EQDiva

heyas eqdiva.  so i'm in a NON raiding guild. we have maybe 15-20 folks 60+. i'm 68 and the highest active member. i've been trying to think of routes to go for equip upgrades, but i don't have a lot of cash, and since i don't raid, i don't have access to even tier 2 or 3 armor drops from PoP. right now i'm thinking the best thing would be to get smithing up to 275 or so (its 214 now) and attempt some Elaborate cultural armor. typical prices range from 15k (for arms/bracers) to 30-50k (for cuirass/greaves), so buying them is undesirable unless i want to farm plat full time.  i suppose another route could be to get level 70 and buy Plate pieces of the First Order from DoN merchants.  any ideas ?

one other question: what augs should i focus on ?  is AC more important to a bard than avoidance or dodge ?  or should i focus on hp/mana augs ?

 thanks guys.  oh yeah, here's my magelo: http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1342748

If you have The Serpent Spines, there are 2 nice bracers you can get...

Wraithguard Bracer

MAGIC ITEM NO TRADE
Slot: WRIST
AC: 49
STR: +12 DEX: +12 CHA: +12 WIS: +12 INT: +12 AGI: +12 HP: +205 MANA: +205 ENDUR: +205
SV FIRE: +5 SV DISEASE: +15 SV COLD: +10 SV MAGIC: +15 SV POISON: +15
Regeneration: +5 Mana Regeneration: +5
Recommended level of 73. Required level of 66.
WT: 3.9 Size: MEDIUM
Class: WAR CLR PAL SHD BRD
Race: ALL
Slot 1, Type 7

It's obtained by doing a quest starting in Valdehorn from Wraithguard Thentil Strongarm called Armor Supplies. Basically, just kill the bears in Ice fall Glaciers, loot 4 Icefall Grizzly Pelts and turn them in. You can do this quest twice for 2 bracers.

Sufi 

When you get to level 71 you can get some more good TSS armor, You should look into the following quest Tenish's Plate Armor (Part 1) which starts in Cresent Reach. The molds can be obtained  by killing varios creatures which can be completed with a single group. Each piece of armor can result with stats around 215-240 hp/mana/end.

Start collecting the molds listed below and alot of Frosted Scrap Metal and Ash Covered Scrap Metal now before you hit 71.

Wrought Plate Bracer = An Ancient Plate Bracer Mold from Darkmist (Level: 71) in Sunderock Springs

Wrought Plate Gauntlets = An Ancient Plate Glove Mold from Whitewater (Level: 71) in Sunderock Springs

Wrought Plate Helm = An Ancient Helm Mold from Sulfurog (Level: 72) in Sunderock Springs

Wrought Plate Boots = An Ancient Plate Boot Mold from Hesmire Farflight (Levels: 71 - 73) in The Steepes

Wrought Plate Vambraces = An Ancient Armplate Mold from Chef Gudez (Level: 71)  in The Steppes

Wrought Plate Breastplate = An Ancient Chestplate Mold from Tarnuk Farwalker (Level: 76) in Icefall Glacier

Wrought Plate Greaves = An Ancient Legplate Mold from Son of Severan (Level: 77) in Direwind Cliffs

Once you have completed a piece, you can upgrade it some by doing the following quest Tenish's Plate Armor (Part 2).

 Sufi

 SoF has just blasted the doors open for non-raiders to get some fantastic gear.

Dragonscale alone, from groupable mobs (that to be fair are going to be rough at 60, but totally doable at lvl 70 in a full group) there's clickies all over the place (Form of Endurance on shoulders I think I saw), AC+hp augs, weapons, range and face items, and that's just bard stuff.  The gear is truly scary good and very easy to attane.  Prices are dirt cheap in bazaar too for them as drops seem common, so even if you can't take them down, you'll be picking up 280hp gear from bazaar for 5k soon enough.

Smithing is a good thing to work on, and if you're at 214, the sunshard pebbles you'll be finding in your content will still be giving you skill ups, though that does still cost a fair chuck of change to make. For now, even just crafted Intricite armour would be upgrades (think makeable at 214?) and give you the augs to drop things on (an though you've not got the raid slot12 augs, some DoN augs will I believe fit in them for a few options)

Other quick upgrades from looking at your Magelo.

Finish slipgear quest.  Shroud up as a rogue for some of the tricker bits.  It's doable as a lvl5 rogue shroud and would give you a few more hps/ac

Goto home tome and get a melee proc aug for your off hand weapon. Might as well do a bit more damage and it'll be cheap to get.

Augs, doing Dain MM's will get you the augs that are upgrades to some of the current ldon ones.  Both the aug that powers up from completing them, and the drops from the end mob (think the end of dain2 has another decent one).   Other MM to look at is the one in Emerald Jungle that drops 65hp+stat augs and is easy to win.

A good hunting spot for that level of gear would be creep reapers in Corathus Creep I think.  Single pulls to be sure, and they should be free now SoF is out and the items drop faster there that people farm that camp for.  Think most of the rare drops (bracers/mask/shield) would be upgrades that someone can use.  And there's another hp drop there too I think?

But you're in good shape atm.  Don't worry too much.

As for augs to focus on... Ac, Ac, Ac.

If a HP aug drops, sure, chuck it in, but the benefits of AC to a pulling/tanking/ are immense.  Avoidance and Dodge (and parry/riposte) gear are also usefull, but without raiding, I'm not 100% sure what the options are on this.  My mantra has always been 'concentrate on the AC and the HP upgrades will take care of themselves'