ItemString An itemString is used to pass item information as a plain text string , and are used in item tooltips and itemLink hyperlinks . Format . item : itemId : enchantId : gemId1 : gemId2 : gemId3 : gemId4 : Summary . WoW itemStrings are often seen as part of item links in WoW UI text . Item strings consist of the string " item : " followed by 13 colon delimited numbers , which describe the item , its stats , and any enchantments or gems applied to the item . Examples . item : 6948 : : : : : : : : 80 : : : : You can extract the values from a given ' itemString ' using the following Lua code : Details . Used to pass between clients and to pass item information from the client to the user interface . Enchant Ids and Suffix Ids . Adding of enchant , jewel , and bonus stat information to the tooltip appear to be handled on the client side with out any kind of validation . By altering the item string in an item hyperlink you can add any enchant or any bonus stats to any item and still pass it to clients via chat , or display a tooltip for it . The Item name must match that of the itemId combined with the suffix or you will be disconnected if you try to link the item to others . suffixIDs can be negative ( see Scaled Random Suffixes below ) . NOTE : Even though the EnchantId page lists shaman weapon buffs , player generated Shaman Buffs do not appear in the link when using GetInventoryItemLink ( ) . Unique Ids . UniqueId contains information on the maker of a crafted item , number of charges or uses if applicable , or other information exclusive to one particular manifestation of an item . Items received from quests frequently have a UniqueId value , and occasionally dropped items have one as well . The numbers don ' t appear to hold any information in and of themselves , and are not consistent in any way across servers like EnchantIds and SecondaryIds . The value appears to be a link to a database entry on the server or client that contains the unique information such as who made an item , which quest it came from , when the quest was delivered , who sold the item on the Auction House , etc . GMs would then be able to track an item should a petition about one be made . UniqueID can have negative values ( see Scaled Random Suffixes below ) . Addendum : In - game testing indicates that the UniqueId can change from the first loot to successive loots on the same item . To observe this behavior , Master Looter method was used , an item meeting the loot threshold found , and then the loot window closed without giving the item to a raid member . On re - opening the corpse , the value had changed . For example , on the first loot of Shimmering Trousers of the Eagle , the UniqueId value was 0x00009182 . On successive loot attempts it was 0x40679182 . Note that the low order bytes were maintained . In at least a few observations , negative UniqueId values did not change in successive looting attempts . On negative UniqueID ' s : I do not believe that a UniqueID being negative is special in any way . It seems to me that the high 16 bits are simply " random " , i . e . 0x0000 - 0xffff . If this value is > 0x8000 , it will translate to a negative decimal value ( signed 32 - bit ) . - - 09 : 55 , 7 August 2009 ( UTC ) Scaled Random Suffixes . Since WoW 2 . 0 , both the SuffixIds and the UniqueIds have the ability to be negative . This indicates a different way of calculating the stats bonuses is being used . Previous to WoW 2 . 0 , every time a new stats bonus was added to a new item , the SuffixId list needed to be updated via a client patch . This limited Blizzard ' s ability to arbitrarily add new items to the game , since the new data would need to be accompanied by a client patch if it ' s stats bonus did not already exist . Post 2 . 0 , a new system of stats bonuses has been implemented via the ItemRandomSuffix table . If the suffixId is negative , it indicates that the suffix of the item is instead one of the new RandomSuffixes , and that the uniqueId will contain an embedded suffixFactor , which can be extracted via the following algorithm . To see how this suffixFactor gets applied to get the final stat bonuses , see the ItemRandomSuffix table . 3 . 2 wotlk randomstat items changing their suffix factors . In 3 . 2 , wotlk randomstat items got upgraded , i . e . their scaling factors changed . This means that the high 16 bits of the uniqueid remained the same , but the low 16 bits changed . If this was a one - time thing , we could have lived with item databases etc becoming slightly wobbly . But that ' s not the whole story . As soon as you place an item in mail , or AH , or a guild bank , it gets downgraded again . So the uniqueIDs are no longer constant . Update : It seems that this only happens with items that were actually looted / spawned / crafted before 3 . 2 . - - 22 : 51 , 11 August 2009 ( UTC ) Examples : < nowiki > < / nowiki > < nowiki > | cff1eff00 | < / nowiki > Hitem : 36050 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : - 8 : - 2052980689 : 76 : 0 : 0 | h [ Crystalsong Bracelets of the Whale ] | h | r < nowiki > For added humor , note that GetItemCount ( ) and PickupItem ( ) will work on both the downgraded and upgraded itemStrings ( tested for items in bags ) , but a SecureActionButton using the " target - item " attribute will only work if given the upgraded itemString .