Cheaper to raise Dex or Wis?

[Xenephex]

I created a new ranger, now level 6, and skilled him up to about 80 in fletching with Wis and Dex both right at 95. I would like to get to 202, and I know it will get harder and harder with low stats the higher I get.

I'm willing to put 1 or 2 K at the moment into equipment for this guy. I am returning to the game after a long absence and I'm just wondering whether it will be easier (cheaper) to significantly raise his Dex or his Wis with Jewelry and other items. I only have 4 or 5 pieces of armor on him at the moment, and they are all cheap, so stuff that I could use for fighting that also has dex or wis is an option.

I'm also wondering about buffs - I know there have been a lot of changes since I last played and I'm wondering whether it is easier to get a high dex or wis buff.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[ChaseFV]

DeX

Cheaper and easier to raise DEX. Even at 49, I still haven't capped out my WIS (granted I haven't worked on it very hard either). There are numerous items that will raise a Ranger's DEX from 4 to 15 points. Some are fairly cheap, some are rather pricy, find a mix that works for you, then find a Shaman to make it even better. For some ideas of things to look for check the alternative DEX profile in the magelo link in my sig.

Good luck, and happy fletching!

[Morani]

Actually, if you only going to work on Fletching to 202, it's cheaper to not do much of either. Maybe spend a little bit to get your DEX over 100 but it should only cost you 300-400 plat to get to 202. It's AFTER that where it gets down-right nasty. There is a pretty good item that sells kinda cheap on my server: Jagged Blade of Morning. I picked mine up for about 200 plat.

[Xenephex]

Chase - Thank you. I will start checking dex items in the bazaar and see what I can come up with; I'll let you know how it goes.

I was not able to access your alternate Dex profile in Magelo, however.

Morani - I'm hesitant about your advice, though I appreciate it. I have taken other tradeskills to, or close to, the 200 level on other characters, and it has been my experience that a moderate or even low primary stat can be overcome to the 100 or 150 skill level, but that as one approaches the 200 skill level the low primary stat can make progression a lot more difficult.

I'd feel more comfortable if I could get Dex close to 200, or at least above 150.

Thanks again to both of you.

[DeegerStormcrow]

The baz is your best friend for this. You can sort items by their dex in the /bazaar window. Just look for ranger items with dex for each slot and see what you can pick up cheap.

For ideas you can check my dex profile as well.

[theRiov]

You're making this harder than it is. Even with Voice of Quellious you still need to be 224 wisdom to get to 255.
Compare that with Focus of the soul (+70 dex) Speed of Vallon (+33 Dex)
Nights Dark Terror (+120 dex)

For a total of +223 dex. Even at level 65 with Planar power 5 (305 dex cap) , you would need a dex of 82 WITH ALL GEAR ON to hit this number.

[Morani]

Perhaps my point got lost in an effort to use les words. I'm simply saying that if ALL you plan to do it get to 202 in Fletching, it's less expensive to just do it than to get the gear. If you spend 1-2k plat on gear when it would have cost you 300-400 plat to just "tough it out" you are not ahead in the money spent. Even if the gear would reduce your loss on Fletching to 0% you would have spent 600 - 1700 more plat doing it that way. To give you an idea of the costs, I managed to get my Ranger to 195 by level 20 as the ONLY character I had, SOLELY on the money I gathered while EXPing (primarily) in Faydark. And without a geerlok. I hit 100 by level 10 and 180 by level 15.

You are right that tradeskills get harder as you near 200 and that a good stat is very helpful. The difference here is that with fletching, you are looking at 3 plat a combine with unlimited store-bought supplies rather than 80 plat or more and some (if not all) the parts farmed. At those prices, that's a difference of 300 plat on 100 combines at 200 in Fletching VS 8000 plat on 100 combines at 180 in smithing (2000 more if you buy the paddings). When I did silver tipped (the most expensive combine) from 162-182 with an 85 WIS, I only lost 450 plat after sell back.


Oh, and if you are looking to save money, DO use silver tipped arrows rather than skipping to steel shafts or ceramic vanes. You get 10 arrows on a combine with silver tipped rather than the normal 5 for everything else so the sell-back makes up for the difference in price AND it makes for a 20 point jump rather than 40.

[Xenephex]

Deeger - Thank you - I've noted the items on your profile.

