Weapon and armor deadzone

[Sanctus]

<DIV>I'm really looking for some advice.  I've been using the same weapons since level 18.  At 10.4 damage rating each, it seems to be the best possible rating between 18-29.  While it was fantastic at first, starting around 25 I noticed my leveling pace being very sluggish.  I've kept an eagle eye on the broker and on any quests for replacements, but I've yet to see anything better than 10.4 until level 30.  Am I just missing some awesome set of weapons somewhere?  Many of the weapons in the mid or late 20s sold on the broker are actually worse than 10.4.  It's been feeling like there is an artifically created "hell level" range between 25 and 30 due to the lack of weapons and I could really use any advice or assistance.  I don't know if the new patch messed with weapon balancing, but it's getting to be quite a grueling grind to 30.</DIV>

[Fumbles]

Your doing better then me, I am using all lvl 10 stuff besides the imbued carbonite bp with no spell upgrades besides trainings. I am using a maple fighting baton and a blackened iron rapier or the class 2hander to raise all skills. I have no problem soloing in TS and at lvl 24 I was dropping the lvl 27 v's near varsoon with very little down time (i did use both food and drink and totems for regens).

[Stuntie]

<P>various options include:</P> <P>Quest weapons such as Berik and Ghoulbane.<BR>Get the weapon imbued.<BR>Get none pristine Feyiron weapons as they have a lower lvl to use.<BR>Get a rare and have a weapon made.</P> <P>The weapons change by teir, and people assume Pristine is the only possible one to buy, so they miss out on potential upgrades with non-pristines.<BR>Weaponsmiths don't make many non-pristines normally, but can do one at your level if asked.</P> <P>I've been using Feyiron since crude levels.  But I'm also a weaponsmith, so it's easy for me to get hold of them.</P>

[xandez]

After you hit lvl 30, i would advice to find an oak (T4 rare wood) and have also glowing(? not sure if this was the T4 one) extract made and find a woodworker who can make you a pristine imbued oak greatstaff... that would please you i would say, and when you hit 40, the same drill just use a cedar and luminous extract this time <span>:smileyvery-happy:</span> You can find pretty nice and decent prized armours in brokers, and if you do some quests for it... Anyway, i think a good weapon is more important unless youre tanking a lot. And if you are you'd prolly wanna use a 1-hander and a shield over a 2-hander (not me, but im just weird maybe <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ) ++Xan <div></div>

[GurgTheBash]

<DIV>Hrm...I have difficulty honestly answering this one, as I worked with a nice two-hand sword from 21-30, thinking the huge damage was an advantage (turns out I was probably wrong, as from 30-43, duals has been the best way to go for me, and weapons tend to last 5-10 levels, and the pristine imbueds are my second choice, if there's no good heritage dual-wield available for the level).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What I CAN suggest, however, is that from about 25 to 30, you don't much worry about damage dealing, and simply camp RoV and Nek Castle (and other instanced zones) with a group, pulling mobs for XP...I did 25 to 30 in a fairly quick step simply grouping for XP in RoV, and working the golem pulling rooms, using skills to hold aggro...once I hit 30, I was able to aquire and use the heritage tomohawk and an imbued spatha for 30-40, and those weapons did better 35-40 (post patch) than they did 30-35 (pre-patch).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For me, 30-35 were the slow steps, soloing in Zek and EL, and having to be careful about pulls due to groups that were conning improperly compared to what dmg they did, and how hard they were to kill, suprise appearances of aggro heroics adding on me, and so on (like the damned lashers that are now labeled as triple ups in EL which were formerly only labeled as heroics)</DIV>

[z2xm]

<DIV>I rememeber using I believe a steal lance, not a player made one but one from a chest, I believe it had something like a 3.8 delay on it and was pretty cheap and common.  It was nice, also in the late 20's work on the shiny brass halbred weapon as it is quite good, 26 to start and 28 to weild unless I don't remember correctly.  It will last until you complete the deathfist citadel access quest in zek and get either treebane or mammoth.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Or as others have said buy/harvest a steel/fir (20-29) or a feysteel/oak (30-39) and get an extract from the same tier and have a weaponsmith make something.  </DIV>

[Ni]

<DIV>Someone suggested Ghoulbane. Well, Weakened Ghoulbane at your level. Ghoulbane is basically impossible to complete right now since the Cauldron Hollow instance is mega-over-powered right now. Level 30 mobs charmed our level 50 zerker and he basically took out the raid. Funny in retrospect only.</DIV>

[Stuntie]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <P></P> <HR> <P>z2xm wrote:<BR></P> <DIV>I rememeber using I believe a steel lance, not a player made one but one from a chest...</DIV> <DIV><BR> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, lances are dropped or NPC merchant bought. For some reason SOE neglected to give Weaponsmith any Lance recipes at all....<BR>