BM Gear....Armor Choices

Blackula__ - Archosaur
Blackula__ - Archosaur Posts: 56 Arc User
edited December 2012 in Blademaster
First off please forgive any errors in gear names, I will try to be as clear as possible. I have always been overwhelmed by the process required to get what you would call "end-game" gear. I originally made the BM to be a "farming shield" for my cleric....but I find I enjoy playing it. I have never really used a melee character, so I am still getting used to being right up in the business.

I had planned to go Lion Heart belt/necklace for the set bonus.....Light bracers and feet for the second aps set bonus. I would get the Nirvana legs with interval.....Demon Spark with fists for farming. That WAS the plan....but now with Nirvana so easy to get with the NW event I feel this changes what options are realistic. If I take my initial path to Nirvana level, I actually lose the initiative set bonuses.....SO it almost seems more beneficial to go all HA so I can get the defense level bonus if I can get the set matching helmet.

I feel one of the things I struggle with is know what is a "realistic goal" for all I know those helmets to complete the set are not available in PWI. Also, someone mentioned a helmet tonight that actually has interval on the helmet....They also suggested lunar which opens a whole different doorb:cryb:surrender

If I understand my options I can choose farming PvE gear.....Or PvP gear....but one is not ideal for the other? Also please understand that I am not going to drop 1000s on a game. No disrespect to those who do....I just can see much better uses of my money being 37 years old:) If you would have talked to me in my 20's I might have had a different opinion:)

Thank you please forgive the rambling...I find that I often assume people will follow my trains of thought as they are completely clear to me:)

P.S - Just so you know that I have tried to do my research....I would use Axes in PvP and my current goal is "invincible smoker" I think that is what is is called.
Post edited by Blackula__ - Archosaur on

Comments

  • Sakubatou - Sanctuary
    Sakubatou - Sanctuary Posts: 4,001 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    I have never really used a melee character, so I am still getting used to being right up in the business.
    I have always enjoyed melee toons and don't feel like I'm really playing unless I'm "right up in the business". Like you, the cleric is the ranged caster toon I actually enjoy but the reset are all melee, primarily. Think because both BM and cleric have many avenues of gameplay it keeps me interested.
    I had planned to go Lion Heart belt/necklace for the set bonus.....Light bracers and feet for the second aps set bonus. I would get the Nirvana legs with interval.....Demon Spark with fists for farming.
    This is what I did and it served me well for over two years. Now I'm at end-endgame I'm trying to switch to r8r plate for -int and get rid of the LA, but I don't regret using LA wrist and boots, even though after 2 years I just had to farm HA wrist and boots to replace mine.

    There are a few perks to LA wrist and boots. One is better claws and remaining 5.0, meaning G15/G16 and you will not be stuck with Striking Dragons, Deicides, or Regicides. With G15/G16 getting a single -int is hard enough but -.1 is difficult.

    As for gear progression, aim for a -int tome so you can consider your gear progression with -.05 int more.

    Some people will say go LA evasion ornies. I consider these the squishy BMs. They have slightly more hp than an LA wrist/boot BM but have much less defenses. So a 7k hp BM with evasion ornies is more like a 5k hp BM, a 10k hp BM is more like a 7.5k hp BM.

    Two things I'd mull over, HA belt and neck can be stashed to a Sin and you'll have your LA wrist and booots, meaning most your sin's gear is done and refines get put towards both characters. However, using 1 of your HA set pieces for armor frees you up for a magic neck or belt. I went HA belt and chest plate, with magic cube necklace to cover my mdef.
    That WAS the plan....but now with Nirvana so easy to get with the NW event I feel this changes what options are realistic. If I take my initial path to Nirvana level, I actually lose the initiative set bonuses.....SO it almost seems more beneficial to go all HA so I can get the defense level bonus if I can get the set matching helmet.
    For pk, especially group pk areas like NW, higher defenses will treat you better than aps and when farming supply token will probably be more profitable. You can use that money for gear swaps.

    In NW I typically have 4 pieces of gear on swap. My chest plate and my r8r plate, my LA wrist and boots with DoTs and my G16 wrist and boots, and my O'malleys and Jones. I swap right to left whether I need defenses, am using axes, or want attack levels or aps.
    I feel one of the things I struggle with is know what is a "realistic goal" for all I know those helmets to complete the set are not available in PWI. Also, someone mentioned a helmet tonight that actually has interval on the helmet
    There are Nirvana G15 helms, and Nirvana G16 helms that both apply towards set bonuses. Also, when Lunar and TT become G16 they get the same name and same stats, and apply towards the same set. The only difference is one binds, one doesn't.

