2009-10-12, 02:00 AM
Equipment planning is not necessary for a new player, unless you are a perfectionist and want your first character to be the best it can possibly be. I'd recommend building up to this, and not investing too heavily too early, because you might find out that you don't actually like the class you chose later on. Most people I know have switched characters or restarted at least once.
If you want a few tips for doing it, though, I guess the first place to start would be to figure out what stats you are aiming to have in the endgame. How far are you planning to take each character? All classes use a primary attack stat and 0-2 secondary stats to equip their weapons. If it is a physical class, you'll probably be looking at stopping for a bit with a level 100ish weapon. If it is a mage, you'll probably be able to get the most out of your stats by leaving all of your stats except int at 4 and using a lukless weapon (elemental wand or 64 maple weapon). Figure out the specifics for the class.
For example, as a Corsair, my main stat is DEX, and my secondary stat is STR. Because I am a physical class, weapon attack is the highest priority when it comes to equips.
Try looking around in damage range/flaunting threads to figure out what kind of stuff you should be aiming for. Common equips that add a lot of + to all stats are often high priority. ZHelms are pretty standard issue for everyone. So are MoNs and HTPs depending on what class you are. These may be expensive but they're good long run investments. After that just see where you can get the most damage. For physical classes a big source of damage comes from the weapon, the glove and the cape. Focus on upgrading those first. Estimate how much money you can get your hands on, and what you'll be able to afford.
Once you figure out about how many stats you can get from your equips, you have a good idea of how much you need to put in your secondary stat. If you can get 30 STR from your equips, and your weapon needs 100 STR, you'll probably want to put your base STR to 65 or so and make some adjustments later. It's generally best to stick with lower levelled weapons until you think it's worth it to move up, because it means using less AP resets. This is a big part of planning out your secondary stat requirement. You can always fix your stats with AP resets later, but they're expensive, so you want to minimize your use of them.
It's not really that hard, it's just having an understanding of what helps your damage the most.
If you want a few tips for doing it, though, I guess the first place to start would be to figure out what stats you are aiming to have in the endgame. How far are you planning to take each character? All classes use a primary attack stat and 0-2 secondary stats to equip their weapons. If it is a physical class, you'll probably be looking at stopping for a bit with a level 100ish weapon. If it is a mage, you'll probably be able to get the most out of your stats by leaving all of your stats except int at 4 and using a lukless weapon (elemental wand or 64 maple weapon). Figure out the specifics for the class.
For example, as a Corsair, my main stat is DEX, and my secondary stat is STR. Because I am a physical class, weapon attack is the highest priority when it comes to equips.
Try looking around in damage range/flaunting threads to figure out what kind of stuff you should be aiming for. Common equips that add a lot of + to all stats are often high priority. ZHelms are pretty standard issue for everyone. So are MoNs and HTPs depending on what class you are. These may be expensive but they're good long run investments. After that just see where you can get the most damage. For physical classes a big source of damage comes from the weapon, the glove and the cape. Focus on upgrading those first. Estimate how much money you can get your hands on, and what you'll be able to afford.
Once you figure out about how many stats you can get from your equips, you have a good idea of how much you need to put in your secondary stat. If you can get 30 STR from your equips, and your weapon needs 100 STR, you'll probably want to put your base STR to 65 or so and make some adjustments later. It's generally best to stick with lower levelled weapons until you think it's worth it to move up, because it means using less AP resets. This is a big part of planning out your secondary stat requirement. You can always fix your stats with AP resets later, but they're expensive, so you want to minimize your use of them.
It's not really that hard, it's just having an understanding of what helps your damage the most.