Leveling Gear: Purple vs Blue vs Green

nate1980 · October 2018

I like using a variety of weapons and armor while leveling, usually based on the level of the item. But now I'm starting to get blues and purples and I have no idea when a blue becomes better than a purple, a green over a blue, or a green over a purple while leveling. It's easy enough to compare when it's a 2 hander vs a 2 hander, but the lines are very blurry when comparing a light vs heavy armor piece, or 1h vs a 2h. I know in other MMO's, a purple may be better than any green you get for 9 levels or more, whereas a blue maybe only about 5 levels. The way gear is weighted in this game is unknown to me, so it's hard to figure if the item that drops is actually an upgrade or not to what I'm using, unless of course, it's the same item as I mentioned earlier.

ghastley · October 2018

Does it matter much while leveling? You're outgrowing the items almost before you read the tooltip. Spreading your XP gain around the armour weights, and weapon types is beneficial regardless of the qualities of the item. You get a lot more damage from your skills than the tools themselves, so I'd only bother about it when I obviously need to swap out an outgrown item, and then there probably are several equally good choices of new stuff in what you've picked up.

Save the mix/max until you're done with the leveling.

Royaji · October 2018

To answer your question: general rule is that one upgrade level is equivalent to one "crafted-gear-level-step". So a level 30 purple is equivalent to level 32 blue, level 34 green and level 36 white.

Although your approach to gearing might make stuff more difficult as you go (depending on how far you plan on going). It's a good idea to choose one armor weight and wear at least 5 pieces of it. Complimenting it with 1 and 1 pieces of other two weights to level their respective skill lines. Switching through different weapons won't hurt you that much but if you aspire to go beyond overworld questing it's a good idea to make up your mind and run a weapon setup that is at least viable for you preffered role. You are not going far if you want to deal damage with sword and shield.

NyxWrench · October 2018

For the base stats, one quality increase is roughly the equivalent to one level increase. (Note: one level increase is also roughly the equivalent of a 10 CP increase, up until you hit CP 160.) However the set bonuses, if any, are closer to 2 item levels per quality increase.

So if you have a level 34 purple, a level 35 blue is probably roughly equivalent (or a tiny bit worse), and a level 36 blue or level 37 green is likely worth using as a replacement (assuming the trait is just as good or better).

I remember working out that shields (and armor in general, I think) had their defense drop by 40 points for every level you were above the item. That's also roughly how much you gain by improving the item quality by a tier (though I don't remember the exact amount).

For changing weapon types, there is no real good comparison, as each of them work differently, and allow the use of different skill sets. If you want to try a new weapon type, just get something of your current level and go from there, rather than try to compare it to a different quality different weapon. Each one plays differently, so it's more about figuring out what you like than worrying about which is 'better', even with wildly different quality levels.

Nestor · October 2018

Royaji wrote: »

To answer your question: general rule is that one upgrade level is equivalent to one "crafted-gear-level-step". So a level 30 purple is equivalent to level 32 blue, level 34 green and level 36 white.

Although your approach to gearing might make stuff more difficult as you go (depending on how far you plan on going). It's a good idea to choose one armor weight and wear at least 5 pieces of it. Complimenting it with 1 and 1 pieces of other two weights to level their respective skill lines.

The exception to that rule, while leveling, is not worry about the 5 pieces until you unlock the 5 piece armor bonuses. Until then, wear what ever mix you pick up. This is so you get all your armor weights leveled a decent amount while the game is buffing you.

So, until you get to the high 30 or low 40 range on your character, armor weights dont matter. Unless your doing NoCP PvP, then a matched gear set does matter. But, your going to be acquiring your armor over several alts, so it is easier to gain full matched sets.

nate1980 · October 2018

Thanks a lot! That's the info I was looking for.