The complete guide to gearing pre level 40.

[wanna993]

As someone who enjoys leveling and getting to 40 more than being at max level I’ve seen quite a few players not knowing how to gear up while leveling.
As someone who tries to make sure they’re prepared as best they can for fights, I’ve made a shopping list that you can follow on your way to 40.

This list will purely go over gear (weapons and armor) and will not include the use of potions/talismans since those are harder to get by for newer players.
Of course using those will make you a lot stronger on the battlefield.

This guide almost exclusively focus on leveling through scenarios. Only T1 will require oRvR (open Realm versus Realm). It's also focused on Order side, since that's what I've been playing so far but it should apply to destro as well.

Some notes before we get started:

• Make sure to read a couple of levels in advance so you can plan things a bit. For instance you often have upgrades available for a vendor a few levels in a row. So going once and buying it all makes you not have to camp near the NPCs all the time.

• There are also some important choices in regards to gear sets and weapons that will make you go in a certain direction (Public Quests vs no PVE).

• You will mostly unlock weapons at the following levels: 9/10, 18/20, 24, 29, 34, 39.
  I highly recommend skipping some of the weapons tiers. For instance if you have a 20 weapon, skip 24 and grab 29. Or if you take it at 24, skip 29 and take it at 34 and likely skip 39.

Map for the vendors in Altdorf:

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Tier 1

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Level 1:

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Do the first 2-4 quests so you hit level 2. Press B and you’ll see a mount in your bags. You can now use it!
Queueing instantly for scenarios will mean you’ll have to waddle everywhere because no mount. Plus you’ll at least have an additional ability to use.

Level 2+:

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Now that you’re level 2, I would focus on getting your influence up on all 3 pairings in the oRvR maps. The reason is that you’re going to get a number of pieces from them that will be very important as they will fill slots you won’t find gear for from the vendors.
All the influence gear won’t be usable for a while, but if you knock this off early you’ll have the pieces ready and won’t have to rush things later.

Empire vs Chaos gives you lvl 9 pieces.
Dwarf vs Orc and High Elf vs Dark Elf both give you lvl 12 pieces.
Each pairing gives you 3 pieces with 2 variants.
I suggest going for the following variants depending on your role:
DPS go for the damage oriented pieces.
Healers go for the defensive pieces. Prioritize wounds/toughness over willpower (it’s a bad stat).
Tanks go for defensive option unless you feel like playing a 2 handed tank then it’s up to you.

Pick the following pieces:

Empire vs Chaos: →You don’t have real choice here. Pick the lvl 9 gear and stats of your liking
Inf 1: Jewelry
Inf 2: Belt
Inf 3: Weapon

If you use 2h then you’re set. If you use 2 weapons you’ll buy a level 10 weapon later, so I suggest taking your offhand from the influence.

Dwarf vs Orc:
Inf 1: Gloves (you will likely use the boots from your set so they’re redundant).
Inf 2: Jewelry (the weapon is either covered by Empire or can be bought at level 10 while good jewelry is harder to come by)
Inf 3: Helm. DO NOT PICK THE SHOULDERS, you’ll be able to buy them from a vendor.

High Elf vs Dark Elf:
Inf 1: Jewelry, the belt is covered by Empire
Inf 2: Gloves/chest doesn’t quite matter. Dwarf gives you gloves and you’ll likely be using the set chest.
Inf 3: Cloak, you’ve gotten your weapon from elsewhere at this point

Level 5:

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Buy the green weapon and gloves from the Renown gear merchant

Location of gear vendor (on Empire but they're also on Dwarf and Elf):

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Level 6:

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Buy the green boots from the Renown gear merchant (you can skip this if you’re short on cash since you will have your set boots at level 7)

Level 7:

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Buy the Warchain of Vengeance from the Renown gear merchant x4 (4 times). These will give you free toughness while you level and equip the influence ones.
Buy the set boots from either the Recruit Emblem or Decimator armor Quartermasters. One is more DPS oriented, the other is defensive. Depending on your class go for either.

