Damianos wrote: »

Spidersnacks wrote: »

I'm a new player, currently leveling up a Magblade for PvP. I'm v102 and I've been enjoying PvE as well and it seems like the PvE and PvP all require crafted sets that need 7 or 8 traits researched. I've been pretty diligent on researching traits for all the crafts but I'm only 4 or 5 traits into most of my gear. 7 and 8 traits seems far away and I'm not sure how I'll want to progress when I hit 160 without being able to craft those sets or pay money I don't have for the pieces.

Any help on general gear progression for magblade once I hit 160 is greatly appreciated.

What platform/server are you on?

davey1107 wrote: »

There aren't that many good craft sets, honestly. Right now BIS are drop sets...but before you grind these, it's true the backup sets are crafted. Julianos is good, that's a 6 trait set. But probably the most popular is Twice Born Star, that's an...ugh...9 trait set. If you're at 4 traits it's going to take you like four months to be able to craft five pieces of TBS.

If you need a craft set once you hit 160, it's pretty easy to get these made for cheap. There are tons of master crafters in the game now. Your best bet is to collect the mats, then put out a zone or guild chat saying what you want specifically. In most cases people will respond and assist. Make sure to say you have mats...and know exactly what you want before getting them involved (set, which items, style, trait). If you're wanting a more rare style that's fine...just specify in your text chat, and have the style mats just in case.

I respond to such chats all the time if I'm just out messing around. Like a lot of crafters, I'll tell the person if they have the mats then I'll do it for whatever they want to tip. Feel free to make sure they're ok with the tip in advance. For a set of TBS, sometimes people give 5-10k gold, sometimes a single gold mat, sometimes 5 or so purples like grain solvents. Often an extra bolt of ancestor silk or whatever. Given that armor pieces can cost $20k each in guild stores, tipping a crafter should be a pretty small expense...and you can definitely find something that has value, but which you got in the game free somewhere.

As for recommended gear setup for a pvp magblade...hmm. For your base set, TBS and Julianos will both serve you well. I've always personally liked Julianos better...it's a simpler dps buff set offering decent crit increase and really good spell damage boost. TBS probably outperforms it if you know exactly what you're doing, but for most won't be a huge difference. I also like Julianos because my magblade has ALL his armor and weapons in Julianos legendary. Then no matter which pieces of other hard-to-grind drop sets he manages to get, he can configure different setups. You can do this w TBS too, but it's annoying since you lose the Mundas stone when changing armor.

Once you pick a base set, you can fill in the rest. Your options are pretty open. You can do a 5/4/1 confit with 4'items from a second set and single monster shoulder that has a good 1 trait buff. Or you can go 5/3/2 with a full monster set and three pieces of jewelry (willpower would be best here.)

You can also get a little wacky and do what I often do with a 2h weapon character and gear up in a 5-4/4-5/2 configuration. That's confusing...it simply means pick a offensive and defensive set and gear up so that the active sets switch when you switch weapons. For example, you wear four pieces of Julianos and have a Julianos destro staff. Then you wear four pieces of shroud of the lich and have a lich restro staff. In offense mode, you're getting the 300 spell damage. In defense, your magic recovery buff can click in.

Specific supplemental sets could be Seducer w willpower jewelry. Shroud of the lich. Vicious death if it's not broken. Mothers sorrow. It's not a huge deal, honestly...you'll hone your build as you learn and work up CPs, and any secondary set you pick now probably won't be permanent. So don't stress too much over which one. If you go for a monster helm set, your best bet is to watch the weekend golden vendor and pick up a solid magic one when one pops up.