Solo Gearing to 320+ in Midnight — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:00] Hey folks, this is Kelani. Season 2 of Midnight  gives solo content players far more options for   how to gear up, and you can get much higher item  levels in general. You can quite easily get up   to item level 320 or higher with no group content  needed. That's the equivalent of heroic raid gear,  

[00:18] and you can even pick up some mythic gear along  the way. In season 2, the main solo content   features also connect much better, helping you  gear up faster if you take part in all of them.   So, we're going to go over every gearing option  for solo content players and show you how you  

[00:33] can get up to item level 320 and beyond without  having to take part in any group content. Now,   before we jump in, be sure to hit up that like  button and subscribe so you never miss another   video. One of the most important things to do  every week is to pick up and complete the various  

[00:49] weekly quests that can reward you with a spark of  tides. There are two of these in Silver Moon. the   unity against the void weekly quest from Leaddin  and the trailing Zalatath weekly quest from   Verissa. There's also the curse surge weekly quest  on the coil. All three of these weekly quests can  

[01:05] reward you with a spark of tides, though you can  only get one spark per week if you are caught up   to the current cap. We'll be able to get four  sparks in the first week of the season and one   spark every week after. You can always check  if you're behind the current cap for sparks by  

[01:19] checking your spark dust in your currency tab.  If you are behind, you'll be able to pick up   extra sparks from completing these weekly quests  or from taking part in endgame content. All of   these quests will also reward you with a pinnacle  cash. The first two you obtain from any source  

[01:34] will contain a piece of veteran gear, and they  also contain coffer key shards, veteran crests,   and other useful currencies. There are a few  other ways to get pinnacle caches, like the   special assignment world quest on the coil aisle.  You need to complete a few normal world quests to  

[01:50] unlock that one. So, if you're doing world quests  anyway, that might be something of interest to   you. World quests themselves can reward up to  adventurer gear, so they're useful towards the   start of your gearing up adventures, but not much  past that. There are special events in the coil  

[02:05] aisle called curse surges. These events end at  a rare boss fight that can drop adventurer gear,   currencies, and reputation. As you work your  way through the Zuljarus Forc's renowned track,   but there are plenty of other sources of veteran  gear. So, I wouldn't really worry about it too  

[02:22] much. To get some larger gear upgrades, you'll  want to visit Aelor Sanctum in Silver Moon to   check out the prey system. Prey hunts have  three difficulties, and the higher you go,   the more dangerous your prey targets will  become, and you'll have to deal with specific  

[02:37] torments or affixes while you're in the open  world, but you will get much better rewards.   Normal hunts will reward you with adventurer  gear and crests. Hard mode hunts bump it up   to veteran gear and crests. And then nightmare  mode hunts offer champion gear, champion crests,  

[02:52] and some hero crests. Only the first two hunts per  week per difficulty will reward you with gear. So   you can get two pieces of champion gear per week  by running at least two nightmare prey hunts. Now,  

[03:04] you'll probably always want to run at least three  nightmare prey hunts per week to complete the   weekly quest, a nightmarish task. This will reward  you with some hero crests as well as a scalebound   Herald's flute. This item lets you summon the  season 2 delve nemesis into your Delve runs,  

[03:20] giving you a chance at some extra gear, but also  giving you another way to secure your Trove Hunter   Bounty map for the week, which can be used to earn  a piece of hero track gear from the Delve system.   As you complete more and more prey hunts, you'll  be earning progress in the season 2 Prey Journey  

[03:35] track. There are some fun cosmetics to pick up  along the way, but at renowned rank four, you'll   unlock the ability to loot afflicted souls from  tier six or above Bountiful delves. When used,   these souls will let you skip over the entire  hunt portion of your next prey hunt, so you can  

[03:50] just go straight to the boss and complete the  hunt in under a minute. The soul also gives you   bonus champion gear once per week. So, not only  does it significantly speed up your prey hunts,   but it also gives you extra gear. When you reach  rank nine on the renowned track, you'll be able to  

[04:05] loot tormented souls instead, which do the exact  same thing, except your bonus loot will be on the   hero track instead. So, you'll be able to get one  piece of hero gear from Prey Hunts every week,   as long as you're doing delves as well. Nightmare  Prey Hunts will also be filling up your world row  

[04:23] in the weekly vault. Nightmare Prey Hunts are the  same as tier eight delves for weekly vault credit,   so they'll earn you some item level 305 hero track  gear on reset day. The prey feature was expanded  

