A Guide to Gear Progression with Monthly Episodes

1/20/2016 Update:

Link to a more updated gear progression chart by Superskull85:
DCUO CR Relevancy Chart - Webpage

The original thread follows:

Well, I decided to go ahead and make a guide thread on this topic. It will allow me to make changes if and when they are made, such as the recently announced adjustments to the episode and gear ordering. First, here's the original chart describing the layout of the monthly content trios (*disregard the "Vendor Set Gear" on the right, as it's no longer part of the layout).



There are two other types of gear found in the episodes that aren't listed in the chart: Common Gear and Uncommon Gear.

The Common Gear is the lowest item level (IL) in the trio of episodes, but it is available as a full set (Armor, Weapon, Jewelry, and Trinket) in each episode. Initially, it will be used as starter gear or to fill in the gaps in Rare and Vendor Gear. Later on, it will become salvage; thus, the term "Trash Gear."

The Uncommon Gear is 4 IL higher than the Common Gear. It's a possible drop from the alerts and raids. In the solos and duos, it's actually the rare drop in the loot table. The Rare Gear doesn't drop in those pieces of content.

The Vendor Gear is, naturally, the gear purchased with Marks of Victory through the vendor for that particular episode. It is another 2 IL higher than the Uncommon Gear.

The Rare Gear is what will be dropping from the raids and alerts, and it's another 2 IL higher than the Vendor Gear.

The Set Gear refers to the Elite Gear obtained from the Elite version of the raids and alerts. For Episodes 16 & 17, the Elite Gear will actually have a higher IL than the Rare Gear. In future episode trios, however, that will not be the case. Rare and Elite Gear will share the same IL. The bonus to having Elite Gear is that it has special set affinities that are stat bonuses determined through mods placed in your base generator. See this thread, for a detailed explanation:

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...inity-bonuses-affinity-generator-mods.258302/

For Episodes 15-17, the following chart lists the obtainable gear of each IL. It was adapted from a chart put together by UMBRA (https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...ce-wheres-the-fun.258256/page-14#post-3380584). I included not only the IL of the various gear pieces, but the achievable CR with various gear combinations. I used Odyssey's online CR calculator (http://www.odyssey-gaming.net/combatrating) to come up with the numbers.



My original posts on this subject really used what I'm now calling Cumulative Gear Max CR. This was an error on my part, which was pointed out to me by QuagmirePrime. I started out looking at that, but ended up representing it differently in the posts, such that I was suggesting the differences between gear sets were less than they actually are. Cumulative Gear Max CR is what you would get if you had the Rare Gear from the prior episode(s) and then got the gear in question. For instance, if you had the raid gear from Episode 15 plus all the filler Common Gear, the Cumulative Gear Max CR for Episode 16 would represent the increase in CR by obtaining that particular new gear (e.g., Episode 16 Vendor Gear).

The true gear set maximum CR is listed as Cumulative <Gear Set> Max CR for that gear set (e.g., Cumulative Vendor Max CR). For the Common Gear, I did not specify cumulative, as it's unchanged throughout the episodes. I have also included an Episode Max CR, which indicates the maximum CR with that particular gear set from that particular episode complemented only with Common Gear (e.g., Episode 17 Vendor Gear plus Common Gear). This is so you can get an idea of what CR you could achieve, if you skipped an episode or two in the trio.

I separated out the Elite Gear in the above chart, given that they will have a higher IL for Episodes 16 and 17 only.

Here is a link to Mepps' original post on the proposed changes to the content rotation and gear pairing, starting with Episode 18: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dc...ce-wheres-the-fun.258256/page-13#post-3380359

Basically, the Elite content will be in the first 2 episodes of future trios. Both the Elite Gear and corresponding Rare Gear will also drop from the same alert or raid and have the same IL. The corresponding Vendor Gear will be found in the respective episodes. This means the Chest, Legs, Back, and Waist versions of the Vendor Gear, Rare Gear, and Elite Gear will be in the first episode of a trio. The Head, Hands, Feet, and Shoulders will appear in the second episode, and the Weapon, Face, Neck, Trinket, and Ring will be in the final episode. This will slow the gear progression, so players will really only need to replace their preferred top gear every 3 months.

I hope this helps you understand the new gear system. I will try and update the guide, as new gear sets are released.

Well, I was close with my guess, but Mepps has confirmed that the next trio of episodes will bump up in item level by 10, rather than 9, but they will still progress by 3 levels per episode. So, with the rearrangement of the gear order, this should reflect the IL and CR we'll be looking at with Episodes 18-20. Please note that the Cumulative Max CR in this chart begins with the assumption of full Elite Gear from Episodes 16-17. This chart has been updated to reflect the changes with gear crafting.



Something to consider. If the IL increase of 3 per episode does continue, we're only going to be looking at a little over 10 CR (9 x 1.15 = 10.35) increases every 3 episodes. The difference between DLC 14 and Episode 17 will end up being close to 15 CR, but jumps will never be that big again. We will be CR 152 at the end of Episode 20, CR 162 for Episode 23, and on. So, we won't reach CR 200 until around Episode 35.

