Question about putting together equipment
- Thread starter Rhunah
- Start date
Matuse
Well-known member
Capstone is an enhancement and pure vs multiclass build question, and not a gear one.
Are you referring to hard caps on stats? Most of them don't have one. Jump has a hard cap of 40. Doublestrike has a hard cap of 100. Dodge has a (kind of) hard cap of 50.
The Jump cap is easy to reach. The Doublestrike cap is tough but not ridiculous to reach. The Dodge cap is quite difficult for most builds to reach - and most have no reason to reach it because their armor limits their dodge to a cap far lower than 50.
MRR and PRR have a point of severe diminishing returns where the amount of effort you put into getting it to point X is not worth what you have to give up to get there. It's not worth it to go from 71 to 72% damage reduction if you have to give up 500 hitpoints to get it (as a purely made up number example).
There might be a few other abilities that have absolute limits, but there aren't many. Everything else is "Get it as high as you can get it". They don't cap.
Are you referring to hard caps on stats? Most of them don't have one. Jump has a hard cap of 40. Doublestrike has a hard cap of 100. Dodge has a (kind of) hard cap of 50.
The Jump cap is easy to reach. The Doublestrike cap is tough but not ridiculous to reach. The Dodge cap is quite difficult for most builds to reach - and most have no reason to reach it because their armor limits their dodge to a cap far lower than 50.
MRR and PRR have a point of severe diminishing returns where the amount of effort you put into getting it to point X is not worth what you have to give up to get there. It's not worth it to go from 71 to 72% damage reduction if you have to give up 500 hitpoints to get it (as a purely made up number example).
There might be a few other abilities that have absolute limits, but there aren't many. Everything else is "Get it as high as you can get it". They don't cap.
Matuse
Well-known member
When I build sets, I will go slot by slot and consult the wiki for items in the level range I am building for with stats that I want. Usually I'll end up with 4-10 items per slot with stuff I want for build X. I drop them all into a Google doc I've made for myself.
Then I will identify the core set of items that I want. If I'm doing a level 15 setup, then my first 3 selections will be the appropriate Sharn items for whatever I'm building. If we're doing a melee set, then I will mark off the armor, glove, and necklace slots with Part Of The Family.
Then I look at the remaining slots and what other useful attributes I can build onto there. I stick in the best items for each slot with the most coverage of stats that I want and the fewest number of overlaps with existing gear because the bonuses won't stack.
Frequently my first step is to look at the most critical things that I value in a build: Saves, Fortification, Ghostly, and permanent Blurry. Those are the foundation of staying alive, so they are a must-have. Sometimes you can get some of that from other means - if I'm making a Bard or a Sorcerer/Wizard, and I know I'm going to be having Displacement, then I don't worry much about Blurry on my gear.
I like to prioritize attributes - Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha, main stat, constitution, and then if Dex or Wis aren't my main stat, I'll find a way to put those in so that it makes my saving throws better. Attributes help everything, so I'm usually willing to give up stuff to get them better. A way to get "Artifact bonus to all stats" and "Profane bonus to all stats" are high on my list. Profane bonuses can come from sets, but you can also find single items with "Profane well rounded", and that's just as good.
Here is one of my completed gearsets for level 8 caster equipment. I made it for the purpose of reducing my number of storage mules by having one single gearset that will work for pretty much any caster type you can come up with to take them from level 8 to level 15. All you have to do to modify it for a specific build is to swap in a different caster stick for the main hand which is left deliberately empty. It took a lot of tinkering and experimentation to get it to come out just right. I enjoy doing that kind of thing. I'm weird. The orange highlights on the left are the items that are shared in common with my level 8 melee gearset. Anything to save storage space!
You can also check out the various class forums and look for fully constructed builds there that roughly match what you are trying to do. The gear those builds use will roughly match whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.
Then I will identify the core set of items that I want. If I'm doing a level 15 setup, then my first 3 selections will be the appropriate Sharn items for whatever I'm building. If we're doing a melee set, then I will mark off the armor, glove, and necklace slots with Part Of The Family.
Then I look at the remaining slots and what other useful attributes I can build onto there. I stick in the best items for each slot with the most coverage of stats that I want and the fewest number of overlaps with existing gear because the bonuses won't stack.