[04:35] in 12.1 to be about more than just prey hunts.  After working through Aelor's new quests, you'll   be able to enable the curse of the coil dial,  subjecting you to the nightmare torments while   in the zone, even while you're not on an active  hunt. In return, you'll be able to loot oified  

[04:50] relics from completing world quests and from  new prey daily quests. You can turn these relics   into a haunted brazier in the zone to summon  Ralcala, Terror of the Isisles. When defeated,   this boss drops corrosive coins, corrosive  souls, champion crests, and hero crests. So,  

[05:06] this could end up being a very good source of both  champion and hero upgrade crests throughout season   2. The next way to get some big gear upgrades is  to dive into delves. You can earn up to hero track  

[05:18] gear from delves every week, and it's one of the  best sources of champion track gear in the game.   But not all delves reward these big gear upgrades.  You're looking specifically for bountiful delves.   They have a special glowy icon on the world map,  and only four delves will be bountiful each day.  

[05:34] At the end of a bountiful delve run, you'll find a  locked chest. That's where your gear upgrades are   going to come from. To open that chest, you will  need a restored coffer key. And to get those keys,   you just need to earn 100 coffer key shards. And  then the next time you enter a delve, they will  

[05:49] be converted into a key automatically. You can  obtain coffer key shards from almost all openw   world content, including prey hunts, curse surges,  weekly quests, pinnacle caches, rare monster  

[06:01] kills, opening treasures, and more. Getting 600  per week to turn into six keys should be easy   peasy. The gear rewards from Battleful Dells will  improve as you increase the difficulty and they  

[06:13] cap out at tier eight. So that's where you want  to use all of your restored coffer keys. That   will earn you two of six champion gear for every  single key you spend. And all of that gear can be   upgraded up to item level 308. So this is going  to be your main source of gear upgrades early on.  

[06:30] Now, just like prey hunts, completing delves  will fill up the world row in the weekly vault,   and the rewards also cap out when you can complete  tier eight delves. So, that should always be your   goal. Tier eight delves will earn you 305 hero  track gear on reset day. You want to fill up the  

[06:45] world row with a combination of nightmare prey  hunts and tier eight delve runs to maximize your   chances for a good upgrade. There's another way to  get some hero gear from delves, and all you need  

[06:57] is a trove hunter bounty map. There are a few ways  to get your hands on one. The prey weekly quest   from earlier should reward you with a scalebound  herald's flute. You can use this item to summon   the season 2 delve nemesis in any delve run after  you've reached the checkpoint halfway through.  

[07:13] After you fight the nemesis off or die, whichever  comes first, they'll drop a cash that will contain   a Trove Hunter Bounty map. The other main option  is to complete the weekly quest down in the vaults   of Italute. The map itself is a reward from that  quest, so that's worth doing if you haven't done  

[07:30] the weekly prey quest for whatever reason.  You also have a chance to get the map from   any delve run. So, there are plenty of options  available. You can only get one map per week,   so where you get it from doesn't really matter.  You just need to get one per week if you want  

[07:44] an extra piece of hero gear. When you use the map,  your next delve run will have a hidden trove chest   at the end which contains your piece of gear. You  can only get hero track gear if you run a tier   eight delve or above with your map. So only use  your map on tier eight or above delves. Otherwise,  

[08:01] you'll be missing out on a piece of hero gear  every single week. As you complete delves,   you'll be earning progress in the season 2 delve  journey track. And just like the prey track,   there are some big unlocks in here. At rank three,  you'll be able to find Dundon in your delves.  

[08:16] the first time you find him each day, he will  make your run abundantly bountiful, which gives   you extra chests at the end for even more loot.  At rank four, you can start earning myth crests   by completing tier 11 bountiful delves. At rank  five, a vendor will appear at the end of your  

[08:31] delves that will sell champion gear. At rank  eight, you can start looting warbound champion   gear from your delve runs, which can make gearing  up your alts much faster. And then at rank nine,   tier 11 bountiful Dells have a chance to reward  hero track gear or a currency that you can spend  

[08:45] with a Dell vendor to buy hero track gear. Either  way, you can start earning hero gear directly from   delve runs after you reach rank nine. You can earn  progress for the del journey track by completing  

