Level 52 warrior - gearing advice going forward?

[Soothsayer]

I hit level 52 the other day (which was one of my more significant goals, since evasive discipline is absurdly good), so now I'm wondering what sort of equipment upgrades I should be on the lookout for heading into Karnor / raids / etc. Ideally, I'm looking for upgrades that don't cost a fortune. As much as I'd love to have a runebranded girdle... :rolleyes: well, let's just say earning money as a warrior is relatively difficult.

Here's my current setup. I'm at 980 displayed AC unbuffed with 2520 HP.

Head: Custom Champion's Helm
Face: Grotesque Alloy Mask
Ears: Cougar Claw Earrings
Vambraces: Champion's Vambraces
Chest: Champion's Breastplate
Legs: Champion's Greaves
Boots: Crystal Chitin Boots
Wrists: Ice Forged Shackles, Bracer of Scavenging
Belt: Mithril Plated Girth
Hands: SCHW
Neck: Spider Fur Collar
Shoulders: Barbed Dragonscale Pauldrons
Back: Cloak of the Maelstrom

My neck and bracer items are fairly cheap, but I'm struggling to find replacements. The collar has a fantastic 10 AC, and the belt adds a nice chunk of stats and decent AC.

Edit: Weapons are Frostbringer MH and Sarnak Warhammer OH.

[Sonderbeast]

What race?

[Soothsayer]

What race?

Human. ^^

[Soothsayer]

Spider Fur Belt
Earring of Essence
Silvery Mask
Barbed Dragonscale Boots

Also, use evasive every time it is up and you are tanking - don't save it.

That belt seems like a sidegrade. Virtually identical AC, less HP, and trades strength for dex? Meh.

Earrings are nice, but they seem quite situational in terms of MR. Not sure how keen I am on sacrificing 8 AC and a chunk of my dex / strength for a bit more HP.

That mask is just meh. Mine has +5 MR on top of a bit more AC and a nice chunk of dex. Is 25 HP really worth throwing that away?

Those boots seem quite good, however...

[Robbintha Hood]

I'd dump the Bracer of Scavenging for Silver Chitin Wristband (http://wiki.project1999.com/Silver_Chitin_Wristband). I'd also look to get a +6 neck from Western Wastes.

If it's within your budget, I'd also upgrade haste item to either waist or back item.

[Soothsayer]

I'd dump the Bracer of Scavenging for Silver Chitin Wristband (http://wiki.project1999.com/Silver_Chitin_Wristband). I'd also look to get a +6 neck from Western Wastes.

If it's within your budget, I'd also upgrade haste item to either waist or back item.
The only belt I know of aside from the skyplane haste belt is runebranded girdle, and even that is painfully expensive. FBSS and dragonborn sash offer next to no stats or AC, so replacing SCHW with those feels more like a downgrade.

[Jmcwrestling]

If you replace your hand haste item you can get Silver Steel Gauntlets for free with a couple friends. 80hp gloves for free , warrior only so people can't steal them from you.

[Jimjam]

I think you are in a very good way for your level!

Make friends in Western Wastes, kill +6 dragons for a necklace and to farm heads. Join the Scout party that happens every 10 hours for your bracers of battle.

Get your giant factioned friend who collected the dragon heads to turn in for barbed dragonscale boots for you.

Also watch out for people going into Dragon Necropolis; you could offer to help in exchange for a rotting infestation.

WW has hot and cold times, you can't spend all the time there. You could do ABC in Seb at your level for a chance at haste belt and truncheon of doom. You'll find groups more reliably in KC though. Reasonable money to be made at hands if you want to purchase upgrades.

[Sonderbeast]

Next step upgrades at this point are mostly free, which can open up some plat for better items elsewhere. You will need a good group or raid to get them though.

Crap sky rot belt and silver steel gaunts is better than schw and mith girdle/spider belt imo (also free)

Barbed dragonscale boots net you like 120hp, get em.

SCWB ×2 are solid items to work towards. Great AC and HP for wrists, Champ wrists are almost as good, but will cost you like 1800 in gems that you will never get back. SCWB are an easy resell.

There arent many good options for masks, crystal spider eyes are 8 ac and 35 hp, but enshrouded veil has that +10 FR.

Go get a +5 or +6 dragon neck as soon as you can... and don't pay for it... those dragons are always up.

[Soothsayer]

I think you are in a very good way for your level!

Make friends in Western Wastes, kill +6 dragons for a necklace and to farm heads. Join the Scout party that happens every 10 hours for your bracers of battle.

Get your giant factioned friend who collected the dragon heads to turn in for barbed dragonscale boots for you.

Also watch out for people going into Dragon Necropolis; you could offer to help in exchange for a rotting infestation.

WW has hot and cold times, you can't spend all the time there. You could do ABC in Seb at your level for a chance at haste belt and truncheon of doom. You'll find groups more reliably in KC though. Reasonable money to be made at hands if you want to purchase upgrades.

Thanks for the advice. Out of curiosity, what are bracers of battle? The only bracers of battle I've heard of drop in Crushbone, and those are... :p

Also, the dragon necklaces mentioned give less AC than my current neck. How do I know when to sacrifice AC for HP and vice versa? If 4 AC makes an enemy hit for 15 damage instead of 150 slightly more often, is AC not the clear winner in most cases?

[Soothsayer]

AC gets worse the higher level you are. From 1-30 you can go all AC and do very well. 50+ it is all about HP. It can even increase your dps by allowing you to stay Berserk longer.

Capping Stamina and getting the best Haste possible are the first things to worry about. After that HP is king.
I don't know. From what I understand, AC is always beneficial, especially without cleric heals. Do you have any material to support the assertion that AC becomes relatively unimportant at higher levels compared to health?

