Armor is too expensive

I had no problem getting armour in each town starting out with 0 gold. You get money for quests, you get tonnes of material drops, i probably got about 5 monstrous claws outside the village alone. As well as salvaging all my stuff, with the cost of the materials as it is, i had about 10k when i got to the harbour, more then enough for material and cost of the armour. To tell you the truth i don't think its all that bad, because they do companstate, by actually having material drops, and gold for the missions and quests. I prefer that alot more then in chap. 1 I have alot more money now, and i get it alot easier, which is great because i don't farm. And as mourn mentioned the material prices will go down, everyone and his dog needs armour, thats why the prices are quite high, let it die down a lil and the prices will be back to a more reasonable level.

I too saved up, did the quests for Luxons, Traded in my faction for Jadeite, and got the Luxon 1.5K armor. I used the Collectors stuff until I got the Luxon armor. I seriously doubt I will ever get the 15k because its just not worth the cost to me just to change its appearance slightly. Others here love the 15k and just GOT to get it and that fine for them, I just like to use my plat on other things.

When I switch to the Kurzik side I may get the Kurzik 1.5k armor, Or I will just sell the amber to others and make a profit.

Collector Armor is the best option till you get armor worth buying. There is no point at all spending reasources on armor that is not max, when there are collectors that give you armor for cheaper, easier to come by items. Once you decided on a set you want, you have a functional armor set to help you save for the good looking set that you want. This isn't something new, it's something people have done from the onset of the game. Armor is not too expensive, if the price were lowered, than it would lose it's value, and it's appeal.

I have only one thing to add to this conversation: Bolts of Damask...

One of the most expensive rare materials in existance. In Tyria, damask was the preserve of 15k armour such as Saintly et al, which was fine, my Tyrian smiter has a full set of Saintly that I'm very proud of.

Now, in Cantha, my Canthan Healing monk got to Seitung, only to find that she needed 6k in rare materials just to craft an armour upgrade, as most of the armours therer required Damask. So I waited, got to the mainland, only to find my dilemma amplified. In the end, i had to get the rubbishy looking Seitung style, because 30-odd damask was out of my price range, (30 odd would be anything from 15-18k from the trader...)

So yeah, expensive materials for non max and 1.5k armours?

It gets worse, because I know of nothing in cantha that actually drops Damask, or salvages it. So I feel the pain of the OP, but there are ways around it.

wt?
1) Collecters
2) Get the armor that only requires cloth. In addition there are 3 armor crafters each require different materials.

Whaaaaaaat? *dies*
If you salvage everything, you'll have full stacks of basic common materials like leather, cloth, iron, wood in a matter of FEW DAYS of playing. I can't possibly believe someone has played for a YEAR and has only ever gotten a few steel ingots!

I have a question. Have you ever actually used an expert salvage kit?

Regardless, I believe the OP has a point.

Standard armor (the 1.5K variant) should not have material costs that run above the actual crafting costs, since it defeats the whole point of being affordable armor in the first place.

Unlike you who are "a few days of playing". My playtime is almost exclusively weekends, and only a few hours a day. For the game advertised where "no farming is required, casual gamers may apply" the prices are extremely high. And monsterous claws dropping like mad? There's all of four afflicted encountered by Seitung Harbor -- all in the Cho mission.

And the survivability of a ritualist without the armor that is +15 AL when spirits are out compared to without, compare.

Also, does noone comprehend "I have no idea where Kiening Center is nor how far away it may be so I'm making-do with what I do have?" There are people out there who play without fully-complete world maps up at all times and checklists on the side.

The only good news is that the cities now have a rare materials crafter.

You make it sound like you need to farm excessively to get materials... its really not hard to find a random shield or sword when you go to FoW and salvage a few steel from it. Claws are the sorta drop that you neer see so i get that, Leather shouldn't be too hard to get...

If you only have armour to complain about, Factions can't be doing that badly after all.