[08:57] bountiful delves from opening the coffer key  chests at the end from the nemesis chest. So,   it is worth killing all the nemesis monsters when  you can. You'll get a good chunk from your hidden   trove chest, and you'll get an item that starts a  quest for your first delve clear of each week. If  

[09:12] you want to farm the rep to progress through the  track quickly, I would recommend clearing every   bountiful delve every day, even if you don't  have a key to unlock the chest at the end. Now,   you may be wondering, what about the vaults for  tall? Is it still worth venturing down into the  

[09:28] underground or the coiled aisle to farm those  events? It can be, but it is the least valuable   source of gear for solo content players out of the  main three options. The most important thing to do   in the vaults would be the weekly quest, purging  the vault. This quest rewards you with a venom  

[09:44] cursed fragment, and when you get two of these,  you can turn them into a piece of champion gear.   So, that will help you gear up slowly but surely.  The other key reward from this weekly quest is   the Trove Hunter's Bounty Map. So, instead of  having to summon the nemesis to get your Delve,  

[09:58] this quest just straight up rewards it. The  quest also rewards a good chunk of coffer key   shards. So if you haven't hit your shard cap for  the week, that's another reward to look out for.   There are constant public events in the vaults of  Italo, but only one type of event really matters  

[10:14] if you want some gear. Temple incursions start on  a timer and you can see a countdown at the top of   your screen when the next incursion is close. The  incursions themselves are cool, but the only real   important part is that the incursion succeeds or  complete. Every time an incursion is successful,  

[10:30] an ancient foe will spawn right after. And this is  where the gear is actually going to come from. The   first ancient foe you kill per week drops a venom  cursed fragment, which you can then combine with  

[10:42] the one you get from the weekly quest for one  piece of champion gear per week. But then every   kill of the ancient foe also drops a bag that  contains a three of six piece of veteran gear. So,   they are worth killing at least once per week,  but they're still a good source of veteran gear  

[10:56] if you want to farm them. So, the vaults can be  worth it if you need some extra veteran gear or   if you've already exhausted the other sources of  champion gear for the week, but other content is   more rewarding, and you'll probably get your trove  hunters bounty map from the prey system first. So,  

[11:12] the vaults do lose quite a lot of value simply  due to that. Now, as you complete your prey hunts,   delve runs, and take part in the vaults content,  you'll be earning corrosive souls. You can spend  

[11:24] these souls at the altar of corrosion to  unlock new powers in the corrosive codeex.   You can only have one of these powers active  at a time until you unlock eight powers total,   at which point you can use two powers at a time.  All of these powers only work in solo content. So,  

[11:39] they don't work in dungeons, raids, or PvP,  but that makes it a great way to power up your   character to help you take down prey targets or  higher tiers of delves. Some good powers to pick   up early would be Affidian Moore, Insidious Venom,  and Oolletex Gift. If you want to swap your powers  

[11:56] around without having to venture back down into  the vault, you can find a mini altar of corrosion   at the start of every delve that lets you change  things around. Up until now, the highest gear  

[12:08] track we've been able to obtain is hero track  gear, and those sources are very limited for   solo content players. You can get one piece per  week from your bounty map in the delve system,   and one piece per week from the weekly vault.  More options open up later on from the prey and  

[12:22] delve journey tracks, but that's still just more  hero gear. There is only one way to go higher than   that for solo content players. This is where your  sparks of tides come into play. Sparks of Tides  

[12:34] can be used to craft high item level gear. It  usually takes two sparks to make a piece of gear   or four sparks to make a two-handed weapon.  The higher the rank of the resulting craft,   the higher the item level will be. So, you always  want to get a rank five result, whether you're  

[12:49] crafting it for yourself or using the crafting  order clerks. The gear will start at item level   305 when just using the sparks, which should be a  good upgrade for most players at the start of the   season. But the real power of this crafted gear  comes through using crests to upgrade them. You  

[13:05] can use hero crests to upgrade all spark crafted  gear to item level 318, taking it up to almost a   max hero track item level, or you can use myth  crests to bump it up all the way to 331. Spark  

[13:18] crafted gear with a myth crest upgrade is the  very best gear available to solo content players,   but you are going to need to get your hands on  some hero or myth crests to fuel these upgrades.  

