At level 16, a quest gives you a free companion. The Apprentice Healer is the only free healer you can get. Even if you only use him between battles, the savings in healing potions is excellent. PS. He is saying, "I have one word for you... *Leeches*."
You cannot have more than one of a particular type of Companion active. To clarify, two Strikers (style of companion that does damage) are OK... Two Sellswords (one type of the Striker genre) are not allowed to be active.
Augment Companions are not valuable. Do not buy or upgrade them without good reason. A combat companion using 3 normal bonding runestones will provide your character with more stats.
It has been noticed that the stats for "3 stat enchants" (Black Ice and Draconic, for example) do not show in your companion's stat sheet. When using a bonding or eldritch runestone, or an augment , they do show up in your character's stat sheet, though it may be necessary to dismiss and re-summon to see it.
Only a summoned augment companion will give you its full stats. If you have more augments in your stable, you will only get their active bonus.
If you have a Jewel (from Jewelcrafting) that increases the Regen/AP/Stamina stats for the equipment you have on an augment companion, the Regen Jewel does get reflected in your character stats but the AP or Stamina increases do not.
It is usually cheaper to buy Purple companions outright than to upgrade a lesser to purple.
Once you decide to upgrade a companion to Legendary, if it is active, any summoned companion will grant you 15% of its stats.
At low levels, the companions with straight stat bonuses (such as "Armored Orc Wolf, +100/190/300 Critical Strike") may have appeal, but as your performance increases, you will get greater benefit from those with percentage adjustments (such as "Blink Dog, +2/3/5% Combat Advantage Damage").
Your companion gear slots are not level restricted! Put max level gear on them for best results. How about some of these?
Do not put level scaling gear, such as Ensorcelled equipment, on a companion. Why? Companions max out at level 40, so you will not be getting the full benefits from the gear. When you inspect the gear, it will show the stats for YOUR level, but your companion won't get those stats.
Hi there! It could be good to include something about whether or not Makos' Signet (and any other future?) rings apply their Utility Enchantment slot when used in a ring slot on the companion.
Great guide - I've been 70 for a while and it's still a great read for me.
Do the Vault of the Nine quest. The artifact that you win can be used by all of your characters at the same time (for your other characters, pick them up from the Reward Claims agent). These artifacts cannot be used to refine other arties, their only downside. It had been the case that you needed 2 characters which had reached level 70, but it has been confirmed that you can do the quest as soon as you reach level 60 with 1 character (you may need a group if you are playing on an undergeared or squishy character).
If you have been levelling a few classes and can get more than 1 sigil from the claims agent be wary of having too many sigils slotted because you will get nothing in rp back for the ones you upgrade to mythic or legendary if you find a better artifact to replace them with down the track.. classes that use AP a lot the DC sigil is handy to have but having that and maybe your class sigil is plenty.. other artifacts to avoid upgrading would be the event artifacts that also can't be refined like beacon of simril or illusionists mask..
Well.. anyway, that was something I did across 8 classes early on I wish I had of known about ..
I only skimmed it, but I feel secure in saying that gold has taken on much more importance than this guide gives it.
It is vital to crafters, and even non-crafters can buy bars of gold from vendors and sell them in the AH for some AD, because crafters will come along and buy them to sell back to the vendors (they sell for what they cost).
Here's my advice: (assuming you've settled into the game to stay, and joined a helpful guild)
Step 1 of each day should be: run random Q for AD (hit K and choose "random". This starts at lvl5 (I think).
Step 2 use the AD to buy rank 9 or 10 (depending on which one is a better deal at the time (if rank 10 is within 40k of 9'...buy the 10); both drop from lockboxes so are sold at a deal.
Step 3 but an epic augment pet; currently Cat is the cheapest epic in AH. augment pets don't attack, but boost your stats a lot more. Don't spend any AD on anything else until you get one. Also don't worry about the cost. It'll be much easier to gain AD at lvl80.