    And there is no -int helm in game, I'm pretty sure.
    ....They also suggested lunar which opens a whole different door

    Lunar has 33% higher defenses than TT but TT has +4% defense bonus to all gear. Until your gear is +12, the higher base defenses of Lunar is better. If you are going G16 anyways and don't mind your equipment bind, and can manufacture it yourself, then it doesn't matter. For me, since I have G16 pieces that gives 8% more pdef and mdef the higher base defense of lunar will always give me more defenses.

    Lunar also offers hp in some areas, while TT offers vit. Lunar gives more overal hp.

    Simply said, Lunar is better but about 10m more.
    If I understand my options I can choose farming PvE gear.....Or PvP gear....but one is not ideal for the other?
    Aps are less useful in PvP, but great for PvE. Defenses are great in PvE for pulling and can speed up your run just as much as a fast boss, but are especially needed in PvP.

    Farm two sets, at your leisure. They'll both be profitable. The better PvP gear you have you'll make millions more in NWs. The other 168 hours of the week that aren't NW you can use your aps to farm.


    Happy Hunting and g'luck.
    Seven 100+ characters leveled the hard way. Free to play. Mystic, Psychic, and Wizard left to level. b:victory
  • cece9
    cece9 Posts: 5 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    So I am a 100% free player and this is what i've discovered while trying to gear my bm.

    First off i used to wear this gear and it served me great while i worked on other gear or other toons depending on the time period. ~ R8 top ~ interval pants ~ tt99 HA boots and wrists ~ LA evasion ornies ~ lunar cape ~ dex tome ~ r8 ring ~ misty forest ring ~ warsoul helm. This gear was good for a time but it became outdated. When i started to get into TW and TW factions i found that i needed mroe defense. So i used my celestial culti belt and the tt90 gold elemental necklace. These again served me really well in TW and i enjoyed the HP bump and defense increase.

    When a dear friend of mine quit the game she passed me her sins Pan Gu tome which has been a wonderful asset since then I also stopped using the evasion ornies at this point and kept the culti belt and tt90 gold neck on at all times

    I eventually evolved into 2 lunar rings and a nirvana second cast helm As nirvana third cast came out i worked and farmed a new plate for myself and casted both my helm and plate into Awakened Lionheart Plate and Divine Helm the 900 hp bonus and incrased defenses from these were wonderful.

    Currently I have two sets of gear....because i can. One mostly for TW and the other for aps/dps dding in pve

    I have g16 helm/plate/pants/boots/wrists/warsong belt/lunar ring x2/tt90 gold neck/g16 cape/pan gu tome
    But i also still have my tt99 boots/wrists nirvana interval pants lunar cape to put on when i need to aps with my fists


    As for weapons i currently use g16 unicorn tragedy axes tt100 fists tt99 purge pole and tt99 swords But i have to say that my full g16 gear + g16 axes is just sexy aoe damage in places like warsong/lunar/delta just sexy damage

    Overall my path is kind of expensive but it serves me well and any mixture of the two that allows you to be 4/5 aps and or extremely tanky is going to work well with PVP and PVE
  • Blackula__ - Archosaur
    Blackula__ - Archosaur Posts: 56 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    So I feel I may have ultimately made a mistake......Now that Nirvana gear is "easy" to get with the NW event I should have gone all HA on my gear. Currently I have the bound tt99 bracers and feet (1 set) and I was planning on getting the HA ornaments for the second (aps set bonus)....Once you nirvana these pieces of armor loose that set bonus and there is no way to get the 10 defense levels for the Nirvana set:(

    Nirvana set bonus

    2 pieces +5 attack level
    5 pieces +10 defense levels

    I guess the best I can do is go HA x 2 and LA x 2 and get 10 attack levels...any thoughts on this?
  • Sakubatou - Sanctuary
    Sakubatou - Sanctuary Posts: 4,001 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    So I feel I may have ultimately made a mistake......Now that Nirvana gear is "easy" to get with the NW event I should have gone all HA on my gear. Currently I have the bound tt99 bracers and feet (1 set) and I was planning on getting the HA ornaments for the second (aps set bonus)....Once you nirvana these pieces of armor loose that set bonus and there is no way to get the 10 defense levels for the Nirvana set:(

    Nirvana set bonus

    2 pieces +5 attack level
    5 pieces +10 defense levels

    I guess the best I can do is go HA x 2 and LA x 2 and get 10 attack levels...any thoughts on this?

