Equipment help

[skerbl]

Hi there, it's time for another boring "help me with my equipment" thread.
First things first: The equipment suggestions I'm looking for do not have to be the "best-in-slot" types. In quite a lot of cases it will be difficult for me to meet the grindy requirements due to my unusual and unregular playing times. This means that I almost exclusively pug. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for instant gratification, but merely a good balance. It doesn't have to be the best, but merely a good and efficient setup, that is not too much trouble to acquire.

Relevant Adventure packs:
MoTU expansion
The Druid's Deep
Vault of Night
Gianthold
Vale of Twilight
Demon Sands
Secrets of the Artificers
Necro IV
Devil Assault
Phiarlan Carnival
Sentinels of Stormreach
Red Fens
Devils of Shavarath

Next: The toon. She's a first life (28 pts, +2 tomes in everything but dex) Clr 19/Wiz1 currently at lvl 23, with EA Destiny at level 5 (not yet maxed though). She's built as a standard caster with feats in spell pen (took epic at lvl 21).

My current Equipment and comments:

Head: Minos Legens
It was good while it lasted, but I feel it's time to move on. Toughness effect is covered by my current armor, but Heavy Fort needs to be included somehow. Helm of the Blue Dragon looks nice, I'll have to get her into the new Tor now that her lvl is adequate. In the meantime, I was thinking of the PDK Helm from Eveningstar. This would replace the Con on my belt, freeing that up for Heavy Fort. But in the end, I don't really gain anything from this little shuffle (except +2 insightful Str. yay.)

Goggles: Greensteel SP, Tier 2
At the current rate, I will upgrade this to ConcOpp in about a year or two... This one is fine, any replacement will make me have to start it all over.

Neck: Symbol of the Shinig Sun
The Clerics of Amaunator set is pretty good and ridiculously cheap. Especially the set bonus will make me think twice of replacing any of the three items... Shame that there's no augment slots though...

Armor: Breastplate of the Shining Sun
It's not too bad, but I'm not exactly happy with this armor. If it weren't for the set bonus, I'd replace this with the new Elfcrafted as soon as possible, and Flawless Blue Dragonplate whenever I get enough scales (i.e. within this decade probably). I really miss my old arcane lore... Btw, I really despise wearing robes (curse you WoW!), so the heavier the armor, the better. Just one of my quirks. Alright, so I do have a lootgen Deathblock robe. But I hate every second I'm wearing it.

Trinket: Shamanic Fetish
At least once I hit lvl 24. This is an ok placeholder for the Holy Symbol of Lolth. Knowing my drop luck, I will most likely have to buy that from the AH once I can afford it (I'm not a billionaire, you know).

Cloak: Nothing really. Lootgen Resistance +7, for that +1 to saves...
I'm really at a loss here. Even Cannith crafting is worthless on cloaks. Any other choices? The Ghost-Waking cloak from the new Crucible maybe? Or the caster cloak from the Eveningstar challenges? I don't know.

Bracers: Cannith crafted Greater Evocation Bracers of [something useless], with a (still empty) yellow augment slot
Ignoring the useless suffix for a second, this isn't totally bad. Any ideas on what to slot into it? (crystals are still expensive, so replacing it every other day is not an option). Any ideas for a useful suffix?

Gloves: Purple Dragon Gauntlets
Mainly for the +2 Insightful Constitution and 30% Healing Amp, this isn't too bad.

Belt: Lootgen +6 Constitution of Balance
This just doesn't cut it anymore. Belt seems like the easiest slot to replace the Heavy Fort from my Helm. My long-term goal might include a GS HP item, probably MinII (but that might take a while...).

Ring 1: Signet of the Shining Sun
This one's fine I guess. See above.

Ring 2: Cannith crafted Necromany Focus of Concentration
Will replace with Greater Necro Focus as soon as my crafting skills allow it. I could always bribe a friendly crafter, but I kinda believe in the do-it-yourself approach. The suffix is redundant right now, but there are some actual *gasp* choices this time... Any suggestions? Improved False Life looks tempting (Greater will take a while...)

