Tatterclaws' Comprehensive Gear Guide

Tatterclaws' Gear Guide

Last updated: 8-13-2024

This guide is an introduction to gearing your adventurer in GemStone IV. Things change frequently in Elanthia, so please check the most recent updates against the last-updated date before making any big decisions.

Combat Gear

For the most part, combat gear properties apply to both offensive and defensive gear, or have obvious parallels. Enchanting, Sanctification, Ensorcellment, stat/skill enhancives, flares, Weighting, Padding, Sighting, and many other properties are effectively interchangeable. Since the differences are either exceptions or high-end scripts, they will be addressed at the end of this section.

Defense

DS: This is your defense against physical attacks.

TD: This is your defense against spells.

Combat Maneuvers: This is your defense against special attacks. There are two subtypes which are covered by different systems:

   SMR (standard maneuver roll): This is the old system.
   SMR v2 (standard maneuver roll, version 2): This is the new system. See Standard maneuver roll.

The following properties apply to weapons, shields, armor, and armor accessories.

Items have a limited number of slots where their properties reside. These are divided into four categories: properties (A), abilities (B), other properties (C), and scripts (D). Items can only have one ability (B) and one script (D), but any number of other properties (C).

   Abilities (B): include most flares, including all common and uncommon. It also includes defender bonuses on weapons, and TD bonuses on armor.
   Other properties (C): Weighting, padding, sighting, enhancives, resistances, spikes, ensorcellment, sanctification, and a few others.
   Scripts (D): Both cosmetic and mechanical scripts.

Thus, when choosing an item, keep in mind some common sources of conflict:

   Paladins typically avoid bonding with a weapon that already has flares or a defender bonus, as you miss out on double plasma flares.
   If your item has a cosmetic script, you must have it removed before adding a mechanical script. Many years ago, cosmetic scripts were highly valued on armaments, but because of the proliferation of mechanical scripts, they are now often detrimental on high-end gear. However, they still hold value on lower-value gear, particularly scripts that are older and rarer. In August 2024, a new system was revealed which is intended to bridge the gap between cosmetic and mechanical scripts.

Here is a table comparing flare types: Flare Types

The most common choice is lightning (electric) because of its proclivity for lethal critical hits. Vacuum (void) is also a popular choice, with higher average damage than electric. Further, no creatures are resistant to vacuum, whereas some resist lightning. Additionally, there are some hunting grounds with water which, when combined with lightning flares, can be deadly for the wielder. Others prefer "mechanical" flares like puncture, crush, or slash. These flares cause relatively few knockdowns, but...

When designing your character, consider your goals, strengths, and weaknesses.

   If you're a low-level spellcaster and running out of mana, consider mana flares (mana returned on cast).
   If you're missing a lot of your spells, acuity (increased CS) could be a good choice.
   If you want to kill things in one shot, you may want to avoid high-damage, low-critical flares, like disintegrate or disruption. On the other hand, if you're hunting something that cannot be critted, then those two might be the best options.

[[Category ]]

Enhancive item

[[Category ]]

Holy armament

Spikes: These are offensive adornments to defensive gear. In other words, they go on shields, armor, and armor accessories, but the only way to make use of them is via learning combat maneuvers. They do not flare reactively when you are struck.

Special notes

   Armor Accessories: You need at least 1 CER in critical or damage padding, respectively, for your chest-worn armor to pass through.

Player service

Sanctify

Ensorcel

Critical Weighting

Damage Weighting

Sighting

Outside of spikes, the differences between offensive and defensive gear are primarily found in high-end scripts, i.e., category D from above.

[[Category item scripts]]

Popular choices are Animalistic Spirit weapons, Briar flares, Duskbringer weapons, Sigil Staves, Spore Bows, Valence weapons.

[[Category item scripts]]

Popular choices are Animalistic, Elven Armor, Ethereal Armor, Ithzir Armor, Mana-Infused Armor, Valence Armor, Voln Armor.

Another recent consideration is Flare Gloves. These are gloves which offer flares if your weapon lacks them, at the cost of stamina.

Enhancive item are often considered endgame gear because they're expensive to purchase, expensive to maintain, and somewhat of a hassle to manage.

Enhancives are capped at the following bonuses:

   Base Stat: +40
   Stat Bonus : +20
   Skill Rank: +50
   Skill Bonus: +50
   Max Health/Mana/Stamina: +300
   Max Mana: +600
   Health/Mana/Stamina Regen: +50
   Max Spirit/Spirit Regen: +3

These limits are mutually exclusive, so you can have +40 base statistic or +20 statistic bonus, total. Note that stat bonuses convert between each other automatically, so if you wear a ring with +2 Strength bonus, your Strength bonus will increase by +2, and your Strength base by +1.

