Newbie question about monk gear

[Mills007]

<DIV>I keep hearing the term "tier" come up in regards to harvesting, crafting, and gear.  I guess my question is in regards to these tiers as they pertain to whatgear I should be using at what levels.  How many levels are items good for?  At what level should I go up to the next tier?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What would be most helpful to me is something like the following:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Level:</DIV> <DIV>Tier:</DIV> <DIV>Weapons:</DIV> <DIV>Armor:</DIV> <DIV>Jewelry:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So, it might look something like this:</DIV> <DIV>Level: 10-15</DIV> <DIV>Tier: 2</DIV> <DIV>Weapons: Imbued Maple (common), Imbued Elm (rare), Qeynos Fighter's Gear (quest)</DIV> <DIV>Armor: whatever (common), whatever (rare), whatever (quest/drop)</DIV> <DIV>Jewelry: whatever (common), whatever (rare), whatever (quest/drop)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Please don't beat me up for the example above, just throwing a couple things out there.  If there are different things for, like, weapons (fist vs staff vs hammer) please list those as you guys can.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, any gear that is better/comparable from quests or drops at each tier would be swell (like the AQ gear from the early 20's vs gear at whatever tier covers those levels as well... similar to what I've included above).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just looking for some input as to what I should be wearing/using at my different levels.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks in advance!</DIV>

[Gaige]

<P>Tiers in this game refer to 10 block chunks:</P> <P>1 to 10 - Tier 1</P> <P>10 to 20 - Tier 2</P> <P>20 to 30 - Tier 3</P> <P>30 to 40 - Tier 4</P> <P>40 to 50 - Tier 5</P> <P>Crafted items last an entire tier.  So a t1 crafted staff would last from 1 to 10.</P> <P>Quested/dropped items differ, it depends on the item.</P> <P>As for what's best, that's up to you, but a really good start would be to read the Monk FAQ <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <p>Message Edited by Gage-Mikel on <span class=date_text>07-06-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:16 PM</span>

[Desulto]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Gage-Mikel wrote:<BR> <P>As for what's best, that's up to you, but a really good start would be to read the Monk FAQ <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Message Edited by Gage-Mikel on <SPAN class=date_text>07-06-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>03:16 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>That is an excellent suggestion.  I learned so much and saved so much time and money when I started my monk by reading that.<BR>

[Doug]

<DIV>I am fairly new to the game, got it 2 nights ago, and find myself at level 14.  I have no idea what these "tiers" even are and can not find an explanation in the faq.  Can anyone elaborate on what the tiers are?  (not the levels of the tiers as you described Gage, that makes good sense, but like what the "tiers" represent in terms of quality and how I can tell what is what tier.... did that make sense?)</DIV>

[Gaige]

<P>Tiers really just represent whats available to you as you level.  As you level in T2 for example (your teens) crafters are also leveling in their teens, and the mobs/quests you do will drop loot for your general level.  The things you harvest will be used for t2 harvesting, etc.</P> <P>Other than that, there isn't really any merit to them.</P> <P>Is t5 better than t2?  Yes, but of course you can't use t5 until you are level 40.</P> <DIV>Oh, as for item quality you have:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Handcrafted:  Made by crafters out of common materials.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Treasured:  Dropped from normal/named mobs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Legendary:  Crafted out of rare materials, heritage quest rewards, rare quest rewards.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Fabled:  Master chest drops, raid mob drops, or crafted from raid dropped components.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mythical:  Pretty much super ultra rare, usually only one such item on a server, only a few of these special types of things.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Also, of course, the further down the list, generally, the better the item will be.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Gage-Mikel on <span class=date_text>07-06-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:53 PM</span>

[Mills007]

<DIV>I have read the FAQ, but I never saw anything about gear by tiers, so I thought I'd ask the original question.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks for the info breaking down tiers by level.  That is a great place to start.  What I'd like to know now is what is the common, rare, and quest/drop gear that corresponds to each tier.  For example, at T2, what is the common crafted monk gear, rare crafted monk gear, and what alternate quest/drop gear is good at that tier?  I'm not too worried about T1, as that only lasts a couple hours of play time anyhow, but once I've got a little change in my pocket at T2, what gear should I be looking for, weapons, armor, and jewelry?  Someting like:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><U>T2</U></DIV> <DIV>Armor - common crafted, rare crafted, and quest/drop</DIV> <DIV>Weapon - common crafted, rare crafted, and quest/drop</DIV> <DIV>Jewelry - common crafted, rare crafted, and quest/drop</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks</DIV>

