Help Dress Me!

[Tsarra]

Hey guys...I'm hoping to bounce a few ideas/facts off of you all and see what you think. I'm a pure mage and care only about damage and m/s really (just to give you all some context).

- The Keepers Enchantress set (Jacob's Helm of Cosmos, Keeper's Staff of Cosmos, Mirage Robe of Cosmos) does a tremendous amount of damage. In fact, comparing skill damage when wearing this set vs. skill damage when wearing my other gear (a Laser Wand and Gurgox Eye, which is basically for bosses) is a pretty big deal...bigger than it should be, in fact. Keepers set does A LOT more damage. 50 points more skill damage, on average. Does anyone know why?

- Everything on the forums has been screaming at me to stay away from the Shadow stuff until after the update comes out. That's fine, since I can only afford about a piece and a half of it right now. My question here is...is it really any better? I know that wearing the Keepers set puts me at my squishiest, but there would be a pretty monumental loss of damage with the Shadow EQ without a set bonus or some other hidden bonus like Keepers seems to have. As I can't really afford it to try it out, I was wondering if any of you have both and have had a chance to compare them and how they feel.

- Same question as above, but for Cyber gear. Again, I realize that switching to a wand/shield set up is going to cost me damage...is it really that bad? These totems are going to be the death of me. I have 8. Woooohoooo!

I don't see a whole lot of other pure mages running around AO3 in full Keeper gear. I can only wonder if that's because I have either nerves of steel...or brains of Jello.

[Royce]

The keeper set does crazy damage for two reasons, the staff itself has very high damage (generally speaking, the higher the damage of a weapon, the more damage it contributes to skills), and because the keeper set also gives you a base damage bonus which is added directly to skill damage. Wand and bracer is a nice option to have when you need to play it safe, and I would definitely think you would want an option like that especially when leveling in the next campaign. The shadow set with wand is better, but the cyber set is decent too. I really don't know how the cheap, easy option (Fate wand set) would compare to the Keeper set defensively. It may not be enough of an armor upgrade to seem worth it, but I'd still recommend having a wand loadout, since at the very least having lower damage will keep you from drawing instant aggro in situations where you could get 1-hitted (which could very well be frequent for a level 50 Int Mage in the new campaign ;) ).

[Tsarra]

I run the Laser Wand and Gurgox Eye during boss fights and the like. :) 87 Armor instead of the 69 that I get from Keepers, so it helps during boss fights. Would be nice if I got more than 18 Armor from that 50 point damage loss...

And I heard the Cyber Staff was crap?

[Arterra]

ps when i saw this thread i almost died thinking that Bal had risen again...

[Royce]

I run the Laser Eye and Gurgox Eye during boss fights and the like. :) 87 Armor instead of the 69 that I get from Keepers, so it helps during boss fights. Would be nice if I got more than 18 Armor from that 50 point damage loss...

And I heard the Cyber Staff was crap?

Then it sounds like you'll be fine. Laser wand with cyber gear would definitely be an upgrade but with full cosmos gear, you'll probably be fine since we'll all be looking for 55 stuff soon anyway ;)
And yes, only reason to get the cyber stuff is to use with the laser wand, not the staff.

[Tsarra]

Is the glow stick worth my time? And I meant laser wand above...sorry...long day. :P I have a laser wand.

[Royce]

Is the glow stick worth my time? And I meant laser wand above...sorry...long day. :P I have a laser wand.

It's really just a matter of whether the stat increase over the laser wand is worth the cost of the glowstick (considering how long you will be using it). You can look at Yanis' thread for the stats. The wands are both simple lightning wands with no proc so the stats give you the whole picture.
Edit: And if course if you do go through with the Cyber quests, the laser wands gives you a slight set bonus with cyber gear.

[Tsarra]

I've been trying to get someone to part with a Glow Stick for under 100k. No luck yet, but I can let the 1.7 frenzy whip those prices into shape for me. 125K is the best offer I've had so far.

Do you know offhand who all drop the totems for the Cyber quest? Is it any AO3 boss or are there certain ones?

[Royce]

Most AO3 bosses work, but not all. The fastest way to get them is to kill the keeper over and over. He often drops two totems, and can be killed pretty fast on VL.

[Arterra]

I've been trying to get someone to part with a Glow Stick for under 100k. No luck yet, but I can let the 1.7 frenzy whip those prices into shape for me. 125K is the best offer I've had so far.