Boots: Boots of the Woodsman
For Striding (and +2 Insightful Dex). Cannith Propulsion Boots perhaps? I don't know.

Weapons: level appropriate Devotion DAxe + Wall of Wood (ML 17 heroic one, will have to upgrade a little I suppose)
level appropriate Radiance + Impulse Thaumaturgy stick of something or other
Lootgen Smiters, Disruptors, Banishers... most of which are rotting in my inventory for 99% of the time...
I'm almost tempted to buy the High Road of Shadows adventure pack for the Forgotten Light, but I usually make it a point of not buying packs solely for one specific item... Your suggestions?

Did I forget anything? Oh yes, this whole augment thing is pretty new to me (never had the chance to experience the old system either). So, on top of any equipment suggestions, I'd also really appreciate suggestions for relevant augment crystals...

[Kinerd]

With the Belt of Seven Ideals you can get GSP 9, 6 (or 7) Con in the colorless, and then maybe Archmagi in the yellow.

Getting one of the +2 Spell Focus Mastery cloaks is very nice for a divine caster. Conjuration, Necromancy, Enchant, and Evocation are all relevant for you, so it would be pretty annoying to slot them all individually. I don't know how easy it is to get out of the new raid, but it's just a matter of time out of challenges, and as a divine you don't get as much out of the 8 stats on the raid cloak as an arcane would. The downside is you have to get the unbelievably inane BtC challenge ingredients rubbed in your face, but every game has some stupidity in it.

If you do end up getting the Blue Dragon Helm, that green augment slot is a perfect place for your Fort.

[skerbl]

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to get that belt. Had no luck so far (hardly surprising), but I'll keep trying. The cloak fom the raid looks promising too, but I suspect that will take even longer. Did the raid two times on hard, both times not even one named item dropped for the whole group. And both times I only got one commendation instead of the two most others got. Seems like the RNG doesn't like me

[eachna_gislin]

Hi there, it's time for another boring "help me with my equipment" thread.
First things first: The equipment suggestions I'm looking for do not have to be the "best-in-slot" types. In quite a lot of cases it will be difficult for me to meet the grindy requirements due to my unusual and unregular playing times. This means that I almost exclusively pug. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for instant gratification, but merely a good balance. It doesn't have to be the best, but merely a good and efficient setup, that is not too much trouble to acquire.

Did I forget anything? Oh yes, this whole augment thing is pretty new to me (never had the chance to experience the old system either). So, on top of any equipment suggestions, I'd also really appreciate suggestions for relevant augment crystals...

For Gianthold, you can get the base Epic version of items in the end of chain for the flagging chain, or in the Tor end loot list. No guarantees as to what you'll pull, but you're likely to get something useful from each run. The same with pulling the epic Wall of Wood (it can be in the end of chain list). MUCH easier than grinding the same quest till your eyes bleed.

You can get two more slots by finding a lootgen belt and ring with augment slots. You don't have to worry about getting yellow slots right away, colorless are fine. Farm the Tor flagging quests (see grabbing chain rewards above) and trade in the relics for the epic augments you want, to slot in missing exceptional stats. Cannith craft +6's if you need any, rather than burning augment slots. Especially since you mention having +2 stat tomes which hopefully means 'even' number stats and that +7's would be a waste for now.

As for colored augments, you're mostly going to end up with yellow slots. To me, yellow seems to have the least useful augments. One augment I'm liking on my divines is blindness immunity. Blindness attacks seemt to have come back into favor with the recent updates to the enemy caster AIs. While you 'can' just drink potions/cast spells, the immunity just means one less problem on your toon to deal with while throwing heals on everyone else. Of course, you could just cannith craft it, along with feather falling (another yellow). Striding 30% is a yellow augment you can't craft for yourself. You could slot in a couple resistences also.