Compare that with Focus of the soul (+70 dex) Speed of Vallon (+33 Dex)
Nights Dark Terror (+120 dex)

I'm sorry - as I said I've been gone for a while - I assume these are buffs? All 3 of them are stackable? That's amazing.

Morani - Well, good point. I didn't state, but I think I had in the back of my mind, that eventually I would want to take it higher. Just not any time soon. From what I actually posted and requested you are absolutely correct.

Thanks again to everyone.

[Troodon]

Oh, and if you are looking to save money, DO use silver tipped arrows rather than skipping to steel shafts or ceramic vanes. You get 10 arrows on a combine with silver tipped rather than the normal 5 for everything else so the sell-back makes up for the difference in price AND it makes for a 20 point jump rather than 40.

Doh, wish I'd done that, hehe. As soon as I hit 162 (with bone vanes) I went to cermaic vanes the rest of the way. My logic being back then that cermaic vanes were cheaper than silver tipped arrowheads. In hindsight though, allowing for higher yield, I would have saved money trivving out silver arrowheads before jumping to ceramic vanes. Why it cost me more than the 300-400 some say it takes to get this far, hehe.

Cost me about 1k to go from 20 fletching to 200. My dex was 172 (as a monk, far cheaper to raise dex than wis, hehe. I got dex buffs when I could.) My charisma (with my opal encrusted steins) was 110 and I had indifferent faction with the sole merchant I used for supplies.

Still, other than jewelcraft, fletching is the only tradeskill you can get to 200 without having to farm components or do subcombines.

Of course, if you want to go past 202, that's when fletching becomes a serious PITA... be a while before I try that, if ever, hehe.

[ChaseFV]

Doh. Sorry.

Sorry about that, my DEX profile has been repaired. Good luck with your shopping and your fletching.

[Lupoman]

jus so ya know, FoS is single tgt. And ya must be lvl 45ish for it to stick. "this spell is too powerful for your tgt" msg will appear. BUT all ya have to do is get shammy grp buffs, find ya friendly neighborhood shammy, ask Politely,(no "BUFF ME PLZ") join in grp with jus him and have shammy tgt himself with all his grp buffs.

That will give a nice boost to your stats!

[Naman]

Some additional ideas for dex

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=571317

In particular the necklace is cheap and easy to get. Have someone kill the mob in the bar in EFreeport at the docks. Some of this stuff is quite pricy, but some is not so bad. The jewery made bracer is cheap for example.

I agree that Dex is way cheaper to max out. There are some nice wis items, but most are exp. GL !!!

Naman

[Xenephex]

BUT all ya have to do is get shammy grp buffs, find ya friendly neighborhood shammy, ask Politely,(no "BUFF ME PLZ") join in grp with jus him and have shammy tgt himself with all his grp buffs.

Doh! Isn't that what they just nerfed with today's patch? If I'd just had enough foresight to get buffed before I logged off last night.

Naman - I looked at that necklace last night but it's recommended level of 35.

Here's what I've done so far. I bought a Glowing Black Sword for 300 pp - the only significant amount I spent on anything, and the sword is significantly better than what I was carrying. I bought 5 other items (including the Executioner's hood) for a total of 310 pp. All the items are things that I will wear while fighting and gave signficant AC increases and sometimes other stats in addition to the Dex, so none of the plat I spent was devoted solely to fletching. I also found that I had a pair of 5 dex (7 cha) rings on another character and I bought half a stack of very cheap dex increasing food.

Altogether I added 68 points to my dex, and I still have several open slots. I am going to try to do this in two runs - the first one I'll get a buff if I can, but I'm not that concerned about it. The second run (from 150 up) I will definitely get as good a buff as I can find. I hope to get this all done in the next two nights.

Wish me luck and thanks a ton for all the help. You guys are very nice.

I also realized that although I've taken other tradeskills (pottery, brewing, smithing) into the 190's before, I've never taken one above 200, so this will be a first for me.

[ChaseFV]

Good luck, and a warning

Good luck on your fletching run!

Just a warning on the Glowing Black Sword - the proc begins at 45. You will want to stop using it then, as it will debuff you. I know you have a while before that's an issue, but keep it in mind.

Cheers,
C

[Xenephex]

Thanks for the warning - I've carried one before on my warrior.

There would actually be something terribly appropriate about one of my characters dual wielding a Sword of Skyfire and a Glowing Black Sword post level 45.