Is there any purpose to Gear mods in my situation?

p4nj4kr3jn

I am not seeing the point of Gear mods in y current situation - am I correct, or missing something?

I am pre-40. When I hit 40 I shelve the character and start a new one - I'm all about the levelling journey, NOT the end game or PvP.

I pretty much solo, not team. I also don't mind at all spending real world money/Zen to buy stuff on the store that makes the journey easier or more fun. (Although I don't usually go for XP boosts, I'm looking to enjoy my time leveling, not necessarily speed through it.) So I have plenty of Questionite, en, and Global/Gold. (And of course, I have a paying monthly subscription.)

Right now I have a level 32 freeform fire character. My primary is Ego, Secondaries are Dex and Rec. I am trying to bump up my crit chance as much as I can. (Crit chance is currently up to about 30%, severity at about 100%.) That why I took Vindicator and Avenger. I'm looking for any ways I can to significantly bump up my Crit chance.

Right from the start I bought a full set of six piece of Armadillo armor. 50% Damage Resistance is like doubling your health point, and it's come in handy. Plus it levels with you, which is nice. (On top of that I have two other things helping my survivability, Personal Force Field which is like haivng a whole OTHER health pool, and Rush of Battle, which refills health as fast as my AoEs take baddies down - I seem to be very robust.)

So here is my question: Given what I have and what I am seeking - and that I won't be playing this character once I hit 40 - I can't find any point to non-armadillo gear or mods. I have been dilgently collecting gear as I go through the game, and from the look of it, the gear is nice, but when I swap out the Armadillo and swap in the gear, at best my stats sink by at least a little, and on top of that I lose my 50% damage resist. For what?

I have found that the really good mods - the Armoring and Enhancement mods - won't even go in the pieces I have that only have one mod slot. No, the only that goes in there are Core mods. So I can add some crit chance to my offense primary gear (Gambler 7) and *still* be not much more than I was in Armadillo. All I can add mod wise to my Defense and Utility Core slots are stuff I don't need - health and a tiny bit of energy mostly. My cooldowns are fine, my energy use is fine, all I need is MOAR DAMAGE. But the only thing that will give that to me is the core mode on my offense primary, and even that doesn't stack up to the Armadillo.

So I ask, what's the point of non-Armadillo gear and mods for my situation? I can't see any. Seems like I slap on my Armadillo's at level 1 and forget about gear for the remainder of the game?

Thanks.

markhawkman

Uh, you're comparing sets that are meant to be among the best in the game with what is essentially "random junk". There are a variety of stats you can get on other gear that the Armadillo set can't give you. Such as Perception and minimap radius bonuses. But those aren't on random "junk" items either. Also Armadillo only boosts your superstats, offense and defense.

The really interesting Core mods are special drops that are difficult to come by. They usually come slotted in quest reward gear from what I've seen, and thus are one-off drops. Regular Off/def/Uti mods are often either situational or weak. As you've probably noticed, the regular ones don't boost crit chance or severity, well aside from the Critical Strike on the Gambler's gem.

Since you're looking for more damage..... nothing in the Defense or utility slots will help you. At all, Ever. Because Defense stats are for staying alive longer, and utility is for assorted things that aren't defense or offense. For Offense your options are +healing(brooch), Crit Strike(Gamblers), Offense(Prism), and +Primary SS(Growth amulet). but... AFAIK, only primary gear has mod slots, so you're not likely to use more than one offense mod.

Items with slots can have up to 4, and those have armoring and enhancement slots, not just Core. see: http://www.championswiki.com/index.php?title=Item_Modification

honestly I don't see the point behind the separation of armoring and enhancement.... it seems to have no practical purpose at all... they're not even different mods....

for more data... Click me

p4nj4kr3jn

Sounds like you're mostly saying that I understand things correctly and I should stick with Armadillo with all of my characters. (Assuming the same scenarios of solo, non PvP, no play past 40, etc.)

markhawkman wrote: »

Items with slots can have up to 4, and those have armoring and enhancement slots, not just Core. see: http://www.championswiki.com/index.php?title=Item_Modification

So far almost every single drop have gotten has had only a single slot. Unless there's a place to simply buy 2+ slot gear, my guess has been (and continues to be) that multislot gear does drop much until much higher level, perhaps 40 - in which case, it's a moot point as I retire any character as soon as it hits max level.

So again, I guess it still remains Armadillo.

crypticbuxom

I don't feel that any build is truly fun until you hit max level and give yourself at least a full set of blue gear with R5 mods that benefit the class and spec trees the most. Leveling isn't nearly as fun as experiencing what your character has become.

p4nj4kr3jn

crypticbuxom wrote: »

I don't feel that any build is truly fun until you hit max level and give yourself at least a full set of blue gear with R5 mods that benefit the class and spec trees the most. Leveling isn't nearly as fun as experiencing what your character has become.

Hmmm... not sure how to respond? I kinda feel like I said "I like vanilla" and you replied, "Yeah, but I like chocolate better." lol

I guess to stay on point, it would seem that for someone who likes what *I* like, using Armadillo armor and ignoring gear makes the most sense? At least, that's what I am trying to ask. Are there better gear choices (more damage) for someone who solo's, doesn't PvP, and only play the character *until* 40?

