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THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Items, Equipment, and Loot

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* If you find an item that seemingly has no use, it's generally one of three things: 1) a tradeskill component, 2) vendor trash (sell for cash), or 3) an item involved in a quest (particularily if it's marked as LORE). Make sure you examine any strange items you find (especially if they dropped from chests or are found from a ? on the ground), as the examine window should tell you what quest, if any, it is for.

* The game has a trivial loot code. Look at the text in the targeting box. This will say either solo, heroic, epic x 2, epic x 3, or epic x 4. This does two things. First, as part of considering a mob you can look at how difficult they are. Second, it tells you at what number of allies at which this mob will become trivial and give no chest loot or quest items. 7 for solo or heroic, 13 for epic x2, and 19 for epic x3. You will notice a little chest icon with a red circle and line through it (no smoking symbol) when a mob will not drop loot for your group/raid.

* Make sure to attune any attunable items you have equipped, otherwise they will not give you any benefit. This is particularily important with weapons, as you will always miss with an attunable weapon that has not been attuned (and you will not get a warning telling you why you are always missing).

* Equipment which is greyed out will not give the mitigation and resists listed, but will give the listed stat adjustments. Red armor is not useable by you because of either level or class restrictions.

* Mobs that are grey to you will not give you exp or drop most chests. However, they will still drop quest or body-loot items, and you can still use them for any kill quests you may have in your journal.

* If you are lottoing for an item in a group, make sure you have at least one inventory spot open. Lotto items you win will NOT go into overflow. If you have no room for them, they will have to be lotto'd again!

* Once a chest's timer expires, the chest becomes open for anyone to loot. Note that unlike EQ1, opening the chest does NOT lock the chest to the character who has opened it. It is possible for another player come along, open the same chest, and grab the loot before you do. Therefore, if you are opening a chest with an expired timer, do not hesitate when putting the loot into your inventory.

* Equipment removed a short time before death (about 2 minutes) will still be damaged when you die. If you have changed equipment within that timeframe, the more expensive-to-repair of the two items will take the damage. If you plan to do something with a high risk of death and do not intend combat (harvesting in areas where mobs are red to you, practicing safe fall, testing content for a TIWIKE guide, etc), it's a good idea to unequip everything before you go.

* Equipment grade flags are generally (but not always) the quickest indicator of how powerful or desireable a piece is.  From lowest to highest, the grade flags are:

Common
Uncommon
Handcrafted (player-made)
Treasured
Mastercrafted (player-made)
Legendary
Fabled
Mythical

* Weapons marked as one-handed can be used for one-handed fighting or dual-wielding if your class can dual-wield.  Dual-wielding increases the delay time of both weapons by 33%.  Weapons or items marked Primary or Secondary can ONLY go in those slots, but can still be used as part of a dual-wield combo.

* Items flagged as Ornate can not have adornments added to them.  This includes all HQ rewards and many high-end quest rewards/mob drops.

* The Dressing Room display lets you see what equipment will look like when equipped.  Ctrl+Click on armor or weapon pieces to see what you're getting into.

* Appearance Armor slots become available at level 20 (crafter or adventurer).  Armor in these slots overwrites the appearance of armor in Equipment slots, but give no stats or mitigation.  Any equipment your character can currently wear can be placed in Appearance.

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