Gear while leveling

I’m a tad confused about stats on gear while leveling. I have a level 37 Sorcerer (Fire Strike). I’ve been prioritizing the raw attributes (physique, spirit, cunning) or items over the cooked attributes (OA, DA, +Health, +Energy). From what I understand the raw attribs. influence the cooked attribs. However, many of the end-game epic set pieces don’t have the raw stats on them. Should I be prioritizing the cooked attributes over the raw attribs.? I know that getting some resists and life steal is important.

Also, I keep getting green items with stats for builds other than the one I’m playing. For example, Bleed and Poison damage on items, instead of Fire, Lightning, and Physical.

Raw attributes provide very small bonuses to the “cooked” attributes, so yes, you should more often aim for “cooked” over raw. The thing is, you need enough raw to actually wear the gear, so those bonuses still have some value, especially in the early game where you often won’t have enough physique to easily equip armor and the like.

But for the most part, come end game, assuming you max physique, you can wear any gear you find without an issue, the only exception being very low spirit builds (Say, Blademaster) may have issues with some jewelery. This actually points out a major flaw in the game ATM as far as stat balance goes, right now there is absolutely no reason to spec into stats other than physique due to how poorly they all scale, with physique at the very least providing a triple-stack on critical defensive stats (HP, hp regen, and DA), while Cunning only provides a double up on physical offensive power (physical damage and OA), and spirit a single upgrade on offensive and a single on utility.

Thanks for the info.

Gear drops randomly and is not “aimed” at your particular class if that’s what you’re expecting. Given the many different build possibilities in the game you may want to consider hanging on to some of the items if you have another build idea in mind. Put it in the transfer part of your stash and then another toon can use it later. You’ll need to buy the stashes, there are 4 altogether.

As noted above, you are playing a “diablo-like”, known traditionally for heavy reliance on RNG. This is usually common in the genre. More so if the game has old school aspirations. GD has those aspirations.

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I’m familiar with heavy reliance on RNG. However, I’ve been encountering items with a pretty wide variance in stats and their ranges. In many cases an item that would generally raise my damage can’t be worn because I lack the raw stats to equip. This is typically encountered when switching from yellow items with raw stats to a green item with no raw stats. For example, transitioning from a yellow chest with:
+22 Physique
+21 Cunning
+11 Spirit
+5% Energy regen.

…to a green chest with:
+16% Burn Damage
+16% Fire Damage
+15% Frostburn Damage
+14% Electrocute Damage
+5% Energy regen
+14 Elemental Resists

I would have to adjust several other gear slots to recover a chunk of the Cunning that would be lost just so I can equip my weapons (dual wield pistols). I held on to the green chest for 3 levels until I could get some other gear replacements and acquire more raw stats that come from leveling up. I used the free raw stats from leveling up so that I don’t screw up my permanent point allocation.

In regard to items not being “aimed” at my build, it seems that most of the items I’ve been getting have:

  • chaos damage
  • aether damag
  • poison damage
  • trauma damage
  • lightning damage

The above has been on my Fire Strike Sorcerer.

On my Vitality Conjurer. I consistently get:

  • bleed damage
  • aether damage
  • frostburn damage
  • poison damage
  • electrocute damage

I’m pretty certain the loot isn’t aimed at my builds. LoL
Its just the consistency across multiple game sessions seems a bit odd.

21 cunning on that chest is nothing. Even at level 37 where it’s a fair chunk of your total cunning it’s nothing to hold onto when comparing to a piece that is giving the alternate bonuses to your damage types. Even if you’re not using any cold/frost or electric damage types the bonuses on that chest to Fire & Burn damage are going to do more for you overall than 21 cunning on the current. At least hold onto that chest to swap in after a few levels when points added to your Masteries should have bumped you up to the required cunning needed for your weapons. That chest will give you more longevity than the one with 21 cunning.

Also, as stated before, there is no “smart loot” type of loot system in GD. The grind is real… it’s the only thing there is to do other than actually level the characters.

@Trellis:
I think I might have confused you a bit. In the example that I used I had a yellow chest with the stats listed equipped but found a green chest some time after with the stats listed. However, to swap to the green chest I would have to swap several other slots because removing the yellow chest at the time would put my character below the cunning requirement for the weapons he had equipped. I kept the green chest in stash for a few levels so because I didn’t have replacement items for the other slots. I’m sure in the long run the yellow chest would be replaced.

As stated before…

I’m pretty certain the loot is not aimed at my builds. LoL
Its just the consistency across multiple game sessions seems a bit odd.

Across multiple gaming sessions on my Fire Strike Sorcerer to keep getting the following stats on drops seems odd:

  • chaos damage
  • aether damage
  • poison damage
  • trauma damage
  • lightning damage

I was not expecting “smart loot”.