What items are exceptional for their level and other info useful to a new player?

I'm working on a new player guide of the most useful basic information. After returning, and never having played the game as much as a lot of others, I kind of came up with a list of things I learned and thought I'd share it.

For both my sake, and the guide sake, can you tell me what gear has exceptional stats for it's level? Also, if it's very hard to acquire or from ravenloft, it should probably be mentioned (like quiver of alacrity).

Specifically, what items grant:

100% fortification at earliest possible levels
Movement speed at earliest possible levels (other than RNG and quiver of alacrity)
Items with high saves, health, or other defenses.

Preferably, named items with a somewhat high drop rate, or are in reward lists often, are preferred. The list is more geared at levels 1-10.

edit:
1+: Wands of: Blurry, Expeditious Retreat, Shield, Elemental Resistance
6: Mace of Smiting (construct killer)
3: Bracers of the Wind (blurry)
9: Cloak of Invisiblity (ghostly)
8: Sapphire of Heavy Fortification
9: Nightforge Gorget (Heavy Fort)
4: Carnifex (x3 crit on 17-20)
4: Tiefling Assassin's Blade (great at everything...)
7: Red Fens "Mire Set" (30% movespeed and other good stats)
7: Mysterious Bracers/Cloak (champion hunter week only)
8: Quicksilver Cassok (25% runspeed, 10% melee speed)
7: Scroll of Raise Dead

I try to get Maces of Smiting on all my characters, and for my kids' characters. Unfortunately, the Mace of Smiting is a low level item (lvl 6) that can only be reliably gotten from a mid-high level area (Subterrane Central). I've purchased most of mine.

The level 3 Bracers of the Wind (Cannith Challenges, can be played free with Daily tokens) are the lowest level Blurry item. Very useful at low levels.

Cloak of Invisibility, ML9, Ghostly, green slot where I like to put Heavy Fort (augment is ML8)

Can be solo farmed (video walkthrough) from Tempest Spine, which is available to all being F2P. You need 18 INT to use a rune, though, so be aware of that. Humans can hit it easily with a temporary enhancement respec:

8 base
2 ship buffs
4 fox's cunning potion from marketplace
1 human adaptability: intelligence
3 action surge: intelligence
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18 int

The L15 and L20 Ring of the Stalker from Cannith Challenges makes an excellent ring for melee characters. The L20 version is very useful for Epic go rounds.

Heavy Fortification may be slotted from L8 in a Blue or Green Augment Slot. The Nightforge Gorget offers Heavy Fortification at L9 but you must run a L12 quest to get it.

New players tend to need weapons with Ghost Touch so a section on those would help. The Catacombs chain offers a few options.

Voice of the Master and Mantle of the Worldshaper deserve mention.

For spell absorption, the Pale Lavender Ioun Stone, Mantle of the Worldshaper, and Jeweled Cloak deserve mention.

A wand or item that provides Shield protection will definitely prevent many a death.

For total newbies, I would also point out the adamantine gear from A Relic of a Sovereign Past. This F2P quest can be solo-farmed at level 9. I like that it doesn't depend on random drops; there is always 15 pieces of ore in every instance, so you know exactly how many times you need to run it based on how much gear you plan to make. Even better, it doesn't break your Bravery streak to farm it on Casual as long as you don't actually finish the quest; just recall out after you've collected your ore / gear and reset the instance. Rinse, repeat as often as necessary.

This old thread explains how to farm the quest.

Carnifex is an awesome low level weapon, even if you aren't a two handed weapon build.

Tiefling assassin blade, carnifex. Are among the best one and two hand options before ic.

Invis cloak is great, but a newer player could get ml 10 ghostly boots or cloak from ravenloft easier if they have it.

For move speed I think the best option for 30% is ml7 from the fens mire set. As a bonus you get feather fall, some dr, jump which makes a big deal for new players, and water breathing. At ml1 you are looking at angers boots clickies. Other fens sets are also worth a look. Ravens, sirens, sacred.

Heavy fort can be found as an augment on reavers ring which is from a ftp quest, though cipher is a tougher free quest and requires Two people.

Don't forget that most common collectibles can be traded for healing elixirs.

Along with fort gear from relic, the dart there is an excellent option for when you just have to range something.

Tons of good gear has already been mentioned. But I'll toss in a few more ideas.

Chaosgarde - this is a nice utility item for any build without heroism as a spell. Yes there are pots, but for newbies this is a solid set of bracers.

