What Is Exodor Scout Gear and Should You Enchant It?

TERA Patch 92 introduces Exodor Scout Gear as a replacement for using Legacy gear from levels 65 to 68. This post will look at the capabilities and requirements of this gear set and whether or not you should commit any time to it once you reach level 68 and can use the level 68 and 69 Gear options. If you want the quick answer - you should enchant it to +15 and dismantle for mats to use on your level 69 gear.

What is Exodor Scout Gear?

Exodor Scout Gear is Exodor-style gear that can be used at level 65. You acquire in the first few minutes of the Apex quest line during the first banquet. This appears to be the only way to acquire it. It's possible to discard it so it's not clear what you do if you trash it prematurely. You get a full set of weapon, armor, handwear and footwear and it is of the appropriate amplification for your class.

How Does it Compare to Legacy and Level 68/69 Gear?

Scout Gear Item Level vs Legacy Gear, Weapon Only

Item level-wise, Exodor Scout Gear covers the item level range of Frostmetal +0 at +0 to Stormcry +9 when fully enchanted to +15. Damage will vary depending on your total amplification.

Damage Comparison

In order to test the gear difference quickly, the training crab was used on a new apex'd level 65 gunner with four cases. 1) HO Weapon, properly set up, and scout +0  gear, 2) all scout +0 gear, 3) all scout+15 gear, and 4) the same as case 3 but with the burst fire force talent and extra force maxed out. Forgot to max it on the prior 3 cases.

How Do You Get Scout Gear Enchanting Materials?

The developers were mindful of the cannibalization that happens with Azart and Annihilation / Dark Light gear using the same enchanting materials. Exodor Scout Gear uses a new kind of feedstock that comes in 2 types and three tiers for each type. Weapon and Armor feedstock of tier 1, 2, and 3.

You will get materials over the course of the story quests (purple quest markers) as well as from almost all of the end game dungeons (from Akalath Quarantine and below). This makes sense since you can theoretically run all of this content using enchanted Scout gear. You can also use all those mats you'll be getting and otherwise not using, to enchant your Scout gear in order to dismantle later for Dark Shard Feedstock.

Dungeon Feedstock Availability

*AR stands for Available Reward as a random drop.

The feedstock is also from the single player instances like Ghillieglade, Pit of Petrax, all three Ace dungeons, Celestial Arena (from the rewards box), and Echoes.

Single Player Instance Feedstock Availability

The feedstock can be combined like most feedstock type materials to upgrade the tier.

• 50x T1's -> 1x T2
• 10x T2's -> 1x T3

You will also need Golden Darics and Golden Plates for repairs. Celestial Arena will drop these as rewards without the need to craft them. Otherwise they are cheap on the broker.

So far, the best way to get Tier 1 Weapon and Armor feedstock is from Celestial Arena. The reward box you get in the mail has 20 Weapon and 60 Armor Feedstock and you can run it 3 times a day per character, at 3 minutes per run. For Tier 2 Feedstock, Red Refuge and up will work, preferably during increased loot drops. If you specifically want Tier 3 Feedstock, stick to the level 70 dungeons.

What Does it Cost to Enchant Scout Gear?

Tier 1 feedstock is used to enchant from +1 to +6. Tier 1 and Tier 2 are used for +7 to +12. Tier 2 and Tier 3 are used for +13 to +15. The gear can become damaged from attempting +11 and higher, requiring Golden Darics for +10 and +11, and Golden Plates for +12, +13, and +14, and gold to repair. The gear can downgrade (and potentially be damaged at the same time) when attempting +14 and +15.

Here's a table of all the known costs. The repair costs for some tiers didn't come up in testing.

Weapon Enchanting (using Exodor Scout Weapon Feedstock)

Armor Enchanting (using Exodor Scout Armor Feedstock)

Hand and Footwear Enchanting (using Exodor Scout Armor Feedstock)

For repairs, damaged +10 and +11 use Golden Darics, damaged +12, +13, and +14 use Golden Plates.

The odds of success, failure, damage, and downgrade are below. Keep in mind the limited sample size so your mileage may vary. There was one case of downgrade AND damage that is recorded as being a downgrade from the enchant level and a damaged from the resulting tier.

Weapon Enchanting Outcome Odds

Armor Enchanting Outcome Odds

Hand and Footwear Enchanting Outcome Odds

Overall Costs

Got a second set done and have updated numbers for total costs. Between 2 instances of full +15, the total average cost per set was:

• 71,315 gold
• 466x T1 Weapon Feedstock
• 128x T2 Weapon Feedstock
• 14.5x T3 Weapon Feedstock
• 1416x T1 Armor Feedstock
• 980.5x T2 Armor Feedstock
• 177x T3 Armor Feedstock
• 22.5x Gold Darics*
• 146x Gold Plates*
• 143 enchants

*The relative cost of Darics and Plates will depend on how you acquire them.

The costs of enchanting if you stop at +12, +13, +14, and +15 are approximated below:

Weapon Enchanting, Given Different Stopping Points

Armor Enchanting (all 3), Given Different Stopping Points

Repeated downgrades attempting +14 and +15 may push the cost of upgrades up significantly, depending on your own experience. As more sets are upgrade and documented, the odds will be updated so you can make a more informed decision on how far you want to enchant to get more Dark Shard Feedstock.

What's the Payoff?

Although you may not end up actively using scout gear long enough to be at +15, you'll be getting materials for potential enchants during most of the game. If you dismantle +15 scout gear, you get 100 Dark Shard Feedstocks: 100 Dark Shard Weapon Feedstock from the weapon and 300 Dark Shard Armor Feedstock from the three armor pieces.

• 100x Dark Shard Weapon Feedstock
• 300x Dark Shard Armor Feedstock

Repeated downgrades attempting +14 and +15 may push the cost of upgrades up significantly, depending on your own experience. As more sets are upgrade and documented, the odds will be updated so you can make a more informed decision on how far you want to enchant to get more Dark Shard Feedstock. Also, if you aren't running level 70 dungeons consistently, you may be short on Tier 2 and Tier 3 scout feedstock.

Opportunity Costs and Conclusion

If you consider the case where it cost 94.4k gold (220 gold * 120 plates + 68k gold) to fully enchant a set of scout gear, and assuming the feedstock was "free" from running end game dungeons regularly anyway, then you're essentially paying  for 400 feedstock: 100 weapon and 300 armor. If you stop at +14 then you "save" about 26.3k gold for 320 feedstock. The going rate for feedstock boxes is between 3k and 5k, or roughly x19 Dark Shard boxes of 1 to 3 Feedstock for the same amount of gold. The tradeoff seems like a no-brainer. 

Enchant your Scout gear using all the feedstock you're going to get anyway. Dismantle it at +14 or +15 and use the mats for your gold gear. Prior to this point, the Scout gear, when enchanted, is a solid starting point and can keep you covered, gear wise, to grind, well into level 69 when you can equip Gold gear.

But What if You're New to TERA?

There's one catch to enchanting Scout gear. It has a lower item level for the amount of amplification it provides, and it has to compete with just buying stuff off the broker. While you absolutely should enchant the scout gear to use for feedstock, it's better to grab a set of Blue Exodor gear off the broker as soon as you've got your gold and materials from finishing [Solo] A New Beginning. On NA Velika server, You'll need 800 to 1600 gold for a weapon and 500 to 900 gold for each of the other three pieces. A full set of Blue Exodor gear will get you to item level 454, which will let you have your pick of the level 68 dungeons. The Scout gear won't catch up in item level until around +11/+12 even though it out amps Blue gear at +7/+8.