If you have the points for Ruins of Threnal (or can get a guest pass), you can run the chain and pick up a few Mystical Goblets. They'll let you cannith craft heavy fort. I know you said you don't like to buy packs for one item, but the pack has several nice lowbie items, including Mantle of the Worldshaper and some awesome handwraps. Hint: Since the cloak slot tends to have less competition than the trinket slot, I like to get Mantles for all my toons and leave them on the whole time while leveling. That +5% xp can be nice for optionals and works on epic xp (destiny grind).

You commented that you considered the Shamanic Fetish to be a placeholder for the holy symbol of lolth. IMO, the fetish is much more useful. It has devotion and radiance, the two divine spell boosts most needed, and has a slot for flexibility. The holy symbol is missing devotion (it instead has impulse). The holy symbol does have two useful exceptional stats, but with the prevalence of slots in newer gear that's less important. I also find the poison side effect kind of annoying. If you have the new gauntlets of immortality (and wear them) then I'd think about using the Holy Symbol. Otherwise, I'd say the Fetish 'wins' (bonus marks - easier to farm).

For weapons, I have a Banishing weapon of Smiting (it's random lootgen) on two of my clerics. Consolidates two important weapons into one and saves a little inventory space. You should be able to buy them in the AH fairly cheap (I got both mine for under 50k each - a mace and a shortsword)

[Matuse]

Cloak: Nothing really. Lootgen Resistance +7, for that +1 to saves...
I'm really at a loss here. Even Cannith crafting is worthless on cloaks. Any other choices? The Ghost-Waking cloak from the new Crucible maybe? Or the caster cloak from the Eveningstar challenges? I don't know.

Good cloaks are all over the place.

You will have trouble finding anything better than the Ghost Waking Cloak. Honestly, I have trouble finding ANY character build where that is not best-in-slot.

Goggles: Greensteel SP, Tier 2
At the current rate, I will upgrade this to ConcOpp in about a year or two... This one is fine, any replacement will make me have to start it all over.

Strongly consider starting over. Get 2 pairs of goggles. One is Triple-Air with spellpoints at every tier. It's single-shard at Tier3, and only uses 2 large devil scales. It also gives a good clicky effect, with 3 charges of 90 second haste. You wear this between quests and when shrining. When you burn off the SP it gives, then you switch to the second pair:

Concordant Opposition, with hitpoints. You could go HP on all 3 tiers. Personally I prefer Blindness Ward/Disease Resist +6 on Tier1. Blindness SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS, and is cast quite a bit. 10hp is not much to give up.

The beauty of this version is that you don't have to cleanse either of them, since they'll never be on at the same time.

Armor: Breastplate of the Shining Sun
It's not too bad, but I'm not exactly happy with this armor. If it weren't for the set bonus, I'd replace this with the new Elfcrafted as soon as possible, and Flawless Blue Dragonplate whenever I get enough scales

Dragonscale armor is the obvious choice. Don't marry yourself too much to the set bonus for shining sun. Sure, it's nice, but it's not the end-all-be-all of bonuses.

Other options would be Leaves Of The Forest, and Impulse Shadowmail.


Equipment theorycrafting is something I often have fun with. What I did was I made up a list by slot of the top items for that slot that have bonuses that I like (so, for armor, I have like 7 different armors that all give useful bonuses of various sorts), then I mix and match something from all the slots to come up with the best combination of bonuses, which I check off of this list of desirable things to have. Numbers listed are minimum acceptable. The Wis+7 box is easily checked by a Wis +8 item, for example.

