Best armor set for lvl 43-ish Hunter?

[ksdurg]

Greetings all.

I'm trying to figure out the best armor sets available to me as a lvl 43 Hunter.

Best I can figure is to find armor with Agility and Morale bonuses. But I could be wrong since I'm a relatively new player and my knowledge of game mechanics is limited.

But there is a lot of different armor, and armor sets out there, so I'm looking for any advice you more experienced hunters might have.

For now, I think my best bet is a set of Exquisite Elven Hunter Armor (Artisan Tailor-made). It has good armor value, most pieces have Agility bonuses, and I have the Adamant Shards laying around.

Are there any other sets or pieces I should look at? Some lorebook info I'm not aware of?

Thanks in advance.

[geoboy]

Greetings all.

I'm trying to figure out the best armor sets available to me as a lvl 43 Hunter.

Best I can figure is to find armor with Agility and Morale bonuses. But I could be wrong since I'm a relatively new player and my knowledge of game mechanics is limited.

But there is a lot of different armor, and armor sets out there, so I'm looking for any advice you more experienced hunters might have.

For now, I think my best bet is a set of Exquisite Elven Hunter Armor (Artisan Tailor-made). It has good armor value, most pieces have Agility bonuses, and I have the Adamant Shards laying around.

Are there any other sets or pieces I should look at? Some lorebook info I'm not aware of?

Thanks in advance.

Two armor sets worth mentioning - one is the woodlands set from trollshaws - E. Candelleth Quest hub (3 Pieces), and the other is the fem set (6 pieces).

These are both very good.

[robnkarla]

The Vestments of Fem is the easiest and probably will work for you. They come from rewards from a series of quests in Southwest Angmar. Each piece has Agility as well as a set bonus.

[CWood]

Your choices are:

Garb of the Woods: Best stats, most "mix-and-match" friendly.
Vestments of Fem: Solid, but it's an all-or-nothing kind of set.
Crafted: Potentially the easiest to get, and likely solid enough for how long it'll last.

Really, just pick up whatever you happen to be closest to and call it good. None of the stuff will last past 10 levels anyways, so it's not worth

The Vestments of Fem is the easiest...

I'm not so sure about that. Unless you're going for Tongannel's Joy, the Trollshaws quests are all pretty quick and painless.

[robnkarla]

I'm not so sure about that. Unless you're going for Tongannel's Joy, the Trollshaws quests are all pretty quick and painless.

Well, after running Volume 1 a few times.....there is this aversion for the Trollshaws that makes it quite difficult

While they might now technically be the easiest, if you are 43/44 as a Hunter, you'll probably already be in the vicinity just to get your port. With the port and FtP you should be able to finish up the quests fairly quickly as well as finishing off a bunch of other quests.

[CWood]

Well, after running Volume 1 a few times.....there is this aversion for the Trollshaws that makes it quite difficult.

I hear ya there. I've got the same kind of aversion to Angmar. Didn't take long to get sick of that place, and I spent a lot more time there after I was sick of it.

[ksdurg]

I'm around the E. Candelleth now, and I think I just got the first piece of the Woodlands set.

After I finish there I definitely need to go back to Aughire (sp?) and work those quests. The vestments of Fem look pretty good, unfortunately they don't have too many non-stats bonuses (disease, fear, regen, etc.)

I'll probably have to sit down with a pen and paper and figure out what will work best. Exq. Elven Hunters set? Full Fem set? Woodlands set with extra pieces from somewhere else?

I don't really like the Trollshaws ... I think it's all the mountains and being forced to follow pathways and such.

I don't know much about Angmar: I've only hit the Orc camp in Ram Duath trying to get my pages for Legendary traits, and the ruins North of Aughire to get a Scholar quest item. I look forward to exploring Angmar ... and maybe eventually making my way over to Goblin Town in the Trollshaws. Goblin Town just has a ring to it.

[CWood]

I'll probably have to sit down with a pen and paper and figure out what will work best. Exq. Elven Hunters set? Full Fem set? Woodlands set with extra pieces from somewhere else?

Statistically, it goes Garb + Crafted > Full Fem > Full Crafted, but honestly the difference is pretty small if you aren't going to be living in the stuff for months (like I did back in the day). Get whichever is most convenient.

...and maybe eventually making my way over to Goblin Town in the Trollshaws. Goblin Town just has a ring to it.

First, Goblin-town is in the Misty Mountains, and second, it's one of the best and most enjoyable areas in the game. Definitely a must-see at the appropriate level.

