Soo, first character here, just dinged 40 on my shiny new bladedancer.
My class quest basically wiped out all my funds (down to 50k, grats porting around the entire world 50 times >.<) so i was wondering what the best places to check out for solo or duo and not spend a ton of cash on pots/css.
Im currently in a nice happy set of Brigandine, and wondering what i should be looking for next, as far as c-grade heavy armor. Should i start saving for higher end c armor? go for low end (composite i think?) armor? Im not really familiar with what sets are reccomended for a bd, and what reasonable price ranges for said armor might be.
And last but not least (or maybe it is, i have no clue :P) the wonderful world of tattoos... my main intention is for pve grinding/grouping, and less of a focus on pvp for the time being. Im far more concerned with levelling, gearing up, and getting to a point where i am Not Broke, than making enemys. Are the benefits of changing your stats through the use of tattoos worth the appearant high cost? what will help increase my grinding efficiency without putting me at greater risk of death? What will make my hex/power break get resisted less (lol)?
I think thats everything off the top of my head, and thanks in advance if youre able to answer any portion of this.
Well, Comp armor, with the helm, can and will get you easily all the way to 52. And at 40, I suggest under the Ivory Tower, or the Sea of Spores. Nice spellbook drops in IT, so you'll make a good bit of money if you sell easily.
A Bladedancer can never be a cheap class to play, so that leave you 2 options:
1) Accept you will never be in top-gear with your BD unless you win the lottery or receive a donation
2) Work for your top gear by rerolling a dwarf scavenger that will make you money along the way
As you are now...first start off in Heine by taking the quest from the Pet Manage and collect eggs from Lienrik-Lienliks...you can do this quest fast and without any potions or CSS. After that try going to Alligator Island and take both quests from the Weapons Shop and the Warehouse in Heine.
You should be able to solo up to 45 with very limited amount of CSS, potions what so ever....while gathering some adena's.
For gear, Composite is good enough till B grade. It's a decent set and if you can find +4 ELS*ELS...well they are good till B grade too. No need for better stuff as C grade passes by pretty fast.
In the end you'd like to get BW Heavy with SLS*SLS in B grade...That's sthe standard set-up really. Tattoos can be helpful but I think tats for a Bladedancer are merely pvp related...you have high damage output already, use your money for something else if you can for the time being.
If I were you I would stick with my Brig set until I had a set of dual Katanas (or whatever swords you want). Armour should be the last thing to upgrade, at least until you hit B grade. You will be able to level just fine in Brig until late 40s. When you upgrade get Composite, even without the set bonus it is fine to use until you get Blue Wolf Heavy.
Tatoos cost 1.6mil AA, or about 100k each for +4 Str -4 Con (the ones you need), and about 600k to apply. So I'm thinking you cant afford them for quite a while yet. Thats ok though, since you cant really afford the drop in HP just yet. Wait until you are in your 50s to get tatoos.
Well I am on my second bladedancer no matter what class I play I always come back to my original bd. Anyway, it is a great class and here are some build options
lvl 40
plated leather
+4 str -4 con tat
any duals with crit SA (there are plenty of cheap ones that still have the crit sa)
now, if you have vr this is the best combo. The plated leather doesnt give you as good of protection but with vr you have nothing to worry about. If you dont have vr you would want to go with the following build
comp armor
no tats
crit duals
Comp armor will get the job done. You really dont even need the helm since the set bonuses aren't that great anyway. This set will get you to b grade.
full plate
If you dont have VR this is probably the best choice but it is expensive.
B grade
blue wolf heavy
+4str -4 con
+4dex -4 con
crit duals
You have to pick blue wolf if you want to be effective there is no way around it. Anyway, blue wolf can last you all the way up to 75 if you so choose. I took it up to 68 on my last bd. Dont listen to the poster with the SLS*SLS suggestion (no offense). With duals, patk isnt really that important. The most important aspect is getting the crit SA duals. Currently I am just using nightmare*nightmare because I like how they look and they have the crit SA. Anyway, the more crits you do the more damage you do. Normal patk should be above 200 for b grade (low b grade is around 213) but with the crit SA you will easily kill things faster than sls*sls w/ haste sa.
Anyway, hope this clears things up a bit. Once you hit 55 and 58 you will really start loving your character and as a bd it is always easy to find a party and a good clan, gl!
Thank you all for the info, i will be skipping the tat's for now it looks like. I got a Sword of Revolution off a raid boss last night, and combined that with my other Sword of Revolution to make a dual sor... so i have a c grade set for now.
it says the bonus on that is +25% hp if i enchant it enough, is it worth enchanting these (since my armor will probably stay brig for a long while), or next week i can try upgrading them at mammon... any idea what they go up to? or can exchange to, if crit is really more important than hp?
Do not enchant now! You will need to enchant to +4 to activate the SA. And when enchanting to +4 you will have a chance to break the item, and will have crystals on may be 1/2 worth your's wearpon and enchants.
yah, enchanting at c grade and b grade typically the loss of the weapon is fine and getting half the crystals back is fine but where you really lose money is wasted enchants. Four c grade wep enchants will cost you 4 mil and you get about 300k worth of crystals for all those enchants it really sucks.
Anyway, if you're on bartz I will help you. Give me your name and I will pm you this weekend and set you up with some gear. I have a crafter and can probably work something up for you.
Dont listen to the poster with the SLS*SLS suggestion (no offense). With duals, patk isnt really that important. The most important aspect is getting the crit SA duals. Currently I am just using nightmare*nightmare because I like how they look and they have the crit SA.
Was only pointing out a set-up...some BD's like crits, others like DD duals. In any case I hate how Nightmare*Nightmare looks on a BD. For me a Bladedancer is a high styled character and BW with SLS*SLS or SLS*TSU is just styling.
It all depends of what the OP wants to follow as road for his char.