Frequently my first step is to look at the most critical things that I value in a build: Saves, Fortification, Ghostly, and permanent Blurry. Those are the foundation of staying alive, so they are a must-have. Sometimes you can get some of that from other means - if I'm making a Bard or a Sorcerer/Wizard, and I know I'm going to be having Displacement, then I don't worry much about Blurry on my gear.
I like to prioritize attributes - Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha, main stat, constitution, and then if Dex or Wis aren't my main stat, I'll find a way to put those in so that it makes my saving throws better. Attributes help everything, so I'm usually willing to give up stuff to get them better. A way to get "Artifact bonus to all stats" and "Profane bonus to all stats" are high on my list. Profane bonuses can come from sets, but you can also find single items with "Profane well rounded", and that's just as good.
Here is one of my completed gearsets for level 8 caster equipment. I made it for the purpose of reducing my number of storage mules by having one single gearset that will work for pretty much any caster type you can come up with to take them from level 8 to level 15. All you have to do to modify it for a specific build is to swap in a different caster stick for the main hand which is left deliberately empty. It took a lot of tinkering and experimentation to get it to come out just right. I enjoy doing that kind of thing. I'm weird. The orange highlights on the left are the items that are shared in common with my level 8 melee gearset. Anything to save storage space!
You can also check out the various class forums and look for fully constructed builds there that roughly match what you are trying to do. The gear those builds use will roughly match whatever it is you are trying to accomplish.
Rhunah
Well-known member
I didn't think it would take so much work to optimize your equipment. My main concern is equipping a character to farm Vecna equipment. I found a build that I like and will play it with slight changes tailored to my needs. Now I almost only have Feywild and Sharn set pieces in the endgame area and wanted to know what I have to consider. You helped me a lot, thank you.
Maetrim's Builder is a very helpful resource for planning things out, but its limited to endgame stuff. Sharn is a good starting place for 3 piece bonuses, and Feywild is good filler gear until you really get into the nitty gritty. Currently Isle of Dread gear is the most customizable endgame set if you need more flexibility. A custom spreadsheet can also help visualize whether or not you have overlapping bonuses that don't stack.
saekee
long live ROGUE
For sets, first consider artifact bonuses vs profane bonuses. Sharn and Feywild are both artifact. No doubt you have different specific bonuses there, but where they are the same, they will not stack.
Profane bonuses may be found with Adherent of the Mists, Isle of Dread, Vecna Forbidden Knowledge. As mentioned by a poster, Dread is easy to customize and is better than Adherent of the Mists; the latter though sometimes has more useful combinations.
So I recommend you start with some combination of artifact and profane—artifact is typically 3piece set like sharn, Profane usually 5 piece set—then build out the remaining ones. These set bonuses give an overall benefit like 15 artifact to melee power and then 15 profane to melee power.
‘Optimization’ is when you squeeze as much as you can out of the setup depending on the build, eg an assassin will want doublestrike, quality doublestrike, profane doublestrike, insightful doublestrike—and get this on, say, two from goggles, one from a necklace, and last from a modification to armor. Similarly, an assassin will want seeker/insightful seeker, Dex/insightful dex/quality dex/exceptional dex; deception/insightful deception, etc. These are in addition to the set bonuses. Raid gear can help optimize.
Finally, there are some features you may try to add like enhanced bloodrage, relentless fury, Cannith combat infusion, etc.
Welcome to the gear tetris—it is actually fun!
Rhunah
Well-known member
I don't know yet if I'll enjoy it 
But thank you very much. I actually already know Meatrim, but so far I've only used it to look at builds. I think I really need to put together a table. This will give me the best overview.
Unfortunately, I'm a gear collector, at least when it comes to sets. Since I only started with DDO with Feywild, I have the largest selection there. I still have to farm everything else (especially Dread and Vecna). And for this I'm trying to put together decent equipment in the hope that I'll be able to farm both on R1.
But thank you very much. I actually already know Meatrim, but so far I've only used it to look at builds. I think I really need to put together a table. This will give me the best overview.Unfortunately, I'm a gear collector, at least when it comes to sets. Since I only started with DDO with Feywild, I have the largest selection there. I still have to farm everything else (especially Dread and Vecna). And for this I'm trying to put together decent equipment in the hope that I'll be able to farm both on R1.