[13:30] Hero quests are very easy to come by for solo  content players nowadays. You can earn them from   nightmare prey hunts, from the prey weekly quest,  from the housing weekly quest, and from high tiers   of delves. You shouldn't have too many issues  reaching your hero crest cap every week. Even as a  

[13:46] solo content player, you can use your hero crests  to upgrade sparkcrafted gear to item level 318 or   to upgrade your hero track gear up to item level  321. Now, myth crests aren't quite as plentiful.  

[13:59] There's only one reliable source of myth crests  for solo content players at the start of season   2. After you reach renown rank four on the Del  seasonal journey track, you can get five myth   crests per tier 11 bountiful delu run up to a cap  of 20 per week. That's it. That's all you have to  

[14:16] work with. That means it will take you four weeks  to earn enough myth crafts to fully upgrade a   piece of sparkcrafted gear, which isn't ideal, but  it is doable and leads to the best gear available   for solo content players. If you want easier or  faster myth crests, you're going to have to clear  

[14:32] mythic plus 9 keystones or above. You can get four  sparks total in the first week of the season with   one spark every week after that. So, you can craft  a new piece of gear every 2 weeks. And as long as  

[14:44] you're keeping up with your myth crests, you'll  be able to upgrade one of them to item level 331   every 4 weeks. It is slow going, but that's the  best gear available for solo content players.  

[14:56] There is one other way to get some myth crests as  a solo content player, but it's only a one-time   deal. If you can defeat the Delve Nemesis on the  higher difficulty, you'll get 30 hero crests and  

[15:08] 30 myth crests. And these crests do not count  towards your crest caps, making them even   more valuable. The problem is that clearing the  higher difficulty is pretty hard by yourself. So,   I would recommend doing this in a group to make  it significantly easier. It is doable solo,  

[15:24] and there's even a very special achievement for  doing it solo in the first week of the season,   but it's definitely not easy. Getting those extra  30 crests will shave an entire week off your first   piece of 331 crafted gear. As you gear up, you'll  also be able to trade up your crests to the next  

[15:41] tier. So, you'll be able to turn champion crests  into hero crests and hero crests into myth crests   eventually. Being able to trade your crests up is  tied to specific achievements called crest name of  

[15:53] the mist. So, champion of the mist or hero of the  mist, for example. To earn those achievements, you   need to equip a piece of gear in every slot that  is equivalent of that gear track at six of six or   higher. So for champion, you would need item level  308 gear in every slot, and then you'll be able to  

[16:10] tread your champion crests up to hero crests and  so on. So the more you gear up, the easier you can   obtain higher tiers of crests. These achievements  will also unlock crest discounts for all of your  

[16:22] alts. So when you've gotten the champion of  the mist achievement on one character, all   other characters will have their champion crest  upgrade costs cut in half down to 10 per upgrade,   which will help you gear up your alts much faster.  And then the last major puzzle piece to your  

[16:37] gearing adventures is going to be tier gear and  getting your hands on your four set bonus that   will provide you with a massive power spike. But  tier gear isn't easy to come by for solo content   players. You only really have two major sources.  The first is the catalyst. The catalyst lets you  

[16:54] convert any piece of seasonal gear into tier set  gear. So you want to get your hands on some head,   shoulders, chest, hands, and leg pieces of gear.  Pop them in the catalyst and you'll have some tier   set gear. Easy peasy. The only problem is that  you need a catalyst charge to fuel the conversion.  

[17:11] We start the season with one charge and then  we'll get another charge every 2 weeks. So,   if you only rely on the catalyst, it's going to  take you quite a while before you can enable your   powerful four set bonus. The other main way  you'll be able to obtain tier set gear as a  

[17:27] solo content focused player is from the weekly  vault. Every reward row in the weekly vault has   a chance to be tier gear when you open the vault  on reset day. The more rewards you have unlocked,   the higher the chance of getting a big upgrade,  which includes a piece of tier set gear. So, make  

[17:42] sure you're filling up your world row at the very  least. You can fill in some dungeon slots with   random heroic dungeons or time walking dungeons  if they're available. It doesn't have to be   mythic dungeons, but your rewards are going to be  a bit lower. Now, many guides will be telling you  

[17:58] to only pick up bonus rolls from the weekly vault,  as that's the most powerful option and better than   any actual gear reward, which is true if you do  high-end mythic plus or raid on heroic or mythic  

[18:10] difficulty. Bonus rolls can be used to target myth  track gear in those cases. But if you're strictly   a solo content player, your bonus roles will cap  out at heroic, so it's not quite as worthwhile. It  

