Okay, I'm not a new player, but lots of times I feel like one. I came over in the first age. I've just come and gone a lot with school, then work, then marriage, etc.

But, I figure this might help out new players so I'll ask here.

How the heck do you people keep track of what's good gear, and where to get it? Especially for multiple classes.

Example, I'm currently playing a melee character in the high 30's. I fight with someone in an opposing cabal, same class, same race, and I get tooled. My skills/spells hit for 2-3 damage categories less then the exact same skills then the guy I was fighting, no vulnerabilities were used. So I figure my +dam roll is too low and/or my weapons suck.

Except..I have NO idea where to get better gear. I look in my log at this guys gear when I got a peak at it later, and have no idea where any of that came from. I've wandered around appropriate level areas, can't find anything. I've tried to ask people who schooled me, usually ends up in rp lectures about how horrible a person I am. There's no one 'helpful' around in my neck of the woods I can ask.

I mean, at level 38 I got my sleeves looted by someone who pk'ed me (not sure why they were from Tarus), and the best replacement I could find was junk sold by the armorer in Galadon for crying out loud after 2 days of looking.

Now, I'm sure while playing another class I probably came across great sleeves for a 30. Probably playing a mage or something looking for more hp and went 'meh' and threw them away. How do you keep track?

I take great pride in trying to wear armor I can get for myself, so I can be self reliant and not worry about being full looted, but I'm getting tired of using stuff slightly better then academy gear.

Options I can think of.

1) Set up some sort of item db of my own. Run around with an explorer chacter, id/lore everything and save it for 'real' characters to follow. That sounds like a huge pain in the butt, but I can do it if I need to.

2) Beg/ask/rp and try to find someone friendly or a mentor to show me some good items for my level. This probably won't work because of my role, but I could get lucky. Otherwise to do this I'd have to reroll a 'friendlier' character.

3) Just keep trucking (and dying) with my current guy and hope eventually I stumble on some npc's that have something useful for me.

I'm trying to tough it out and do #3, but I get tired of getting rolled over by people with gear I have no clue where to get. Soon I'll be fighting people with gauntlets that shoot acid, and rings and shock me, and helmets that blind me, and I can't even begin to guess where THAT stuff is, much less stand a chance against them unless I get lucky.

Really frustrating being a new, old person. I get in groups and someone says "I need help to run 4 zones over to kill Joe the Barber cause maybe he has the epic spear that shoots acidic slugs" and I'm going...how the hell did you know that? And do you think I'll remember 2 years from now when I play my next spear spec warrior?

Any suggestions?

I too, am a long time player, and I too often have long periods when I can't play, and am at a loss when I return.

Dio's is a good start.

for melee players, dio's will get you into your twenties or so.

but realize, I think because the immstaff has asked dio's not to, Dio's weapon lists have not been updated in 5-7 years.

There is ALOT out there that just isn't on that list.

I use Dio's mainly to remind me of regear stuff for after I die, then go get other stuff not on dio's.

As for the other stuff.

I hate to do it. And I hate to recommend it, because it's a pain in the arse.

Whenever I am gone a while, I play a character similar to the one I want to play for a few hundred hours. a throwaway. And try to find stuff to wear with the new char.


Also, use the area list helpfile in game. There are ALOT of areas for between 15-30 lvl chars that have gone in in the past 7 years that are packed with items dios refuses to list. stuff that isn't even limited but is stronger for that lvl 20/20 melee char than the limited stuff on dios.

Take a char, and take the time to find and explore these areas.

You don't have to take a really in depth database for your next char 2 years from now.

Once you've spent 2 hours in a new area, you will remember the basics of layout even a long time from now.

So basically just keep a text file.

Decent sword, cold attack, so-and-so area, generally south of galadon lvl 20.

good bracers, damage, so-and-so area, nw of udgaard. lvl 45 requestable


etc.

This kind of file is enough to remind me of the general place, and I can usually find the item with some floundering.


One thing you do NOT want to do, is to roll up the role you want to play, without knowing this information.

Say you play a dagger warrior, but don't know any daggers available between lvl 15 and 45.

Let's say Dio's is also down. And you lose that great dagger you got from pk/cabal pit/friend's gift.

You are stuck. Until dio's comes up and you MIGHT be able to find a dagger (not likely, now that half the warriors are dagger specs, and they all get the same poisoning daggers...most of your daggers will be maxed). You will be stuck with that same dagger you've been using since you entered pk.

I just look at it as one of the main drawbacks to playing a free game where item knowledge is so closely hoarded by those in the know. To play a successful char, you have to play 1-4 characters before hand just to find out where to get eq for that successful char.

Just accept it, and grind it out. Or find a game that's more fun for you, if you don't find the fun of that one successful char worth the work of hundreds of hours. I do. Most of the time. Some don't.


***
I focused on melee characters, because I've given up on a/b/s. I've found one barrier wand, well...I traded for it's info...with one of my lvl 47 spectres. It was limited to 3 wands, so I've never...EVER...seen it in since. But it was lvl 51, so my lvl 47 necro couldn't even use it. I figure, my above tactics for figuring out decent eq for melee chars will never work for wands. Because wands change for each char (the non-limited ones anyway), and even if they don't, they will either be maxed out the next time you have a character, or they will have been moved because someone posted it's location, or moved because too many people knew about it...etc.

I could play a fairly decent invoker without a/b/s, and a passing necro without a/b/s. But transmuter? shifter? ap? forget about it.

And the idea of putting all that work into lvling a necro (the hardest single thing for me in cf, bar none) or spamming an invoker and have them be less than half as effective as the next guy who isn't as good as me, but knows a/b/s just soured me to the whole thing.

I found this frustrating as well. Here's my advice:

1. Look over the items list at Dio's, bearing in mind that many items no longer exist or have been changed. That's a start.

2. Log all your sessions and look at what other people are wearing. You can do this as a sub-11 character as well- just look at heros when they come into town, on eastern road, etc. Note all the pieces you're not familiar with.

3. Play a good-aligned character with "locate object" and "identify" (or 100% lore). Consider a non-mage, if you want to be friendly with ragers , except that limits you to the shaman class. Make it your job to locate and identify all the gear you're curious about. If you see another goodie wearing something you're not familiar with, by all means ask to examine it. Then ask him where it's from. Even if you just get an area out of him, that's a start.

4. If you see another goodie (not necessarily in your PK) that's totally decked out, ask him to take a look at you and make suggestions about how you can improve what you're wearing. Even if he doesn't have the time to take you around to gather things, you can at least get *information* out of him to use later.

Some advice:

-explore and write them up in a list as you find them.
-use item lists in Dio's and Diku Wiki. There are also gear lists somewhere that can help you.
-Ask friendly characters for advice in game

Find people who seem to know their stuff and ask them "what could i be wearing that's better than Ive got" usually people will help you improve 3/4 slots and you can ask them "about where is it" then go exploring. Best way to learn an area and get explore points IMO