New player question regarding upgrading gear and Hive Queen Rancor

[Roths]

Hi , I just finished story quest at lv 60 and doing some dailies now. Could anyone give me some tips for gear progression:

- I am at Exalted 6 weapon now. It seems the cost is fairly the same if I switch to raid weapon now then upgrade compared to get to Exalted 9 then switch to raid weapon. is that true?

- Regardless, it seems I will need a Hive Queen Rancor eventually. Is doing Temple of Eluvium the only way? I feel like I will have a hard time getting accepted for that raid, since my AP is on 1300. I wouldn't even mind to purchase a material pack from hoonmoon store if it gives the rancor.

- What accessories should I work on first? I know the bracelet from Sandstorm Temple. What else?

 

Thanks a lot!

[ChefBoiRD]

You can purchase Hive Queen Reward Selection Chests from the market place (F5). The lowest priced are being sold for as little as 7 gold, so it should be affordable even for new players. Raid weapons do cost slightly more to upgrade, but you'll do more damage in the meantime. All of my characters are using at least Aransu 3.

 

Since you already know about the bracelet, the other thing you should be working on is your soul shield set and getting a legendary mystic and soul badge. The badges can be purchased from Dragon Express on the second tab for martial tokens. You can obtain these by doing Koldrak, 7th floor of Mushin's tower, and the Moon Refuge dailies. There are multiple ways to farm for Hive Queen soulshields, either by doing Moon Refuge and buying from the vendor there, or using martial tokens from Dragon Express.

[Roths]

@robd1978 Thank you so much! I would have never figured out myself about the market place chest!

[ChefBoiRD]

One other note, you can save yourself a lot of hassle later on by waiting to upgrade your weapon until you find one that has 8 gem sockets in it. Junsorei found in Mushin's Tower and elsewhere sells DawnRift selection chests for 5 Naryu silver each. You can keep buying these until you get a weapon that already has 8 sockets. While they're actually a tier lower than the exalted you get from the story line, they're easy to upgrade. Gem hammers get expensive, just about everyone uses this trick rather than pay more later. All the stuff to upgrade Dawnforge or Riftwalk to Raven can be bought cheaply from Moon Refuge. From Raven you can upgrade to Aransu just like you would from Exalted.

Edited September 5, 2020 by robd1978

[Roths]

@robd1978 ah good to know. Will I be able to retrieve some materials from salvaging my current weapon? Also if I keep upgrading my current weapon, there is still chance for it to gain more gem slots right?

[Roths]

oh well, cant salvage my current weapon

 

[ChefBoiRD]

I don't think you can salvage them for anything, so up to you if you want to go backward or upgrade what you've already got. The later slots cost 22 legendary gem hammers each to unlock. If you've got a weapon that already has 6 it might be ok to keep upgrading, but if you only have 3 slots now, it's almost certainly better to go backwards.

[Roths]

i think i had 3 originally, then from upgrading got another 2, then i got some leg gem hammer from quest and added another 1. so it is 6 now.

[ChefBoiRD]

You can hang on to what you've got though, and use that while working on getting a lower one with 8.

 

Hammers can be farmed in Moon Refuge, so maybe keep this in mind if and when you create new characters.

Edited September 5, 2020 by robd1978

[Roths]

Now i just saw midnight skypetal plaint has the exchange for hive rancer lol. not sure why i missed that..