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Ying
5000+ hours played
Sharn and Feywild gear is a great place to start, so you're doing fine. Having that gear will allow you to farm harder content like Vecna without it being too frustrating.
You won't be hitting any artificial caps in the game like doublestrike or dodge if you're just starting out. Capping doublestrike or dodge typically requires multiple past lives to accomplish. For example, you can get 9% doublestrike from martial epic past lives, and 6% doublestrike from aasimar scourge past lives. Even with those, and maxing out gear, it's easy to be shy of the 100% doublestrike artificial cap.
Vecna 5pc Forbidden Knowledge and 3pc Devil's Infernal Dance is an excellent setup for melee. You can also squeeze in 3pc Wrath of Sora Kell+Perfected Wrath.
You won't be hitting any artificial caps in the game like doublestrike or dodge if you're just starting out. Capping doublestrike or dodge typically requires multiple past lives to accomplish. For example, you can get 9% doublestrike from martial epic past lives, and 6% doublestrike from aasimar scourge past lives. Even with those, and maxing out gear, it's easy to be shy of the 100% doublestrike artificial cap.
Vecna 5pc Forbidden Knowledge and 3pc Devil's Infernal Dance is an excellent setup for melee. You can also squeeze in 3pc Wrath of Sora Kell+Perfected Wrath.
dur
aka Cybersquirt
There are a lot of options for gear sets, it just depends on your level. https://ddowiki.com/page/Sands_of_Menechtarun is also worthy gear; free, unlike Vecna.
Rhunah
Well-known member
Thank you, I have access to all extensions. I always allow myself that luxury.
It's more of a time problem to farm and time zone (GMT+1) problem to participate in raids regularly. In 2 weeks I have 2 weeks vacation while my wife has to work, I wanted to use this time to improve my equipment.
It's more of a time problem to farm and time zone (GMT+1) problem to participate in raids regularly. In 2 weeks I have 2 weeks vacation while my wife has to work, I wanted to use this time to improve my equipment.
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As mentioned above, Sands gear is still decent and most of the sets are pretty flexible at 2 pieces each. You also don't need to raid for a lot of the items; many are either quest drops, or wilderness drops. For the wilderness items, you can even trade in 625 Antique Bronze Tokens (Sands collectible drops) for them, though you'd still need to run the quests to get upgrade items for epic/legendary versions. A great way to get some baseline gear if you haven't started the collectathon yet.
Assuming you're talking specifically about epic/legendary levels, Sharn and Feywild sets are good enough to be able to farm any other gear you might want. Feywild can be a bit slot-intensive, but you can get a lot of the better pieces solo or even in the wilderness (You can do fast runs of Feytwisted chests out there too). I find Sharn to be more stingy, but the sets are more manageable to work around while you figure out the rest of your gear.
The newer Vecna gear is very nice, but the content might a bit more difficult if you plan to solo (Genuinely don't know, so I'm just guessing based on how heroic felt. I've only run these as heroic right before I TR'd).
kimberlyte
Member
I can’t say enough good things about the gear planner at ddo-gear-planner.netlify.app
I love this gear planner, although some of the coloring throws me off sometimes. On the full list of gearing, green means highest level of the effect, blue and orange are duplicate effects - I think blue is a tie, and orange is usually a lower value, but I don't think it's always 100% accurate, especially for oddball effects that partially overlap like physical sheltering and sheltering. It’s almost impossible to avoid duplicate effects, especially when going for multiple sets.
When you click on an item such as your belt, a pop-up list of various belts is shown, sorted based on the effects you want, with purple color for effects you want and orange for effects you want but for which you already have a better version slotted. Sometimes, you won’t see the name of an item you want show up in the list of suggestions, so you still need to know what effects are possible, and some idea of key items you might want to slot. Then just type in the name to get it to show up.
The killer feature for me in using this planner is going down the page to the tables of tracked affixes and clicking on things like the various types of your main stat, especially enhancement, insight, and quality. You're more likely to get artifact and profane from a set bonus, and festive + exceptional from an augment. Using Constitution as an example, you will see "enhancement (15)", which means the highest available value is 15. A list of gear with Constitution will pop up when you click it with item names, ML, and slot, and you can see what type of tetris you're going to need to do in order to maximize your main stat.
