I have a skill build with +5 ST. I changed a Belstone mask to +1 ST. I added a BS chest & knee pads & they were also changed to +1 in the stats. It appears because it is part of the set. Only the mask has +1 shown on the individual piece. I'm not sure how I did that? I am working towards changing to Impress but I am
not sure how to proceed. Also the BS mask attributes can not be changed, which I expected. However the attributes can be on the mask & knees. Is that normal?
Its not like there is a manual -
Hey agent,
I have to admit I don't quite get your problem just yet. So I need a bit of clarification. Maybe you can add one or two screenshots of your build?
Anyway, there are some things that generally can be said:
Belstone Armory items always drop with Armor as their main attribute. If you want to use them in a skill build (which is not a bad idea especially for the first and second Brand Bonus) you need to recalibrate the main attribute from Armor to Skill Tier. As Skill Tier will always come as the max roll, 1 Skill Tier, you can this way – and only this way – add a Skill Tier to each item of any Brand that does not regularly have Skill Tier as a main attribute (e. g. also offensive Brands like Fenris or Walker).
But if you have recalibrated the main attribute, you cannot recalibrate one of the minor attributes anymore, as you can only once recalibrate an item. You can still optimize the attributes the item has. But you can not recalibrate them. So for a Skill Build you would be e. g. looking for a Belstone Armory item that drops with Armor (because they always do), Skill Damage and Skill Haste. This way you can recalibrate the Armor to be 1 Skill Tier and will receive an all yellow Belstone Armory item.
Using Empress International is a veeeery good idea for a Skill Build. The bonuses for wearing three pieces are by far the best options here. So I'd just suggest farming for good Empress items until you have at least three decent pieces and then continue to farm for other items that you want to see in your new build (if of course you don't already have them in your inventory or stash). Fo example one good Wyvern item for the additional Skill Damage or two Hana items for more Skill Haste and Skill Damage. Or one piece China Light in case you are planning for a skill Build with the Artillery Turret. Or the exotic Waveform holster... or even keep one or two Belstone Armory items in your build to constantly get some armor regeneration for your agent.
Some additional hints:
If you plan to include an item into any build on which you want to change the main attribute – make sure you farm for this item first. Let's stick to the Skill Build example to tell you why. So when you start farming for this build you will be satisfied with any Belstone item dropping with Skill Haste and Skill Damage as minor attributes so you can recalibrate the main one. Finding such a piece can take a while, so having the freedom of either using a mask or a holster or whatever for this is a very good thing.
After finding gloves or a mask or whatever item you can then add the other Brands to this builds that already always come with a Skill Tier as main attribute. Because now finding Empress or Wyvern or Hana items "around" the Belstone item is pretty easy – because any of those Brands' items will always already come with a Skill Tier as main attribute, so you're basically only looking for an item to drop with either Skill Haste or Skill Damage. Because you can add the missing attribute via Recalibration. So this won't take you long at all.
The other way around would be a bad choice – let's say you quickly farmed for 3 Empress items including a vest, you found the named Hana backpack and Hana holster and your only free slot in this build is a mask. So you now neeeeeeeed to find not any Belstone item (as described in the first example), no, you need to exactly find a Belstone mask and only a mask which happens to have Skill Haste and Damage already rolled to it so that you can change the main attribute. And this can take quite a freaking long time...
Oh – and keep in mind: when you are using the Technician Specialization its perk tree will also grant you +1 Skill Tier. So in order to always have the maximum number of 6 Skill Tiers, you only need 5 items with Skill Tier as a main attribute. Thus you also can use for example a Belstone item without (!) getting rid of the armor and having a bit more survivability. Or you could the other way around change the main attribute to Weapon Damage, if you want to have more firepower...
I am sure that Noxious81 knows this, but I'd like to clarify his explanation a bit for others that may not:
To be a bit more precise, you can recalibrate an item as often as you like, but once you have recalibrated any attribute that is the only attribute you can recalibrate again on that item from then on. So if you change the first core attribute from, e.g., armour to skill tier, after that you can change it back to armour or change it to weapon damage, as many times as you like, but you cannot ever change the other attributes (including the talent, if any) with recalibration.Originally Posted by Noxious81 Go to original post
So this is part of the strategy of gear crafting: finding a piece of gear that has something acceptable for all the attributes bar one, and then changing that one to something that greatly increases the value (to you) of that item.
And yeah, it's quite normal for me to change out the primary attribute of a piece of gear between skill tier, armour and weapon damage over time as it assumes places in different builds.
Way to much text, I think I have a working grasp on your above text. At this point a screen shot for me only complicates matters more. To simplify I changed a Belstone mask to +1 skill tier. The plus one is visual on the mask ONLY. The chest & knees are part of the three piece skill tier set but individually they do not have +1 designation. All three are accounted for under the stats tab but in the picture - ONLY the mask has a +1 designation. When I change to Impress I assume changing the Belstone mask back to armor will remove the +1 but I am not sure about the other two pieces. I assume the broken set will show the other two as +1 until I change them back?Noxious81
Hey agent,
I have to admit I don't quite get your problem just yet. So I need a bit of clarification. Maybe you can add one or two screenshots of your build?
Anyway, there are some things that generally can be said:
Belstone Armory items always drop with Armor as their main attribute. If you want to use them in a skill build (which is not a bad idea especially for the first and second Brand Bonus) you need to recalibrate the main attribute from Armor to Skill Tier. As Skill Tier will always come as the max roll, 1 Skill Tier, you can this way – and only this way – add a Skill Tier to each item of any Brand that does not regularly have Skill Tier as a main attribute (e. g. also offensive Brands like Fenris or Walker).
But if you have recalibrated the main attribute, you cannot recalibrate one of the minor attributes anymore, as you can only once recalibrate an item. You can still optimize the attributes the item has. But you can not recalibrate them.
Its just a matter of what happens as a set & once broken what happens individually. I think I know the answer & was just after a clarification. If I did not word this well enough just pass & I will find out when I change over to Impress.