Level 8:

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Buy the green belt from the Renown gear merchant (you can skip this if you’re short on cash since you will have your Empire influence belt at level 9).
Buy the set Chest from either the Recruit Emblem or Decimator armor Quartermasters. One is more DPS oriented, the other is defensive. Depending on your class go for either. Make sure to buy the one matching your boots to get the bonus.

Level 9:

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Equip all 3 Empire influence rewards.

Level 10:

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IF you are using 2 weapons you can buy your mainhand/offhand from the Recruit’s emblem Quartermaster depending on what you chose with the influence rewards.

Level 11:

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You have now gained your first Mastery Point. Those are like talent points you can invest in one of 3 trees to gain new skills and tactics and improve your baseline skill in that tree.
Go to Altdorf and make your way to the Temple. Talk to the career trainer and put the points in the tree of your choice. You can respec for free any time so don’t be afraid to change as you level.

Level 12:

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You can now equip the rewards from Elf &Dwarf. You should have 1 toughness jewel left.

Level 13:

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Head to Altdorf and go to the War Quarters. You’ll be spending a lot of time from here on out to upgrade your gear.
Buy level 13 green shoulders from the Veteran Renown Gear Merchant. This is why we went for the head piece as a reward. The vendor sells a 15 white helm so it’s bad.
Also buy 1-2 jewelry pieces. One will replace your last lvl 7 thoughness, the other will replace your lvl 9 influence reward.

Use the location map at the start of the post, these are the vendors:

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Level 14:

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Buy the level 14 green belt from the Veteran Renown Gear Merchant. This will replace your lvl 9 influence reward.

Optional: Level 15:

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buy the boots for the next tier, either Challenger or Obliterator. You can wait until 16 and equip them then if you want to keep the 2 piece bonus.
NOTE: the boots are Bind on Equip and can be found on the Auction House if you want to save crests.
NOTE: You can actually get a pve set, called the Keeper’s set, here if you run the Altdorf sewers once. It saves you crests and fill more slots (head/shoulder/chest/boots/gloves). It’s for 15+ and requires a group to be put together. I actually highly suggest doing this. The run itself takes 30-45min. The hard part is putting the group together. You also get level 18 weapons from there, a 16 belt and some jewelry.

Tier 2-3 aka Midtier:

Spoiler:

Note (if you skipped the Tier 1 bit: You can get a pve set, called the Keeper’s set, here if you run the Altdorf sewers once. It saves you crests and fill more slots (head/shoulder/chest/boots/gloves). It’s for 15+ and requires a group to be put together. I actually highly suggest doing this. The run itself takes 30-45min. The hard part is putting the group together.

Level 16:

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You’re now closer to joining the big boys club. First thing you should do is get a faster mount. You can get on at the war quarters of Altdorf for 10g or 8g from the vendor in Ellyrion or Ostland.
Ellyrion NPC (Very close to the Flight Master):

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Ostland NPC (Very close to the Flight Master):

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Head to the warquarter and buy the boots/gloves for the next set, either Challenger or Obliterator.
NOTE: the boots/gloves are Bind on Equip and can be found on the Auction House if you want to save crests.
NOTE: Ignore this if you went for the Keeper’s set.

Level 17:

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Buy the level 17 green belt from the Veteran Renown Gear Merchant. Also buy the Chest piece of either Challenger or Obliterator depending on what you went for with the boots and gloves.
NOTE: The chest in Bind on Pickup so can’t be found on the AH
NOTE: Ignore this if you went for the Keeper’s set.

Level 18:

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Buy 2-4 jewelry pieces from the Veteran Renown Gear Merchant. The amount varies depending on your class and needs. Replace your old ones as you see fit (generally the lower pieces should be replaced first because of Bolster but if you want to focus on a stat, feel free).
If you did not get the Keeper set, buy the shoulder upgrades from the Veteran Renown Gear Merchant.