[Dom12]

I'm around the E. Candelleth now, and I think I just got the first piece of the Woodlands set.

After I finish there I definitely need to go back to Aughire (sp?) and work those quests. The vestments of Fem look pretty good, unfortunately they don't have too many non-stats bonuses (disease, fear, regen, etc.)

I'll probably have to sit down with a pen and paper and figure out what will work best. Exq. Elven Hunters set? Full Fem set? Woodlands set with extra pieces from somewhere else?

I don't really like the Trollshaws ... I think it's all the mountains and being forced to follow pathways and such.

I don't know much about Angmar: I've only hit the Orc camp in Ram Duath trying to get my pages for Legendary traits, and the ruins North of Aughire to get a Scholar quest item. I look forward to exploring Angmar ... and maybe eventually making my way over to Goblin Town in the Trollshaws. Goblin Town just has a ring to it.

See this thread for a pretty detailed rundown. From that: "...the key isn't just the set-to-set comparison, it's that plus the flexibility of the GotW set that makes it so much better."

[Ayrolen]

You've already been given good advice here, but also keep in mind that if you're a pretty fast leveler, I wouldn't take too much time trying to do the math and figure out what gear is absolutely superior since you will just out-level it pretty quickly. I didn't put a lot of thought into my gear when I was leveling up until I hit the first cap, then once that was raised I just had to start looking again. Tossing my Helegrod gear was painful.

[ksdurg]

I don't level very fast, especially now that I'm backtracking and finishing some deeds. Plus making an Adamant Shard run when I can.

Thanks the link, Dom. I'll look that over.

I don't want to obsess too much about the stats, etc. But since I solo hunt so much I pretty much only have myself to rely on. So I want to maximize my survivability.

[PalinNC]

I think i pretty much used the Fem Armor set unitl almost 50. Not much better out there for the mid and even as you inch into the upper 40s. Least not that I ran accross. I started working on the woodlands set but leveled past where it was any good before I got it all

[Lhathein]

I always grab the Fem set for all my characters as soon as I hit 39. I know there is better out there, but it's a solid set of armor that easily lasts me until Moria (45 - 50). When I get into Moria, I start surfing the AH for level-appropriate crafted to replace the Fem set and mix and match with the various very nice quest rewards and sets available there.

[Malakho]

In the 40's it's a tough call as to your approach to gear. It's the combination of effort vs. reward (specifically time to enjoy reward). Due to the quest rewards available to you as you progreess into your late 40's and 50's, putting a bunch of effort into a maxed set at 43 or so may not be equivilant to the amount of time you will be in that armor.

There are a few alts I've had that are slow leveling, but they still work quite well with the gear available through quests at that level. in your early 40's is where the quest gear really starts to catch up wtih crafted gear, and you have to work hard to keep ahead with crafting.

My suggestion is to use the GotW set (my fav), and fill out the rest with crafted/fem. If you want to craft, its probably best to put your effort into guild armor/critted lvl 50/51 stuff. but even then you'll most likely replace most of that by the time you hit moria. there's a leather set that replaces GotW in dolven view (and ws better statwise then my crafted guild set), and i used GotW up until then. You get a nice helm from the vol 2 intro qeusts (and the weapons of course), and a few leather pieces from quests in eregion.

Plus, once your in moria proper, you replace gear pretty fast. You eventually get teal boots, chest, and one other teal piece from book qeusts, in addition to the 3 piece purple set from dolven view.

On my most recent hunter I crafted quite a bit of gear for her as i had SM tailor by that time. And in all honesty, I still replaced most of it early in moria...the quest gear really is that good. And by the time i hit high 50's (which would open me up for the lvl 58 craft set), I was running GS for my moria rad gear, which is really some of the best until you hit 65 and can start really fine tuning.

all in all, Im just saying that, while it definitely is fun to craft and collect cool gear (im a crafting freak myself), I found through experience that the time invested post mid 40's isn't worth what you put into it...until level cap (or at least 60). At that point the crafted gear is some of the best gear you can get, aside from the 60 rad gear. what I would invest your crafting time into is jewelry. Crafted jewelery is still (after changes) excellent stuff, and theres very few jewelry options in the later levels (I was never a big fan of the angmar jewelry sets).

another option (haven't seen it mentioned) is skirmish gear for filling in the gaps. It's not bad at all for gear, and works well with the GotW set

[AnomieX]

For what it's worth, I'm still wearing the Fem set on my level 54 hunter and haven't had any problems with solo hunting. However, due to my odd schedule I level pretty slow and rarely group, so depending on your play-style you might not get as much longevity out of the set.