Friday, July 6, 2012

Level 60 Abyss Armor: A Discussion

3.0 has brought many new things,  and among them,  a new set of abyss gear for level 60 deavas.  When I first took a look at the armor and weaps,  I was very surprised.  NC added something new.
They added a term of use to the 60 E (eternal) armor and weps that requires the wearer to maintain an abyss rank of at least 3 or 1 or the gear cannot be worn.  What this means in terms of pvp is that a rank 1
player wearing a 60 E piece of "rank regulated" gear will lose 885 AP every time they're killed.  A player loses AP based on their rank.  The higher your rank,  the more you lose when defeated during pvp.  For those of you unfamiliar with the abyss point ranking system,  please see this page at the Aion website that explains the concepts further.   It also means that if your rank drops below rank 1,
you can't wear the gear.  This probably won't ever happen tho,  because the new 3.0 end game content
has so many ways to get AP,  which are given out in bundles of abyss relics,  that a player is sure to have a savings hoard of them to boost their rank in an emergency. 
To my mind its more a question of control:  should I allow myself to be held to a constant rank by acquiring a set of gear that has a program limit,  or should I retain my freedom to be a lower rank and go with a set of gear that is very good but gives less stats?
It isn't an easy question to answer,  and a comparison of the gears might help in reaching a decision.

We'll begin by taking a look at the lv 60 rank regulated Fabled Gear:

The 60 fabled leather jerkin for rank 3 or higher

As you can see,  it has 6 slots (standard for fabled or higher AP armor).  It is only wearable by Rank
3 or higher players,  and it gives a set effect of magic supression for a wearer who has 3 or 5 pieces of it.  It also gives a hidden set effect that will activate and become known when the entire set is worn.

And for those of you who are fashion concious,  here's how it looks on a female toon:



Next we'll take a look at the pricier fabled jerkin,  also for rank 3 or higher:


The difference between the two is that this one has no set effects available but it does have augmentation.  Augmentation is practically the same idea as with the crucible armor:  you pay an NPC to augment the armor,  which gives a specified stat boost that lasts for a certain amount of time,  at which point you either re-boost it or leave it on its base stats.   The augment stats on this jerkin are +4 crit strike,  +hp 27 and + 27 magic supression.

Now lets take a look at the eternal armor:



Once again I've selected the jerkin for an even comparison.  This item requires rank 1 or higher of the wearer.  Like the previous jerkin it has no set effects.  It also has augmentation,  but it has 2 levels available.  I don't know why anyone who could have a lvl 2 would only choose 1,  but I think the idea is that if you forget to re-boost it you won't immediately go back to base stats,  you'll just drop down a bit.  The lv1 augment stats are:  +32 hp,   + 5 crit strike,  + 32 magic supression and  +10 magic resist.   The lvl 2 augment stats are: +33 hp,  +32 magic supression,  +12 Accuracy and +5 attack.
That last stat really wowed me!  I've never seen a +attack stat on a jerkin before.  As far as I know this is a first in the game.  Its pretty cool. 
And here's how it looks:



And a pic:



Ok,  now that we've seen the rank regulated armor,  lets take a look at the no rank required armor for comparison.  We'll start with the fabled jerkin:

The lv 60 "no rank required" basic fabled AP jerkin


It has the standard 6 slots,  no set effects,  the same defense stats and the same pvp defense as the greater fabled jerkins.  Of course its also less expensive. 

And heres the eternal no rank jerkin with pic:


Its the same setup as the fabled jerkin. 

As you can see,  theres a trade off for retaining the right to be low rank.  The armor has less stats available and is just basic,  which is just fine,  but if you want access to the extra stats and the best that the game has to offer,  you have to settle with staying either rank 3 or 1. 

It alot to sort out and consider,  and I still haven't made up my mind yet on what I'll be doing as far as eventually upgrading my armor from EC armor to AP armor is concerned. 

I hope this article  has been helpful and your comments on this new change in the AP gear are most welcome.

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