Mysterious Bracers/Cloak - can't go wrong with these on nearly any ML

Spinneret - invaluable for any caster (slavers would be a tough chain for newer players though)

Any Cannith Challenge gear. The challenges can be confusing/frustrating at first, but once you get them down, there is some seriously slick gear in there for it's ML.

"Lesser Boots of Striding and Springing" gives you +20% run speed at level 7, along with jump +10 and a colorless slot, farmable from Stormcleave Outpost.

"Quicksilver Cassok" gives you +25% run speed and +10% melee speed at level 8 with a blue slot, and can appear in the Cult of the Six end reward list.

Those are both exceptionally high for their levels compared with what is now possible via CC, although the ml:1 clicky from Korthos can be used for a +25% run speed boost too. You can get +30% run speed from a two item set bonus at level 7 as well.

"Fleetfoot Greaves" from Death House (Ravenloft) is almost the earliest permanent source for Freedom of Movement, ml:10, farmable and non-raid as opposed to the ml:9 boots from Vault of Night raid.

"Reaver's Ring" comes pre-slotted with a 100% fort augment at level 9, also fear immunity as an effect, farmable from Xorian Cipher.

"Electric Haze" is 100% fort and +30 hp false life with a colorless slot at ml:13, both effects a little better than you can get with CC and consolidated on a belt, farmable from Litany of the Dead; maybe it's not such a standout now...

"Trapblast Goggles" gives you +4 reflex saves, ml:1 and farmable from Shan-to-Kor.

"Armbands of the Silenced Ones" gives you +8 reflex saves, +6 DEX (for a total of +11 reflex from one item) and 5% dodge, seeker 6 and a blue slot - a lot of useful stuff but the reflex from this item is pretty big relative to CC or any other ml:13 item, farmable from some newer amrath quest.

"Phiarlan Mirror Cloak" is ml:3 with spell resistance 17 and farmable from Partycrashers, that is much much higher than you can craft with CC at that level. There's a trinket item with SR:20 but I don't think it's farmable.

The new Raven's set is two items, goggles and gloves, that combined for the set bonus give you all of this at level 7: +5 WIS, +5 DEX, +4 reflex, +10 bluff, +3 to hit and damage, and +10 to both spot and search. that's pretty good for some builds and hard to match via CC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lugoman

Carnifex is an awesome low level weapon, even if you aren't a two handed weapon build.

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Carniflex is downright stupid good, even if all you have is master's touch + carniflex with str 10

Some exceptionally good gear for its level that's easy to get in first life:
Bracers of the Wind (Cannith challenges)
Visor of the Flesh Render Guards (tangleroot)
Any named loot from Slavelords, most named loot from ravenloft or mines of tethemar
Scroll of raise dead (NPC vendors, multiple locations)
Scroll of heal (NPC vendors, multiple locations)
Voice of the Master (Delara's Tomb)
Carnifex (Delara's Tomb)
Vorpal weapons (Random loot)

Some pretty good gear for its level that's easy to get, but requires being level 20+ to get:
Upgraded Ioun Stones (dreaming dark)
Sapphire of Heavy Fortification (tokens of the 12)
Heroic Greensteel; especially +HP or displacement or raise dead clickies (heroic Vale of Twilight raid)
The master's gift (greater tokens of the 12)
Harper Pin, Greater (Harper favor)

Some exceptionally good gear for its level that's not easy to get:
Tiefling's Assassin Blade (heroic 3bc wilderness area rare)
Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers (epic 3bc quest)
Upgraded Quiver of Alacrity (heroic necro 4 raid)

Minos legens is usually the first time i used to get fort at 11 but u can get with a blue augment at 8

for new players, nothing!!!

They should do easy builds like paladin until level 5 on each server & delete until they start getting a feel for the game. Their character will emerge then—perhaps they are drawn to clerics, or assassins—then they can take one to 20 and TR. Lootgen is fine on heroic normal first life with the right builds.

Then they need to decide if they want to dig in...Only then should they look into gear. No reason to bog them down at first.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Category:The...e_reward_items

great level 2 weapons to have

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aselrik

I'm working on a new player guide of the most useful basic information.

... Also, if it's very hard to acquire or from ravenloft, it should probably be mentioned (like quiver of alacrity)...

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"New Player" and "basic info" vs. "Ravenloft" and "quiver of alacrity" - seems very contradictory to me. Few(?) new players are going to dive straight into Level 10+ RL (at $40), and the QoA is both ~very~ rare and relatively high-level to hunt for.

So first, you should narrow down your target audience and target info...

o F2P or VIP? If the former, items have to be F2P quests only, no packs.
o What level range?
o What rarity/difficulty to farm?
o General usefulness, or specific build utility?

