Runes of Magic US / AU

So here's a quick guide about how to create GREAT gear without using diamonds and how to play RoM efficiently with constrained finances. This guide is oriented towards people who have started learning the basics already and want to maximize their gear output with minimal financial investment.

Tip 1: 2 Stat fusion stones
1. Use 2-stat fusion stones (check out the addon Advanced Auctionhouse over at curse addons.com... use this to find stones...)
2. In the Auction House, search for 2-stat fusion stones using the addon:
These stones cost ~50k each. If you want to create "starter" items until you transmute them onto a purple armor piece simply buy 3 matching two-stat fusion stones. (That way when you do the transmute, you have [dirty stat (i), dirty stat (i), and three stats that you want.)
3. If you want to make a T4 item: it will take 9 matching 2 stat fusion stones: Stamina i + Mist i fusion stones are usually some of the cheapest. These t4s will run you about 500k
4. If you want a T3 item fully statted: you only need 6 two-stat matching fusion stones. Throw your stats on four of the stones and do blank whites on the other two. This will only cost about 300k.
5. If you aren't a caster, there's no debate on this one: don't use Vahtos set (Scout/Rogue is the only build that would want to use Vahtos melee set due to their extraordinarily high crit rating.) Buy high dura accessories with rank 1 dirties on them (example +3 strength [strength i]) and transmute as mentioned above.
6. If you want a full set of fully statted t3 items as mentioned above you will only need 6*50k*(13 to 15 depending on class) = 3.9 to 4.5M.

Tip 2: Two reasons for Two stat fusion stones:
1. When using all puris, it will run you 1.2M*6 = 7.2M PER item = up to 108M gold. This is not for you if you don't want to CS.
2. You also save money when buying stats from others. An item with [Illumine VI, stamina i] is technically a dirty to the seller. For you, it's equivalent to a clean. Thus, it creates the negotiation in you favor. It automatically saves you the 1M surcharge for the sellers puri; you can also argue that the stat is a dirty (and to him/her... it is). Thus, you save money on stats you wanna buy.
3. Smelting [my 52 S/P] had 9,000 hp and 1870 dexterity and had only three items that were not made with 2 stat fusion stones. He used a Tier 6 bow and guess what: it is more than enough if you play your class well! (That's good news!)

Tip 3: Tiering a Weapon
1. It will take a ton of time / money to tier a weapon. In my opinion, it's worth it to save up roughly 5M and try to negotiate with someone to make you a set of Tier 7 stones. Save them and DO NOT waste them until you get your endgame weapon (until the next major update). Just farm chick for T4 stones and make yourself a T5 to use until you get your endgame weapon

Tip 4:A nice little booster to start out with....
1. There's always a stat that's relatively easy to get and sells well once you finish your last quest in the newest area: First it was Stamina X (ravenfell) then Stamina XI/ Intelligence X (WC). Then there's always Ability X (epic quest line). Use your three puris to sell these items when you hit max level. This will give you roughly 5M to start working with. Return to step 1: Wow! 5M > 4M => you have enough to buy your 2-stat fusion stones so you can begin (piece by piece- patience!) on your gear.

Tip 5: The AH is your friend, visit him often
1. There are certain stats/items that you should be watching out for while leveling that you will want when youre endgame. Currently the game is in a transition phase so this is less relevant.
2. Keep your eye open for unusually low-priced high dura stat i dirty accessories. You'll need them sooner or later, may as well be looking for them now!
3. If you're a rogue or scout, I highly recommend the Tempest Height set if you can find clean or stat i dirty pieces. The 5 piece (ingame) bonus is 84 dex, +15 weapon damage, 375 hp. This is better than the cyc set bonus and much easier to get than the Lyk set. It's a consideration

Tip 6: Plussing jewels and Drilling items
1. Use vendor jewels to get your armor/weapon/accessories to +2. On average this will cost 50k. Then use CS item jewels (which you can get for 800 phirius tokens) to get your items to +4. Without rubie jewels, it becomes really hard to get to +6 and expensive. Proceed beyond +4 at your own risk.
2. Let the armor drilling be the last thing you do after all the aforementioned tips. You only add very minor stats when drilling so it isn't as crucial.

Hope this guide on being frugal helps. I can guarantee that it works though. I spent $20 on Smelting, and managed to make a net total profit of 18M and 2 T7 stones when I scrapped him. (This equates to a roughly 24M total worth = 1200D =~ $50). I translate it ONLY to use a common unit and show you can increase the net worth of a character by practicing these techniques. I have never sold gear for cash and do not endorse the practice. (I didn't have time for more than one toon anymore so he had to go unfortunately).

Send Ahrk [Artemis] a message ingame if you need help on transmuting, I know it can be hard to learn at first

Quoted from "Rashira34;160367"

This is a great guide, and a great idea! If the item itself is clean, then this works beautifully, if it does have a dirty, then I think that's pushing it a bit, 3 dirties on an item hurts.

Also, for PvP servers, you probably want to have a couple clean items, since you can only use 8 items.

Overall though, great guide!

+1 for sticky!

to clarify: by dirty I mean strictly something that can match a 2-stat fusion stone. By this definition, you will NEVER have three dirties on an item and I agree: 3 dirties on an item makes the item worth less than the stats on the item.

Quoted from "vic1ous;160767"

Hey, First let me say excellent guide and thanks!
ok I saved up some gold bought some diamonds and have bought a full cs costume set. But I would like to wait until I get clean purple gear with +105 dur before using them so what gear should I use to get by with until I have my ultimate gear. My guildie said to just get some blue items from quest and stat them out but a few people told me to just get some whites from vendors and stat them out. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Buy a 110+ dura, clean white and use a set (3) two-stat fusion stones + 3 of your desired stats. Throw these on the item. Notice this item will have 5 stats. If this is a temporary item then the beauty of this is once you get your clean (ie one yellow stat on it) purple item, you can take the white re-use the stats on the white item. To do this just simply transmute your white item that already has 3 stats, 2 dirties and match with with the appropriate fusion stone. Create two more mana stones that match those dirties with a couple of clean items (vendor belts are cheapest) then combine these three mana stones onto the purple item. IMO that's the best way to handle temprorary gear so that you can essentially recycle stats. Financially, all you lose in this situation is the cost of plussing the high dura white item.

"This guide is oriented towards people who have started learning the basics already and want to maximize their gear output with minimal financial investment."

Sorry I apologize if you misconstrued the introduction... This guide isn't going to help brand new players to ROM. To re-iterate, the guide is for people who understand the mechanics of modding their gear but want to find the optimal way to do so. I hope that helps. I highly suggest you check out other (wonderful guides) for introductory help on modding gear