==============================
Attributes:
[]Str +7
[] Exceptional Str +1
[] Insightful Str +2
[] Insightful Str +3
[]Dex +7
[] Exceptional Dex +1
[] Insightful Dex +2
[] Insightful Dex +3
[]Cha +7
[] Exceptional Cha +1
[] Insightful Cha +2
[] Insightful Cha +3
[]Con +7
[] Exceptional Con +1
[] Insightful Con +2
[] Insightful Con +3
[]Wis +7
[] Exceptional Wis +1
[] Insightful Wis +2
[] Alchemical Wis +2
[] Insightful Wis +3
[]Int +7
[] Exceptional Int +1
[] Insightful Int +2
[] Insightful Int +3
==============================
Spellcasting:
[]Power Store
[]Archmagi
[]Elemental SP +50
[]Elemental SP +100
[]Greater Arcane Lore
[]Evocation Focus
[]Necromancy Focus
[]Greater Spell Pen VII
[]Spell Pen IX
[]Concentration +15
[]Spellpower - Devotion 108
[]Spellpower - Radiance 108
[]Spellpower - Impulse 108
[]Spellpower - Implement 15
[]Spellpower - Artifact 15
[]Spellpower - Psionic 15
==============================
Hitpoints/Healing:
[]Greater False Life
[]Toughness
[]Elemental HP +10
[]Elemental HP +15
[]Elemental HP +20
[]Healing Amp 10%
[]Healing Amp 20%
[]Healing Amp 30%
==============================
Defenses:
[]Natural Armor +5
[]Protection +5
[]Resistance +5
[]Good Luck +2
[]Disease Resist +6
[]Poison Resist +6
[]Dodge +x%
[]+PRR
[]Blurry
[]Ghostly
[]Parrying
[]Acid Resist
[]Cold Resist
[]Fire Resist
[]Lightning Resist
[]Light Resist
[]Sonic Resist
[]Immunity Blindness
[]Immunity Fear
[]Heavy Fortification
[]Exceptional Fortification
[]Deathblock
==============================
Guards&Utility:
[]Concordant Opposition
[]Transform Kinetic Energy
[x]30% Striding
[]Freedom of Movement/Slippery Surface Immunity
[]Feather Falling
[]Underwater Action
==============================
Augment Slots:
[]Colorless
[]Red
[]Yellow
[]Blue
[]Green
[]Orange
[]Purple
==============================

[EllisDee37]

I'm a big fan of placeholdering the tablecloth with an adamantine dragon cloak.

I lurve the idea of forgotten light, at least on a dc cleric. Wisdom for attack and damage just feels so right on a max wisdom build. I want to pair one with bulwark of storm's fist, which in turn placeholders an alchemical wisdom +2 shield with a red augment. Both shields slot impulse up to +114.

Not in love with the ghost-waking cloak. There's an awful lot of evil outsiders, though not much in the two endgame packs I suppose. (Gianthold and High Road.) I'd much rather get my dr from the Ring of the Djinn. Only devils bypass, as opposed to devils and demons bypassing the cloak.

Love rocket boots on a cleric. I hate not being able to jump, and the abundant step clickie is always nice to have even if the cooldown is 10 minutes.

I put my cleric's two greensteel items on bracers and belt. Those slots seemed to have the least-coveted gear.

PDK gloves is a no-brainer.

[Matuse]

Not in love with the ghost-waking cloak. There's an awful lot of evil outsiders, though not much in the two endgame packs I suppose. (Gianthold and High Road.) I'd much rather get my dr from the Ring of the Djinn. Only devils bypass, as opposed to devils and demons bypassing the cloak.

8 Cha
Ghostly
+7 Resistance

Pretend the DR doesn't exist, and that's STILL a best in slot item.

[PNellesen]

I personally like the Cavalry Plate from Crystal Cove for my armor - even at level 25, my pure cleric still wears it. He's been sorely tempted by some of the new stuff that's come out recently, but still haven't found anything (as easy to get) that covers everything the Cav Plate does, at least on armor. That Ghost Waking Cloak definitely looks interesting though...

[EllisDee37]

8 Cha
Ghostly
+7 Resistance

Pretend the DR doesn't exist, and that's STILL a best in slot item.

Not really, no it isn't.

+8 cha is easy to get if it's even needed. Who needs it? Sorcerors? Everyone else would do just fine slotting +7 cha in a colorless.

+7 resistance can be slotted in any green.

Ghostly is available on:
- another cloak (with DR 10/Good)
- a ring that comes with a yellow and colorless augment
- boots that have +11 dex (+8 and +3) and striding 30%

So it's not like it's super hard to slot in ghostly. Ghost-Waking is very good, but it's not clear best in slot for all builds. Casters who use more than two schools would be better off with a tablecloth.