Armor Leveling Research. Please Contribute.

[Thrish]

Don't see why you would because it's much more useful to fuse it with another Legendary and try to get an Epic, but if you would it's 141 EP for non-matching or 159 EP for matching.

Thanks Necro, just wanna know wad's the result. Fusing it would be better off

[Native02]

Guys,

We know that farming snakeskins is a MONEY-efficient way to level up, because:
0) You get 2 snakeskins from level boss (still a minion)
1) For 8 snakeskins, you get a rare armor (20 EPs) to use as enhancement fodder
2) You simply whack through 12/13 minions each with instant kills (at higher levels)
3) You sustain minimal damage and can go on "forever" like the Duracell bunny

.. but somehow I find that not the most time-efficient way to level up, as the outcome of going through 11/12 minions is... 2 pieces of snakeskins.

EP/minion = Total EPs / Total minions = (20 EPs/8*2)/ (12 or 13 minons) = 0.385 - 0.417 EP/minion
If matching material, the EP will be = 0.461 - 0.5 EP/minion

I somehow am leaning towards Guardian's Crossing at the Honor level, because:
0) You get 2 crystal shards from boss, and 2-10 pieces of steel ingots
1) For 12 pieces of crystals, you get a rare armor (20 EPs) to use as enhancement fodder
2) For 4 pieces of steel ingots you get an uncommon armor (8 EPs) to use as enhancement fodder
3) You whack through 20-22 minions each still with instant kills (at higher levels)
4) the critical hits are quite predictable

EP/minion = [(20 EPs/12*2) + (8 EPs/4*(2to10))]/ (20-22 minions) = 0.36 - 1.11 EP/minion
In the median situation of 6 pieces of steel ingots from minion-drops, you get 0.69 - 0.76 EP/minion
If matching material, the EP will be = 0.856 - 0.943 EP/minion

Now this seems higher than the EP rate of snakeskin... also, I can't find a better farming ground for uncommon materials than Guardian's Crossing.

Any comments on the above?


Omni Knight RF
Guild = Rainbow Flamers
Code = XBD-YPF-FXM

[Marco_]

Relic Ruins Epic: 3 Stone Slabs + some earth shards (4 Stone Slabs needed for a Stonescale)
Mix that with Snakeskin farming and you should be able to have both a bunch of Snakeskins (24EP when matched) and Stonescale_lvl11 by throwing 5x basic earth and 3x basic water at the Stonescale for 20EP when matching earth.
Of course the most wallclock-time efficient (except for fusing or DPC-ing), but most gold inefficient way to level an armor is with 100% matching basics... (9 million gold for a level 70 armor according to someone)

[DG Magneto]

Native,

I would agree that Guardians crossing and Writhing cascades are great places to farm materials. I always run on Honor or epic also. I've seen 9 shards drop in the last round there alone. But after you have built up 400 ingots and 2,000 of every shard you are probably good for a while. The bottleneck becomes your armorys at this point.

To optimize your enhancing armor, people should consider the EP gain per minute of armory use. For example, some calculations i made for a 3 or 4 star armor (70 cap) at level 30. (or any level)

Using x4 basics (24 EP / 20 Minutes) is 1.2 EP per minute. (675 gold per EP)
Using x4 Level 4 uncommons it calculates .325 EP per minute (Per armory) (396 gold per EP) (52 EP / 160 Minutes )
Using Snakeskins both level1 and level3 it calculates to .2 EP per minute. (281 gold per EP)

So the choice at level 30 is between faster enhancing at the cost of gold.

If you consider your sleeping hours and work hours it can be different. In that case it is best to store up a good stash of snakeskins to utilize your armorys while your away.

[Matty Cash]

thanks for the info very usefull

[Jemnidad]

I have been using a certain method for leveling armor which seems to be pretty gold efficient. Maybe others could comment on its actual worth. I have never bothered to run the actual math on this formula.


The idea is that you level up either basic armors, or preferably the uncommon stuff like Seafoam, and Wind warrior to between level 12 and 16. This is very inexpensive to achieve using 4 basics at a time.
Once you have 4 Seafoams for example, you then enhance your target armor using 4 pieces of armor at or above level 12.

The reason I think this works is that you get more EP out of a level 12 piece of armor, but the cost of enhancing Seafoam to 12 is very low. This seems to save gold and be faster than using 4 pieces of level 1 seafoam. I haven't compared it exactly with using snakeskin or anything else.

[Sifu]

For uncommons, you want to stop at level 11.

