Crushbone Belts - Sell or Turn In

[Marrz]

Hi, I'm a returning player on GREEN.

I currently have a level 9 Pally with a bank full of CB belts, plus a few. I'm curious to hear opinions on whether I'd be better served to sell them, save, and buy some gear, or to turn them in for experience. My thought is sell them to buy some gear. I think the gear would help me progress faster.

I'm currently wearing leather I was able to buy with a few plat from helping Necro's sell weapons in Felwithe if that matters. Side question, what's this service normally worth? I've been returning 20plat to the Necro for the 21plat two hand sword sale.

Thanks,

[WarpathEQ]

100% agree if this is your first toon on Green sell the belts (and shoulderpads once you start getting them), it won't make a big difference in how quickly you level but can make a huge difference in getting you some good starter gear. I left CB at lvl 20 with 700pp on my first toon and that was able to get me a ton of great stuff in the EC Tunnel (I saw someone selling a crystalline short sword for 100pp the other day, wild).

IIRC belts don't really do much starting around lvl 11 for exp and I think the pads really die off around 13/14.

Mostly people will just give you stuff that drops off mobs around there for free (and even nicer stuff for free in the tunnel), same thing with the 2 handed swords they will prolly just let you have them but I would give up prolly 10-15pp at the most if you're assisting them with selling.

[bcbrown]

Turn in enough belts to replace any cloth armor with whatever the quest rewards are, tattered or whatever. Sell the rest and buy the best weapon you can find.

If you're selling FS for a guard-killer, they'd probably have to let it rot otherwise. I'd try charging 50%.

[loramin]

Gear* is worthless at lower levels!

EDIT: I mean gear you can buy as a starting player; of course a Fungi Tunic or haste cloak or whatever won't be worthless. But when it comes to low-level stat gear ...

Look, I guarantee that even if you spend ten levels in Crushbone, sell every belt you ever loot, and buy a nifty item with 20 more AC (or Stamina, or whatever) ... you will not notice the difference! If I could somehow hide whether that item was equipped or not (with whiteout on your monitor or something), I'd bet you couldn't tell me if it was, because even a 20 AC change won't meaningfully impact a level 5 toon.

But levels ... levels are everything in this game. Use the belts, get levels, and then you'll be able to farm much better gear ... but you really shouldn't, because you should mostly ignore gear, wearing what you find or are given ... and just focus on leveling [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Gear* is worthless at lower levels!

But levels ... levels are everything in this game.

Yes, absolutely. A random piece of armor isn't going to move the needle at all. But there are a couple of things that will make a difference. Getting a pair of Platinum Fire Wedding Rings for 4-500pp gives you 110hp, and that will certainly matter. Getting a Baton of Faith for 100pp is a huge upgrade over rusty or fine steel weapons, especially after the first increase in the damage cap at level 20. Crystal Chitin Gauntlets for 3-400pp won't make a huge difference in fighting, but the extra strength lets you loot more and get even more platinum. A haste item like Swiftclaw Sash or Silver Chitin Hand Wraps for 700-1200pp won't matter in groups but will make soloing a bit easier.

Although the overal improvement in power from getting gear isn't huge, the opportunity cost of selling crushbone belts is pretty low too. You'll be leveling pretty quickly in Crushbone, and if you hand in all the belts you've saved up through level 9 you'll gain what, a level? Maybe one and a half? That's a couple hours of playing. I'd rather have 100-150pp and buy the best weapon available - weapons will absolutely make a difference.

But on Loramin's more general point, I agree. Seek out better gear if it's fun, because playing a game should be fun and it can be a satisfying sense of progress. But continuing to gain levels is what will ultimately be the most impactful. Really either option is fine.

[WarpathEQ]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Gear* is worthless at lower levels!

EDIT: I mean gear you can buy as a starting player; of course a Fungi Tunic or haste cloak or whatever won't be worthless. But when it comes to low-level stat gear ...

Look, I guarantee that even if you spend ten levels in Crushbone, sell every belt you ever loot, and buy a nifty item with 20 more AC (or Stamina, or whatever) ... you will not notice the difference! If I could somehow hide whether that item was equipped or not (with whiteout on your monitor or something), I'd bet you couldn't tell me if it was, because even a 20 AC change won't meaningfully impact a level 5 toon.

But levels ... levels are everything in this game. Use the belts, get levels, and then you'll be able to farm much better gear ... but you really shouldn't, because you should mostly ignore gear, wearing what you find or are given ... and just focus on leveling [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Couldn't disagree more. Even on my very first toon being a bard, one of the least gear dependant classes, that 700p worth of starting gear I picked up from selling belts/pads was an absolute game changer. I think you may be a bit far removed from the reality of what it is like to try leveling with your only gear being leather that dropped for some spots and at best a fine steel weapon on a paladin of all classes.

The low end of gear is so ridiculously undervalued at this point that for a few hundred PP you can get gear in all your slots that is 80% as good as the best buyable gear in the game (not counting the uber twink gear like fungi tunic or the ultra rare 100k+ raid loot that is now sold on P99).

