Gear Assistance

Kephras - Heavens Tear

Seeing as how I hope to hit level 90 sometime this year, I've been planning out my gear for when it finally happens. One thing I've always hated about barbs (and HA in general) is how vulnerable we are to magic. In the past I'd compensated by having reasonably decent LA gear I could switch to when facing magic-only enemies (Soris in Wraithgate, the Brigands in Trench, etc). And... I gave that up because it wasn't making much difference.

This is what I'm currently looking at:
[link]

Buffed, it'll break just over 6k M.Def, plus I still gain a bit of HP and P.Def over my previous equips.
I know I'm not going to hit the same kind of M.Def a caster of approximately equal level might have.
(Is this roughly equivalent?)
I welcome suggestions and some advice, but I'll clarify a few things first:
-The TT90 Mastadon ring and TT90 Gold Armor are fixed. I've already got most of the mats for them, and as much time as I've spent from 80-89, I don't see any value in shooting for TT90 Greens->TT99 Gold. Odds are, I'll never see Lionheart Plate on this character, and anyway I'd much rather do Lunar gold for Cascade Glow Nirvana if/when I ever get to that point.
-The TT90 Beacon Axe is also set. I've had that ready for a while, although I still plan on keeping my TT80 Thunders for damage purposes.

So... any thoughts on what I might do differently, aside from the above?

Pyrya - Archosaur

Well from my experience with magic shards, i sharded a set of 6X gear (3 soc on all) with average sapphires, it made absolutely no difference. It may be a lot different with immaculate but i kinda doubt it tbh given your level.

http://pwcalc.ru/pwi/?char=d91669e71bb1df25

Chieftain cape gives you a hefty amount of magic defense, and if you have the time to get that attendance ring it'd give you 51% resistance to magic mobs, which is almost as much as you had sharded with sapphires. 10k HP in human doesn't look too damn bad either. I mean i am 7X so my opinion kinda counts for ****, but i was bored so i gave it anyways.

DangerField - Dreamweaver

It sounds like most is already fixed so not really sure what you want.

Get the tauran cape with 250 mdef or some event cape.

Sharding with citrines is better.

Do you PK? if so get tt90 gold axe.

If you dont PK you could restat some dex. + land your dex on an even number 60 80 100

Sry to say but tt90 green is better, I would sell the mats and make the green. (not wrist keep those)
Since you get 10 strength for 2 pieces you could consider 2 green 2 gold

That arrow dont give you 1% crit

Kephras - Heavens Tear

DangerField - Dreamweaver wrote: »

That arrow dont give you 1% crit

It does when I use my bow.

As to the rest, no I don't PK. I'm aware of the whole "diminishing returns" thing regarding defense, but for 90 I'd like to boost my M.Def a lot higher than what it is. I'd avoided the 69 cape before, preferring capes with +VIT adds like the lv87 one I have now, but I'm starting to see why it's a popular choice.

Pyrya - the +1 Def. Lvl gives 51% resistance? Or is there a stat there it's not showing? Either way, sounds like something I may finally need to start doing.

I'm strictly a PvE cat, my aim here is to be less "squishy" to things like TT Bosses with powerful mag. attacks, constant-caster mobs, and so forth. Looking for suggestions towards that, mostly.

Cybetron - Harshlands

Since you seem to like mdef alot, and are set on the Gold TT90, I'ld ask you to use Tauran cape and use the CV ring if and when you get to 95.

Since you stat alot in dex try equipping fists. FC fists are a good start. No room for any other advices though since you are set on your armor and rings.

Pyrya - Archosaur

Kephras - Heavens Tear wrote: »

It does when I use my bow.

As to the rest, no I don't PK. I'm aware of the whole "diminishing returns" thing regarding defense, but for 90 I'd like to boost my M.Def a lot higher than what it is. I'd avoided the 69 cape before, preferring capes with +VIT adds like the lv87 one I have now, but I'm starting to see why it's a popular choice.

Pyrya - the +1 Def. Lvl gives 51% resistance? Or is there a stat there it's not showing? Either way, sounds like something I may finally need to start doing.

I'm strictly a PvE cat, my aim here is to be less "squishy" to things like TT Bosses with powerful mag. attacks, constant-caster mobs, and so forth. Looking for suggestions towards that, mostly.

Defense level gives a 1% reduction to all damage (some say 1.33%), so that means phys. and magic damage is reduced by 1%. Doesn't seem like much, but sharding end game gear with +2 defense level gems would give you +48 defense level. Which means all damage is reduced by 48% (63% if that guys right) + the percent your gear reduces. It caps a 99% though i think. Some argue its better than sharding primeval/savant stones.

Bartack - Heavens Tear

My personal recomendations,

1. Loose the cape and go tauren

2. Don't do saphire sharding for pve. You have to look at the % mag damage reduction gain vs. The % total hp gain when picking between saphire/citrine. Also, more hp helps to mitigate phys damage death too.