Seems like no.

markhawkman

well your playstyle seems to be tailored around a specific set of gear, there's not really much that we can say that would help....


Also.... the number of mod slots a piece of gear has seems more tied to rarity than level. green 1, blue 2, purple 3, etc....

p4nj4kr3jn

If I understand what you just said correctly, it's that given my playstyle, I am correct in thinking the Armadillo's are the best gear for my characters, start to finish.

Thank you for confirming that, that's what I thought, but I thought I should check to make sure that I was not leaving anything out.

sterga

Leveling gear is the easiest for leveling, not necessarily the best. Can't say if gear customizing will be worth the effort. Only you can answer that.

If you want to be able to customize your character at all, you'll want gear with mods in it. Armadillo secondaries plus normal gear primaries. You can put any rank of mod into your gear that you want, but it won't always gain the full mod amount.

For ego primary and wanting more crit, Armadillo won't help you. None of the leveling gear will because it gives you more of your primary stats than secondary ones. If you want more crit, find a normal primary gear with at least a gamblers slot and heavy on your secondary stats.

You'll never achieve what you can at 40 with a leveling character. The power gap between 39 and 40 is massive not to mention the ability to tailor your character's gear is higher at cap. Something to keep in mind with your play style.

roughbearmattach

Sounds like this player immediately stops at level 40, so the gap between 40 and 39 doesn't matter.

By the way, NemCon can only be played at level 40. It is a good, fun mission (requiring a team of 5). You should give it a whirl.

jaazaniah1

Have you looked at Nemesis gear at all? Not so helpful for defense, but good Stat boosts. The nice thing is that they are bound to account, not character. Once you are done using them on one character you can swap them to a new one.

sterga

roughbearmattach wrote: »

Sounds like this player immediately stops at level 40, so the gap between 40 and 39 doesn't matter.

It does matter because he's limiting himself. The point wasn't to talk about how much more powerful the characters become, the point was to show that it's a huge limit that impacts his ability to customize his toons. He's asking about customizing his toon stats while leveling. What he can't do is as important as what he can.

wingedkagouti

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

Have you looked at Nemesis gear at all? Not so helpful for defense, but good Stat boosts. The nice thing is that they are bound to account, not character. Once you are done using them on one character you can swap them to a new one.

The main issue with Nemesis gear and his playstyle is that he will be very unlikely to ever get enough to purchase more than a secondary before he is level 40. And that's is if he's doing a lot of Nemesis missions since the rewards for those are pitiful until you're past the setup missions (ie. the prison break).

jaazaniah1

It's been awhile since I tried this, but iirc, from creating a nemesis to doing the final mission takes less than 2 weeks if you do a mission a day. Not sure how fast he levels characters, but it seems within the realm of possibility that over the course of 3 characters he'd have enough for 3 primaries that he can then use on any subsequent heroes.

wingedkagouti wrote: »

The main issue with Nemesis gear and his playstyle is that he will be very unlikely to ever get enough to purchase more than a secondary before he is level 40. And that's is if he's doing a lot of Nemesis missions since the rewards for those are pitiful until you're past the setup missions (ie. the prison break).

jennymachx

Short answer: No.

It's not worth it if you're entirely stopping any gameplay with the character upon hitting level 40. All manner of stat and power progression stops at 40 and the only other way to continue tweaking and improving things further with the build is in the form of gear and mods.

If you don't plan to bring your level 40 to Rampage alerts like Gravitar and Fire & Ice and gear up to your absolute best to achieve the best chances of success, then you're okay with sticking to Armadillo gear for everything else game-wise.

spinnytop

Well I mean if I bought a set of gear for a buttload of questionite, I'd be miffed if I could then replace it with the junk that drops from npcs while leveling and have it be immediately replaced. Makes good sense that those sets are as buff as they are.


Plus the convenience of not having to tinker with your gear every few levels.

spinnytop

sterga wrote: »

For ego primary and wanting more crit, Armadillo won't help you. None of the leveling gear will because it gives you more of your primary stats than secondary ones.

Isn't one of the shiniest specs in Ego the one that gives you a big fat buff to your CritSev based on Ego? o3o

I mean, the one that gives you some crit chance is neat, but once you've got 3 points in the Sev one you can only put 2 in the crit one... and even there while wearing nemesis gear I remember 2 points in the crit one giving lik3 5-6% more crit, which is fine enough.

The one that gives you defense based on secondaries is neat as well... but he's wearing armadillo so that's sort of a non-issue >.>

sterga

p4nj4kr3jn wrote: »

I am trying to bump up my crit chance as much as I can.

spinnytop wrote: »

Isn't one of the shiniest specs in Ego the one that gives you a big fat buff to your CritSev based on Ego? o3o

Emphasis mine. What I said was relevant to what OP was asking about. Which was about how to raise chance not severity. That means secondary stats. Not ego. Q gear is heavy in primary stats. Which would be ego in this case. So, if he wanted to, OP could pick up gear with mod slots so that he can control his stats.

p4nj4kr3jn

Just an update, still playing my character up to 40 then dropping them like a hot potato, but now I am running with a full set of Aurum Heirloom gear for levelling. Turns out that with Hybrid Regen I don't need the protection from Armadillo, I still have uber high stats, I still don't have to think about gear, and on top of all that I get 9% XP bonus, which helps on those final SLOW levels.