Solo Gearing up short and long term goals (things I wish I'd known)

[Dienight_amongst_others]

As this has been stickied I thot I'd better give it a coherent rewrite.
Having started a brand new character and being resolved to do it right this time I have determined the following method to be the best way forward.

Take two
Having stumbled out of your dream, joined a secret society and boinged your way to Kingsmouth you will now be doing missions and starting to "gear up" (as we old timers put it).
1. Talismans - Goal: Full set of attack rating (AR) talismans with one minor healing talisman for general gameplay and a substitute AR minor for DPS role in groups.
Get Radiant Talismans - If what you want/need does not drop then buy it on the Auction House (AH) - standard (green) radiant talismans are cheap enough.
Many talismans are level locked that is to say that you can't use a finger talisman until you reach level 40 or is it 45 but it doesn't stop you buying and improving them so that when you do reach level 40/45 you've got a powered up radiant talisman ready to go.
2. Weapons - Get Mk III weapon(s) as soon as, do not settle for less and empower/improve it but hang on to the issued piece of junk primary weapon because the game will demonstrate fusing by allowing you to use the old junk as a catalyst and you will get a nice superior Mk III (saves a bit of time).
3. Empowerment
Standard/green gear - you can use any old thing you don't need to empower your greenies the cost in Anima Shards is low and you get things ready a bit quicker. If you do manage to run a little short in the early game then just sell some stuff to the nearest Apothocary.
Blue/superior equipment and upwards costs increasingly more to improve and you will want to use an exact match or a distillate to empower it. Keep an eye on your anima shard level as you go.
Once you get to legendary or even Mythic equipment I wonder if empowering with gear is even remotely useful and maybe it's best to stick with distillates.
4. Fusion
Two green level 20 items can be fused together to make one superior item and so on and so forth.
They don't have to be the same standard as eachother just the same level and same type of item.
You could fuse a green radiant chain with a green worn chain providing they're both level 20 but you cannot fuse a green chain with a green belt.
Make sure the item you want to use again is in the TOP BOX be a bit careful when fusing.
5. Glyphs - these can be attached to Superior(blue) and upwards pieces of equpment. They improve various settings on your character.
Accurate - Improves Hit chance and Glance reduction
Devastating - Critical damage
Elusive - Increases dodge chance
Fierce - Increase Critical hit probability
Stalwart - Improves lilelihood of enemy glancing I think
Elusive and Stalwart glyphs are strictly for tanks (maybe PVPers)
Goal - There are technically 9 places to have glyphs but the weapon glyphs only apply to the weapon you're using. My plan is this..
1 Devastating Glyph on talisman
3 Fierce Glyphs on talismans
5 Accurate Glyphs 3 on talismans 2 on weapons
Don't forget the alternate minor talisman (accurate)
As my glyphs improve to epic and up I will consider swapping an accurate for a fierce maybe even more than one but I do have to hit in order to do damage and at low levels I believe this is the best solution.
Glyphs come in 3 standards - Intricate (best) simple and crude - the same rules of empowering and fusing apply e.g. a level 20 intricate can be fused with a level 20 crude see warning above again.
Cost - Intricate Fierce glyphs are over 100k marks and unless they drop are out of reach to most players so my fierce glyphs are just gonna have to be simple unless I get lucky. Accurate and Devastating glyphs are much cheaper relatively speaking I sold an intricate devastating for a mere 15,000 marks and that was undercutting the competition. Accurates are a bit better so I'm gonna go intricate on the accurates - drops and finances permitting.
6. Finances
Marks of Favor can be used on the AH and Apothocarys (also small charge for fusion) they primarily come from missions, completing challenges etc.
Anima Shards are used for empowering equipment and drop from missions/challenges also selling gear to Apothocarys.
Aurum - This is kinda contentious I understand: Aurum can be used to buy cache keys which offer distillates and possibly other goodies it can also be used to buy sprint types and upgrades also more bank/backpack space. It can be gained by exchanging Marks of Favor but you will need to have a lot of Marks and if you really want/need aurum you're gonna have to buy it with real money. The contentious for me is sprint and bankspace etc upgrades but there are some other issues with it.
End of my part
I will now hand you over to Morven who will also teach you about signets (what fun).

Additional
Disable double tap dodge by -
Hit F10 - goto Interface Options/Combat - at the bottom is the option to enable/disable "double tapping to enable dodge"
Dare to try the story dungeons by yourself if needs be, the bosses are not that heavy in story mode and if you are solo you can spend all the time you want looking for lore.
Lore - The Secret World Wiki (TSWW)
and
(Legacy) Collections - TSW Database
Lore is great for completions sakes and gaining AP/SP
Now back to Morven

And I wonder to myself if it really makes the blindest bit of difference anyhow - obviously if you compare two players who have entirely topped out mythic gear then the one with radiant/mk iii/intricate kit is gonna be better but how many players are there with that kind of stuff? Keep upgrading and you'll keep improving anyhows.
What a waste of time all this learning stuff is

I hope the thread is useful for others.

 

[Morven]

Tip: you don't need a second (and third and fourth and etc.) set of Intricate glyphs, just one of each. You can fuse a Crude green to an Intricate green and end up with an Intricate blue (and so on), they just need to be the same type (Devastating, or Accurate, or Fierce or whatever), same as upgrading gear - you can fuse your Weapon of Awesomeness Mk III with a Weapon of Crappy Suffix Mk I.

 

[FractalRain]

Just a follow-on from Morven's great advice - always make sure the item you want to keep is in the upper left box and not the box for enhancements/fusing material. I've heard of people losing their good stuff because they put it in the wrong box! Only the item in the upper left box is kept.