[bonesbro]

Just search the broker for yellow and orange items <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div>

[SirensSong]

<P>Ok, well, that question is basically asking us to hold your hand and guide you from armor piece to armor piece; it's kinda noat about that.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  But I will tell you at lvl 20 you can start doing your Armor Quest for stuff that will last you through 30.  The lady for Monk AQ is a little halfling just inside South Qeynos when zoning from North.  Selwyn Oakhart is her name.</P>

[Gaige]

<P>Yeah there are <EM>thousands</EM> of items/armor/weapons out there, and there is no way I'm going to try to make a list of all of it for you.</P> <P>When buying on the broker search from white con to orange con, and buy the best stuff for each slot that you can afford, do all the city/newbie area quests you can (good pants quest in NQ tailor shop, for example) and explore a lot.</P> <P>Once you start looking at the broker as you level you'll notice what the crafted stuff is for your tier, simply by the label it has.</P> <P>Also, as mentioned, at 20 you can start your chainweave gi AQ in SQ <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Mills007]

<P>Based on your responses, appearantly I'm mistaken.  I thought that, for example, at T2, there was a crafted common armor for monks, a crafted rare armor, and a set of quest armor that was considered the "norm" for that tier.  For example, the level 20 AQ stuff would be the "norm" for quested gear at T3.  I was under the impression that there was a common crafted armor for monks at T3 and a rare crafted armor at T3 for monks.  I'm not asking you to list every piece of armor.  I'm not even asking for your opinion of what the "best" armor is at a given tier.  I'm asking for a table that shows what the common and rare crafted and equivalent quested armor is for the different tiers.</P> <P>Again, as an example, the elm strongboxes are the T1 common crafted strongboxes.  I'm not sure what the rare crafted T1 strongbox would be (or if there even is one).  An equivalent T1 pack might be from the Bootstrutters tour quest.  Again, it's just an example, but I hope I'm more clearly articulating what I'm looking for.</P>

[Desulto]

<P>For the crafted light and very light armor, at least T3-T5, you can view them on eq2tailors.com.  Has pictures and stats for the rare and common pieces.</P> <P>The AQ armor is generally considered very good armor for T3.  From my understanding, at T4 and T5 the crafted items are pretty good, although there is a post somewhere on this board about the quested armor available for those tiers and when to upgrade.  I'll see if I can find it and post a link.</P> <P>The reason you can't get a simple table of what's available is because of what Gaige said...there are entirely too many different pieces to list.  About the only way you'll find out about dropped fabled/rare armor is to either search on ogaming's item database, or find the items yourself.  Even ogaming doesn't have everything (but it has far more than the eq2players item database).</P> <P>The quested items are the only ones you'll be able to get a list for, and except for T1 and T2 your best resource IMHO is to check eq2tailors.  Hopefully that helps.</P> <DIV>EDIT: Here's the link to the <A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=6&message.id=18340&query.id=104390#M18340" target=_blank>post I mentioned</A>.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Desultory on <span class=date_text>07-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:51 AM</span>

[Mills007]

<P>The link and the referrence to EQ2 Tailors are both helpful.  I guess I'm just having trouble finding what I'm looking for.  For example, I know that fro T1, crafted tin items are common and crafted bronze items are rare (for those who use items crafted from mineral resources), at T3 carbonite is the common and steel is the rare, etc.</P> <P>I'm just looking for the monk (light armor) versions of the common and rare crafted gear by tiers.</P> <P>Based on what I've seen, I'm going to make the following assumptions for staves:</P> <P><U>T2</U></P> <P>Maple (common)     Bone (rare)</P> <P><U>T3</U></P> <P>Ash (common)     Fir (rare)</P> <P><U>T4</U></P> <P>Briar Wood (common)     Oak (rare)</P> <P>Does that look correct to those of you in the know?  How about for other monk weapons?  What would be quest/drop weapons by tier that would be roughly equivalent?</P> <P> </P> <P>Again, not looking for all the items in the game, just the gear that "defines" the tier.</P>

[Desulto]

