I am slowly getting into the new 'spansion. And I read everywhere that old loot, even old epic gear, is out to be replaced by new stuff.

So I got some commendations (1 each of 4 kinds, atm) and went to see what I can get for them.
So far the only item I see that is significantly better than what I have, and worth going out and getting more commendations, are the PDK gloves.

Otherwise,  my current, not even that uber, epic gear setup seems fine. What am I missing?

The shadowdancer enhancements, otoh, are REALLY cool. +6 DC to assassinate? and add another from a +1 int to equalize my int score after I no longer use my +7 robe? COOL!

The commendation stuff is really just a "lets get everyone some base loot that is roughly equal to Eberron Epic gear"  mechanic.  That way newer players can quickly get a base gear set in Faerun and play in Faerun without having to spend 6-12 months grinding Eberron gear.  The really good stuff starts to flow out of the second quest chain and, more so, out of the third quest chain and the raid (assuming they fix the randomized aspect to the raid loot).  The Planar sets are really nice, for example.  Then, of course, there is the random loot gen when running level 25 quests.  Some of that stuff can be on par with, or better than, former end game raid loot/epic gear.  And the +4 unbound tome drops.   

But running the forest and the first chains and looking at the commendations, you won't see much that makes you really go wow unless you did not already have Abashai sets, Claw sets, etc.  Even if you see one item you like, the tough part is the house of cards that is your gear set.  You take +8 Con on the belt and now your Epic Envemoned Cloak is pretty much worthless and your ToD set is broken.  So now the ring is much less useful (Because the +2 insightfuls drop like candy at easter).  But the +2's come on the neck or the bracers or something.  Screwing up another set you had.  And so on and so on.  And now your shroud HP item or Conc Opp item is in the wrong spot.  Time to deconstruct it and move that.  etc. etc. etc.   It takes some really solid benefits to make me want to go to that much effort.

Takllin wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 10:10am:



The War Wizard set blows unless you plan on making some gimp fighting wizard or maybe a Sorc tank.  I could see if you had no greensteel or gear the set being bridge gear but that's it.  The staff is nice as your nuking implement.  I use that and the necromancer staff now pretty much exclusively.

Why bother cleansing?  I make HP and SP in the same slot. Make the SP item a Triple Pos for the clickie.  Make the HP ConOp.  Buff with SP item on, Swap, Profit.

The Thaumaturgy lootgen vendor trash staffs are just straight up better than the Cove dagger.  Sure, they don't have the Arcane Lore part on it, but you hopefully have that from your ToD set or some other source.

I'm completely cool with new named items being better than previous named items, but it seems distasteful to me for new vendor trash weapons to be better than the single best nuking caster weapon we had before the update.

Eladiun wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 10:53am:


I had cleansed just because sp always felt tight on my cleric, and the torc could top off those last 150 sp pretty quickly with an archer or two around. That was about 7.5% of my sp pool, which is good for a couple mass heals. FvS or sorc with a less restricted sp pool it definitely is greensteel material cost effective to not cleanse. The other benefit for me is that I like how much the haste guard procs on the triple air sp item I made. That's my playstyle on the cleric though, where I rely on getting hit to some degree to torc up.

Without the torc I'd definitely swap and not cleanse.

Smrti wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 5:09pm:


Having a similar issue, just relying on Nightshield clickies until something new turns up.

Glenalth wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 5:34pm:



I've seen a number of +6 stat/+7 resist lootgen items.

Eladiun wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 6:00pm:


Guildie pulled a 7 con/6 resist cloak the other night. If I wasn't running the Dragon helm already and wanted to use Cloak for GS HP, I'd have bugged him for it.

Asheras wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2012 at 10:00am:



Yea I know the feeling of going CRAZY figuring out where to put what lol.
I once literally screamed, and my wife said: "Umm aren't you supposed to be having fun? Come to bed with me and have some sex at least". I stayed on the computer 
She did not speak with me for day. (I made it up to her, don't worry).

there's stuff like this too:

Smrti wrote on Jul 9^th, 2012 at 2:33am:


Pity it can't be deconstructed...

Smrti wrote on Jul 9^th, 2012 at 4:51am:

aye. it's better than a lit2 before seeker and burst effects are applied, and no need to step into the shroud to make it. plus stunning 10 on a khopesh is sick.