Armor advice for longtime casual player

[CrookedOne]

I'm a 215 Opi Agent, a casual player playing off and on since 2003. Due to my family and work commitments (3 boys, 2 houses - 1 for my mom), I cannot play hours every day, so I cannot get the all the top equipment. But that doesn't mean I need to be gimpy however. I do need to improve my armor badly, so I would like to some advice on what to get.

Here's where Im at now. I can prolly can only get 1 or 2 CSS armor pieces, either buying them or getting lucky in city raids. Which CSS piece(s) should I get? I do have 33K in Victory points reserved for OFAB. The OFAB helmet, cape and sleeves look pretty good. And I've done a few Dust Brigade instances, so DB armor might be attainable. The DB sleeves look good too, but it seems to be a rare drop. I've checked out Vasich and Pheddex's setup and both have mostly CSS armor.

Part of this equation would be my style of play. I've never done much PvP, except for mass dot wars. With battlestations, I've gained some interest in PvP and enjoying it despite the large number of deaths, lol. Those dang 220 soldiers and advies are impossible to kill, hehe. I guess Im kinda interested in the evades/NR setup rather than HP, so mebbe the Trenchcoat?

Anyway, let me know what you think.

[Vaalena]

IMO, for you the ofab should be the target. It is the one thing that does not depend on luck or huge amount of cash. Just do BS regularly when you are on and this will give you a steady progression towards a nice set of armour.

[Pheddex]

My advice would be,
-get DB combat chest if you can,
-use Ofab Gloves
-use Ofab Sleeves,
-Special Edition helmet,
-if you can get 2 CSS parts, use em for pants / Boots...
-now fi you want more evades for PvM , try on Notucom.. ofab back is nice to hit 10k AC pvp cap at least . I use it for the pm skill for NR2 setup and still hope to get a 2sec nd trickle without gimping me too much and try ND right arm over artillery right arm..
waiting on Lupus response how it works out, but ofab back aint really needed else imo.

If you change your mind and go HP setup , you might wanna use Leo Boots over CSS for now and save your hard earned credz, really depends on your like n dislikes.

Im pretty sure, that an evade setup is a waste without full CSS, Notucom, 300 imps in feet / left arm (see vasich setup) and 250+ towers, but thats my personal flavour. Different opnions exsist there, and as you will PvM mostly, it might work for you.

I found out, that i drop NR for PvM and be abled to use Trueprofession, makes me a wanted teamplayer if i promise not to pickpocket for cookies too much

Shoulders easy to get combi for PvM is MOR / Pen Shoulders or for more AR at your lvl Cerubin Shoulders from CoH (not for evade setup tho -40 AAD + 40 AAO)

and no biggy... once you hit NR2, most soljas wont be a problem no more if you get a bit training.
And i die alot as well , its part of our toolset..lol

Cheerz mate, hope i could help a bit

[Nargo]

If I where you I think I would have gone with a HP setup, its way easier as you wont need a full set of CSS, ql300 implants and a tower or two.

And go for the ofab sleeves, they rock

[Tethien]

For boots, legs, gloves and chest armour, a nice evening at the DB instance should yield you the necessary gear which beats OFAB well enough.

For the sleeves you might prefer OFAB and unfortunately there's no DB helmet or backpiece so also OFAB might be your friend there. Though, the backpiece and helmet cost plenty of VP, so prepare to save up for them for a while or consider cheaper alternatives. (For example our tier 3 helmet is not so much worse than the OFAB one and if you already have it in a lower version, getting it to tier 3 might be the faster way. )

All in all, it's of course inferior to AI-armours, but honestly you only need that highest-quality gear if you go for PvP. Since you state that PvP is not your priority, the suggested components give you very adequate PvE performance at a much lower price.

All in all, that's a HP setup, though. For an evade setup, i wonder how to make that work well without AI gear, i never bothered for that.

[CrookedOne]

Thank you all for the great advice. I appreciate it. As much as I want to go with an evades setup, you guys are right, it won't work fully w/o full CSS, Notucom, towers. But man, it would be great to evades some of those nasty perks and nanos. In another life, perhaps ...

I will go with full OFAB outfit, but with DB pants and mebbe DB gloves. It really is a tough call for DB chest and OFAB chest. With the OFAB armor and ring, icy shoulderpads and HP Arul Sabas, Im getting about 5K HP, and thats just on the Armor section. I do need to get the 2.5K board still, and that will add another 1K HP. Should I bother with HHAB for PvP, or find something with HP like that terror ring?

EDIT: Masterpiece Ancient Bracer seems really nice, but Im not sure how hard it is to get the parts for it.

[Biggysmallz]

and no biggy... once you hit NR2, most soljas wont be a problem no more if you get a bit training.
And i die alot as well , its part of our toolset..lol

what?

[Pheddex]

hmm?

