Looking to be better, Please advise

[dadmathews]

Pet name AramisLucy:
Species: Eyrie
Level: 37
Strength: 72
Defense:72
Health:71

Current set:
-Pumkin Shield (rarely used)
-Immense Rubber Axe of Doom (rarely used)
-Obsidian Dagger (2nd attack weapon occasionally)
-Bone Sceptre (2nd attack weapon occasionally)
-Leaf Shield (primary defense)
-Scarab Ring (secondary defense)
-Ancient Eyrie Power Wand (primary weapon)
-Earthen Scorchstone (picked up for some dark defense against Tekkitu)

Useful weapons in your safety deposit box (optional):
Eyrie Rainbow Flash (used to use occasionally - it as cute)
Wet Snowball (freeby picked up somehow)
00 Hog Battlecard (freeby picked up somehow)
Rotten Parsnip (freeby picked up somehow)

Also, I have all faerie abilities (I'm in to collecting)... Typically use Sink/Burrow/Regen

Budget you have to spend:
Daily income (20k+ possible, 10k is more typical):

Do you play mostly 1P or 2P battles?: 1P almost exclusively - Defenders Series is the goal, I'm at the Meerca Henchmen.

How do you train your pet: occasional Faerie Quest results - mostly Dubloons on Mystery Island


I'm looking for advice on what to concentrate on. I plan to keep training stats, but I'm wondering what weapons upgrades I should be considering.

[rabid_schnauzer]

Firstly, thanks for giving truly complete information, that makes giving advice a whole lot easier.

Training needs to always be the priority for 1 player, it's actually more cost-effective (ie cheaper) than weapons upgrades, and since you aren't constrained by the "similar stats" guidelines of 2player, there's no reason not to train as much as you can. If those arguments aren't convincing, then also see what the immortal sirhatter has to say about the time costs of training in the stickied thread. I generally advise that at least 80% of someone's battle budget go to training, but in your case it should probably be even more than that. Please keep that in mind when reading my weapon suggestions below. Everything I list is currently buyable, but if you're only making 10k per day, that sort of training budget will only leave you about 1k per day towards weapons, meaning it could/should take you months to make all the upgrades I suggest. Don't run out and blow everything buying all the weapons I recommend, but take some time to consider the alternatives I (and others here) present before buying anything.

Now as to your set:

You have 3 good general use weapons, 2 weapons that were good but are now obsolete and 2 more weapons which you've probably outgrown, and then you have the Pumpkin Shield. Your most obvious flaw is that you have neither a healer nor a freezer.

The good:

Leaf Shield
Scarab Ring
Earthen Scorchstone

These are all solidly useful value weapons, and between the 3 of them you can defend decent amounts of any icon but Light. Now defense is not always a big deal in 1p, and for many of the DoN opponents you will want to use reflectors, but I'll leave those discussions for another time.

The obsolete:
Ancient Eyrie Power Wand This used to be a great weapon. However, I just tjecked the Shop Wiz and found it selling for 76,995 NP when the Earth Faerie Slingshot was in another shop for 48,995 NP. The only difference between the effect is that the EFS can do 1 more icon, and it's precise average is not known, but with a 7 icon minimum, I'm guessing it's over the 7.2 of the AEPW.

Immense Rubber Axe of Doom This isn't as clear cut, since there's not another weapon of at least identical function, but unless you really really like the earth&physical defense on a dual duty there's not much reason to keep this. You already have both earth and physical defense in your set, and the best case for this weapon is a 6 icon attack and a 2.6 icon defense. With the weapons available today, you should really be looking for at least 9 in dual duties.
If you want the earth defense:
Golden Geripiktu Amulet, Sandstone Boots, Brilliant Wing Amulet, and Cloudy Wand of Storms all give you a 9 icon total attack+defense.
If you want the physical defense Carved Sansetsukon,
Ceremonial Qasalan Dagger*, Jeweled Battle Collar, Laced Wooden Staff, Qasalan Double Bladed Staff, Staff of Impenetrable Gloom, Thief Dagger* Superior Shovel or a 2nd Scarab Ring will all work. And all of those are buyable on the shopwiz. Alternately, you could just give up on the dual duty thing and get a 9 icon offensive weapon instead, I'll talk about those below. However, what I would recommend you do here is get a light-blocking dual duty since that's the one type you don't otherwise block. You can get any of the previous which I marked with an * or any of these: Winged Hammer, King Kelpbeards Blessing, Sword of the Dead or Amulet of Inevitable Betrayal

The outgrown:
Obsidian Dagger and Bone Sceptre. Both of these are absolutely amazing starter weapons and you just can't do better for the 500 neopoints the pair costs. But if you have more than 500 neopoints, you can. With the recent war, my sense of prices is off, but here's a rough list of buyable weapons that do more than 6 icons:

Jade Staff only does 6, but blocks 3 dark, so beats Scarab Ring in head to head, only about 7k
Von Roo Dice do 6-9, about 10k
Fighting Folder does 6-8 and multiheals 2/round without taking up the healing slot
17-Pound Trout, Rusty Garden Hoe, Brain Tree Mace, Earth Faerie Bow, Enchanted Wooden Bow variable icons, variable prices, check the links and wiz for details
Electro Sword, Gold Handled Katana 8 constant icons
Tyrannian Lupe Tooth 8.66 constant icons, and frequently a whole lot cheaper than the clubs
Ice Club, Stone Club 9 constant icons, buyable, downright game-changing.
Cloudy Wand of Storms 7.2 constant attack and also 3 earth defense

The Rest

You should lose the pumpkin shield, there's just no reason for it, and you admit that you rarely use it. If you want to block part of everything once per battle, get a Downsize! instead. As I mentioned earlier, your set needs both a healer and a freezer. Unless I'm missing Eyrie speicies alternatives, Greater Healing Scroll and Snowglobe Staff are blatently obvious as your only options. The harder choice is what to take out to put them in, and that's entirely up to you, as it will depend in the order you upgrade. And I just can't recommend the Snowglobe Staff without warning that it is one of the most frustrating weapons in existence, being uselss 60% of the time, but for a tough 1 player you can withdraw if you don't get a 1st round freeze with it, and this will let you beat some opponents which you normally couldn't.

And for 1player battling that advice should hold you until either new weapons or released or you hit the 250 Str boost.