Snakeskin 24 EP matching and 20 EP non-match.

Level 11 uncommons 20 EP matching and 18 non-match.

Uncommons get to level 11 with enhancing 8 basics into them.
500 for the uncommon
300 x 8 for basics
600 for first fusion
1600 for second fusion

That's 5100 for an uncommon vs 3000 for a snakeskin. (20,400 vs 12,000 for a full set) If the snakeskin is matching, it is cheaper and more EP.

It all depends on if time is your biggest limiting factor or gold for non-match. The uncommons can be crafted/enhanced much faster than snakeskins.

[StMichael]

I have an "extra" Sky Guardian Armor. I need some advice - is it better to keep it for fusing, or to use it to enhance one of my present armour?

[gnolaum]

So I got my first level 70 armor with the Guild Wars reward today, and I'm doing some research into the best way to level it to 70. By 'Best' I mean cheapest in gold cost.

I was considering 3 armors to use as fusion fodder, and these are Uncommon on element (40 EP per fuse), Snakeskin off element (80EP per fuse) and Spectral Captains uniform (360 EP per fuse). I was trying to find the best place to transition between these.

The transition between Uncommon and Snakeskins was relatively easy to find, with 2 uncommon fusions generating the same EP as a snakeskin fuse. I represented it in the following way:

F1 + F2 + UNCOMMON COST * 8 > F1 + SNAKESKIN COST * 4
F2 + 4000 > 12000
F2 > 8000

So the time to transition is when the NEXT fusion (F2) is > 8000. This happens after 22 fusions when the armor is at level 23 and has a total of 880 EP.

The transition to Spectral Captains uniform was slightly more difficult, but no more complicated. 80 and 360 have the least common multiple of 720, so here I had to compare 8 snakeskin fusions to 2 spectral captains uniform fusions. I represent it in the following way:

F1 + F2 + F3 + F4 + F5 + F7 + F7 + F8 + SNAKESKIN COST * 32 > F1 + F5 + SPECTRAL CAPTAINS COST * 8
F2 + F3 + F4 + F6 + F7 + F8 + 96000 > 400000
F2 + F3 + F4 + F6 + F7 + F8 > 304000

Putting that formula into my spreadsheet it shows that that happens after 21 fusions, when the armor is at level 45 and has a total 2560 EP.

This is fortuitous since 5080 - 2560 = 2520, which is exactly divisible by 360. 2520/360 = 7.

This yields to total crafting and fusion cost of 2,793,200.

I realize that I could swap the off element Snakeskin's for some on element Uncommons levelled to 11; but that just trade a little bit of time for some extra gold.

So my questions:
1) Can you spot a problem with my math?
2) Can you give a lower total cost?
3) Is there another armor I should consider for fusion fodder?
4) Is there a fusion method that may lead to me NOT having to farm 504 Ghostly Beard Hairs?

Thanks!

[Sifu]

The commonly accepted method is to use snakeskins or uncommons for a few levels. Then snakeskins most of the rest of the way. Finally, there are four fusions with basics that will give guaranteed 50EP or better results. I believe the common practice is to switch to 50 EP armors at about level 50 for armors that don't match snakeskin and at 62 for armors that do.

You can test when you would like to change between them using this calculator that Barbanium already put a lot of work into:
http://www.funzio.com/forum/showthre...and-Calculator
This thing is awesome and calculates the number of fusions, the gold cost, the crafting times and the gold per EP. Unfortunately, it does not seem to consider a category for Spectral Captain's to be used as fuel. It might give you a huge starting place though, where that might be the only thing you need to add to it rather than building from scratch.

F1 + F2 + UNCOMMON COST * 8 > F1 + SNAKESKIN COST * 4
F2 + 4000 > 12000
F2 > 8000

So the time to transition is when the NEXT fusion (F2) is > 8000. This happens after 22 fusions when the armor is at level 23 and has a total of 880 EP.

This seems to bear out. The calculator has similar results. That seems to be the inflection point where the gold/EP starts to favor snakeskins and the calculated total cost is cheaper at that point using uncommons vs snakeskins. This is fairly clear mathmatically, although, I must admit, it doesn't seem obvious. It takes 22 fusions as you stated with that cost rising each time vs only 15 to get to that point with non-match snakeskins.

