How are you supposed to gear?

[derpizoid]

I have been playing the game for a while now, and I enjoy it. The only thing I have a problem with is progression.

How am I supposed to gear up when I don't have enough gear to do the levels that drop better gear?

I understand I can buy armor from shops, but I don't want to have to buy armor from other people, I want to get it myself. And I see people all over the place with 2k in every stat on four different characters, where my best isn't even close.

I must be doing something wrong.

[imported_some_guy]

The best way imo is to run survival matches with one friend; then the two of you can trade gear and know what pieces the other is looking for. I did this and went from like 1.5k-ish stats to 2.5 - 3k stats in a few weeks. And check afk shops late at night also when others are just finishing up with their survival runs and putting out new stuff for sale.

[CrzyRndm]

What you should do completely depends on your current stats. Progressing through ES campaign, then probably misty campaign will put you well on the way. After that, it gets quite grindy

TTR HC MM, especially with an active summoner (all armour) has a very low stat requirement and can drop some decent gear which will put you up towards atleast 2k stats.

Finally the shards maps, first misty, then aquanos, can easily put you in the 2.5-3k stat range with a little luck (a lot less if you can have a summoner active, although you will want to do runs without for the area weapons)

[Deleth]

Buy it from other people. The problem is that there's a certain treshold and unless you pass that one gearing up on your own would be an extremly slow and painfull process.

It's kind of funny how many maps drop worse gear then you would realistically need to actually beat them. :D

[Stoopefy]

I just started playing too. And it seems like the best way to do this is to grab a friend and have him run you through survival matches on nightmare difficulty.

[Warmonger]

If you have a good strategy and multiple builders, especially DLC ones, you can gear all yourself quickly.

Read forum guides and Wiki to learn what and where you can get, also how to beat maps/challenges you are clueless about.

[derpizoid]

I don't really have friends that play and want to trade armor. I also dislike how the the DLC builders are used more than the original.

[Drizzit]

What kinda stats do you have? What maps are you playing at the moment and with what difficulty?

[Alhanalem]

How are you supposed to gear?The simple answer is to push the limits of your current capabilities. Run early levels on insane survival. By the time you lose, you should be able to find upgrades (be sure to pick them up before you do lose). Progression is more straightforward than people make it out to be. e.g. if your best accomplishment is beating the campaign on insane, start it up again on nightmare. If you've tried your best and can't do that, run some of the newer challenges such as the assault pack on insane. You'll get early mythical weapons from this which will help you get going in the NM campaign.

That's just an example though. If you want more guidance, you'll need to tell us what your accomplishments are.

Also: Polish your defense set-ups. Combine defenses from several classes (especially summoner, there's no reason not to use it- it's essentially extra defenses). A good setup can make all the difference, and DRASTICALLY reduce the stat levels you need to beat a map. Gear isn't everything even though it seems that way. Yes, there is a certain effective minimum, but it's much lower than people think. Once you pass that point, it's more about efficiency- The stronger your layout is, the less you need to pad your gear to win.

[Theevilmrdark]

. Like a lot of people say, Endless spire once you can beat the first wave is a good source of gear from the chests. Basically can run that until you can beat it, then farm it a few times. Uber Monster Fests is not a bad way to progress if you can find a strategy to finish the first wave. The gear it drops is on part with some low survival maps, is more difficult to set up, but in my opinion, faster (and more fun) than chaining survivals.

. I personally farmed UMF1 on insane, then farmed up endless spires on nightmare. Once I got everyone geared up in mythical gear (and leveled high enough to use it, but not hard to get characters to 74), I moved on to life stream monster fest. I managed to beat it before the EV came out, with the EV it shouldn't be too bad if you have one. Once I farmed Lifestream monster fest (EV came out shortly after I won), I moved on to Oasis Monster fest. During this I played an active Builder Squire with a 100% block weapon and physical resist on the gear. Once I farmed up enough gear from oasis monster fest, including a hero suit, I moved on to Misty to try and beat the Spider Queen.

. This path won't work for everyone. I personally love the monster fest challenges, and never tired of them easily. For others though, they may dislike the monster fests, so to each their own.

[Elyssae]

The alternative is joining random games with Ppl farming survival aquanos.

I run aquanos daily from start to finish if im helping/boosting ppl , or from wave 18+ if im split screenig for 4 seahorses.
( i run it on insane btw. I find that with squire+monk+ev and if possible summoner, you can run aquanos insane with 500/700ish stats. Which is awesome when you need a gear boost to launch yourself into the 1,5k stats mark.)