<DIV>You just need a list of rare components then.  That's easy to find, just look in the tradeskill forums.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>However, I'm going to reiterate what Gaige already said:  There are too many items to give you a list of quested/dropped equivalents for every tier.  I doubt such a list even exists.  Even if you wanted a list of every common/rare crafted item you'd be hard pressed to find such a list because there would be hundreds of items.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For armor, there are only two types of pelts for rare and common for every tier.  The common pelt is prefaced with the word "sullied" and the rare pelt is capitalized, for example for T3 you have sullied medium quality pelt and Medium Quality Pelt.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>To see a full list and some explanation of rares and commons for crafting, I recommend <A href="http://eq2.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index&func=display&ceid=199&meid=114" target=_blank>this site</A>.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>TBH, I think you're a little too hung up on this, but hopefully you find the answers.  I suggest, as I said before, checking eq2.ogaming.com for items per tier.  You can search by level range.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Good luck.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>EDIT: Thought I should add there will be an animal name in the pelt name, but it's irrelevant.  You can have badger, armadillo, mole rate, bear, etc.  None of that matters, just suillied or not.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Desultory on <span class=date_text>07-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:06 PM</span>

[Gaige]

<P>Correct, if you search you can find numerous posts about the various rares/commons for each node type for each tier.</P> <P>That will get you started.</P> <P>As for drop/quest equivalents... that's just too much to list <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[SirensSong]

I've noticed that for most classes there *is* a type of armor that's kind of "standard" per tier, esp the heavy armor classes.  However, that isn't really the case for monks.  With the exception of the Chainweave AQ armor, there isn't any one thing that's right or wrong.  You just have to look and pick what's best for you as far as stats and price.  I started wearing the Emerald Hide armor after 35, which can be quested in Zek.  Now I wear some Enchanted Thicket Woven pieces, and I'm replacing those gradually for items w/ more AC as I lvl up.  When I was young I wore whatever I could scrounge up b/c I was really poor.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Crunion]

<P>also when harvesting / buying pelts you will notice 2 quality lvls per tier a suilled version and non-sullied version. The sullied version will make the common armor for you and the non-sullied version will make the rare.</P> <P> </P> <P>sullied medium quality (type) pelt -  common</P> <P>sullied superb quality (type) pelt - common</P> <P> </P> <P>medium quality (type) pelt - rare</P> <P>superb quality (type) pelt - rare</P> <P> </P> <P>as far as I recall the pelts are as follows  -  superb (tier5), high quality (tier4), medium quality (tier3), low quality (tier2).</P> <P>okay i seem to be missing one. if someone could fill it in you will have the pelt order for when buying or harvesting.</P> <P> </P>

[Desulto]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Crunion wrote:<BR> <P>as far as I recall the pelts are as follows  -  superb (tier5), high quality (tier4), medium quality (tier3), low quality (tier2).</P> <P>okay i seem to be missing one. if someone could fill it in you will have the pelt order for when buying or harvesting.</P> <P></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>T5 = Superb</P> <P>T4 = High</P> <P>T3 = Medium</P> <P>T2 = Average</P> <P>T1 = Low</P> <P>That's basically what I said earlier, but I didn't list each type.<BR></P>

[Navulat]

<P>For Leather Armor:</P> <P>Teir 2: common = Tanned; rare = Cured </P> <P>Teir 3: common = Boiled; rare = Cuirbolli</P> <P>Teir 4: common = Etched; rare = Engraved </P> <P>Teir 5: common = Strengthened; rare = Augmented</P> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For wood Weapons: </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Teir 2: maple; bone</DIV> <DIV>Teir 3: ash; fir</DIV> <DIV>Teir 4: briarwood; oak</DIV> <DIV>Teir 5: teak; cedar</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For Metals:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Teir 2: iron; blackened iron</DIV> <DIV>Teir 3: carbonite; steel</DIV> <DIV>Teir 4: feyiron; feysteel</DIV> <DIV>Teir 5: fulginite; ebon</DIV>

[Cyngii]

<DIV>Something else to keep in mind... even though they aren't quite as good, you can get dropped versions of crafted rare items.  LIke you can get dropped oak batons for T4 that are close but not quite the same as crafted oak batons and don't have the same level range... same goes for armor too.</DIV>

[Mills007]

Thanks, Navulat... that is like what I am looking for.