The free loot box is only on the site's item mall. You can open it every hour (countdown from when you last opened it), but it's a help especially at a lower level. Everything you redeem goes directly to your bank.

The page also explains the benefits of each remedy. Even on the bp I'm leveling with linked/enchanted gear I used the intelligence and reaction rems to allow me to solo better. I sometimes pop a wisdom remedy when bless is low so I can throw out longer, too. For an archer you'd probably be using strength, stamina and lucky (and maybe reaction) rems to fill any gaps you don't quite have filled in because of your gear or level.

Zhuozo wrote:

What are loot boxes and rems? I've not played shaiya for 2 months now, so other than knowing how to play I'm pretty much a noob all over again XD

Kiandra beat me to the answer here, but I'll just add a bit to what she said.

Firstly, these recommendations are only for items you get from the free loot box. They make grinding a bit easier, but you don't actually need them so don't go out and buy them from the AH.
But they do help, so it's definitely worthwhile hitting the free loot box whenever you can.

On my level 50 b-def I use mana, str, dex, luck, rec, wis.
The mana/wis ones are useful so that I can cast all my buffs at the same time.
I also tend to run out of MP well before I run out of SP and these two remedies help with that.
Archers also can use a lot of MP depending on which skills they use so I'd keep those in mind as well.
As I said, I usually run out of MP before SP so I don't bother with an SP remedy, but as an archer you should probably consider it - and HP remedies also.
About the only thing you have absolutely no use for as an archer is the int remedy. Everything else is helpful to a greater or lesser degree.

...JayGee... wrote:

Final Question: Is my conclusion that the stat-power of gear grows exponentially as you move up through the levels correct(ish) or does that conclusion provide some clue that I'm already woefully off target with my current toon; and if the latter what might I be missing (apart from the obvious answer - experience)?

just giving an example, and i hope that you understand this.
at lvl60, you see only people which has more then 1200 stats which can do fine in VR green mobs. even better if they have 1500+ stats.

look to the maximal stat points that you get at lvl 60, that's with UM, so 10 stat points ( i've counted the free LUC in it ) multiplied with 59 ( lvled 59 times ) and you comes out on 590 stat points.

a NPC gear ( or in this context, why lapis is more important, going to use dread/legend gear which isn't lapissed. ) the stat per piece is ~30. going to include the slotted dragon helmet, which is 6 times 30 = 180. With accessories, you ends up with < 225 stats (legend accessories, +15 * 3 on useful stats, so counted only the +15 on LUC/STR/DEX) if it's not linked.

counting those up : 590 + 180 + <225 = <995 stats.
that's 2/3 of a 1500 stat build. So 1/3 of it is linked with lapis.
for a HM it's <877, about 0.6 of a 1500 stat build.

at lvl70, you need 2000 stats if you want to be competitive in several dungeons and PvP.
the gap between stats from your toon and lapis will become bigger, so about 0.5


this is for PvE ofc. in PvP, people have a higher stat builds; like in EP4, when the cap was still at lvl60, there we're people around with 2k stat points. in that period, legend accessories didn't existed, people has dread ones, so less then 225 from accessories only.
without lapis, you've less then 1000 stat points while in PvP you've more then 1/2 of your total stats from lapis only.



that's why lapis is becoming more important in PvE if your lvl goes higher, but more important when you want to PvP

Guess I can put in some feedback here. I have been playing about 8 months so still kinda noobish. I am a casual player and spend probably 15-20 hrs a week and pretty low budget.

I have always liked ranged classes and is why I'm determined to play as hunter.

It's really tough grinding at low lvls as Archer/hunter. I have restated twice because of the same issue of being told full luc from lvl 1 was best. IMO it really sucked as stated in previos posts. So i restated at 30 to STR/DEX. Coulda sucked it up and leveled slowly till i had a good ammout of luc but parties are really hard to find as a hunter and soloing is really slow as low lvl luc build. Went to 5 STR/ 2 Dex build and did decent damage untill Lan.

I restated the second time when i hit 52 and was able to get close to required luc/dex for lan(dark side) Pando for light i believe because i wasnt happy hitting for 100 damage :/ Also found out that i could farm duals in the jungle when no enemys were around which can be somewhat proffitable and give you decent income for budget gears.

Right now I am lvl 54 almost 55 and have Dreads lapised with duals Luc/Dex and it's just right i think for green yellows. Can kill em just before or they might get 1 hit on me which is nice. Have almost 500 luc 280 dex and 13 str right now and still crit most of the time for 1k on greens with normal attack (bout 4k with RS) in jungle and lan(Pando) which is good for me with semi cheap gear.

It takes dedication and a lot of grinding to really get an Archer/Hunter to where it's actually fun to play.

GL and have fun!