offhand item question

apart from shields, i see items like frost artifact, healing ankh, flame artifact, focus, stuff like that. is there something more to these items? i see that they give a tiny almost insignificant energy boost, so what's the point when you can have a shield?

............12 energy is not insignificant

they can have mods which are good for casters

shields give less AL when you don't meet the req

12 energy? i'm looking at a focus right now and it says +3 energy. same for frost artifact and healing ankh. i'm guessing they all have different properties?

There not that helpfull at the start but they become more usefull later on in the game. Still people might prefer additional energy instead of armor depending on how they're playing. For novice players I'd advice the shield without requirements, for the more experienced players I might opt for the energy focus instead depending on your class and what you're doing.

k that makes alot more sense. so i shouldn't feel worried about selling them off then?

lol - they are handy because even 5 energy can mean one more skill you can cast in a chain

but, no you should not worry about selling them off - you will sell vast quantities of them before you reach the end.

k that makes alot more sense. so i shouldn't feel worried about selling them off then?

........what was the point of that post?

and sell pretty much everything except the things you want to use

The only things you should be keeping are black, white, red, blue and silver dyes if you find any, don't sell any of those tot the merchant or real players. Should you find runes (and charr baggs/charr salavage kits if you're going to fight charr bosses) you're best to keep those too, but you most likely won't find these either unless you're going to fight charr.

one last noob question. what are the properies of the different ones? like healing ankh, frost artifact, or divine symbol?

different looks and different stat requirements

The +3 energy ones don't have requirements so it doesn't matter, they just look different nothing else. Later you'll notice foci will have requirements (e.g. requires 4 Healing Prayers) at that point it will matter.