 

[ApocryphalBob]

Just a follow-on from Morven's great advice - always make sure the item you want to keep is in the upper left box and not the box for enhancements/fusing material. I've heard of people losing their good stuff because they put it in the wrong box! Only the item in the upper left box is kept.

I did this once. Once!
Never again.

 

[Dienight_amongst_others]

1. Morven Good point and thanx - altho intricates are still pricey by the time I top out my blue simples I will be able to top up some intricate blues to twin em with (well some of em anyway). I will thus feel much better when scanning other players kit.
2. FractalRain Lolz - you don't get me ya hear - unfortunately it can be done, you just hit the are u sure button on auto pilot - this is very easy to miss Be on your guard when fusing.

 

[Antomas]

4. Cache keys - I am a lifetime patron/member and this entitles me to stuff including (I think) my one whole cache key every day (shrugs maybe everyone gets a free cache key per day) - Don't use them until you have signets - caches give lots of stuff but mostly elixirs that improve your weapons/talis/glyphs and Signets and they don't repeat don't stack. Use these too soon and you will end up with unused signet elixirs taking up all of your bank space.

The bags the Caches give you stack. As long as you don't open the signet distillate bags until you need them you should be fine. ....Well, for the first 100 at least. Then they may take up another slot in the bank after that.

 

[Morven]

I've actually been working on a gearing guide (more aimed at general questions than any specific role or build), but I'll throw this out as a sneak preview: Intricate glyphs are very nice to have...but don't sweat them too hard as you're first gearing up. Simples are 90% as effective for 10% of the cost, and drop frequently. (The one exception I'd make is an Intricate Accurate - they aren't that expensive (by Intricate glyph standards, anyway), and if you aren't a Fist or Blood healer you're going to want one eventually, so may as well save yourself the 20k removal fee and get one early and start levelling it.)

 

[Dienight_amongst_others]

I've actually been working on a gearing guide (more aimed at general questions than any specific role or build), but I'll throw this out as a sneak preview: Intricate glyphs are very nice to have...but don't sweat them too hard as you're first gearing up. Simples are 90% as effective for 10% of the cost, and drop frequently. (The one exception I'd make is an Intricate Accurate - they aren't that expensive (by Intricate glyph standards, anyway), and if you aren't a Fist or Blood healer you're going to want one eventually, so may as well save yourself the 20k removal fee and get one early and start levelling it.)

Now that's what I call good news A guide written by someone who does know what they're talking about will be very welcome/helpful I vote for a sticky right now.
Gonna get that intricate now (well as soon as) - btw I am level 50 (just) doing the Black Sun Red Sands bit of the story

 

[Antomas]

I've actually been working on a gearing guide (more aimed at general questions than any specific role or build), but I'll throw this out as a sneak preview: Intricate glyphs are very nice to have...but don't sweat them too hard as you're first gearing up. Simples are 90% as effective for 10% of the cost, and drop frequently. (The one exception I'd make is an Intricate Accurate - they aren't that expensive (by Intricate glyph standards, anyway), and if you aren't a Fist or Blood healer you're going to want one eventually, so may as well save yourself the 20k removal fee and get one early and start levelling it.)

Actually, since the Impairs have been spread around, and DPS seem loathe to use them most times, It's still a good idea for Fist and Blood healers to have some +Hit since it can lighten the load for most Tanks.. I Eviscerate to impair in dungeons all the time.

 

[Morven]

Actually, since the Impairs have been spread around, and DPS seem loathe to use them most times, It's still a good idea for Fist and Blood healers to have some +Hit since it can lighten the load for most Tanks.. I Eviscerate to impair in dungeons all the time.

Huh, I hadn't even considered that - I was looking at it more on the lines of "unlike AR, Fist and Blood don't actually need to hit things to heal" - but yeah, if you're impairing (or just wanting to toss out the odd Eldritch Scourge to avoid boredom, or even using an offensive gadget) you'll want enough Hit to actually, well, hit stuff.

Oh, and the Epic Wall O Text is up, as threatened promised.

 

[Zedman]

Why this? "I can only say for sure that "Destruction" weapons are pretty useless on the whole and you're better off selling or consuming them. "

More damage when enemy is below 35% health seems pretty good to me.

 

[Morven]

More damage when enemy is below 35% health seems pretty good to me.

It's one of those relative utility deals, I think - it's quite good on a tough target like a dungeon or lair boss (especially since a lot of the time you want to burn down that last chunk of health fast because mechanics) but feh for soloing, since the line between "under 35% health" and "dead" is a lot smaller most of the time.

 

[VMax]

I just did two-pips on everything. I like it a lot better visually instead of 3-pips.

 

[Zedman]

Out of curiosity, what would be the most desirable weapon suffix? And why?

 

[Morven]

Out of curiosity, what would be the most desirable weapon suffix? And why?

The one that works best with your weapon and build, because it works best for your weapon and build. There really isn't a definitive answer to that one.

Energy is probably the most broadly useful (its utility drops at high crit levels, since crits provide energy return, but it's still solid, especially if you don't have a few million Marks to throw away on talismans). Havoc is decent on single-hit consumers (but weaker on multi-hits because they have an innately lower crit rate and higher crit power, so the extra crit power does less for you, relaitvely speaking). Destruction is a solid performer for DPS on high health targets when it gets a chance to proc enough to add measurable damage. Efficiency is great if you want a shorter Elite CD, and not so great if you want to line up your Elite with other buffs or utility skills. Alacrity is nice if you're slow at moving out of bad or need to close into range or re-engage frequently. Restoration is nice for soloing (decent in Scenario survival builds too.) Recovery and Warding are...well, fodder in pretty much all cases (I suppose you could make a case for Recovery if you plan to play an undergeared tank and expect to team with bad healers), but all the rest can make a case for "most desirable in a given build".