Fashion, Baby - What To Wear

So, there's a lot of armor out there, and it can be tough to decide what to wear.  Our first order of business is breaking down the tiers of items. 

• Common: This is basically vendor trash.

• Handcrafted: Player-made items that are made with normal harvestables - similar stats to Treasured items.

• Treasured: Very common drops that come with average stats. 

• Mastercrafted: Player-made items that are made with the rare harvestables.

• Legendary:  These items are fairly rare and come with better stats than Treasured items.

• Fabled: These items are very rare and come with much better stats than Legendary items.

• Mythical:  Super ultra mega rare quested raid type items.

So, Treasured items are your baseline.  You can get by wearing an entire kit of level-appropriate Treasured items, if you want to.  I've gone this route before and it's okay.  I mean, you won't be Superman but you won't be Clark Kent either.  The main bonus of this route is that it's cheap. 

Mastercrafted items are what all the cool kids wear.  And by cool kids I mean people with a metric ton of platinum to throw at their gear every 10 levels.  It's not so bad at 12 and 22, because there's a lot of rares in abundance out there and lots of folks competing for sales.  I got a rude awakening at 42 when each piece of gear was 8p a pop.  8p times 7 gear slots = oh hell no.

Legendary stuff is nice but not so easy to get.  Mostly you see it dropping in dungeons.  So, cowboy up and find some friends to do the dungeons, and hope the good stuff drops.  (We'll talk about where to 'shop' dungeon-wise in the next post, because they certainly aren't all created equal.)

Fabled.  Ahh, juicy.  This stuff is super expensive on the broker and even rarer than the Legendary items, but the stats are so juicy.  It drops in dungeons, too, but much less commonly.  If you can get your mitts on this stuff, do so.  It's a hell of a nice boost.  Especially a Fabled weapon.  Don't bankrupt yourself buying this stuff off the broker, though.  Consider it manna from heaven when it falls into your lap, but otherwise, let it go.  Because when you level, man, it'll be gone.

Mythical stuff?  Yeah, it's not for us, my friends.  We can dream.

So, that's what you can wear.  But what should you wear?

For increasing survival, maximizing your damage, and yet still remaining cost-effective, the way to go is to purchase Mastercrafted stuff for the key slots - chest, legs, weapon - and go with Treasured or Handcrafted stuff for the other slots.  That way you get the benefits of the imbued/blessed Mastercrafted items, without the cost of buying the entire set.

I also recommend buying Mastercrafted rings, bracelets and earrings every other tier, if you can afford it.  The stats are superior to anything you'll find at lower levels, and while it is pretty pricey, you can get 20 levels out of it.

While you're shopping the broker for Mastercrafted stuff, do a quick survey to see what Fabled or Legendary items might be for sale in the same slot for an equivalent price.  Sometimes, people farm the heck out of a place and the market gets flooded with certain Legendary or Fabled items so you can get them for similar or less than the Mastercrafted gear.  It's not often that this happens, but when it does, it's damn nice.  Just keep your peepers open for such deals.

As with all posts about gear, your mileage may vary.  You should always know your class's primary stats and gear accordingly.  Tinker with your gear a bit and see what works best for you.  Just make sure you aren't bankrupting yourself on gear as you level up - it becomes obsolete pretty quickly.

Next time, dungeon breakdown!  Wherein not all Fabled items are created equal.