Level 19:

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If you did not get the Keeper set, buy the helm upgrade from the Veteran Renown Gear Merchant.

Level 20:

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If you did not get the Sewer Weapon you can get a weapon upgrade now. Head to the Challenger Armor Quartermaster in the War Quarter. Be aware these don’t give Action Point (AP) regen yet. The next weapons are level 24 so you could skip these ones and buy green weapons from the Renown Vendors to bridge the gap.

Level 21:

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The renown vendor has a cloak but I do not recommend it. It just gives resist and no main stat. Stick with the 12 influence reward or find something on the AH.

Level 22:

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You are now done using the Veteran Renown Gear Merchants and will use the Advanced Renown Gear Merchants instead. Buy the belt upgrade.
Here you have a choice to make. You can go for the Mayhem set (found east of the War Quarter, around 32.5k 48.5k), which comes from Public Quests (PQ). They can drop from gold level 20+ bags or you can buy them for War Tokens which you can get from any PQ reward bags (the rarer and higher level the bag, the more token you get). The set covers boots/gloves/shoulder/chest and helm and costs 379 War Tokens.
If you don’t want to farm Pqs you can get a new PvP set from 26-29.

Level 23:

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It’s time for some jewelry upgrades. Buy 2-4 jewelry pieces. The amount varies depending on your class and needs. Replace your old ones as you see fit
If you don’t have the Keeper set, upgrade your shoulder piece as well.

Level 24:

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If you don’t have the Keeper/Mayhem set, upgrade your head piece from the Advanced Renown Gear Merchant. You can also upgrade your weapon from the Duelist Armor Quartermaster. This is the first weapon which will give some AP regen and will smooth things out slightly in combat. If you went for the level 20 weapon and don’t feel too AP starved, I would recommend you skip these and get the 29 and 39 weapons instead.

Level 26:

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If you did not go for the Mayhem set you can go for the Duelist (Defensive) or Devastator (Offensive) sets. The level range for the set is 26-29 and as usual the gloves and boots are Bind on Equip so you can save some crests and get them from the Auction House.
Upgrade your cloak from the Advanced Renown Gear Merchant.

Level 27:

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upgrade your belt piece from the Advanced Renown Gear Merchant.

Level 28:

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It’s time for some jewelry upgrades. Buy 2-4 jewelry pieces. The amount varies depending on your class and needs. Replace your old ones as you see fit

Level 29:

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You can get new weapons from the Duelist Armor Quartermaster. Get them if you skipped the ones at 24. If you got the ones at 24, skip these instead.

Level 32:

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You are now done using the Advanced Renown Gear Merchants and will use the Elite Renown Gear Merchants instead. Buy the belt upgrade.

Level 33:

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It’s time for some jewelry upgrades. Buy 2-4 jewelry pieces. The amount varies depending on your class and needs. Replace your old ones as you see fit

Level 34-36:

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A new gear choice lies before you. You can go for the Ruin set which like the Mayhem set, is based on PQ. It drops from gold bags 31+ or costs 612 War Tokens.
Or you can go for the War Crest sets: Mercenary (defensive) or Annihilator (offensive). These cost 352 Crests total. But as always you can get the gloves/boots from AH which save you 100 crests combined.
I recommend going for the Ruin set if you can just to save the crests for later.
The ruin set goes from 34-36 while the PvP ones are lvl 35 so Ruin takes an extra level to get the full bonuses.
There's also another weapon upgrade. Take them if you skipped them at 29. You get them from the Mercenary Armor Quartermaster

Level 35:

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You have the option to grab some set jewelry. For more info check your class wiki otherwise just use the greens from the vendor.

