When to start crafting without experience on gear

[Joseph Judd]

I know this is probably pretty subjective... but I'm just curious of opinions from people that have been playing a while.

I'm 1600something CL and have what I think is decent gear. Mostly 73 to 75... I think one piece is 77 and one 66. All have experience rolled on them.

I have a few jewelry boxes and been saving 89/90 stat rings up to start crafting some nice jewelry. I can't decide if I should craft nearly perfect jewelry with experience on it. I'm thinking I probably should for now? Since I'd imagine the goal is always more experience... and I'm a long way away from REALLY nice gear where I would want to try to create a set just for pushing, which I assume the top people do or something.

I just thought I'd ask for advice. I started and played my first ANB event which was really cool I thought... I love that its only 9 hours but since it's only active time, it felt like a long event... such a cool idea for events I'm surprised I have not personally experienced other games doing events like that. Liked it so much figured I'd buy a few of the packs in the event, had a bunch leftover, but it's disappearing quickly and I'm just trying to use it efficiently.

While typing this I just thought that maybe my best way currently would be to roll 3 near perfect stats with the 4th stat being experience... but something I could reforge to a 4th stat later that isn't as much of a priority right now?

This became way more long winded than I intended... appreciate if anyone actually reads it and gives advice, lol.

[Halbrad]

I personally don't bother with experience on my main character at all. A few more ANBs and you will easily be CL 2000 (Exp is transferred to your main account). I have done like 12 ANBs now and in the latest Silver I got over 1800 CLs in one single ANB. But after 2000, CLs really start slowing down. I'm now at 2128 and I think these 1800 CLs from 9 hours of net playing my ANB character translated to 12 CLs on my main character. ANB is fun to do, nets Exp anyway, but also gear and pushing for the Leaderboard. But so much grinding for a single CL (2 Power) outside it is simply not worth sacrificing it to me to sacrifice so many stats on my 77 gear. And rerolling stats can get very expensive. I think I once had to spend like 800 gems to reroll Exp into CR,
Not unimportant to mention: after ANBs I don't spend that much time on my main, which I mostly spend on dailies and pushing. So Exp on her gear is kind has even less ROI for me. Your mileage may vary though!

[Joseph Judd]

That's a really good point that I had not really considered...

I think I read that the ANB's have no schedule... but how often do they seem to pop up?

[Mxtof]

I wouldn't tell you what you should do, only what I do. The way I see it, the XP gear is the first thing to consider, because I'll use it more, and long before I could try a push. Now when shall I stop working on such build? Well, once I feel satisfied and comfortable with it, or if I sense that further improvements are too little to bother. That's my strategy in trials during ANB: whenever I feel too comfortable, it's sign that it's time to move on.

As for the jewelry, I'd rather use the box for attributes which are eating my gemstones, instead of the XP which does not, but that's just me.

[Joseph Judd]

I suppose I mostly meant for my main character, but Halbrad made a good point above on that I suppose. Good tips for the ANB events. I enjoyed the one I just got to play so looking forward to the next when I have more of an idea of what I am doing.

[WarriorSeven]

I agree with Mxtof. XP gear on a Main toon or farmer -- including jewelry -- is a great benefit since it will ultimately advance Main toon(s) faster through Trials by increasing their ultimate power (if that's your end-game goal).

Eternium places a real premium in our obtaining XP through our gameplay. Our response to that should be to create a gear set and jewelry built to maximize XP accumulation as often (i.e., as fast) as possible.

That said, there's nothing wrong with a set of EG gear (I have several), in case you need it for buying stuff. But for me, playing this game after a few years, I have 276,635,834 gold accumulated to date and it continues to grow (literally, without effort -- and there are others playing that have far more than me!). Gold does not transfer to ANBs, so it must be used (effectively) to buy stuff for your Main(s).

On the other hand, my Main toon CL is 2235, which may seem to be a lot to some of you, but it is FAR behind those in the top Leaderboards. I struggle to compete in the top 100 now (that's because I suck as an average player). So I wish I had started building XP gear sooner, accumulating lots more CL, to counteract my "suckiness".

'Nuff said on all that ...

