Gear at fresh 80?

Hi!

When you are a fresh 80, whats the best way to gear up, and whats the gear progress like? Just go for faction gear asap? I’m struggling to survive doing regular quests in Northern Grasslands, not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Try to join some T1 raids and get some small pieces (you can also do some WB kills when he gets around again, if I’m not mistaken that’s this week actually). Then you should be fine doing NG factions. I don’t know what class you play but you should be able to join the simpler 6 man runs then (if you have the required AAs) which will drop lots of blue gear and some purple pieces. And then move on to the more complex ones that reward more tokens, and you’ll soon be able to buy chest/helm from your desired faction. This is how I used to do it, anyways.

But these days people go straight into RF. RF basically made khitai faction gear obsolete, because you can go for T4 immediately. People rarely run khitai 6-mans anymore. It’s stupid because it’s some of the most fun and best polished content in the game, so if you can I’d still suggest you try to do it the old way.

Thanks :slight_smile: I’ve done some RF but I haven’t seen any real drops but I should be able to afford some T4 soon, just need the gold hehe. Running a Polearm Guardian.

If you leveled a character to 80 on Saga, then there’s an extra box of T1 gear in the store under rewards for another of your characters that were on Crom.

I found farming WB (as much as it seems to be hated) was a decent way to pick up various T1 & T2 gear for my characters.

Khitai faction gear was OK, but slow going grinding up the factions, plus most is out of money reach for F2p players.

The easiest way is (sadly) farming RF and WB non stop. The faction gear is overpriced and (im most cases) worse than T4 gear that you get from RF.

So yeah, unless you got a bunch of veteran tokens with which you can push your faction rank and your amount of Marks of Acclaim there is no real use for factions anymore.
Khitai HMs like Flame Vortex etc. can be done with blue level 80 gear as most classes (tanks not that much, you will probably be the offtank), there you can get some epic pieces like belts, shoulders or hands.

Just to add that piece of information: It will be a good idea to get used to a sword&shield spec and playstile, if you want to do more group content. As a guard you really have no choice than to be a tank, and although polearm tanking is possible, it is the …hmmm…not wisest way to tank. Especially as a new tank you will have a wayyyyy easier and better time with s&s, and you will add positivly to your group or a raid.
Of course solo polearm is the obvious choice.

There is actually a very interesting guide on polearm tanking on these forums. While I haven’t seen it done in practice yet, it’s still an interesting read. I agree with your advice though.

But the reality is different. Dungeon runs are at an all-time low, almost no one wants to do them because the RF is not only easier but also provides the better gear (shards for the rings).
The normal way of progression nowdays IS RF and WB farming, it’s faster and easier, why would people spend more time and invest more work into progression if you can have it easier?
Sure, people still run dungeons from time to time, but only because these few people like doing dungeons, they are not after the gear anymore, they just enjoy the mechanics, like me for example. But the most people in online games want item progression, they want the best items and don’t really care about things like lore, mechanics, looks and so on.
I know it’s sad but it’s reality.

I hate WB and RF that I wouldn’t care if they were to be removed tomorrow, I try to do as many dungeon runs as I can whenever I am online but 90% of the time I am online I am either waiting or just chatting with friends because nothing is going on besides the usual RF spam or WB farming (which is nothing but waiting in my eyes either).

Since a few days I can’t really be bothered with logging in anymore because I am just too bored of waiting and doing nothing. Most of my ingame friends are feeling the same, they log in for raids during the weekends but then go offline again because RF is draining all the players away to do other remaining content of the game.

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By the golden scales of the Father of All, Set…

It is a reality that was ever present, but of a situation that arised to become a worrisome habit of reality, if allowed to proliferate, that is the thought and shift towards character item-progression over content-progression.

Though you have to look at the community as a whole for what brought this about… for to walk the slithered Path of Old Great Serpent One, is to know the Will of Set.

When I enter [Age of Conan] I knew I was going to be on an adventure and not just the nostalgic feelings of the movies and comics of old, but from the readings of the books interpreted to a unique experience then just any MMORPG from reading the physical-manual and writings from the development-team’s mantra.

That is whats been lost to the community with just downloading and not having that physical-game, but even so I welcomed it because other avenues allow more of the public access to [Age of Conan]; you need only to listen in the shadows to hear the Word of Set.

My understanding of the plight facing the community, with addition of newcomers to the community in [Age of Conan], I hoped you and others to remain steadfast, then the many who would seek quick-rewards, because in my youngest of days when I resided to [Warcraft] they too committed same acts and further delve into a state where I walked away from that world because the disconnect got to ridiculous to bear and save-face anymore. Grind-fest of idol-players, Guild-elites, and item-progression over lore/cannon content.

I welcome the (12 Portents - World Boss Event) and (Raid Finder), but how it is implemented and used by the community and newcomers has soiled the content-progression of a Hyborian-adventure walking the path done long ago who born bathed in bloodshed to rise from his travels and now King, Conan the Cimmerian, the Barbarian, the Reaver, Pirate of the Vjlayet Sea, the Godslayer, and the Conqueror of the Aquilonian-Crown.

There is but simple methods that could be done to restore the world back on the progressive path and this is the time for those who hold swords, shield, staff of magics and wizardry, polearms, axe, and hammers of war… to show dedication, pride, and honor of the known and true progressive path of a member in Hyboria; remain steadfast and steely-eyed at those who think you may be weak to turn back the tides; seige the walls of Guild-Cities when they become vulnerable to a (Seige Raid-Event) and show them there is more (PvP) than just the [Mini-skirmishes], stalk the resource-regions of Aquilonia, Cimmeria, and Stygia and revitalize the fear that (PvP) still exist there also; raise up your community and dive with them in the deep recesses of Dungeon-campaigns of Hyboria and the lands of Khitai, to show them that content-progression has value; and furthermore… form the armies of raids with comrades soaked in dungeon-glory and show them the greater glory of Raid-conquest of ALL Raid-Tiers!

Show the Gods of Hyboria that (Raid Finder) can be helpful, but remove its divine-accursed (Simple Relics) and move the (Atlantean Shards) to the proper resting-place of (House of Crom - Raid Event - Lurker) and (Tier-6), because the community is now back on the true path of content-progression; for we march the footpaths of Robert E. Howard in the [Age of Conan] to be conquerors like our King, Conan the Cimmerian!

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Let’s face it - there wont be changes to existing systems, Funcom proved that by not responding to any of the thousands of suggested changes that were made over the years and there wont be any new content (new as in “not being used of the 5th time”) as they clearly stated in they financial report 2 years ago.

I know, to someome who recently came back to thr game I probably sound extremely pessimistic but I sadly I am not just grumpy or anything - it’s sinply the situation we are facing for some years now and there is nothing I could make sound better about it.
I don’t know if you have already played the game again but if you havent, you will experience something very similar - if not the same - as I explained.

I return in March and/or by mid-March, sadly not much earlier, but in the process of buying a home…

At level 80, the best way to gear up is to follow the following steps:

  1. Complete the story campaign: This will give you a good base of gear and help you understand the game mechanics.
  2. Do daily fractals: Fractals are a great way to get gear upgrades, as well as acquire Ascended gear, which is the best gear you can get in the game.
  3. Do dungeons: Dungeons are another great source of gear, and are also an important part of the endgame content.
  4. Participate in World vs World: WvW is a large scale PvP game mode that can be a great way to get gear upgrades, as well as contributing to your server’s war effort.
  5. Do world boss events: World bosses spawn in the open world and provide a challenging encounter for players. Defeating them can reward you with rare and powerful items.
    Thank you