Pips in gear question

I got a green leg 3 pips out of the loot bag and I wanted to know if I get that leg to lvl 20 and upgrade it to blue will it also be a 3 pip blue gear or will it be 1 pip blue? Also If I want to fuse it to blue does it take 2x 3 pip leg to get to blue or can I use the 3 pip lvl and and a 1 pip lvl 20 ? And lasty I saw on the AH a 4 pip item? I thought 3 pip was the max?

I’m asking this because I just hit lvl 32 and I just entered Egypt and I want to work on my gear so I hope you can give some advise. I started as Elemental/Chaos but recently switched to Elemental and a shotgun as offhand.

Also what gear do I need to complete the storyline ?

When you fuse together two max-level items the new item will keep the number of pips and extraordinary abilities as well as any glyphs and signets of the base item.
The second item used for fusing will not provide anything other than fuel for the fusing.

Doing Dark Agartha (level 50 content) can give Imbuers that can raise glyphs to 4-pips.

Maxed out purples are more than enough to complete the story line.

two max-level item meaning 2x 3pip or can it be 1x 3pip and 1x 1pip for the fusion?

The number of pips on the second item is irrelevant.

Alright, thanks for the fast reply. I appreciate it.

I am not sure what a leg item is referring to, but for the 7 talismans, take them to blue 25, but seriously consider buying an “endgame” 3 pip talisman from the AH before you upgrade to purple. The specials on the 3 pip dungeon talisman gear are worth the cost in the long run. Same with weapons for that matter. Also keep in mind you can buy a few purple pieces, but you cannot combine blues to make purple until your character is level 50.

Ah in swl it’s called waist my bad. Need to save up mof I’m pretty low on that but ill try to get that when I can.

More pips mean better item stats while leveling and evolving, rather than one o two pips.