Do you know offhand who all drop the totems for the Cyber quest? Is it any AO3 boss or are there certain ones?

yep keeper if you can take that kind of boredom. otherwise just do the ordinary kill-all-boss-run to spice things up.

also, i remember buying a 5k glow stick... even though it was before the item rarification, it was awesome

[Kujen]

I would not buy any shadow gear unless you can afford to get the whole set, its good because of its set bonus. But the cyber set bonus is pretty good as well, so its a question of whether you want to spend time questing or money buying. Keep in mind that prices on these items are eventually going to crash even further, whether thats soon after the update or once people have their 55 gear, i dont know. But they certainly arent going up.

I love the keepers set, but i prefer to use a wand + eye in most groups. Your role in the group is important, you'll need to stay alive. If you play in groups, dont worry much about loss of damage. Whenever i use my keeper set, i just die more because i get more aggro and have less armor.

Since you mentioned m/s, all of the sets will provide plenty of m/s.

[Royce]

I would not buy any shadow gear unless you can afford to get the whole set, its good because of its set bonus. But the cyber set bonus is pretty good as well

There is no set bonus for shadow gear. However the individual pieces are so much better than cosmos or cyber (even with the fairly poor cyber bonus), that the shadow wand set is the best in the game.

[Kujen]

Oh that's right isnt it. Sigh I say stupid things sometimes. :rolleyes:

I still wouldnt spend the gold on it personally. I really expect the prices to drop even further. Even if shadow is better, when cyber came out..it was an awesome set for mages. I think it would be perfectly adequate to use going into the next campaign.

[Lesrider]

I paid 100k for my glow stick the night it came out. So I doubt you'll get a lower price than that.
I just wanted to have the set and not worry about it, so I bought it for the lowest prices I could find in the cs and then went to bed.
I can see void/rift/cosmos dropping drastically in price because they're fairly easy to loot. But unless something changes with the caves, I don't think the shadow gear will drop in price really until enough people are fully decked out in the lvl 55 gear.

[Royce]

Oh that's right isnt it. Sigh I say stupid things sometimes. :rolleyes:

I still wouldnt spend the gold on it personally. I really expect the prices to drop even further. Even if shadow is better, when cyber came out..it was an awesome set for mages. I think it would be perfectly adequate to use going into the next campaign.

Oh I agree with this. No need to buy the best gear when you will only need to replace it soon, particularly if you already have a more than adequate set ;)

[Kujen]

Well i remember just the day they announced the new update, how quickly the prices dropped. I got myself dragged into price wars trying to sell off my hate armor. Shadow gear may not drop as much because it is the best for mages, while hate isnt as good as rift, imo.

I think the day of the new update, people will panic sell again. Tho there may be a lot of buyers that day too, we will have to see.

[Dizzy]

Thanks for all this information guys, I was wondering this myself.

I have the cosmos set and I love the damage I do, but as a squishy pure int mage, I drool over the Shadow gear. I'm farming and saving, and I know the prices will drop, and I just might bite if they go low enough. Already have the helm. And if leveling to 55 is a grind, I'd rather do it with less death. I don't mind taking my time, so if I get one or two weeks of less death out of the set, it's worth it to me. And even if there's new 55 gear, the shadow set is still pretty awesome and will work great until I'm ready for the new set.

And maybe it'll get a set bonus in the next update? I'm new, so I have no idea how those are typically rolled out, but if it does get a bonus, even better.

[Tsarra]

Thanks for all the input guys. I'm going to wait and slowly eke out the Cyber Quests like I have been...seems to be cheapest route, and I've already amassed a little pile of money not buying every piece of EQ I can afford. I used Mamboza's Voodoo Fire Pin for 10 levels, and I can stomach this for a while longer. Besides, with all the low-level PvE farming I do, the Keeper's Set is pretty much a necessity. Going out and drumming up low-level equipment for everyone else is, surprisingly, a lot of fun for me.

I got two totems after helping some 45-50's make their way through Crush the Keeper...karma pays off, I guess. :p Only about a third of the Crush Keeper runs I end up on actually go in there and deal with him, but it seems like I could at least sell his drops off if I don't need them. I've managed to take him out with just me and a Level 50 bird (maybe it was one of you...), and my next trick will be to go in there and beat his butt by myself. Blue pot at the minimum, and he takes forever to kill sometimes, even with a full party...especially if he gets that mana shield thing off. Guh.

The only part of this game I find boring is leveling my bear. As you can see, he's still Level 9. Maybe I'd like a bird more. :p Or Intbear? LOL

Thanks again, guys. If you have any other input, I am all ears.

Also, Dizzy, feel free to add me IG...we have about the same skill level and time on the game (I think, from reading your posts), and I'd love to go and raid something with you sometime. :)

[StompArtist]

Intbear takes some getting used to but it is a setup worth trying! I had a lot of fun playing one.