I think the OP is complaining needlessly. While it may possibly be true that armors in Cantha cost a bit more, I think that they are suffering not because of this, but because they are making bad choices -- the well-documented bad choice of upgrading their armor every time an upgrade is available. This is a well-known way to spend a lot of money and materials for very little gain. Thus, as an effect of continual upgrades, the OP is short on materials and money when they reach their "Destination" -- max armor.

Plus, the OP seems to be salvaging poorly; if they want steel, they should be expert salvaging swords, shields, canes, and maybe a few other item types. It's not too difficult to get. And if you can't expert salvage enough, well, buy it on the market; ID'ing white items and selling them to the shop as you play should get you some decent cash to afford what you need for the 1.5k armors. It should be reasonably trivial to get. Or -- allow me to rephrase -- it *is* reasonably trivial to get.

eudas

this is the armor i always buy for my chars until i can find/save for a 15k armor set that i like. this armor, while having no extra stats, is basically a craftable version of collector armor which works very well. there is also collector armor which is basicalyl free providing you can find enough of the items they want for you to trade for the armor pieces.

You say "farm FoW" like it's a solution. The Fissure is not for the average player, and definitely not for a casual player.

find something lower in the food chain that you can kill fast by yourself.

you get all the drops and a lot of smaller drops add up faster than working a big tough target for a long time than getting a small chunk of the loot for your share

well when i got my money it wasn't from farming, i did all quests side quests missions to get to the harbour and i made 10 k. now i also salvaged (expert) everything and had almost over 200 everything of cloth, iron, wood, as well as 12 steel, one bolt of linen and i would say abour 4 monstrous claws. I also had a ritualist major rune, and 2 gold wands that i have yet to sell. As for a person who plays casually i would suggest as many others have, getting the collectors armour if you want better armour as soon as possible. The prices of materials will go down, they have to will all the mat drops, just give it a few weeks the game is still very new, and with the CE people just getting their game a few days ago prices will be inflated for a week or so.

Hmmm, if 1.5 k items are so expensive, I wonder why not just save up for the 15k version?

I mean, if your spending 15k on materials anyway...

Do Monstrous Fangs and Eyes drop better in Cantha? Does anyone have a good "farming spot?"

I did notice using my sin, w/ full npc party the monster drops for the collector's (armor) are not as good as I would like them to be.. I've only been able to get to get two monster type drops > then x5 qty.

Even with doing captured son twice (I forgot to talk to the npc to get the letter the 1st time grr) drops were rather poor.

I a nut shell, keeping all the monster collector's drops and salvaging useless weapons and monster armor's I was not able to afford the 1.5k armor in the 1st zone of the city "just" going through the game normally at that point.

I borred some money from my monk's "new" skill funds to buy the basic 1.5 no bonus armor just to get the body and legs up to 70 armor.. to be able to survive the monsters there.

This is by no means a complaint, In c1, just going through the game allowed me to get one set of Drak armor at least. Mean I have to fight / farm more then I wanted.

That does get a bit problematic when your going through the game for the first time an decide to wait until the best armour (this was at Droknars ). I did THK... first time using Desert armour (infused of course). Then mid-way throgh Fire Islands decided i should go and buy the droks druids set.

Yes, actually. In my year of Prophecies, I had one "Monstrous" drop of any kind in my first month, and then never again.

In my time in Factions so far, I've had probably 7 or 8 Monstrous Claws and a Monstrous Eye drop off of enemies, no salvaging. So, I'd say that the drop rates a drastically improved in Factions for those items.

And this was just south of Kaineng Center that I got all these wonderful drops. Padds my account quite nicely.

And, to the OP, armor has always been expensive. I still remember how long it took me to get the more expensive armor in Ascalon back when I first started playing. That was a pain in the rear. In Factions, money and materials are CONCIDERABLY easier to come by, but you should still be cautious and frugal. Only get what you actually need, and on the starter island for a caster, you don't need the latest and greatest armor. Go with the cheap stuff, or trade at collectors, and save up for the 1.5k set that you'll actually need.

You move through the Cantha campaign so fast that new armor is available twice a day. I spent all my money on armor that I barely wore.