Itemization Questions from a New Player

Ajido

My boyfriend loves this game and plays it for countless hours everyday, and he's been trying to get me into it for the longest time. I recently created my first character, a Sylas which is level 71 and I've finished season 1. I somewhat enjoyed the game up until this point as I found the combat interesting and engaging, but the itemization has thus far been quite dull and that's a part of MMORPG's I usually enjoy. I get gear handed to me via quests every 10 levels or so, and it's just a little bit more stats than the previous one. So to my question, what is itemization like in the end game? Are there interesting choices to be made or am I going to be faced with something along the lines of "this is the best path, do this or you're gimping yourself"? Thanks for any input, I think I'm just looking for some motivation to keep playing and reach the end game content.

Question2

What kind of interesting choices are you referring to?

There are actually lots of weapons/armor choices at level 60+ for every tier, but most are obsolete now that you get free gear from quests, which is a recent change to help new players.

At level 90, choices basically boil downn to which r7 enchants you want, as cloth/light enchants are more offensive oriented and heavy/plate enchants are more defensive oriented. The choice between cloth vs light and heavy vs plate is basically that the former gives slightly more ATT from r7 enchants and the latter gives slightly more DEF from skills.

Ajido

Question2 wrote: »

What kind of interesting choices are you referring to?

Basically anything that is more than just an increase of stats. Path of Exile, Dungeon Defenders and Final Fantasy XI come to mind as games that have what I would consider interesting itemization choices. The items in those games change the way some of your abilities work and enhance them in different ways.

2edgy4u

There are definitely many ways to build any class. Theoretically there should be an optimal build, but you'd more easily have enough gold to fund that build than find two players who agree on what that build is. The choices you make can lead you down many paths (paladin/dk, plate/cloth, balance/speed etc) and all of them are at the very least viable, because Vindictus is based on player capability rather than meeting some dps/heal check.

That said, yeah if you do something crazy like that guy who experimented with negative bal, you'd be gimping yourself.

In the end, it's still mostly stat increases, except speed affects how the character plays and up to 3 special abilities on lvl 90 equipment.

Oh and one last thing, some abilities change how a character plays rather than just increase damage when you level them up. Some people choose to leave them at a low rank or unlearned entirely. I can only think of a few examples right now: Vella cross stance, Kai xgun reload, xgun spin smash, Lann spears acceleration.

Portals

High quality level 90 equipment have some passives that barely do anything, and are also locked to certain maps so you won't be seeing them activate very often. Level 95 equipment is coming in several months but that is also just a standard stat increase over level 90 stuff.

Order5

Games have started gravitating towards items that are meaningful and interesting depending on choices, but gear in this game is mostly just a stat-grab like most of the old MMORPGs. With that said, you have complete freedom as far as itemization goes, and there isn't a straight up "best way" to do things.

If you are gearing for effectiveness (especially at end game) then you have certain target numbers for stats, but you are free to go about how to reach those points on your own. Most likely you'll be making choices based on what is easier for you to obtain though.

The free gear you are receiving is simply to help you get through the leveling stages because getting gear as a new player is extremely difficult. They are by no means the best items at your level, nor are they intended to push you in a certain direction.