[Tsarra]

Intbear takes some getting used to but it is a setup worth trying! I had a lot of fun playing one.

Beckon with a Sunkiller Staff seems like it might be okay...

[Kujen]

Tanks can be fun, not sure about the no deaths allowed thing. My bear got quite a few early on lol. You should make a bird though too, it's fun to play different classes.

[Tsarra]

Tanks can be fun, not sure about the no deaths allowed thing. My bear got quite a few early on lol. You should make a bird though too, it's fun to play different classes.

Bird is next...and it might have been a bad idea to pick a bear as my hardcore character. I have a feeling death comes with the territory. :p

[BlazeMystic]

Do we actually know whether there is going to be another armour set at level 55? And secondly, do we know how much more experience is required to go up each successive level? The road to Level 55 could well be a long one (especially for those who do not play that often) and I wonder whether having shadow armour would in fact be a good option to have in order to tackle the next dungeon. I haven't played these sorts of games before, so I can only guess what could happen to the prices and everyone appears convinced that the prices will plummet. I have both sets and prefer the cosmos set to get the bonus, which is massive, but I also really like the shadow armour set and have noticed that my mage survives a lot more. I think the shadow set is much better than cosmos robe/eye/laser wand set, so it is a difficult call to make as to whether to bother buying the shadow items given that people are presuming that there is going to be a new set.

[bladesword]

Do we actually know whether there is going to be another armour set at level 55? And secondly, do we know how much more experience is required to go up each successive level? The road to Level 55 could well be a long one (especially for those who do not play that often) and I wonder whether having shadow armour would in fact be a good option to have in order to tackle the next dungeon. I haven't played these sorts of games before, so I can only guess what could happen to the prices and everyone appears convinced that the prices will plummet. I have both sets and prefer the cosmos set to get the bonus, which is massive, but I also really like the shadow armour set and have noticed that my mage survives a lot more. I think the shadow set is much better than cosmos robe/eye/laser wand set, so it is a difficult call to make as to whether to bother buying the shadow items given that people are presuming that there is going to be a new set.

Lol. You havent seen any of the level cap rises right?

[Fatpigwarrior]

keeper set becuase u will get a set bonus

[Tsarra]

Lol. You havent seen any of the level cap rises right?

I haven't seen any of them. :p

[BlazeMystic]

Yes you are right, you sussed me out straight away! lol. I have never seen a level cap rise before, what excitement!!!

[Tsarra]

And secondly, do we know how much more experience is required to go up each successive level?

If those new Crafting Interface pics are to be believed, we are all in serious crap.

[BlazeMystic]

Lol, indeed I believe we are! If there are sets at level 55 and it takes that long to get to level 55, a pure int mage really might need shadow armour after all.


If those new Crafting Interface pics are to be believed, we are all in serious crap.

[Tsarra]

I would think that a good "cruising" armor rating for the higher leveled dungeons would be somewhere around 100 for a pure int mage such as myself...seeing as how VL is still really tough with an 87 for me (the extra 40 points from buffs notwithstanding), that seems pretty fair. The more fundamental problem may be that I need to learn how to stop charging headlong into rooms full of mobs to read them poetry, but it's so damn FUN, I just can't help myself sometimes. :p Plus, this usually doesn't kill me. In big groups, I've learned how to hang back and heal the party when going into rooms of, say, 7 yellow aliens. That's progress, I think?

[Fyrce]

When the level cap rises, prices will crash. There WILL be panic, particularly by people who have extras of stuff. For rare items, prices will rise again, especially if the time to get to L55 is very long. People need to wear something as they level and usually they want the best gear available. The longer it takes to level to the new cap, the more prices will rise though it likely will not pass its pre-new-cap level, so the panic selling is based on reality.

Also any new popped will be very expensive, especially first few items, and people want gold to buy those items. Also leveling up may be expensive with elixirs, etc., so again people might need to convert their stuff to gold.

There are usually some in-between-levels gear, but most people will be interested in leveling up, not popping in-between gear. They would wear the previous-capped-level gear and go up to the new cap and then farm for the new top level equips. The harder the new campaign, longer the leveling takes, rarer the new equip, the more the prices on the old stuff will rise. There might be other reasons for price changes as well, such as equip used for twinking/dualling/new set bonuses/who knows what other new things people come up with.

The new crafting seems fun. I have no clue what serious crap we're in.

Shadow doll set is really nice for int mages. It doesn't hurt to time mana shield, iron blood, firestorm and some running around, of course.

[Tsarra]

The new crafting seems fun. I have no clue what serious crap we're in.

The experience differential. Take a look at the first screen shot, and how many experience points it says it will take to get to Level 56. Using our existing XP scale, that would be BRUTAL.