right now I'm doing the heroic missions and am level 94 ish. I expect that once I am around 97 my box team will be able to do Reign of Fear stuff, which I'm guessing pushes me to 100, if not all the way to 105. However, I'm looking at the Kunark gear and it's far, far, far superior than the gear I see at other lvl 100-105 gear. So, I know I can't go from Fear Touched gear to Kunark as I'll likely get slaughtered. What is the natural progression from 95 to 105 in terms of zones / expansion and gear? Like do Reign of Fear to 100, then do this to 105. Then, at 105, farm until x, then go to here and farm until y, then you are ready for kunark. Side note - I just saw Reign of Fear includes old school Velious zones. I remember when the expansion came out, and it is by far my favorite expansion to date Probably just because of the state of the game back then, but I'm excited to kill Vindy in a group setting
You can go from Fear Touched to the lvl 100 gear from CoTF gruop vendor. Then I would do TBM missions and save up that currency for 105 gear. Then use the TBM 105 gear to get EoK 105 gear. You don't need a full set of TBM 105 but it will really help you get from lvl 100 CoTF to 105 EoK.
So essentially skip the expansion The Darkened Sea then? I've been banking a lot of currency from CoTF missions from the daily heroics, so that should be easy to upgrade at 100. I was going to just bazaar shop at 100, but if I can get the stuff for "free", then that is beneficial. however, that stuff is prestige, and 2 of my 5 accounts are gold. So, for non prestige gear upgrade, is it best to bazaar shop at 100 / farm named mobs?
so I looked at the lvl 100 CotF gear, and it's not prestige, but lvl 95 gear is...I don't understand their reasoning behind what is and what isn't prestige, but I'll take that
Lvl 95 stuff is like 366 marks and about equivalent to fear touched. They probably did not want to drvalue RoF stuff too much. Lvl 100 stuff comes in two shapes: Latent Ether you can get off HA named thats not prestige and goes for 960 marks. It is about 25% better than fear touched. (2500hp). Then you got T2 manifested ether that is prestige and costs about 1150 marks. (2800hp class) But really, your priority should be lvl 100 merc gear if you use mercs and varios rype 7 augs. Lvl 95 guy in particular has some good ones. Lvl 90 also has nice type 7 augs. Problem with darkened sea is it is too progression heavy. You need to accomplish a lot before you get to HA that award decent amounts of currency. And castaway stuff is only marginally better than latent etheric. Not prestige though. I would say TBM is best bet for a number of reasons. You have access to rather rewarding missions after only a couple quests. You can get template items from a vendor in tranquility and type 9 and 5 augs from a vendor in health, you get lvl 100 gear thays not prestige and in 3000+ hp range. And it got foci that do not decay on spells over lvl 100. Chests in these missions drop like 4-5 essences a pop so you can get your RkII spells in no time. And trash can drop real nice type 5 augs. And these missions are generally quite quickk and easy. And unlike marks of valor, TBM stuff can be sold back at a slight loss. And you can buy remnants on bazaar though you should get plenty just running the missions. Exp kinda blah though.
Progression progression progression. There are so many benefits to starting at RoF expansion and doing all quest lines on up. Rewards in augs, Heroic Fort/vitality upgrades, Niche items that maybe the a cool pulling item or .. clicky or illusion. Help you fill out those achievements too which offer you bags, items, rewards in aa's etc. Not to mention you get to see the gambit of the game and partake in the lore that is out there. There is always those Dead HIlls HA number crunching exp runs out there and will be there in some way or shape. Where is the fun in that thou! Take time, smell the roses and do some progression. Might as well take in the sights while they are there.
Right now I'm in sort of a push to lvl 100 as that is the next tier in gear. then, once I'm at 100, I feel I'll slow down quite a bit and just progress. I really want to do the RoF expansion as I'm a very old school player, I've been around since Kunark originally came out, so to experience Velious at a high level sounds awesome to me. Hell, I saw Vindy up the other day and got goosebumps (the lvl 101 version).