DO NOT DO THIS quest until you've done the first part of the runic quest chain (forgot the name of the first quest, but starts from the NPC Runemaster Sinyé). Once you get to the part where you need to obtain the etching, you're good to start it. That will be your first ME (Master Expedition). Your first run is best done with your guild/alliance to show you the ropes. After that's complete, you're done with UM campaign. Now can do those ME runs 3x per day (including when you just completed the first one. Before venturing off to those 3x ME runs, complete then next parts of the runic quest line until you get the quest "Rune Etched Armor", and hold onto it. That will allow you to gain etchings from the box at the end of each ME (at least 1 rune must be used). I'll leave it to your guild to explain anything else of this.
ME runs will be a great source of gear for your character to build from, let alone more AD. So I advise making these runs your primary goal for each day for a while. Why not randoms first? You may gain better gear from the ME runs which will help you in the randoms. So ME->randoms->whatever else you wish to do for the day.
Zen:
don't spend Zen on anything that isn't on sale, unless you can use a coupon to reduce it's price
do not buy keys for lockboxes unless you're rich. Instead buy VIP (I suggest at least , save the 1 free key per day, and open the lockbox of choice during a 2x RP event until you run out of keys.
preservation wards are always in high demand for oneself and others.
coal wards can be helpful too, but only needed on 1% chance upgrades.
the Dragonborn pack is extremely useful if you plan on having multiple alts (1 augment, epic mount, and a good size bag for each character; 1 character slot added, 1 free race reroll).
Comments
Great guide - I've been 70 for a while and it's still a great read for me.
be wary of having too many sigils slotted because you will get nothing in rp back for the ones you upgrade to mythic or legendary if you find a better artifact to replace them with down the track.. classes that use AP a lot the DC sigil is handy to have but having that and maybe your class sigil is plenty.. other artifacts to avoid upgrading would be the event artifacts that also can't be refined like beacon of simril or illusionists mask..
Well.. anyway, that was something I did across 8 classes early on I wish I had of known about ..
great thread !
It is vital to crafters, and even non-crafters can buy bars of gold from vendors and sell them in the AH for some AD, because crafters will come along and buy them to sell back to the vendors (they sell for what they cost).
Step 1 of each day should be: run random Q for AD (hit K and choose "random". This starts at lvl5 (I think).
Step 2 use the AD to buy rank 9 or 10 (depending on which one is a better deal at the time (if rank 10 is within 40k of 9'...buy the 10); both drop from lockboxes so are sold at a deal.
Step 3 but an epic augment pet; currently Cat is the cheapest epic in AH. augment pets don't attack, but boost your stats a lot more. Don't spend any AD on anything else until you get one. Also don't worry about the cost. It'll be much easier to gain AD at lvl80.
DO NOT DO THIS quest until you've done the first part of the runic quest chain (forgot the name of the first quest, but starts from the NPC Runemaster Sinyé). Once you get to the part where you need to obtain the etching, you're good to start it. That will be your first ME (Master Expedition). Your first run is best done with your guild/alliance to show you the ropes. After that's complete, you're done with UM campaign. Now can do those ME runs 3x per day (including when you just completed the first one. Before venturing off to those 3x ME runs, complete then next parts of the runic quest line until you get the quest "Rune Etched Armor", and hold onto it. That will allow you to gain etchings from the box at the end of each ME (at least 1 rune must be used). I'll leave it to your guild to explain anything else of this.
ME runs will be a great source of gear for your character to build from, let alone more AD. So I advise making these runs your primary goal for each day for a while. Why not randoms first? You may gain better gear from the ME runs which will help you in the randoms. So ME->randoms->whatever else you wish to do for the day.
Zen:
don't spend Zen on anything that isn't on sale, unless you can use a coupon to reduce it's price
do not buy keys for lockboxes unless you're rich. Instead buy VIP (I suggest at least , save the 1 free key per day, and open the lockbox of choice during a 2x RP event until you run out of keys.
preservation wards are always in high demand for oneself and others.
coal wards can be helpful too, but only needed on 1% chance upgrades.
the Dragonborn pack is extremely useful if you plan on having multiple alts (1 augment, epic mount, and a good size bag for each character; 1 character slot added, 1 free race reroll).
An awesome source for useful info (especially for companions): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fP_cUugHdsObvQDzLFijGA-mVm_qLmSy0MI62aTLkDM/htmlview#