Hello everyone. I'm a returning player on Vox who has ~14k plat in the bank (is that good?) and am starting from scratch with an Iksar Monk and a friend Iksar Shaman. We are starting in Cresent Reach and are level 5 after our first play session. If possible we want to deck out with the best gear we can afford that will get us through the early levels. What is the best way to go about purchasing a set of gear in 2020 and how can I make sure I am getting the right gear for the best prices? I briefly recall using the Bazaar (how do i get there?) and is there a way to search for slots by type or is there a good website I should use? Thanks in advance!
I know this isn’t the answer you’re looking for but the best gear you could buy to help you level 1-50 is called a tank mercenary
You’re looking for defiant gear, it drops lots off pretty much all mobs, and you’ll pick up plenty as you level. It’s also tradable so you can buy from bazaar (you can zone in directly from pok), as you level, there are different levels of defiant gear you can equip up until about level 80. At early levels it’s powerful stuff, though as already mentioned not as powerful as mercenaries who will literally destroy the content for you. ( I suggest you both get caster dps mercs to start with and kill mobs in packs) The mercs tank like beasts till around level 50 and melt faces at the same time. They will power level you quite easily through those lower levels, if that’s your thing.
Well I logged in to reply and while I was doing that Cydonia pretty much said exactly what I was going to say. Grab defiant armor as it drops, and let the tank merc melt mobs for you. I was going to suggest a healer merc to pair with the tank merc though instead of a caster. Will be a wee bit slower but it feels like your not in a rush and you'll have a rez if somehow thiongs go off the rails. Good luck and welcome back.
Defiant gear is great, but you will level quickly, so don't overpay for it in the Bazaar. I've seen it listed for really stupid prices, and since you won't wear it for long, it's just not worth it. Just pick up what you can for cheap, loot what you can as you level, and YES, get a merc. Some people swear by getting a DPS merc for low levels, because it supposedly tanks almost as well as the tank merc, and obviously does much more DPS. Haven't tried it myself, but that's what I've heard.
Go back to the tutorial - you can get nice set starting armor and some other goodies like a free merc. Then go to Cresent Rreach and look up the quest for armor and weapons on Allah for that zone. Don't bother spending your plat in baz. You will out level it very fast The rest of the armor will drop off mobs as you level. I did not buy any armor from the Baz until level 100 ish.
Many thanks for the tips. Defiant armor stats look good and appears pretty easy to drop as I level, otherwise I'll grab some cheap pieces to start. Though I hadn't been thinking about mercenary when I made this post, this information was even more valuable as I didn't use a merc back in the day and now i'm reading up on them and it's clearly a must have.
They really do. It might have been because I was three boxing that made it viable but when I was levelling my 3 box sk, shaman, bard squad, I would use three caster mercs on AE burn, I’d pull a bunch of mobs, usually 10-15 minimum, and the casters would grab Agro, and just absolutely ruin the lot in seconds. They tank like champs, obliterate packs of mobs and just will not oom. It changes as you get to about level 55-60, where they become less effective like this, which is where I changed to melee dps and a healer, but up until then, tank mercs just can not compete
Something can be said about the differences between Apprentice Mercenaries and Journeyman Mercenaries though. Are you All Access or FTP? I am on Vox, if you ever catch me on send a tell. I probably have some old world twink weapons rotting in the bank you can have.
Likewise, if you're on Tunare, send me a PM here on the forums, or an in-game email. I'm not in-game that much, and even when I am, I easily miss tells.
It appears I have a grandfathered "Silver" account and the other account is simply F2P. As far as I can tell the only difference is the extra character slots and access to more AA points. I don't think Silver grants higher Mercenary ranks and it doesn't appear there is a way to get the F2P to Silver status anymore, but by all means if there is some carryover info i'm missing please feel free to let me know. Otherwise, I probably wont be going Gold until I hit much later content.
Yep, you've got that part correct. F2P/Silver works fine for a while. Once you get to the 60s, all-access is nice, since you can use auto-grant for AAs, which will let you level up quickly without having to stop and earn those AAs along the way. The other main benefits are Prestige gear, and use of Journeyman mercs (J1 only til you hit 85 and can do the quest(s) to access J5), more items available for Loyalty, and free 500 DBC each month. Also, rank 2/3 spells once you hit 71, though you can buy an unlocker for rank 2s with DBC.
To me the big difference between F2P and Silver is you can access general chat with Silver. You cannot with F2P.
The best gear to buy is none until you are lvl 60 or so. Enter the tutorial and do all of the quests, including the weapon aug with the dwarf near the spider cave. This should get you most of the visible slots. The quest gear is the same as Crude Defiant. After you are done in the mines. Head to POK and do the Armor Quests. You can also do the quest in CR for the 2hb which involves killing the barbarian, before dong the POK quests. Once you are lvl 18 head back to CR and do the quests for the GSH. You can get a weight reduction bang from the lady in the smithing area to do at the same time. These quests should get you to lvl 20 or so. Then you can do the Hot Zone Quests in POK which reward you with 3 different items including a haste belt for your monk. the quality of this armor goes up to the next lvl of defiant every 10 levels. So do these at least ever ten levels. In your mid 20's you can go back to CR and do the other 1hb quest given by the Trent. If you want to have a more old school experience with the mercs get a healer and a melee dps. After doing the above you will have armor and weapons comparable to lvl 40-50 for the older content. The random defiant drops should get you to lvl 60 or so. At this point it maybe worth while to shop in the bazaar. You can enter the Bazaar from POK.
There is so much content and so few players on Vox (or any live server) at the low levels that there's no master list of cheap stuff to get (besides defiant gear, generally). Your best bet is to search the bazaar a couple times a play session for cheap gear, though with tank mercs you'll breeze through the levels. If you want to enjoy the leveling process more you may want to eschew the tank mercs and just duo. Or not, it's up to you.
That is exactly my experience. I was able to pick up a set of crude/simple defiant gear for my monk and shaman friend, and even found a decent low end 1h blunt for the shaman, but couldn't find any good low level Monk weapons at the Vox bazaar. My reserve of plat isn't as lofty as I'd hoped as some of the cheaper decent low level monk primaries are listed for 5k+. Is this a pretty average price or am I just seeing inflation targeted at higher level players for their alts? I'll probably just rock my fists (as monks do), however if 5k is a fair price for something like a Journeyman's Walking Stick or comparable (and ideally if i'll be able to make back at least some of that by the time it becomes redundant) then I'll go ahead and pick something up. I like the merc, but I also like to be part of the action and better weapon means better dps for me!
You can get this around level 10 https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=103666 They have one for all classes. Easy quest in Cresent Reach although the guide says level 5 iirc you can't get the quest till level 10 ish.