Maximum Gear Level Drops!

Hey, I noticed that In legion of doom that 308 is the highest gear would drop, and that the vendor gear is 310.

as well with dark knights, 323 is the highest that drops and 325 at the vendor.

So is seems as if the gear is always two level below the vendor gear,

I noticed that not all pieces would drop at 308 in legion of doom, I do not remember, But I think the weapon, shoulders, and helmet would not drop at 308 but a lower combat rating.

So is there some pieces of gear that will not drop at the highest gear level ?

All pieces of gear drop based on their rarity level. All purple gear will drop to a point that is slightly lower than vendor reg gear. Followed by blue then green.

Currently green drops for a max of 315, blue is 319, and purple is 323. So all gear that drops within that color will have a max potential of that gear level. This also includes accessory gear like rings neck face utility and even weapon. If you haven’t gotten a weapon of that lvl it means you just weren’t lucky. But they do exist.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Gear CR "progression.... sigh," is useless anymore anyways. The only benefit to chasing higher CR is if you intend to play Elite content. Current Green level / Blue level gear is still stronger than the best gear from the previous 2 DLCs, and beyond that is clamped.

I would focus on maxing out your arts & augments, as well as improving your SP level. If you are in a league, please do your part to help earn prestige for the league buffs. That is the only true way to get stronger anymore anyways. Gear CR doesn't matter anymore unless you play Elite.

This is on purpose as the end goal is to get the Vendor Gear to max out an Episode or even the Elite Gear. What youll see also possibly in the next TC is that the IL of gear will be 324. Its been seen as:

Greens<Blues<Purples<TC Gear<Vendor Gear

Gear progression is not dead. You want to get more gear so that you can meet the minimum for the next dlc. On top of that when a new dlc gets released having vendor gear vs blue/purple makes a difference when a new dlc just comes out. Look at how many people are complaining about the new dlc even thou it’s 1 week old. If they had blue/purple gear than it’s on them.

So no. Gear progression is as important as it has ever been.

I think the TC/avatar gear is no longer as viable as it was before: they used to be updated to the new cr limit when a new dlc was released. This meant players could get avatar gear day one and be 1 gear level below purple or vendor I believe. Right now the avatar gear is still set at 305 which is what drops from event and Omni (that’s what it was when I last checked).

I disagree, Game Update 118 made progression pointless as far as gear goes. It is now reduced to a nice to have thing as far as getting ready for the next DLC to drop in your example. But other than that it’s futile to even try unless you want to be stronger for Elite content.

Greens < Blues < TC Gear < Purples < Normal Vendor Gear < Elite Vendor Gear

Time Capsule gear is always maxed out 1 item level lower than the Dropped Purple gear. This is direct response to player feedback that we can just buy our way to max gear with Time Capsules. It used to be one lower than Vendor Gear.

While I agree that gear progression is important, especially when transitioning from one episode to the next. The cost to duration almost makes it obsolete unless you are in fact prepping for Elite. I'm not disagreeing with you, but how fast episodes to gear changes occur what's the point? I wish the devs would lock CR cap for two episodes so it's more relevant, and just introduce the new styles with the same CR rating. This allows players to appreciate CR a little more. Just my opinion though

I agree with gear progression and it becoming obsolete. I wish we didn't have these micro tiers that are within each Episode. The biggest problem is replay badges. When this game was first introduced, Battle for the Earth was the last DLC designed to follow a tier, because it came out right after replays were implemented.

BFE had 4 sets to shoot for. If you were running all content daily and did your weekly lock outs, you could get one set after like 3 months of playing. So it was a year long acquisition from the marks you could get from BFE. Of course HoF, LL duo, and HT accelerated it, but that was intended and how tiers worked.

T5 came out, it was designed as a replay centric design. Vendor gear was no better than the blue dropped gear and best gear was locked behind the two raids.

Now we have Vendor gear being best, but they design it in such a way that you can get the whole thing and other feats playing every lockout, including the weeks with double and triple marks.

The only thing now that lasts, is the OP items, which is obsolete 3 DLCs later.

All relevant TC gear is 322. From "Forbidden" all the way to "Two-Faced Clown." Avatar wasn't updated for some reason.

I'm sure the people who sell Avatar gear on the broker are pissed because they missed out on release week, lol.