3. I would recomend tt90 green top and boots with gold wrists and pants. This will give you the best mix of adds and stat bonuses. It won't cover all forms of magic damage, but tauren cape will make up for that.

4. As pure pve, either go -int fist or RESTAT THAT DEX. Evasion in pve = ****. The amount of crit gained is too small to justify loss of potential vit or even str. Accuracy in pve is only useful during aoe. We barbs are blessed with the most OP single target accuracy boost, def reduction glitch. Hit a mob/boss with penetrate armor or devour and enjoy 100% chance to hit until it dies. (This works for BM glacial spike and veno armor break skill as well, but the accuracy glitch is only given to caster.)

Cybetron - Harshlands

Pyrya - Archosaur wrote: »

Defense level gives a 1% reduction to all damage (some say 1.33%), so that means phys. and magic damage is reduced by 1%. Doesn't seem like much, but sharding end game gear with +2 defense level gems would give you +48 defense level. Which means all damage is reduced by 48% (63% if that guys right) + the percent your gear reduces. It caps a 99% though i think. Some argue its better than sharding primeval/savant stones.

Defense level ISN'T 1% reduction. It's more complicated than that. There has been a thread running in the Archers forums that give you a formula dealing with ATK and DEF levels. With the atk level blessings around, def doesn't really prove to be as great as it should be unless the person shards every single slot with DEF +2. The best sharding in these circumstances would be a combination of DEF and VIT stones.

And the +2% reduced damage taken isn't what it is either. If you shard all your gear with +3% damage armor (yes there is an element in each armor slot to get that reduction) you would be getting 30% reduction. Club that with the already 65% reduction from your armor then you should be getting 95% reduction from PHY DMG; which, frankly, is almost immune to p dmg. But that isn't the case. It isn't % reduction of ALL damage, it is only % reduction of the damage taken AFTER your armor restricts the damage.

Kephras - Heavens Tear

Jade of Steady Defense, or even Diamond of Dragon, is a moot point. The TT90 Gold is only G11, which won't accept gems of that grade - even assuming I could afford them, which I assure you I can't. As it stands, the +5 on the helm is probably wishful thinking...
That would be the other reason for socketing sapphires: they're far cheaper than Citrines, for the same grade. If money were no object, I'd be going for the lunar -int cape with +VIT stones.

EDIT: and for the record, I'm already aware of the flaw in "% Damage Reduced" adds. They weren't a factor in my decision for TT90 Gold.

Rawrgh - Raging Tide

Why so much dex?


Other than that it looks good for strictly PvE, for PvP this would fall apart pretty quickly.

Try to save up for warsoul of earth, it gives a ton of HP and is probably the best helm you can get other than a forest wisdom or nirvana helm.

Kephras - Heavens Tear

Try not to laugh but... Dex req. for the lvl 42 "Ornament Bow" is 128. Always thought that one was sexy as hell.
b:surrender
Plus, I like crits, and not relying on Misties and Bloodbath to actually hit something. I won't say it's a great stat build, far from, but I've liked it so far and it works for me.
(Yes, I know about the def. debuff "glitch," but as mentioned it only works on single-target)

Warsoul of Earth... hadn't really thought of that one, but it's probably about as attainable as the Behemoth I suppose, given what Beast Shells are like.
Also a question on the belt: Would the TT90 Ele. belt be worth replacing the Demon Slaughter, or a waste of time? They're both G11 so the refine rate is the same, TT90 just has a little bit more of everything.

_Synergy_ - Heavens Tear

wait...Kephras don't I have you on FL? hehe just realized :P

I think you should stick w/ demon slaugther belt atm, and when you have everything then think about it, mostly see barbs wearing demon slaugther. Well, I'm on the same track as you too, this is what I plan on having at lvl 90: http://pwcalc.ru/pwi/?char=3a0b6e21784045e8

the thing is that it's kinda hard to find TT squad's (ppl in guild hardly on) and ppl say that doing solo TT is worthless however I have not attempted that yet, but I plan to (after finish doing FF's and finish hyper duration). And I don't know up to which TT i can tank, in squad the highest i have tanked is 3-1 so far.

Oh, and keph be positive, i mean from what you say I think your poor when I'm poorer lol. Just keep trying and you will get there, you will only be after to do it if your confident.

Bartack - Heavens Tear

Well, I did some calculations for you based on your proposed build in regards to sharding. With your current equipment and grade 8 saph shards you have 3978mdef at a 52% damage reduction and 11488hp buffed tiger. If you replace shards with even cheeper grade 7 citrine, you have 3316mdef at 48% damage reduction and 12412hp buffed tiger. That gives you 4% less total magic damage reduction, or roughly an 8% increace in magic damage currently received, and a little more than 8% more total hp.

So you would even out survivability against magic attacks, and up your phys attack survivability at less cost.

And to above poster about solo tt, it works pretty good on 2x drops, but otherwise I recomend going w a squad. You can usually find people in wc looking for barbs for lower level tt's, just sell the mats and buy the ones u need.