Help me spend my plat, or....

[Socko]

<DIV>... What would you do?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ok, here goes. As of this posting, I am a 37 paladin, Najena Server, in a casual guild. We raid sometimes, but not frequently, and we only have two 50s in the guild, so only about a quarter of us are T5 or real close to it. I have NEVER been MT on one of these raids. We have two guardians at my level, and a few more Tank classes a level or two higher than me. I solo a fair bit, but I do tend to do guild groups, and when I do, about half the time, I'm MT. I'm using imbued feysteel bp right now, and the rest of my armor is standard T4 fare. My question to pose for you, my esteemed peers, is thus: I have about 2.5 pp. That figures to grow quickly as I get into the T5 zones heavily. With the new combat changes being largely unknown/unspecified, and the expansion imminent, would you all advise I A) save till T5 and buy ebon armor, imbued, and as much of it as I can. B) Pick several CAs to upgrade to adept III (maybe even a master or two). Or C) Save my pp and wait for the expansion, and with it the new rare T6 armor. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I've been rolling this around in my head since I hit 36, and have still not come to a satisfactory desicion. Guildies are split evenly between buying ebon now and waiting. Therefor, it falls to you, friends. Help me decide what path will serve my guild, and therfor myself, best.</DIV>

[RiotActer]

Wait... Ebon will last you till 50, but I'm sure there will be better stuff out there when the expansion hits.  I'm on Najena too, unless you have some Ebon replacements, you're going to pay more than 2.5p per piece.  If you are not a MT, then quest armor / stay in normal.  If you begin to Raid in T5 zones, then you'll probably get some ebon drops.  I feel if it's dropped, then get it crafted. I'd hold off on spell upgrades till after the re-vamp of combat.  If you have rares, hold onto them.  You will probably be in T5 two times longer than T4...  The last few levels too a while for me. Read though the boards and see what other say...  <div></div>

[Socko]

Over the past 10 days or so, ebon has been on the broker for about 2.5. Saw it Sat. night for 2.25, even. Then again, last night cheapest was 3pp, so it fluctuates quite alot. I'm kind of leaning toward just getting common/quested equipment except maybe a piece or two of fulginate imbued, then spending on adept III/masters once the revamp hits.

[Oakbr]

Ebon armor is nice.  My pally is level 48, and has imbued BP, Legs, and Weapon, along with shoulders and forearms.  There's a notciable difference when soloing particularly difficult fights, and I consider the armor well worth the price.  That said, at this point I might want to wait before buying more.  The DoF expansion is what...about 6 weeks away now?  Something like that.  If SoE follows the typical pattern they did in EQ1, the expansion will feature new and improved gear for high level players, and probably cause the price of pre-expansion gear to fall considerably.  If you're level 37 today, in six weeks time, you'll likely be somewhere in the low 40s when the expansion goes live.  The prices won't bottom out over night, but they'll likely start to fall almost immediately.  I'd expect that between 2-4 weeks after the expansion, the price of ebon armor will be somewhere close to half what it's running now. Likewise, until we know what the combat changes are going to be, you might wish to hold on to any opals, ruthenium, rubies, or rhodium you find, and then upgrade spells/arts knowing what the changes actually are.  Exceptions to this would apply for obvious, no brainer upgrades, like heals for Pallys, or Nil Distortion for warlocks...

[Talz]

<P>I would just go with fulganite.  You can save your money for things you may not upgrade (DoF rares) until another tier is added someday.  Ebon is nice but if your guild doesn't have a decent stream of ebon coming in you may be spending a lot of money on items you'll be looking to replace in ten levels.  Ebon will be like Feysteel.  It's nice but for most players it really doesn't impact your gameplay.</P>