    If you were going to go 5 pieces vana and ditch being a -int build you should just go to G16 instead and use axes.

    #Items Bonus
    2 HP +900
    5 DEF LV +15
    6 ATT LV +20
    Seven 100+ characters leveled the hard way. Free to play. Mystic, Psychic, and Wizard left to level. b:victory
  • Blackula__ - Archosaur
    Blackula__ - Archosaur Posts: 56 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    b:surrender I will be honest....Anything above 100 is a bit confusing/foreign to me. I don't even know the first thing about G16. This is lunar right? I feel like PWI sorta completely changes above 100....I understand twilight temple and that is about it. Never done lunar stuff or Nirvana for that matter:)
  • Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide
    Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide Posts: 452 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    The first thing you need to do is get into Nation Wars. It starts every Friday and Sunday 8:20 server time. It dosen't matter that your gear will be low. You just try and get over 2k contri so you can get supply tokens. With the supply tokens you can trade them for uncanny crystals or rapture crystals. Nirvana is dead, there is no reason to go there. Once you start getting cannies and/or rapts you can either: 1. Save them for your gear or 2. Sell them to buy what your bm needs. Take your rime and read the forums, there are amny answers you seek there. It just may take a little while to find everything. Good luck and happy AoEing.
  • Blackula__ - Archosaur
    Blackula__ - Archosaur Posts: 56 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Ok....so this is why I am confused. I have a cleric who does well in event.....She gets 60-140 tokens average...best was 220. I thought those were for making TT99 into nirvana gear?
  • Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide
    Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide Posts: 452 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    >.> You didn't say anything about a cleric going to Nation Wars. Anyway what you need to do is figure out if you want to go full HA or a mix. I'm all for full HA if you ask me. Next if you dont mind everything bound get tt99 armors. If you want to trade it to another HA toon and don't want to stash it then you should look at lunar HA. Lunar is just another place to farm mats for lunar gear. Its shorter than TT but it takes longer to get the mats imo. There is also a 3mil opening fee that people dont like to pay, but if you're farming the mats pay the fee and keep the drops. Once you get either tt99 or lunar set then use the Nation War tokens for uncanny crystals. With thoes you change your gear to nirvana set. You need 250 uncanny crystals per part of armor to get it to t2 nirvana. After that you need to run full Lunar for essence of defence and basic badges to change t2 to t3. T3 is the top end of that armor tree. It refines well, has good a set bonus, and is not that expensive to make over all. The only draw back is against r9r2 people. If pve is the only thing you are doing then t3 is more than enough. If you are going to pk a lot then t3 will serve its purpose but wont be effective against r9r2. If you're looking for a "cheap" catch all t3 is the way to go. If you want the best of the best r9r2 is it.
  • Blackula__ - Archosaur
    Blackula__ - Archosaur Posts: 56 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Zark,
    So yeah I can get the NW tokens....but I already committed a decent amount to my LA tt99 bracers and feet...it was part of the APS plan....If I understand you I use the NW tokens to get raps and make it into nirvana. Problem is once I do that...it defeats the purpose of going LA as a bm.

    It was suggested that lunar is better HA for PvP....again, this is what I understood. I get confused because I have never done lunar runs or seen the forges like tt....I can look and see I need 5 of these and 8 of those....I can then look in AH or farm them in squads. Maybe with APS bm I can start making money and farming PvP gear?
  • Sakubatou - Sanctuary
    Sakubatou - Sanctuary Posts: 4,001 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    b:surrender I will be honest....Anything above 100 is a bit confusing/foreign to me. I don't even know the first thing about G16. This is lunar right? I feel like PWI sorta completely changes above 100....I understand twilight temple and that is about it. Never done lunar stuff or Nirvana for that matter:)

    Both TT and Lunar can be used to make G13 and G15 (first and second cast Nirvana). TT and Lunar are different for G13 and G15, but both can be made into the same G16. The only difference is if you used Lunar gear, it will be unbound but TT gear will stay bound from tt99 all the way to t3 Nirvana. G16 Nirvana weapons take the Lunar name, G16 Nirvana armor takes the TT named (ie Awakened Lionhearts Armor and Unicorn's Tragedy, both in gold writing while t1 and t2 is in orange).