Regarding socketed jewelry ... maybe you've all noticed the significant improvement in toon sheet Damage, Toughness, and Recovery using the new Velocinite Spiritstones (Brilliants) in lieu of the standard gemstones. This new feature may become a suprisingly, new standard for socketed jewelry going forward. Since Seasons typically come quickly as the older one ends (minimal wait), a new Season will present a different Spiritstone for use, and if Velocinite is any indication what Spiritstones can do to improve overall Toon effectiveness, I'm not so sure socketing jewelry with the standard gemstones will be the norm anymore!

[Mxtof]

WarriorSeven Sir, that last part alone just made my day Farming is indeed not quite the same since those stones were introduced, and I was in no hurry to kiss them goodbye. I'm looking forward to see where / how this goes.

[Joseph Judd]

Thanks for those responses. As far as jewelry goes, I think with my Jboxes and some perfect rolled rings I have stashed I will try to create some perfect jewelry without experience on them. I can probably just make some jewelry with experience on them with the slightly lesser rolls that I'm finding while trying to get the near perfect ones.

[Halbrad]

Excellent choice! As you see, everyone has their own approach when it comes to farming Exp, but I think there's one thing we can all agree on: you don't need Lvl77 gear or perfect jewelry to farm it! If you want other stats on your Jewelry (bringing down the Exp% a bit...) then 88s are perfectly fine. For gear, level 73s are perfectly fine to farm e.g. TL 100 or 105

[Joseph Judd]

My 2 rings now... Just crafted the one without experience. I think I did everything right... Stats should be close to max I guess? Definitely cost me more than I thought it would, lol. And the experience one is pretty good I think so will just use that.

Crafted a 130% and 132% gold rings. I'm out of gold again but damn gold starts to come quick now that I'm at about 3,300% EG with the bonus.

Edit: not sure I understand fusion rating... My ring I just crafted is poor fusion rating but I'm pretty sure I did it correctly. Is it just because there are 2 stats that don't have gems? Maybe best to use stats on rings that have gems? Like I should have used vitality instead of block I suppose, etc?

[Mxtof]

Not too shabby, I would say... I would have been more than happy to have those with my first jewelry crafts (I was FAR from it). Now it's difficult to mix XP and crit attributes in the same set, and maybe in time you'll find the need to split those in two sets (or not, it's up to you). Halbrad made a good point, though: don't let the perfect ruin the correct. Fortunately, you don't need a fully optimized character to farm TL105 in a decent time, so don't hit yourself with perfection when good is enough.

Fusion rating puzzles me as well, but I don't pay much attention to it when crafting. Once you've reached the legendary quality, you can't fuse it no more, so why bother? And I'm also filled with doubts, and tempted to think "should have done this" or "could have done that": don't. You did the best you could with what you had, and both will improve in time. Just be patient.

[WarriorSeven]

The reported fusion ratings are red herrings -- just ignore them and focus instead on the stats of your jewelry, always trying to improve their values (via different gemstones or by crafting better jewelry).

Also, don't forget about the various Enchantments that can be added to jewelry as well to give your toon extra oomph. Enchantments aren't cheap and require lots of essences and gold to craft, but if you have a toon ready to compete in Trials, you'll want to add this "extra" attribute.

P.S. -- Celestial Orbs are yet another way to improve stats to perfection, but that topic is reserved for users with lots more experience, materials, essences, and gold.

[Wisp]

I am CL 2150+ BH in the Veterans League. I'm using Full Havoc/Fire Lilly/VoW/Molten/Ignite/Integralas with experience and duel elements on all, for Trails. With jewelry and exp. booster gaining 3600%. It's slow going.

I also run a Stalker/Scout/VoW/CoQ/Assassin's/Shadow with exp. and gold on all. With jewelry and gold booster gaining 3400gp./1050exp. for storyline and dailies.

I have a CR/CD build and mixed high-end full set's; that I play around with.

In ANB I run experience on all, gold and experience on jewelry. Normally using a 4H/2D VoW with element on all.

As WarriorSeven stated. I would have started experience on all; earlier; if I had known.



Happy Hunting !