Well... I don't write guides, and this is my first one. Hope it's helpful to some degree.
Gears, gears, gears. What should I get?
This guide is meant to help people decide what gear they want for combat purposes.
There will be examples of gear set ups, for all classes.
This is meant to help in a way so that people may be able to pick out gears within their pool of money as well as race, class, total skills completed, stats, etc.
Before you get good gears, remember that you need skills first. Many of the good enchants require that you have certain ranks of certain skills. Plus, having a good gear while having low stats won't get you high damage.
Class 1: Warrior/archer/fighter or just hybrid of all three
As people know already, the max damage enchants give you bonus to all three classes, not to mention alchemy and puppetry. I myself is warrior/archer, although I'm heavily on the melee side.
That being said, I will start out with gears/build for melee users (yay melee!).
To start out a character, I would start out as a warrior, not lancer nor fighter. When you start out with the other two classes, the chance is that when you use lances or knuckles, you won't have a great balance, so your damage will be lower in general in early game.
As for any classes, r1 windmill is a must. Windmill adds lots of strength, as well as will. This is crucial for warriors/lancers/fighters, not to mention archers. I'd also leave combat mastery at rB until you're into 12th level warrior, to take care of the raven enchants (8 max, but -3 defense when combat master is rA or higher). Then I'd go for smash, assault slash, sword mastery, blunt, then axe. It's also a good idea to add in refining and handicraft at this point for dex (balance). You should also learn basic skills like charge, final hit, windguard, taunt, etc. Remember to rank critical hit whenever possible as well.
At this point you want to have a gear set-up like this (this goes for any race trying to do melee early game) :
Cheap version:
Head: Stiff giant tail cap/knob beret
Clothing: Special glass fragment clothes
Armor: Sight glass fragment
Boots: Strider giant/raven/elegant. (Ideally raven would be the choice. Note that it also will be the most expensive)
Gloves: Fox/quartz/corundim raven admiral owen's gloves (it will be free as long as your not lazy enough to do generations) OR Fox giant gauntlets (gauntlets because of def/prot)
Accessories: Fox Giant/Sonnet. Remember to not repair them, but to burn them when they're 0 dura. They're simply too much to repair if you have less than 1 mil. If you want defense, it's a good idea to have a wedding ring.
Weapons: Godd Cali Fluted Short swords. These sword have amazing str for artisan, but also takes off luck. Beats gladius, the usual recommended weapon. Plus, these swords have high balance. For one handed weapon, go for Stiff/Goddess Giant/Caliburn mace.
Shield: Fox/Unusual/Quartz count Kite Shield. Kite shields are the most economical way of making damage shields.
Expensive version:
Head: Oblivion/Vine dexterity (Note that you can't buy round... you have to earn it. Also, for blunt, you should be giant allied for full enchant potential) OR for bit cheaper version, Vine/Round delusional (notice that you need to have range rank B. Sorry, giants)
Clothing: Special glass fragment clothes. If you can get a restored clothing, go for it.
Armor: Sight Avenger/Darkness (Avenger recommended, because of consistent damage and no defense penalty. Plus, it's easy to buy dustins/vals with avenger already on them)
Boots: Strider Raven
Gloves: Expansive elegant, Sun elegant, Sun raven, Oblivion raven (Oblivion is easier to get now, thanks to urns)
Accessories: Stout/Oblivion/Nostalgic Earthquake/Sonnet/Swarming/Avenger (Notice that avenger accessories don't come out now. It will be very hard to get, and if you ever do see someone selling it, it will be very expensive)
Weapons: Godd Cali Fluted Short swords. These sword have amazing str for artisan, but also takes off luck. Beats gladius, the usual recommended weapon. Plus, these swords have high balance. For one handed weapon, go for Stiff/Goddess Giant/Caliburn mace.
Shield: Fox/Unusual/Quartz count Kite Shield. Kite shields are the most economical way of making damage shields.
At this point, I will not put up fighter's set up, since I don't think people should be starting a character with fighter skills.
For rangers, you want to get r9 range first, since you'll be able to get crash shot. Then you want to go for magnum, bow mastery, crash shot, support shot crossbow mastery. Remember to rank crit as well. For humans, make sure you get AR. It will make your life and your damage way better. For elves, don't forget to get mirage missile and final shot. Also, don't forget these three skills: windmill, refining, and handicraft.
Here's the set up. Notice that I didn't put stiff for prefix, since stiff can take off dexterity once your lightning bolt is rA.
Do not EVER use heavy armor if you're a ranger. Heavy armor cuts off your damage, and there is no need to sacrifice damage for defense, the point is to get close to one shotting things.
Cheap version:
Head: Fox/Quartz/Corundum delusional tork merchant cap. There's no other better suffix for archers than delusional, except dexterity, but we're trying to be "cheap" here.
Body: Special Glass fragment, or Quartz Pitch black armors that drop from raids.
Boots: Fox/Quartz/Corundum Hawk/Hard peaca (Hard peaca is r8 and is hard to put on...not to mention it's costly)
Gloves: Sun/fox/quartz/corundum Elegant gloves OR fox/quartz/corundum raven admiral owen's gloves (note that you'll need to rank up smash for this one)
Acc: Fox Sonnet. Again, burn it when it's dura 0
Weapon: Lizard fancy/raven bows, preferably HLB. If not, LLb works just fine too. For melee weapon, try to get the same mace or fluted short sword mentioned above. Falcata is also a good option, since you'll most likely have enough balance to wield it. For shield, same option as above.
Expensive version:
Head: Vine/Oblivion delusional/dexterity
Body: Special Glass fragment. If you can get a restored clothing, go for it. Otherwise, get Innocent/ancient camo/pitch black light armor
Gloves: Sun Elegant gloves, or oblivion elegant. Note that you can also go damage enchants for suffix, like camo, or swarming.
Boots: Same as above.
Acc: Precise/Nostalgic/Oblivion Lilly/Avenger/Sonnet
Weapon: Glorious/Lizard fancy/caliburn/sniping. Notice that you're gonna have to pay alot for caliburn and sniping. Otherwise, melee weapons can be the same as above.
I didn't include 2h weapons yet, because I don't think people should be spamming reforges at this point. Plus, many 2h weapons are low balance weapons, so not that great for beginners.
This is it for early game set up. Notice that for a lot of the options, you want to have good amount of money for back up.
TO BE CONTINUED...