In my experience, ppl neglect upgrading stuff when they want to gear up, thinking they will find better anyway.
Sometimes 10 more stat here and there will help. Specially i u can be on a dpsing char during farming.

Or just beep me if u want some aqua insane runs. So far on NM i reach wave 16 with 3 ppl and im yhe only dps ( the others are "leeching". So if u find two or three more ppl to dps its even easier , given they can bring at least 1M DPS :).

My steam profile : Elyssae , if u want

[Deleth]

The problem is mostly the transition from Godly > Mythical. You either have to go through some extremly boring and unrewarding grinding just to exchange the gear again right away or you'll have to rely on other people to help you up. It's a bit like a starcaise with several stairs missing in the middle.

[Eagle109]

The stat requirements for most maps on nightmare are much lower than you may think, 2k stats are not required to do nightmare (until High lvl maps). Average of 300 builder stats on a squire/app plus reasonably lvled monk/ev/huntress is all you really need, summoner also help to. Just farm insane challenges and survival (pets help alot). With those stats u should be able to beat early nightmare levels, Deeper well, foundries and forges, magus quaters and start playing them on surivival. Even if you do not get far, about wave 8, myths will start dropping, if u keep getting a few upgrades at a time you will get further and further progressively getting better gear. If you can get reasonably far (wave15-20) on those early lvls you can also try and take on other campaign levels, throne room, ramparts and endless spires all give reasonable loot.
Eventually you will be able to beat them(wave 25), then u can add mixmode, then try your hand at the shards levels (recomend at least 1k stats to get far enough to give upgrades).

[Lordraviel]

Pretty mjuch what everyone else has said, push the harder levels as long as you can beat 1 wave you will get better stuff. I ran Insane Ramaprts survival to 25 which got me good enough gear to beat wave 1 of NM HC Deeper Well and with a good Huntress or Apprentice Guardian to boost the towers shoting the ogre you can start beating wave 1 of NM HC Endless Spires. On Endless Spires dont bother trying to wall the ogre, if it breaks through just summon Harpoons arounound the place while it is running around taking them out oone at a time it will die epecially if you have a guardian boosting them. After getting a few bits of Myth from Rampars I actually started running wave 1 NM HC Aquanos for better stuff and good money, but they key is to keep running campaign stages to get and upgrade good sets.

I find the best next step is to move onto monster fest once ou have a range of 500-1000 stat builders to get better equipment. I usually stay on Monster Fests for quite a while because they give better gear than campaign stages, more money and once you can clear them you can build up a decent collection of pets. My Countess is still using a Trans Steam robot I got from NMHC OMF a couple of weeks ago which has about 300 Tower HP and 400 Tower Attack Speed and Damage. I would say Shipwreck Ruins and the original UMF are the easiest 2, Lifestream is pretty pointkess and OMF is the fastest to run but setups based on the bridge in the middle that clear it quickest require quite highe stats or a good DPS class with pet to get started.

I did learn the hard way that Monster Fests are not as easy as they used t be while getting my ranked progress up in the last few weeks though. Sharken are a real pain when trying to beat them at low stats as they can effectively stop you from walling the ogres as you wear down their massive HP and have a lot of HP themselves which can leave your towers unable to kill them before they sucessfully charge.

While doing the monster fets you need to look at getting a DPS armour set as it will help survive and clear the Monster Fests and be almost essential when trying to start later survivals. DPS sets need to focus on Resist followed by Hero Damage then Hero Health with any combat beneficial abilities worth looking at as well. Usualy around this time I look at farming Karathiki Insane survival for a Monkey and then Aquanos Insane for a seahorse which will be very helpfull in beating the Shards bosses in Nightmare.

If you are looking for starter weapons for DPS classes you can get a Nosferatu for the monk from NM HC Spooktacular easily with 500-1000 stat auras and a decent EV by summoning and buffing a Strength Drain, Electric and Ensare at each crystal and blocking Mini Ogre Acess with a Physical Beam leaving you plenty of DU to mess around with. You cna also get a Goblin Overlord's Charge from NMHC Raining Goblins for an Apprentice with surprisingly low stats on a Squire, less than 500 and a Huntress Guardian can win it fairly easily with a ring of inward pointing Harpoons around the crystal. Squires and huntresses are best off grabbing the best weapon you can find on the ground though.