    For -int gear, the only Nirvana pieces BMs tend to use are the pants (-.05 int) and the helm for the set bonus. I recommend going Lunar because it offers more hp and 33% more base defenses.

    If you want 5 aps you need a total of -.4 int to be 3.33 base. You're probably realizing that 5 aps means squishier BMs and its true, but for PvE its enough. Not so much for PvP. Thats why so many of us have two sets of gear, an aps based set and a defensive set. For pvp you'll be expected to use r9 or Nirvana t2/t3.

    I'm surprised how many people don't know about Lunar, scared off by the 3m opening fee, or that there are 6 other bosses and more profitable drops than the BH route. And its one of the few places where strong heals, a good puller, and aoe dd matter just as much as aps, and its more efficient drops:person than soloing. Lunar has three areas. The first stage is always the same, but then you have an option to kill a tower on the left, a tower on the right, or both. Kill both for the BH boss. Killing left only takes you on another route, and right only on a third route. I think the right tower only route is the most profitable.

    Spend some time with pwcalc up and sitting in front of Nirvana forges and the t3 forges in Lunar/Warsong and play with gear options.
    Seven 100+ characters leveled the hard way. Free to play. Mystic, Psychic, and Wizard left to level. b:victory
  • remwr
    remwr Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    wath beter, pure str+sage+axe or axe/fist demon?

    Most ppl say if BM, when demon, but i try look skill and i tink beter sage+pure str+axe.
  • CapnK - Sanctuary
    CapnK - Sanctuary Posts: 1,166 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Pure strength is stupid, you won't have enough accuracy to hit anything. And you still want to be able to use fists for chi gain.

    Sage/Demon is just a matter of your playstyle, but Demon is "easier" due to the quicker access to high levels of aps.
  • Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide
    Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide Posts: 452 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Well I guess I'm just stupid then....
  • remwr
    remwr Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Well I guess I'm just stupid then....

    Can u write wath u tink? or maybe show ur build, thx.
  • Jaabg - Sanctuary
    Jaabg - Sanctuary Posts: 2,256 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Well I guess I'm just stupid then....

    You misunderstood CapnK point. If you go pure str, you have very low dex, 30~60 dex. That low dex means you will miss quite a bit. To fix that, you probably need ambers in the weapon and +50% accuracy rings to make it work.

    The down side comes that fists can not be used. You can use lower lvl fists if you wish, but higher lvl fists do the same damage as axe skills at times.

    If you put in dex to wear fists, you switch garnets instead of ambers. With R9 3rd cast, the extra str boost makes it even easier to have enough dex for claws/fists.

    Not saying it is wrong, just saying there are alternatives, but as long as you enjoy the build, it's all good.
  • Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide
    Zarkin_Baxil - Raging Tide Posts: 452 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Well to be honest it was really a joke. I have posted my build before, but instead I will give some explination. At r9 with 141 dex (I have that) I have 300+ more high end damage than 200 dex and garnets(both being g12). Both builds have about the same accuracy. The biggest diffrence it evasion, but at 25k hp with sage barb buff I could care less about being hit. The other is being crit, but with sage higland cleave giving a 25% chance to increase crit by 20% having less crit isn't a big deal. Now at r9r2 is a diffrent story, it's totaly worth it to go with 600str and 200 dex. I stated that I will switch to that once I get r9r2. Now I do have sage hf and that 75 chi return makes a big diffrence. For me chi isn't an issue at this point. If I have full chi and hf, even with axe skill spam I can build 3 sparks and hf again after cool down. And I guess I'm not "pure str", just pure enough for me.
  • Niteshadows - Harshlands
    Niteshadows - Harshlands Posts: 583 Arc User
    edited December 2012
    Get yourself some Invincible Smokers, and save up. Also for the aps gear try getting Ashura boots and wrists then Lionheart neck+belt. I personally went Lionheart wrist+boots and Ashura neck+belt. That's my own preference. Try to obtain R9rr for your BM and see how you like it.
    Do you hate me? Good, that makes for an adequate conversation starter.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]