I continuously run into players who are Level 7+, who don't know about Anger's Step, and keep walking around at base speed. Seems a pretty "basic" place to start. Korthos FF'ing cloak on top of that, and some of that other gear (Misery's Peak sets, etc.). Every Artificer should know where to get that easy starter Thought Spike rune arm, etc. etc.

For 100% Fort, the ML 11 Ring of Balance is pretty nice (esp for True Neutral characters), and a guaranteed farm (if not a terribly quick one). Quest is Level 12 F2P, and farming on Normal is the same as Elite. (Same quest level but not as fast as ML 9 Nightforge Gorget, which could only take 1 run if you don't have to share all the ore.)

Imo, a 100% augment is both impractical for a lot of new players and a bad suggestion in general, since it's relatively expensive and a "new" player will most likely slot it somewhere they will regret later. :/

You could suggest the Silver Bow for ranged - but it's a farm that many find a long, hard grind.

For most new players, I'd suggest that the Auction House is the solution to a lot of start problems; FF gear, trapping gear, decent ML 1 & 5 (2d6 elemental) weapons, etc etc. all can be found there, and not too expensive if you hunt around. No, not the best, but good enough for newbies, until they get a feel for stuff themselves.

Well, no one has mentioned event stuff. The low level event stuff is not hard to get, but you do need to do it at the right time.

No Worries, the anniversary full plate, is ridiculous at level 5: 29% insightful fort, so you can slot in an augment of moderate fort (ML 4) to get 104%, and +27 AC! My not-at-all optimized barb has 43 AC at level 5.

The winter fest cosmetic upgrades will give +10 fire/cold resist to cosmetic armor/hats, equipable at any level. This will stack with the +1 AC mod from the Stone of Change, which can be applied to cosmetics and is again equipable at any level. Getting the cosmetics on which you can apply the recipes can be a bit of a pain though... even if you buy them from the store, you might buy what you think is a cosmetic only to find out that it isn't (I learned this recently). There's a cosmetic hat available from the anniversary event which will work, another hat from the Halloween event which will work (only the head spider, none of the other Halloween hats), and the Ragged Rags from Wheloon will work for armor.

Rando-gen featherfall items available at ML 1, or the Ring of Feathers from Shan-To-Kor.

The Snowstar, the ML 8 shuriken from Sorrowdusk, has a 1d4 damage roll (good for a shuriken) and a 16-20 crit threat range.

For movement speed, the best thing to do very early is:
1) Get Anger's Step from Kortho's quest end reward (can't remember which one gives... one of the ones in the adventure area though. You get TWO 5 minute clickies of Expeditious Retreat on them. and Expeditious retreat gets you 25% movement bonus. You can't get that high with an item until much later in the game.

2) If a caster or have UMD, get Expeditious retreat scrolls.

long time ago, I think Expeditious retreat only gave 10% speed bonus. but that changed at some point.

And the scrolls now give 5 minutes (used to give only 1 minute a long time ago.

For all you new vistani knife fighters out there, the best dagger I have been able to find is Sheridan’s Wrack (min level 8) from the Sorrowdusk/Co6 end reward list. It is not a 100% guarantee from the end reward drop, but it is well worth the effort. On my TRs I use this from level 8-20 and have not found a better dagger yet for heroics. Also goggles of the flesh render from tangleroot gorge is a low min lvl DW clickie.

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Originally Posted by Shadow_Jumper

For all you new vistani knife fighters out there, the best dagger I have been able to find is Sheridan’s Wrack (min level 8) from the Sorrowdusk/Co6 end reward list. It is not a 100% guarantee from the end reward drop, but it is well worth the effort. On my TRs I use this from level 8-20 and have not found a better dagger yet for heroics. Also goggles of the flesh render from tangleroot gorge is a low min lvl DW clickie.

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hey shadow, I saw you using this in your vids for ROGUE 4; why do you find it so solid? For assassin vistanis, I am building a ToEE dagger ML 7. I had a ToEEkukri last life and the AoE proc was very strong in heroics.

edit: I see that is has the highest base damage (2d3) so the +W effects will be strong and the keen is handy before level 12. But I think other weapon effects would pull ahead.

The Sharn Syndicate quests are largely new-player friendly (you will come to hate any NPC with the last name of Binder) and fast to do and they're relatively generous in obtaining useful ML:1 clickies like Shield and Expeditious Retreat or a Feather Falling item. They're bound to account as well so you can farm them on any toon.

And speaking of Feather Falling, I don't think the Ring of Feathers, which can be farmed from Shan-to-Kor, has been mentioned.