After that is is a case of working on your survival builds and getting your DPS to a standard where they can take on the Shards bosses in NM, just remeber you don't need HC on when beating the bosses to unlock NMHC survival on the shards maps.

[deiwei]

The first wave on misty can be done with about 200 stats this should net you some reasonable myths. With ES having 3 sharkern on the first wave I find this easier. With an ev this method gets even easier. It may not work first time so just keep on trying.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX7HM61B_G4&list=UUa-ZV5wfEyLPVqRvy38kHcA&index=0&feature=plcp

[ShinUkyo]

I don't really have friends that play and want to trade armor.
I also dislike how the the DLC builders are used more than the original.
That second part is not true. If you look at successful builds that people run Nightmare Survival with, they tend to include three (or sometimes all four) of the original classes. You basically NEED to have traps of some kind, auras of some kind, and then damage turrets of some kind (most often harpoons.) While the two DLC builder classes definitely augment these builds quite nicely, sometimes seemingly needed for full Survival clears, they are nothing without the backbone of the original classes.

Stats are crucial to a degree, but like people said above: they aren't everything. Through trial and error, you will refine your build to the point where you can make it through a stage after a few extra tries. A good build (and experience in that level) can mean your required stats to clear that particular Nightmare stage drop much lower. I managed to clear all of the original campaign levels on Nightmare, and at the time my best builder stats were maybe in the 700 range or so. I also had a DPS character, one with his two hero stats around 1k, but I likely could have done with less. I only built him up so early in order to beat that stupid Kraken boss on Insane (wanted to do everything on Insane before moving to Nightmare.)

[Alhanalem]

I also dislike how the the DLC builders are used more than the original.It's really not true. The best builds use a combination of just about everything. Auras and traps are more important to my builds than the DLC related stuff. But even if it was true, what's to dislike? They're fun to play and totally worth having around. Totally worth a couple extra bucks.

[grey-1]

What you should do completely depends on your current stats...

Ditto.

Go to the PC/Console Guides section in the forums & starting reading up. You will have to dig in a few pages to get all the goodness there. Some of the older posts do not work exactly the same because of the newer patches, but they get it mostly right and you just have to tweak it a bit.

http://forums.trendyent.com/forumdisplay.php?46-PC-Console-Guides&order=desc

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?49936-The-Ryukaki-quot-Go-Bugger-Off-quot-1-78-Progression-Challenge.

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?66394-Breaking-into-NM

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?60782-7.32-First-step-into-nightmare-another-solution

http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?59890-Hall-of-Court-NM-HC-Survival-with-towerstats-UNDER-1k


Edit: Forgot to add that the tower balance is really good these days. If you were playing months ago, you would have seen squire only builds, or before that apprentice only builds, or before that squire only builds, or before... you get the idea. It used to be that 1 toons was uber and the rest losers - but that has been fixed. Not perfect, but still great. Just need some DPS balancing as the huntress/ranger is still not close to other DPS toons.

[jackspeed]

The summoner really helps make the survival easier. The ev's buff beams are very nice but you dont need them they just reduce the stat threshold of late game survival. And I agree with grey the dps hunt is laughable her best weapon may still be the myth ret for assualt. (she is my favorite toon)

[spider-prime]

My advice is the same I did for myself, I made a DPS ranger(before the monk buff), I have 2000 stats for all of his hero stats now, but in the beginning it was under 1000, but I find that DPS characters are the easiest to get and level up, since you can join other people's games and play with them and not worry about building. But even with low stats the 2 main important gear that you need is a dps pet and weapon, armor can be found anytime and leveled up IMO. You should be easily able to find dps armor drops with 150 to most hero stats and have a decent amount of levels to them. Keep leveling your gear, cause you're also making mana tokens at the same time :) So when you find better gear, you can even look in the shop or trade with other people.

So, I recommend making a DPS Monk, since he is now the most useful DPS character right now since of the tower/hero buff he can give to everyone. If you want a easy fast weapon for him, find games running volcanic eruption, get the stone thrower, find oen with levels over 200 and over 3000 to range damage and level that up, you will have a awesome weapon. You only have to do the game on Insane HC, you can even get trans weapons from it for rewards.

if you can make one with the buff stats over or at least near 1000, people will let you into their aquanos survival game, since you will be able to double their power of already ev buffed towers/minions :)