The transition to Spectral Captains uniform was slightly more difficult, but no more complicated. 80 and 360 have the least common multiple of 720, so here I had to compare 8 snakeskin fusions to 2 spectral captains uniform fusions. I represent it in the following way:

F1 + F2 + F3 + F4 + F5 + F7 + F7 + F8 + SNAKESKIN COST * 32 > F1 + F5 + SPECTRAL CAPTAINS COST * 8
F2 + F3 + F4 + F6 + F7 + F8 + 96000 > 400000
F2 + F3 + F4 + F6 + F7 + F8 > 304000

Putting that formula into my spreadsheet it shows that that happens after 21 fusions, when the armor is at level 45 and has a total 2560 EP.

This is fortuitous since 5080 - 2560 = 2520, which is exactly divisible by 360. 2520/360 = 7.

This yields to total crafting and fusion cost of 2,793,200.

This may be true. It might even be the "best" way (or nearly since we are discounting level 11 uncommons). However, as I mentioned, you have some other methods to calculate if you really want to find the "best" way because those 50EP armors is the generally accepted method. I haven't done the math myself. Of course, that requires fusion stones too and those are hard to put a "cost" on.

I realize that I could swap the off element Snakeskin's for some on element Uncommons levelled to 11; but that just trade a little bit of time for some extra gold.

Here is where I have to question your goals. You make a time vs gold judgement here but you started by asking for the "best" method considering only gold. Are snakeskins better to start off with because you have to do fewer fusions? Are they better to start off with because they are less complicated to farm than shards? With snakeskins, you don't have to try to use a Special Attack on anything but the boss. Is Spectral Captain "viable" due to the difficulties farming it relative to other methods?

We all have to make judgments like this. I definitely don't question your judgement in this statement. I just am pointing out that any answer we give is likely to have some of our own judgments already embedded in them.

So my questions:
1) Can you spot a problem with my math?
2) Can you give a lower total cost?
3) Is there another armor I should consider for fusion fodder?
4) Is there a fusion method that may lead to me NOT having to farm 504 Ghostly Beard Hairs?

Thanks!

Hopefully, Barbanium's calculator will help with the first two questions. As to the second, I hope some of my comments have helped. In all honesty, I didn't do any of those calculations myself, I am a shameless regurgitator of what I have gleaned from these forums.

[shukai84]

I am now at lvl 71 of my maelstorm amr.. and i know that to lvl up the next few levels would be hell for me..

What is the quickest way to lvl epci amrs from lvl 71 onward? What should I prepare for the amr to lvl up?

[gnolaum]

If by quickest you mean fastest by time only then the boring answer is the basic elements. Cost a fortune though.

My recommendations are:
1) Do not use any 2*+ armors previous to use, use them now.
2) Do not use any fusion boosts on any armors previous to this, use them now.
3) Consider fusing armors to make 2*+ armors
4) Consider farming Sunken Carrack for Ghostly Beard hairs to craft Spectral Captains uniform.

[Tharkin]

Lots of good info in this thread, helpful for someone like me who is just starting to get armors to the point where leveling them is a serious pain. Thanks to those who contributed this info!

-Tharkin

[Antinoob]

good work, must have taken awhile

[gnolaum]

The commonly accepted method is to use snakeskins or uncommons for a few levels. Then snakeskins most of the rest of the way. Finally, there are four fusions with basics that will give guaranteed 50EP or better results. I believe the common practice is to switch to 50 EP armors at about level 50 for armors that don't match snakeskin and at 62 for armors that do.

Ah, I hadn't considered to 2* fusions. Yes those would be reasonably cheap, and ... extremely fast. That extreme speed will probably overwhelm the cost effectiveness of any other method.

Using this formula: TOTAL_GOLD_COST * (POINTS_TO_LEVEL / POINTS_PROVIDED)

I came up with a nifty spreadsheet and graphs ... that this forum won't allow me to post.

Some interesting observations however:
1) Basics are never cost effective. I had thought they would be at lower levels
2) The transition point from uncommons to on-element snakeskins is 16
3) The transition point from uncommons to off-element snakeskin is 24
4) The transition point from off-element snakeskins to 2* fusions is 49
5) The transition point from on-element snakskin to on-element spectral captains chest is 53
6) The transition point from on element snakeskin to 2* fusion is 60 (off-element spectral captains)
7) The transition point from 2* fusion to off-element spectral captains is 66

However while the Spectral Captains chest might be a cost effective method, it is *VERY* slow. The farming is easy/fast enough, but the crafting takes forever. I'll probably make 4-8 and use them for the last 1-2 fusions, but not from the point the math says they are the most cost effective.