Gearing Up

A special thanks to Almar's Guides and Allakhazam for much of this info.

Like every other guide states, don't worry if you have some empty slots when the tutorial ends. Unless you are trying to experience the game with some special approach (some returning players play only in expansions in order, etc.), step one is going to be getting to L80 with whatever drops and minimal expenses on spells/abilities, then focusing on gear/spells/disciplines/AAs and fine-tuning your spellsets, hotkeys, and tactics.

Levels 0 - 10

As so many other guides advise, please do the tutorial and most or all of the tutorial's quests. This will get to at level 10 with some decent armor. Hand Vahlara Gloomingdeep Spider Silk to receive Burlap armor (it's better than nothing) for every slot. Other armor will drop from the Gloomingdeep Kobolds pretty regularly. Again, the Gloomingdeep gear is exactly equal to the lowest level of Defiant gear.

Levels 11-80

Fight content, do daily quests, or at least XP in the hotzones. You can get the quests from Franklin Teek in the Plane of Knowledge, and then go XP in that zone if you don't want to do the quests. But I've done most of them.

Grab the armor that drops that you can use. Sell/bazaar/destroy what you don't want. When I'm XPing, I don't usually loot anything that I can't use unless it's stackable.

By level 80, it seems wearing defiant gear (don't forget your augments!) and moloing (soloing with your mercanary) becomes too weak to continue. This is the time to grind out some AAs, learn your spells/discs, and work on improving your stats, strats, and survivability. This is one reason why many folks multibox - with three characters, even if all are only played at some low percentage of efficiency, you can do group tasks for progression and upgrades.

Defiant Gear

So, Defiant gear drops from mobs in all content, and is usually rated for the levels of character that will be XPing in that zone or on that mob. Each set also has a certain coloring (shown below). It seems like the last several releases have standardized which focus effects are on which armor slots, so upgrading an armor slot will not leave you with a lesser or missing focus. Defiant seems to follow this convention. Colors are Effed if you're running your browser in dark mode.

Name of Armor	Required (Min Level)	Recommended (full focus effects)
Crude	-	10
Simple	5	20
Rough	15	30
Ornate	26	40
Flawed	37	50
Intricate	48	60
Elaborate	59	70
Elegant	70	80