[Wakizaka]

Those dang 220 soldiers and advies are impossible to kill, hehe. I guess Im kinda interested in the evades/NR setup rather than HP, so mebbe the Trenchcoat?

and no biggy... once you hit NR2, most soljas wont be a problem no more if you get a bit training.

what?

hmm?

kkk ?

[Pheddex]

kkk ?

no

[agentwolve]

i think he meant by going nr2 it will be harder for soljas to land RI...

[Wakizaka]

EDIT: Masterpiece Ancient Bracer seems really nice, but Im not sure how hard it is to get the parts for it.

The parts can be bought, will be expensive though. They come from the Albatraum instance in Inferno. There's a tradeskill guide over on Ao-Universe

[Cheree]

Should I bother with HHAB for PvP, or find something with HP like that terror ring?

if your aggro bar is..

close to full def: hhab
else: hp ring

EDIT: Masterpiece Ancient Bracer seems really nice, but Im not sure how hard it is to get the parts for it.

maybe i should make a soloing albtraum guide..

Also, as an opi, get blinded with delights. It's one of our easier to land perks and it really annoys your opponent. Opi genome 3, B I believe.

[Szyylin]

if your aggro bar is..

close to full def: hhab
else: hp ring

Yeah, the general rule with NR is: either get as much as you can and go full def (or very close to full def), or dont worry about it.

[Belduren]

As an agent who just came back to the game after a 3.5 year hiatus, would somoene please tell me what DB instance, CSS, HHAB, ND, stand for, and where I should go for those items? I am assuming BS == broken shores?

[Wakizaka]

There are 2 Dust Brigade Instances in PW. One just requires a key you can get from the mobs outside, the other requires a key you get from doing the Dust Brigade questline.
CSS = Combined Sharpshooters (AI Armour made from Supple + Observant)
HHAB = Hold Hell at Bay (Pande protection ring, +500NR ftw)
ND = Either Nano Doctorate perkline or Nano Delta.
BS = In this case it's Battle Stations, to farm VPs (Victory Points) to purchase Ofab Armour/Weapons.

[zorxer]

kkk ?

klan member?

[Ixiaan]

Part of this equation would be my style of play. I've never done much PvP, except for mass dot wars. With battlestations, I've gained some interest in PvP and enjoying it despite the large number of deaths, lol. Those dang 220 soldiers and advies are impossible to kill, hehe. I guess Im kinda interested in the evades/NR setup rather than HP, so mebbe the Trenchcoat?

Anyway, let me know what you think.

You can't really do an evade or AR setup without getting a lot of css (you could go ofab chest/sleeves without losing that much AR, but boots/pants/gloves/helmet are needed). If you don't want to farm a lot of css hp is probably the way to go. With ofab, leo boots, enhanced kegern/jathos, alb defensive huds+bracer, db bracer, and defensive aug you can get 23-24k hp pretty easily which is more than most professions can alpha.

[Ixiaan]

Should I bother with HHAB for PvP, or find something with HP like that terror ring?

EDIT: Masterpiece Ancient Bracer seems really nice, but Im not sure how hard it is to get the parts for it.

If you take off HHAB pretty much everything will land first try. HHAB+NR1/2 are probably the best options unless you don't mind spending a lot of your time on BS waiting out debuffs or in decon.

Masterpiece Bracer takes roughly 6 hours to get with the right team (everyone in the team can get one in that time).

[CrookedOne]

I wanted to give an update to my progress.

I found a way to sneak some hours while at work, hehe. Over the months since my OP, between playing some at work and some at home, I was able to reach 220! Woot! Currently, Im at 220/20/60. Getting to AI30 is killer, not confident I can ever get there. Getting to LE70 is doable.

I earned tons of Victory Points for a full set of OFAP armor as well as the Cobra rifle. Also, I finished up getting mission tokens with VP and got my Paragon board. I learned alot about PvP getting 250K VP!

Also, I got the following:

Perfected Infused Dust Brigade Bracer (some I bought, some I earned)
Masterpiece Ancient Bracer (agents are needed at Alb, so easy to get parts)
Infused Ancient Defender (earned)
Alien Augmentation Device - Defensive (bought)
Dreadloch Sniper's Friend (bought)
Superior Icy Shoulderpads of Explosive Power (earned all parts)
Full set of old DB armor (earned)

Currently Im in full perk reset. I still need to get:

ql300 symbiants and implants (been doing Pande raids when I can)
APF belt (got 16 points now, almost!)
Leo boots

As you can see, I've been going for mostly a HP setup. I have about 19-20K HP now, when buffed. I've haven't been playing much due to the summer time, but hopefully by the end of the year, I will get the remainder items and get to LE70. Then I will head back to BS and Tara for some more fun!

Cheree and Dark, I will ask for advice some day ingame for my final setup.

Adios!