Some End Game Guidance Please

rsomazzi

As I near 60 (GF), the question of gear and what to do comes up. I am a casual player so the shorter Dungeon runs and ability to log off and on when RL calls is a plus for me. I've been levelling Platesmithing and Leadership, both @ 12 now. I still have a lot to learn from the game, but I like it so I've stuck with it. I love the combat, particularly. Using a shield to block with the GF's offense make for a very fun class in both PvE and PvP.

Here are my questions:

1. With mention of Timeless and Stalwart pieces and looking at the Platesmithing wiki, I am figuring these are not craftable, correct? Is this yet another MMO where crafting is an empty side game with nothing to show for the hours spent levelling it? Or does Platesmithing have something in store for me worth the effort?

2. Boosting crafting - I noticed Profession Boosters @ 300 Zen and another Asset pack for 1600 Zen. Which are worth their Zen? Which to avoid?

3. Any other to-do's in bettering my GF in terms of gear and build you'd like to mention?

thanks in advance!

desjardinii

1. You are correct that those are not craftable. The only real top level crafting tasks that are worthwhile are making pants and shirts. And the make that even remotely worthwhile you need all purple assets to have a decent chance in getting a tier 3 proc to get it slotted. The only other thing you can make that is "better" then current drops are Reinforced Gauntlets. However those are currently bound to the creator.

2. I am indifferent on the packs. You can get good stuff from both. But it seems never what you are looking for. However you can trade or sell what you get for other items you do need.

3. Gear is cheap to come by. less than 100K gets you a knight captain set, which gives you the gear score to run anything, especially if you are specced conqueror. But even if you have your gear, I would run T1's till you get comfortable with moving around the fight, getting out of their combat advantage, blocking, etc. T1's are easy, T2's start to hit harder, and castle never will wreck you if you try to stand there and tank things without moving. They love to swarm you and get CA on you.

One of the best things I saw on the forum the other day was someone who said Gear score does not equal skill score, only to be followed by "we have a skill score" lol

mconosrep

After previously leveling only Leadership on all my characters till now I have finally started leveling Platesmithing on my latest GF alt. To be honest I am rather underwhelmed with it. As the poster above said, the only things worth making are Epic shirts and Pants, and then only if you have 4 Epic tools (so about 2.5 million AD minimum there).

You can probably make a small profit of it if you are prepared to play the AH game, but as more people are able do this, the potential profit will decrease. So, honestly I don't think it is worth it for a solo player. Now for a Guild it might be very useful, but for just your own character it seems pointless.

rsomazzi

Thank you for responding.

So your description, sadly, smells of the WoW model. The end game is gear-centered, and you will need to run dungeons to get incremental gear to run the next dungeon. Rinse, repeat until you have the gear you wanted.

This, imo, horribly undermines Crafting, which I always wanted to be more than a game. I expected a balance between crafted and dungeon-obtained and I'd be even ok with making all epic stuff creator bound and not sellable.

But this crafting grind... only to make epic pants and shirt? Holy <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, I can't underscore how effing terrible this is. So sick of all this effort going into getting people to open their wallets to get spiffy mounts while completely neglecting the more valuable and player appreciated components.

Learning this pisses me off especially since my zen has been going into Profession Booster Packs for specifically for crafting. So not only do I blow time, but now actual cash spend on Zen for the Packs.

Wow...

/sigh
/holds his breath for ESO

desjardinii

I can not remember where I read it, but it was in reference to the new crating tasks coming with Feywild; weaponsmithing and artifacing. It basically said that the crafted gear would be mainly for different weapon skins, since the better gear comes from drops. It would be nice if the crafting system was similar to how EQ2 worked. For example, leather workers made bags for players, but need stuff from tailors and smiths. It made for a good interworking system.