Level 36:

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Upgrade your cloak from the Elite Renown Gear Merchant

Level 37:

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Buy the belt upgrade from the Elite Renown Gear Merchant

Level 38:

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It’s time for some jewelry upgrades. Buy 2-4 jewelry pieces. The amount varies depending on your class and needs. Replace your old ones as you see fit.

Level 39:

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Your final potential weapon upgrades before RR40. Take them if you skipped them at 34. You get them from the Mercenary Armor Quartermaster

You’re now level 40 and the world is your oyster when it come to what you want to do. Someone more knowledgeable than me can advise you better.


If this was in any way or shape helpful, let me know.
If some parts are incorrect or not as efficient tell me as well so I can change it.

[Akalukz]

Great stuff, should be sticky post

[Paxsanarion]

Thank you for this……awesome !

[Earthcake]

Very nice!

But just one thing, "For instance if you have a 20 weapon, skip 24 and grab 29" is not very good, at least for most classes. 24 are +AP weapons which r arguably the most important to get.

[rejndjer]

also your bolster falls of pretty hard if you're wep is 20 and you're 24+, at r28, that r20 wep is way worse than r24 wep.

hope i find time on day to make similar guide but for orvr. personally i get bored after 2-3scs played in row, and by leveling through orvr you'll get much better xp/rp ratio + influence rewards.

[wanna993]

Very nice!

But just one thing, "For instance if you have a 20 weapon, skip 24 and grab 29" is not very good, at least for most classes. 24 are +AP weapons which r arguably the most important to get.

I do actually bring that up at the level 24 mark: "This is the first weapon which will give some AP regen and will smooth things out slightly in combat. If you went for the level 20 weapon and don’t feel too AP starved, I would recommend you skip these and get the 29 and 39 weapons instead."

also your bolster falls of pretty hard if you're wep is 20 and you're 24+, at r28, that r20 wep is way worse than r24 wep.

At r28 you're 1 level away from r29 weapons. And yes ofc the weapons will fall off in effectiveness if you skip every other one but I bring that up mainly to save crests. People can still get them every 5 levels.

[dtjror]

TL;DR version:

Get T1 RvR armor set (2 piece) and buy other stuff from vendors. Soon as you’re done with T1 do sewers/sacullum dungeons for Keeper set (5 piece). This will hold you until T3 RvR set (Devastator/Duelist 26-29). Don’t do Mayhem or any other PVE set until Ruin, since it obviously requires PVE, and you (pretty much) want to focus exclusively on PVP until CR 40. If you’re at least RR 40, you can start working on Ruin and Beastlord as early as CR 36.

Get RVR weapons and upgrade them as frequently as you can. Buy jewelry/cloaks/non-set items (belt) from vendors, again upgrading as often as you can. Also see if you can get any good pieces from tier influence rewards. As you get close to 36, start taking genesis crests from bags instead of regular crests, so you can buy genesis jewelry as early as 36, and Subjugator weps (usable at 40). Some classes have good tier 4 influence/epic quest weapons (usable at 38).

You should not be spending any crests (except genesis and for weps) after T3 set. It’s all PVE from there until end game set (Ruin/Beastlord -> Redeye -> Sentinel -> Bloodlord).

[Strakar]

Don't forget influence rewards at 18, 27 and 38. These are free orvr purple items and good sources of weapons and miscellaneous items that aren't covered by the set pieces at those levels.

[DonCarlos]

One should also consider taking the Mid-Tier Vainglorious Set (level 27) https://wiki.returnofreckoning.com/Epic ... el_1_-_40).
It is a very, very long quest chain that is best done in a group together with a level 40 char to not get too much experience in the course.

[Phantasm]

One should also consider taking the Mid-Tier Vainglorious Set (level 27) https://wiki.returnofreckoning.com/Epic ... el_1_-_40).
It is a very, very long quest chain that is best done in a group together with a level 40 char to not get too much experience in the course.

Its good set to get, but indeed it takes way to long to get it. I tried it once, didnt make it. I think it should be purchaseable like genesis.