I hadn’t thought about it the way you framed it. Gear progression is obsolete now. The only room for real character growth I guess is from arts, augments, and trying to increase SP. But I don’t know what % of all of that really effects performance or can even be a true measure of character growth. With CR, I knew how strong I was or how strong another player was, especially relative to the NPCs, but now in this new age we are in, I don’t know what metric tells me how strong I am or you are, or anything anymore.

I mainly just do my dailies and play the duo, alerts, raids, on Thursday after reset. If I get a better gear drop that’s nice. I don’t know how to grow my character now. I have always been athletic and loved to compete in everything I do. I don’t how to compete now or if there is any thing to compete against anymore. I truly feel lost now after a couple of DLCs removed from HoL.

I hope that a Developer will see this thread and take some time to explain how character progression is suppose to occur now under the new system we are operating under. Or is character progression as a whole now an obsolete notion?

So for this recent episode. For green blue puurple drops of boxes. What my CR need to be for it the max cr in the unattunded pieces

It also depends on WHEN you open it. This episode Green opens to 315 when your at 360 CR (overall...not equipped), blue opens to 319 when you are at 363 CR and purple opens to 323 at 366 CR. So if he was getting purple drops and opening before their 'max' rating output, he could indeed have gotten a purple weapon or whatever that was NOT 308 due to his CR when opening....LOD was something like 343 for green max, 347 for blue max and 350 for purple max....I've already wiped that data clean in the brain computer....so I might be off one.

I know you know this...it was just for anyone who might not know. For those people, always hold Purple pieces till at least the blues are opening to max + another 2 or 3 CR (overall...not equipped).

See my other reply to DS.

Green opens to 315 when your at 360 CR (overall...not equipped), blue opens to 319 when you are at 363 CR and purple opens to 323 at 366 CR.

I know there is a factor of where you 'just' make it over a CR that sometimes burns you...Personally I try to apply 1 more upgraded piece even after I've hit the magic numbers...just to hedge my bets vs popping all my 'big' pieces the second I tip over the line.

Tiffany, I dislike the changes as much as you do (or more?), but you still need 'progression' if you are going to play endgame. There is a vast difference between running on my 350 entry level toon in the alert and my 360+ seasoned vets.

It's been nerfed and made trivial(CR progression) in the EEG for sure...but it's still needed for the last 3 eps...even I wouldn't' say it's gone there.

Green is 315 at CR 360, but blue is 319 at CR 364. The 323 purple gear opens at maxinum at CR 367.

Additionally, the TC 322 gear opens at maximum at CR 366. And the membership 320 gear opens at max at CR 364 as well.

Ok, thank you for the explanation, although I do still feel lost.

No no no, don't get me wrong. It's not that gear progression is obsolete, it's just that the time it takes to enjoy the gear becomes obsolete the moment you get a drop piece of gear in the next DLC. You are still progressing upward. Gear is still the primary stat gain in the game. I know what you are thinking, because of the clamp, but progression outside of the clamp is still gear first, everything else, second. In the clamp, because of piercing, the lateral progression of SP, artifacts, and now allies, are progression.

I was really just lamenting that we no longer have a sense of the long run. OP items were introduced to give a chase, that is no longer a thing. Gear is easily replaced literally the next DLC gear you get. I really miss when a tier was a tier. Now it's 10 item level tier.

Yeah, last week I had someone ask me why i was not wearing vendor gear on my alt Tank. Mind you, the tanking was going fine...but he felt I should have the vendor gear at 358 or 359 on vs the full set of purple + OP stuff I have putting me at 356. As we were in RWE, where 'max' gear was 344 or whatever FP maxed at, obviously 350...355...whatever was already more than enough. We went through aquaman just fine, but I think the delay before Diana gave him a sec to inspect me....hence the question.

I responded 'why bother....it will just be scrapped in favor of green drops in 3 days'. Which is true...I'm already wearing almost all green/blue gear on that toon, all of which would have been better than the vendor gear. Apparently that response was not acceptable and that guy left the group. We picked someone else up and got the job done.

This pretty much happens to me every DLC. I hold off on the Yellow gear in favor of OP components, or working on Elite renowns. I don't spam or replay generally, so that means I get my vendor gear around the end or last 1/4 of a DLC and it feels like a waste for the small advantage over maxed purple gear. For most toons I'll only buy vendor gear once I hit that 999 marks counter and have everything else done.....but I'm weird I guess.