[18:22] is very important to consider if you want to try  and jump into any of that group content though,   as there is no way to catch up with bonus rolls  if you don't choose them as your vault reward. So,   if you think you'll want to try some mythic plus  10 keys or above or the raid on at least heroic,  

[18:38] maybe consider picking up the bonus rolls and  saving them up. Otherwise, I would be aiming   for tier set gear. Now, another way to get your  hands on some tier set gear is to run the LFR   wings as they become available. We start off with  just the first wing open, but as the weeks go by,  

[18:55] more and more bosses will become available to give  you extra chances at tier gear. LFR is very easy,   and you can queue into it all by yourself.  So, while it is technically group content,   you don't have to do anything to create or  join the group. Specifically, just jump in,  

[19:11] try to have some fun, and hopefully you'll walk  away with some shiny loot. Getting some raid   boss kills in from LFR will also help fill up your  raid row in the weekly vault, giving you even more   chances to get tier gear on reset day. The reason  why obtaining your foret as quickly as possible is  

[19:27] important is due to an achievement called catalyst  unbound. When you first equip your four set,   you'll earn this achievement and that will let you  obtain additional catalyst charges from endgame   content, mainly delves if you're a solo content  player. You can then use those charges to convert  

[19:43] higher item level pieces of gear as you obtain  them. And it goes from being an extremely limited   resource to quite abundant, which will be the key  if you want to try and chase down some tier gear   with your class or specs best in slot stats. So  running some LFR wings now and then could get you  

[19:58] your four set weeks earlier than just waiting for  the catalyst, which will speed everything else up.   And then if you're ever struggling to replace some  lower item level pieces of gear, there are a few  

[20:10] other sources that might pique your interest.  You should be able to pick up a pair of veteran   braces from the Zuljara's Forces faction, as long  as you've completed the story quests for the new   zone. That gets upgraded to champion braces if  you reach renown rank nine with the new faction.  

[20:25] So keep that in mind if you end up really needing  some braces later on down the line. You can get   another four pieces of veteran gear more or less  for free from the four original midnight renowned   factions. Even if you got that gear during season  1, you can get a helm from the Silver Moon Court,  

[20:41] a necklace from the Ammani tribe, a belt from  the Harati, and a trinket from the Singularity   faction in Voidtorm. Each one does require a  bit of renown with the respective factions. So,   if you're new to the game for season 2 or you  just didn't get the reps farmed up in season 1,  

[20:56] it's probably not worth going out of your way to  get these items. But if you do have the renowned   requirements already, it's a very easy way to get  four pieces of veteran gear to help speed up the   initial gearing process. You can also use your  adventurer crests or veteran crests to craft some  

[21:13] half decent gear if you are struggling to gear up.  You just need to add your crests at the bottom of   any blue crafting recipe. Adventurer crests can  bump the gear up to item level 279, while veteran  

[21:25] crests will increase its item level to 292. That's  basically a fully upgraded veteran piece of gear.   This option becomes more and more potent as the  season goes on, as you'll have a lot of crests   that can be used to instantly gear up your alts  halfway through the season. This is also a great  

[21:41] option for just filling in any gearing gaps you  may have, like that pesky low item level ring that   you just can't seem to replace. And then something  else that's worth noting if you love to engage in   a spot of PvP is that you can pick up veteran four  of six gear from the bloody token vendor in the  

[21:57] PvP area of Silver Moon. You can earn some bloody  tokens by turning on war mode and taking part in   openw world PvP with large chunks of the currency  coming from certain world quests. It's not the  

[22:09] most efficient gearing option available to you,  but it's worth knowing about if you're running   around with war mode on. Anyway, but that's how  you can get up to item level 320 or higher as a   solo content player all by yourself with no group  content. So, that's it for this video. What kinds  

[22:25] of content do you enjoy the most as a solo content  player? And do you think solo players should have   more access to hero and myth track gear? Leave all  your thoughts in the comment section below. A big   thank you to all of our supporters over on Patreon  and to all of our members here on YouTube. You can  

[22:40] see their names on screen. If you're interested in  supporting the channel, you can find links in the   description or click the join button just below  the video. If you enjoyed the video or found it   useful in any way, make sure to subscribe and ring  that notification bell so you're always kept up  

[22:53] to date. Thanks for watching folks. Good luck and  have fun. And as always, I will see you next time. [music]