[7thGate]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Gear* is worthless at lower levels!

EDIT: I mean gear you can buy as a starting player; of course a Fungi Tunic or haste cloak or whatever won't be worthless. But when it comes to low-level stat gear ...

Look, I guarantee that even if you spend ten levels in Crushbone, sell every belt you ever loot, and buy a nifty item with 20 more AC (or Stamina, or whatever) ... you will not notice the difference! If I could somehow hide whether that item was equipped or not (with whiteout on your monitor or something), I'd bet you couldn't tell me if it was, because even a 20 AC change won't meaningfully impact a level 5 toon.

But levels ... levels are everything in this game. Use the belts, get levels, and then you'll be able to farm much better gear ... but you really shouldn't, because you should mostly ignore gear, wearing what you find or are given ... and just focus on leveling [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I definitely disagree with this. The difference between wearing cloth and being at the anti-twink AC cap is so enormous its incredibly easy to see in even a short encounter. Keeping 25 + level *6 worn AC is not that hard for the early to mid levels.

I just did a low level twink warrior for some early leveling with Jayya's old cast off gear, blues very routinely are hitting for 1. Its incredibly skewed toward the lower end of the damage distribution in a way that is extremely easy to notice.

Now, +STA or +STR gear or something, much less impactful. But AC is huge.

[loramin]

I feel like the people disagreeing with me are missing this part:

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

wearing what you find or are given

I'm not saying "gear doesn't matter" or "play naked" ... I'm saying that the difference between what you can acquire by looting and doing quests vs. the gear you can buy in the tunnel is not noticeable.

In this exact example, you get a free suit of patchwork/tattered armor just by getting the XP. Let's focus on the boots: 3 AC. Instead of wearing them, you could sell belts for 2-3p each (according to the wiki),

Instead of getting 20 belts of XP, you sell the stack, and let's say you make 50p (someone was generous). Then someone else is generous and sells you Dwarven Work Boots for half price.

Congrats, you lost 20 belts worth of XP, a ton of time running around selling the belts (you could have gotten a yellow bubble or more of XP in that time), a ton more time shopping in the EC Tunnel (again, lost bubbles of XP) ... all so that you can +5 AC,
+3 STR, and +5 DEX ... that you will never notice.

But if you'd just killed orcs and turned their belts in, you'd be at least a level higher, and you would notice that level. So look, I'm not saying "never buy gear as a starting player" ... but in general, that should be the rule, and things like a cheap haste belt or HP/AC rings should be the exception that proves the rule.

[WarpathEQ]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I feel like the people disagreeing with me are missing this part:



I'm not saying "gear doesn't matter" or "play naked" ... I'm saying that the difference between what you can acquire by looting and doing quests vs. the gear you can buy in the tunnel is not noticeable.

In this exact example, you get a free suit of patchwork/tattered armor just by getting the XP. Let's focus on the boots: 3 AC. Instead of wearing them, you could sell belts for 2-3p each (according to the wiki),

Instead of getting 20 belts of XP, you sell the stack, and let's say you make 50p (someone was generous). Then someone else is generous and sells you Dwarven Work Boots for half price.

Congrats, you lost 20 belts worth of XP, a ton of time running around selling the belts (you could have gotten a yellow bubble or more of XP in that time), a ton more time shopping in the EC Tunnel (again, lost bubbles of XP) ... all so that you can +5 AC,
+3 STR, and +5 DEX ... that you will never notice.

But if you'd just killed orcs and turned their belts in, you'd be at least a level higher, and you would notice that level. So look, I'm not saying "never buy gear as a starting player" ... but in general, that should be the rule, and things like a cheap haste belt or HP/AC rings should be the exception that proves the rule.

You might be the first person in EQ history that cant tell the difference between dropped lowbie armor and rusty weapons and what you can easily buy with just a few hundred pp.

Nobody is recommending that boots would be an item of high importance to acquire.

The amount of time that it takes to run, turn in the belts and run back in my experience nets you virtually no exp gain as you could have just stayed in zone and spent that time grinding more exp.

I never even had to leave the zone to sell the belts and pads just put them up in /auction from time to time while you're killing (and when you go to vendor) and people will buy them as fast as you can acquire them.

Its not uncommon to find someone selling a full set of banded armor (+91AC) for less than 100pp in GFay, again not forcing you to go anywhere or spend time on anything other than getting exp.

The only value I found in turning in belts was for twinked alts who have no use for the money, can acquire multiple people's entire inventory in a matter of moments and make 1 turn in run with as close to 16 full backpacks as possible. And even then the window is small to make that run, before you would be able to do it a 2nd time you'll level out of where the exp you get from the turn ins is even relevant.

[bcbrown]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

things like a cheap haste belt or HP/AC rings should be the exception that proves the rule.

Agreed. Sell the belts and buy those, as well as a good weapon.