The relationship between skills, on the other hand, is more complex. Skill ranks provide higher bonuses if you are untrained in that skill. For skills in which you're highly trained, i.e. the ones you'll typically target with your gear, skill ranks grant +1 bonus. Since items with skill ranks are considerably more expensive to maintain, for this reason, skill bonuses are typically strongly preferred over ranks. Exceptions are typically threshold skills, i.e. those in which your goal is to reach a certain bonus, and then stop. For example, if you wear an item with +5 Armor Use ranks, and if you start with 0 ranks, that would give you +25 bonus, which might be enough to allow you to untrain your character's Armor Use, saving you considerable training points. That said, this is typically more hassle and expense than it's worth, and the simplest solution is to find items with skill bonuses instead of skill ranks.

Abilities which show an enhanced stat under INFO, such as the Surge of Strength combat maneuver and certain spells), count towards the above limits. Those which do not, such as the spells Strength (509), and Phoen's Strength (606), do not. Thus, you could wear items with +20 Strength bonus and still benefit from 509 and 606, but you would not benefit from Surge of Strength.

The following spells and abilities contribute to the above totals: 1608, 1616, 203, 312's Wisdom buff, assault-type weapon skill bonuses, CM: Burst, Surge

If you choose to build an enhancive set, the Adventurer's Guild sells armoires for bounty points which make the process much easier. The armoire can be POINTed at your worn enhancives to save a spot inside, then when it's opened, all of those items will automatically fly into it. Similarly, when it's opened again, the items will fly out and back onto your character, thus allowing you to don/doff all of your enhancives with a couple of commands.

Services: Order of Operations

The most common recommendation is the following:

   Enchant to 7x (7x-10x enchanting becomes very expensive)
   Sanctify
   Ensorcel
   WPS as available
   Add certificates (flares, scripts)

Noncombat Gear

Containers

First, if your bags display as a giant paragraph, try this: SET SORTED ON.

Encumbrance is a significant factor in GemStone IV. Being encumbered not only slows your roundtime, but makes you vulnerable to combat maneuvers, more likely to fall when climbing, and related. Thus, a good initial goal with containers is to minimize their impact on encumbrance.

There are three ways to do this: lighten, deepen, and weight reduction.

   Lightening: You should always lighten containers before deepening them. This is because the minimum weight of a container is determined by its capacity. In other words, the deeper it is, the higher the floor of its minimum weight. However, the opposite is not true: a lightweight container can be deepened just as much as a heavy one.
   Deepening: After your container is at its minimum allowed weight, you can deepen it. In addition to the simplicity offered by a voluminous cloak or backpack, deeper containers can mean fewer containers, which means, indirectly, less weight.

You can INSPECT your container to see how much it holds, WEIGH it to see its weight, and ANALYZE it to tell whether it can be lightened or deepened further.

Both lightening and deepening can be accomplished with "notes," which are consumeables that drop from specific events. These notes can be stored in large stacks and REDEEMed to automatically lighten or deepen your container. The ones to use are light yellow notes, which lighten by 1 lb, and pale pink notes, which deepen by 10 lbs up to 140 lbs (back and shoulder), 60 lbs (shoulderworn), or 40 lbs (beltworn, frontworn). Note that you can use multiple light yellow notes sequentially, so you do not need to purchase the more-expensive, and largely useless, alternative note colors. You can purchase these notes from other players via ESP MERCHANT or in player-run shops, and some players may even donate them to new adventurers.

   Weight reduction: This is an expensive, special service which makes the items inside your container effectively weigh less. It does not change the capacity of the container. This is an endgame consideration.

After sorting out your containers, the next consideration is scripts. There are many aesthetic scripts, a few affordable mechanical scripts, and a several high-end mechanical ones. Here is a page which lists [[Category item scripts|container scripts]].

The ones I prefer are:

   Super Secure Gem Pouch: When unlocked, this script allows you to move gems into your pouch while it's closed, preventing pickpocketing. The locked version of this is inexpensive.
   Pelt Bag: When unlocked, this auto-bundles your skins. The locked version of this is inexpensive.
   Survival Kit: This is a higher-end item, costing about 2 million silvers off-the-shelf, and significantly more when upgraded. However, it's among the most popular higher-end items because it has enormous utility. A more affordable option is the older Herb Kit, which auto-bundles herbs when unlocked, but lacks the other features of the Survival Kit.
   Discreet container: When unlocked, this allows you to place and remove items without messaging in the room.
   Backpack: Utility scripts for backpacks are limited. The most affordable option, and arguably the best, is a treasure system knapsack lightened to 2 lbs, deepened to 200 lbs, and altered to your aesthetic.
   Cloak: Mechanical cloak scripts can get extremely expensive. Options include Shield Cape, Dramatic Drapery, Night Shroud. A popular aesthetic choice is ClimateWear, which, with all of the unlocks, allows you to cover your features.

The easiest and cheapest way to get an excellent starter container is to find items in the treasure system and use notes to improve them. Knapsacks and jackets can often be lightened to 2 lbs, then deepened as much as desired.

Other Items

   Resistance Trinket
   Luck Trinket