[Troxx]

Double post sorry

[Troxx]

AC is important. Thankfully in this era, making the smart gear choice is rarely difficult. Good gear generally has both solid AC and meaningful stats/hp.

For the OP: You have nothing to worry about. You’re actually over geared for the content you’ll be facing for the foreseeable future and at level 56-60 could slide right into any high end group or medium tier raid without problems. Several of the pieces you have (thurgadin hat/arms/legs) are items on my next to do list.

Questions:
-do you have a magelo? If not I’d make one. The Ac calculation is buggy and doesn’t reflect Ac shown in game but the rest is pretty accurate.
-what is your unbuffed dex?

Recommendations you can realistically buy without breaking the bank:

-2x silver Chitin wristbands. Decent Ac, good dex, good hp. Can sell later when you upgrade.
-get a wrapped entropy serpent spine until infestation. Lose sarnak hammer.
-get haste off your hands and get real gloves. Eventually you will want 34-41% haste. That’s expensive and will come with time, but even in the short term a sidestep to dragonborn sash is worth it.

NoDrop stuff to consider next:

-infestation
-Kael arena gloves (nodrop war only)
-WW dragon +6 neck

[Jimjam]

Thanks for the advice. Out of curiosity, what are bracers of battle? The only bracers of battle I've heard of drop in Crushbone, and those are... :p

Also, the dragon necklaces mentioned give less AC than my current neck. How do I know when to sacrifice AC for HP and vice versa? If 4 AC makes an enemy hit for 15 damage instead of 150 slightly more often, is AC not the clear winner in most cases?

I'm going to play the dyslexic card on this one, where in truth my WPM exceeds my thoughts per minute ;).

I meant BoB = Bracers of Benevolence. Basically every 10 hours an adhoc raid forms up, everyone /random 1000 and the winner gets to hand in their scout tools in WW and then all the attendees team up to kill the spawned mob (the winner of the /ran 1000 also gets to loot the prize).

It's hard to balance the relative worth of AC and HP. In the case of the dragon necks they add a tonne of other stats too. As a tank in the 50s it is nice to have a decent reserve of HP to shrug off ice comets and such (see resists too!).


Also consider, in the 50s the stuff you are fighting for XP might be quite a few levels lower than you. As such you mitigate them decently even with mediocre AC, but they have pretty substantial minimum hits, so medium AC, high HP means you can absorb more minimum hits before requiring your next cheal.

From my own findings, pretty much any 51+ melee with half decent AC (even rangers) will take an average hit of 70 against level 50ish mobs in KC. Adding more AC doesn't really make a significant difference, whereas the hp and/or resists let you deal with bad rounds or avoid slow (ganking your dps/aggro).

[Soothsayer]

AC is important. Thankfully in this era, making the smart gear choice is rarely difficult. Good gear generally has both solid AC and meaningful stats/hp.

For the OP: You have nothing to worry about. You’re actually over geared for the content you’ll be facing for the foreseeable future and at level 56-60 could slide right into any high end group or medium tier raid without problems. Several of the pieces you have (thurgadin hat/arms/legs) are items on my next to do list.

Questions:
-do you have a magelo? If not I’d make one. The Ac calculation is buggy and doesn’t reflect Ac shown in game but the rest is pretty accurate.
-what is your unbuffed dex?

Recommendations you can realistically buy without breaking the bank:

-2x silver Chitin wristbands. Decent Ac, good dex, good hp. Can sell later when you upgrade.
-get a wrapped entropy serpent spine until infestation. Lose sarnak hammer.
-get haste off your hands and get real gloves. Eventually you will want 34-41% haste. That’s expensive and will come with time, but even in the short term a sidestep to dragonborn sash is worth it.

NoDrop stuff to consider next:

-infestation
-Kael arena gloves (nodrop war only)
-WW dragon +6 neck

I don't have a magelo (Edit: I just made one (https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Drakefell)), and I have 123 dex unbuffed. As for SCWB, I'll definitely look into getting at least one, although an additional 6k for two is a bit pricey for a negligible upgrade from Ice Forged Shackles. :) Infestation does seem nice, and so do those gloves and necklace.

WESS is something I've been on the fence about, however. I'll often be the puller in my groups, and I sometimes like to hit targets for a few seconds to build up preliminary aggro before going back to my group -- and this often results in a weapon proc. With WESS, I wouldn't be able to do that. The aggro its proc produces almost feels like overkill, too -- after all, I've had virtually no issues holding aggro throughout a fight with just one proc from either my warhammer or my axe.

Not to mention not being able to move once I do get a proc without risking a fleeing mob... I'll often move to intercept and taunt a mob that suddenly decides to run for the back line in my parties (for instance, if a mob prematurely breaks mez), and doing that with WESS seems exceptionally risky.

[Soothsayer]

I'm curious... there appears to be a great many dragons that drop an identical necklace (Entariz' talisman, Derasinel's talisman, etc). Do people just run around in WW in groups and farm the heck out of all those dragons? How easy would it be to drop into one of those groups and attain a necklace?

[Jimjam]

Sometimes people will kill them before/after the scout charisa pop.

They are easy to do if you are buddybuddy with ToV. Pull from the pillars to the valley wall opposite ToV. Save the chealers and gaters till last. Probably don't bother with the Silence ones. Watch out for pathers, especially if you aren't pals with Ring of Scale.

Alternative fight location is at the portal to DN. Not so good if Klandlicar is up.

A single group is more than enough, it's good to have slow and stack heals and resists. These dragons don't fear, but again have precaution for gates, cheals and worst of all silence.

[Legidias]

Bribe an end game shammy to solo / duo one and reap rewards