Minor artifacts show up with yellow names when equipped on the main Equipment list, but not in the pop-ups, so be sure to check occasionally. I've happily made a wicked gearset a few times, only to realize that I had more than one artifact. [sad trombone noise]
You can pick the list of item effects you want on the first page, and can add affixes at the bottom of the second page if you forgot any.
There is a button to copy the equipment list to your computer's clipboard. I'll also copy and paste the entire link into my notes. The link is really long since it includes the affixes and slotted gear, but it makes life easier when I have to tweak a gearset later.
There is a definite learning curve, but I'll use this at cap every life, and sometimes when regearing at mid levels like 15 and 20.
I love this gear planner, although some of the coloring throws me off sometimes. On the full list of gearing, green means highest level of the effect, blue and orange are duplicate effects - I think blue is a tie, and orange is usually a lower value, but I don't think it's always 100% accurate, especially for oddball effects that partially overlap like physical sheltering and sheltering. It’s almost impossible to avoid duplicate effects, especially when going for multiple sets.
When you click on an item such as your belt, a pop-up list of various belts is shown, sorted based on the effects you want, with purple color for effects you want and orange for effects you want but for which you already have a better version slotted. Sometimes, you won’t see the name of an item you want show up in the list of suggestions, so you still need to know what effects are possible, and some idea of key items you might want to slot. Then just type in the name to get it to show up.
The killer feature for me in using this planner is going down the page to the tables of tracked affixes and clicking on things like the various types of your main stat, especially enhancement, insight, and quality. You're more likely to get artifact and profane from a set bonus, and festive + exceptional from an augment. Using Constitution as an example, you will see "enhancement (15)", which means the highest available value is 15. A list of gear with Constitution will pop up when you click it with item names, ML, and slot, and you can see what type of tetris you're going to need to do in order to maximize your main stat.
Minor artifacts show up with yellow names when equipped on the main Equipment list, but not in the pop-ups, so be sure to check occasionally. I've happily made a wicked gearset a few times, only to realize that I had more than one artifact. [sad trombone noise]
You can pick the list of item effects you want on the first page, and can add affixes at the bottom of the second page if you forgot any.
There is a button to copy the equipment list to your computer's clipboard. I'll also copy and paste the entire link into my notes. The link is really long since it includes the affixes and slotted gear, but it makes life easier when I have to tweak a gearset later.
There is a definite learning curve, but I'll use this at cap every life, and sometimes when regearing at mid levels like 15 and 20.
Rhunah
Well-known member
I think the easiest way to start is to adapt something existing to my own pool.
Kalibano has various setups in its builds. To start with, I will choose the setup from which I already have most of the parts and then start replacing the remaining places as adequately as possible.
This will give me an easy introduction to tetris equipment and should then form a solid basis for farming.
Kalibano has various setups in its builds. To start with, I will choose the setup from which I already have most of the parts and then start replacing the remaining places as adequately as possible.
This will give me an easy introduction to tetris equipment and should then form a solid basis for farming.
dur
aka Cybersquirt
Yeah, that's where having 26 toons across the level spectrum helps.. well 3-32, helps
BTW, if you can access Sharn.. LOL, OMG...
This is the best way to go; find a build that lays out its gear, then try to copy it. Substitute pieces with lootgen or other named gear with similar stats, at least enough to cover the basics. If you do that much, you'll pretty well set for most content, and will have good enough gear to grind out the stuff you're missing for harder content.
Thankfully DDO isn't like Diablo 3 or some other MMOs; Sets in DDO are more about effect consolidation and minor attribute buffs than truly unique and gamechanging effects. Most effects have a couple different slots they can fit in, and you can also slot most of your main stats via augments if you really need to (More true at lower levels than endgame, but worth noting).
I refer to Diablo 3 as my main point of comparison. Missing one piece of a gear set can completly change the way a build plays. Some sets are just downright bad, and can limit your ability to play harder content (Say, getting hardstuck at GR 100 instead of 150 or something). Sure, gear makes a difference in DDO, but so much player power is tied up in enhancements, destinies, and player skill, that gear really becomes less of a priority than those other elements-a big reason I like this game so much over anything else.
Fauxknight
Well-known member
If I'm really serious about a gearset I'll make a spreadsheet and list out every attribute/ability that I need to have. I'll start with a set and then fill in from there trying to fill in weird bonus abilities and non-augmentable things first, then when my slots are full use augments to hit anything I missed.