valuable. Hit points and stamina are easier to restore than mana. With hit stamina leech, the chance to leech depends on the intensity of the property, and when it triggers you gain stamina equal to the damage dealt. Mana leech and life leech work differently; the amount of mana or hit points leeched varies with the weapon's property intensity. Life and mana leech are reduced by a further 50% on ranged weapons.
Hit Lower Attack/Defense - Hit lower reduces your target's attack and defense capability for a short time.
Slayer - Using a weapon with a slayer property (such as snake slayer) gives extra weapon damage against that type of creature. Holding a spellbook with a slayer property gives extra spell damage against that type. See the Slayer page for more information.
Luck - Wearing equipment with Luck raises your chance of finding powerful items on a creature's corpse and your chance of an artifact dropping.
Reflect Physical Damage - The physical damage you take is turned back on its source, but you still take the damage. Some players find this property useful in PvP.
Mage Armor - Armor with this property lets you meditate without taking it off.
Mage Weapon - When you fight with a mage weapon, it lets you use the weapon based on your Magery skill instead. The mage weapon value is a negative modifier, so holding the weapon lowers your magery and therefore your fighting ability. You can use it while training magery.
Enhance Potions - Raises the effect of potions in proportion to the amount you are wearing.
Elemental Damage Conversion - This is not strictly a property on a weapon, more a modification of it. Weapons normally deal 100% physical damage, but weapons with this can deal up to 100% elemental damage.
Chaos Damage - Chaos Damage is not a damage type of its own. On each swing your weapon applies one of the 5 damage types at random.
Skill Bonuses - Jewelry with skill bonuses cannot push your skills above the skill cap, which makes it less valuable. It is used for skills you chose not to train.
Self Repair - This property reduces the wear your equipment takes. It effectively makes the item last longer, but it does not raise Durability over time.
Durability Bonus - Gives your equipment higher durability.
Hit Dispel - Destroys a summoned creature.
Best Weapon Skill - When you wield a weapon with this property, your highest weapon skill is used regardless of the weapon's type. Wrestling is not included since it is not a weapon skill. It does not apply to bows either.
Night Sight - Wearing equipment with this property makes the world look as bright as daytime, no matter the hour. It is not a very valuable property.
Lower Requirements - Lowers the strength requirement needed to use the item. This property is worth almost nothing.
Balanced - Found on two handed weapons; it lets the wielder drink a potion without lowering the weapon.
Velocity - Found on ranged weapons (bows and Throwing weapons). It is a chance to deal extra physical damage based on distance. The farther the target, the more damage.
Battle Lust - If you are wearing an item with this property, every time you take damage from an enemy, at most once every 2 seconds, your weapon damage goes up by 1%. The bonus caps at 15% per nearby enemy: up to 45% in PvP and up to 90% in PvM.
Hit Curse - Affects the target like the curse spell. Lasts 30 seconds.
Hit Fatigue - Applies extra fatigue loss to the target in proportion to the damage dealt.
Hit Mana Drain - Drains the target's mana in proportion to the damage dealt.
Splintering Weapon - Lands a wounding hit on your enemy and forces them to walk for 4 seconds.
Reactive Paralyze - When you parry an attacker's blow, there is a chance the attacker is paralyzed.
Casting Focus - A chance to avoid having your casting disrupted.
Resonance - If your equipment's resonance type matches the damage type of the attack that hits you, you get a chance to avoid having your casting disrupted.
Soul Charge - The damage you take has a chance to restore your mana.
Blood Drinker - The bleed attack you land with your weapon heals you.
Damage Eater - Damage you take of the given type (physical, fire, etc.) can be eaten and returned to you as hit points; the cap is 30. If it just says Damage Eater it applies to all damage types, with a cap of 18.
Brittle - Powder of Fortifying (POF) cannot be applied to items with this property.
Source: Quingis UO