I also crossed my mind, in considering all of this, that with stat flattening, relative CR scaling, relevancy banding, and monthly episodes, it seems like gear tiering has sort of become obsolete. What I mean is any "tier" label (e.g., Tier 1, 2, 3, ....) in the future will really be an arbitrary partition in the gear progression. There is no longer a significant leap in gear progression from tier to tier. It's just a measured progression of CR by which content is gated. The only things that stick to a tier system now are consumables and mods. I wonder how that will be handled down the road. Will they just announce Tier 8 sometime next year? Will there be future tiers? Will the tier system be eliminated altogether and replaced by a CR-scaled mod and consumable system?

On gearing expectations, from Mepps:

If that's how it could be, they need to fix it, the compromise for the new marks system was to always have 12 pieces of content at all times.

It is fixed after this first trio of episodes. They only messed it up by making Elite Gear IL higher with Episodes 16-17. Going forward, the 12 pieces will be the rule.

Someone actually used "common" correctly. My thanks!

Something is still a little off with a progression system that requires an entire (lengthy) guide to get your head around though. lol

Heh, it'll be simpler starting with Episode 18. This trio of episodes is pretty messed up.

It's fixed after, but during that month (maybe more of you got the gear fast) you are stuck with 10 pieces of content, which isn't fair for something that isn't our fault.

Agreed. It's really only going to effect the folks who chase the Elite gear, but still, you're correct.

Also, you lose the content as soon as you reach 142, so if you reach 141.45, any piece of elite gear could push you to 142, you wouldn't need the whole set to go over the cap.

Added a Cumulative <gear set> Max CR to the chart, so you can see how your CR will change from episode to episode, if you only go for one type of gear (e.g., Vendor).

Added an explanation from Mepps on how gear progression is viewed by the Devs.

This is a fine guide, as you always do, Remander, and thank you for it, but as a note, I have to suggest that any system this complex and needing this complicated an explanation to understand is not really an ideal system.

Keep It Simple, Stupid is a good principle.

Well, as a disclaimer, I didn't create the system.

Added a chart describing the Episode 18-20 gear progression. This should be the trend going forward.

There is something that is really concerning me about progression as I project it into future episodes. Starting at Episode 21 we *should* have a very predictable evenly progressable gearing system. What I mean by this is that Total Obtainable CR should increase by about 10.35 CR (maybe +1.15 CR additional depending on implementation) every 3 months. So far content will dropped off every 4 CR. So for example Episode 15 drops off at CR 152, Episode 16 at CR 156, Episode 17 at CR 160. This allows for the very easy drop off of 2 unique pieces of content.

Now I would assume that the entry CR for the next 3 month cycle would be full vendor gear. Which means for Episodes 18-20 the entry CR should be 139. Then for Episodes 21-23 the entry CR should be 149. This is my assumption based on what they did for the entry into Episodes 15-17.

Now with Elite 4-Man (Alerts) we learned that the Elite version is its own lockout which essentially adds a piece of content to the relevancy. If Elite 8-Man (Raids) stay with the same lockout system then in third Episode which cycle you would have 2 pieces of content relevant. This would give you a total of 7 pieces of content relevant each cycle.

If this all remains true then we get some weird relevancies by the end of Episode 26 which should follow something like:

• 21 Relevant Content for a 4 CR range - 285 weekly marks
• 19 Relevant Content for a 4 CR range - 261 weekly marks
• 16 Relevant Content for a 1 CR range - 214 weekly marks
• 23 Relevant Content for a 3 CR range - 309 weekly marks

The pattern repeats but 16 is replaced by 26(at the end of Episode 32) and then back to 16 in the next block. There is a slightly different but similar pattern at the end of Episode 23. The weirdness "ramps up" at the start of Episode 18.

If you don't include the Elite 4-Man you just lower the counts by 3. There would be a minimum of 16 pieces of content relevant including the Elite 4-Man and 14 relevant without the Elite 4-Man. As you can see by weekly marks there is a deviant of at least 80 marks a week between different CR ranges.

So I am wondering two things:

1. Is the entry CR for each new cycle going to not include as much/need more than just vendor gear?
2. Will the drop off CR points be more than 4 CR apart each Episode for some of the Episodes?

I am *likely* overanalyzing the system (I tend to do that) but with such an elegant, predictable and very projectable system like this it seems odd when I see a large relevancy/mark award discrepancy.

All of the data I used is located in the Progression (WIP) tab of the chart I posted in the CR Relevancy Chart thread for anyone interested. I stuck with a 3's IL system and a 4's drop off system to project everything.

Good thoughts, SS. It's clear that the relevancy banding is still a WiP, based on current issues and those brought up by me in this thread and you in your analysis. I can only assume they are monitoring this and have plans. As you said, this system is much more predictable than what we've had to date. Should be easy enough to fit the relevancy banding into it.

If we are not going to include the "extras" (bounty, Elite, etc.) and not future content then the CR drop off points for everything in Episode 14 should be upped by 2 CR and everything in Episode 15&16 by 1 CR. Came to that conclusion after looking at my various charts.

Prepare for a lot of "I only have 10 pieces of content to run" threads with each Episode release for the foreseeable future unless DGC makes some preemptive changes. *hint hint*

This is all because of the decision to include the IL 123 chest, legs, back and waist in Desecrated Cathedral (Elite) instead of staying at IL 120. Le sigh.

Yeah, I recommended against that, but whatever. I still don't see why they had to up the CR of the Elite Gear this go around. Fortunately, that gets fixed starting with Episode 18.

Please note: I have not updated the Episode 18-20 table to reflect gear crafting. I will try and do that sometime soon. I am waiting to see what they do with gear crafting for Episodes 15-17 first.