Sunday, February 21, 2010

[Guide] Assassindom part.1: gear

Foreword
Welcome to Assassindom, a comprehensive guide to 1.6 pvp assassin. I will be taking you step by step from freshly "dinged" 80 lvl assassin to a pvp monster that it has become. In this series you will learn most basic stuff so you can build on it and progress to more advanced topics.
So without further bull shit lets get on with the guide.

Leveling process
I strongly encourage you to focus 100% on leveling. Assassin very much relies on optimized DPS output with survivablity staying on the very same level all the time. In other words: the more feat points are available to you the better you get at killing stuff. Also since minigames are going to be your main source of pvp xp being 80lvl will land you much more games. Finally pre 80lvl minigames are often filled with people trying out their alts and they tend not to be as competitive as 80lvl ones where you will be learning much more.

80 lvl
So you are finally 80lvl. This usually means that you are wearing crap gear. Gear is very important. Your combat efficiency will be measured in you ability to stay alive in a pvp scenario and you will be staying alive mostly by quickly dispatching whatever is thrown at you. Speed is of the essence. The proper gear can greatly improve your overall performance and enjoyment you are getting from pvping. 

There is but one common trap:
Go to pvp with crap gear, die a lot, join raids, get epic tier 1, start doing pvp again, die again, get epic tier 2 and so on. 
People often assume that gear upgrade alone can improve your game play. While this is true to some extend the best way to improve your game play is by playing. Do not expect getting better at pvp by doing pve.How sad is that? This is ofcourse not aimed at people who balance their game time by doing raiding and pvp, but at those who would say "I only need hood and gloves and I can finally start doing some pvp". I have had conversations like that 0_o.
If you are going to be doing some raiding in order to get gear for pvp then its fine as long as you activly engage in pvp. My philosophy is doing pvp in order to get pvp gear for more pvp, but thats just me. Either way is fine I guess.

The set
If you cannot or are not willing to raid then you still have one great option: cultural gear. Our cultural gear is called Bossonian Prowler set. In lore the Bossonians were great marksmen, the first line of defence for kingdom of Aquilonia agaist the dreaded Picts. In "Beyond the black river" story by Robert E. Howard Conan literally stalked and killed Picts in the wilderness in a way that is synonymous with assassination. So contrary to the common belief: the name of the set is fitting the lore.
Since the set is missing two pices you will have to suplement it with Steel silk arm straps and bracers. Don't worry - it fits the visual style of Bossonian set.
As for cloak I am using Cloak of Champions for that little survivality boost it provides.

Daggers
Asuran ceremonial daggers will serve you will till high end epic replacement 

Rings and necklace
Eye of the watcher and energetic band x 2 will add up much needed DPS

The cost
With the introduction of the Guild renown system the price of every item in game has gone up: from the very basic resources to the high end cultural gear. Since culutral gear set can be exchanged for massive renown gain do not be suprised if you will be seeing the above mentioned items on trader for several dozens of gold pices. You have two options:
#1 Find a friend/guildie that can craft the set, farm the mats yourself and get it for a fraction of the prices
#2 Farm the money and buy it yourself

Since option #1 is available to the very few most of us will have to get the set the old fasion way: farming mats. By gathering basalt and duskmetal you can be getting up to 10 gold per hour and thats not ever counting the bonus rare resources: every once in a while you will find some rare that can land you from 50s to 1g extra money. You will be also attacked by 80lvl NPC which drop steelsilk (great coin nowdays) and good gems (another reason to get to lvl 80 before getting into pvp)
Here are some tips on how to get the most bang for your buck:

1# ideally contact someone that can make items you want. Usually when you say that you will be buying whole set from one person you will get a better price.

2# trade resources for the set. Some people will be willing to make the set in exchange for the tier 3 resources with a higher price. So let say that basalt in 3,5g per stack you could easly make an agreement that your stack will be counted as 4g when trading for Bossonian set

3# do not sell your resources all at once: some times the prices will be a little lower because there are a lot of resources on the trader and sometimes the price will get bumped up a bit (basic rule of supply and demand)

4# undercut for quick coin. Always check the the lowest price and trader: if it higher than the usual then put your resources on trader with a price 1s lower. Since there is no quality diffrence between resources people will always go with the cheapest mats.

Gemming
When you have your set completed then it is time to gem it. There is no magic formula: stuff the set with combat rating gems and call it a day. The gems will come cheap so don't worry.
Upgrading
As you go aquire your pvp/epic pve pices feel free to upgrade and wear them over the Bossonian set.


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