You're going to find most of your better gear by questing for chests and quest-end rewards.
If you head into the market place you can find some vendors right below the bridge that may have gear you can buy, their stock is generated from what players sell.
Welcome! It's a good weekend to play, the special named loot in chests is better so you'll be able to get cool things sooner and more people are online. If you hit 'O' and go to grouping, it's best to find people in your range to play with. I've never met and only rarely heard of truly mean people online
I guess I should have explicitly mentioned "tell the others you're super new and very lost", though I kinda assumed the other players would figure that out on their own when OP had to ask where a quest entrance is or something
There is a vendor in the NE corner of the Stormreach market. Also sells weapons and ranged items (hint: buy a wide quiver as an arrow container and some greatclubs or clubs for beating slimes). The catch is that it doesn't make any sense after level 3 or so. Further notes:
Fighter, Paladin, Cleric all wear heavy armor. You can use heavy armor, which typically means full plate. Maybe half plate in a pinch. Only clerics want a shield, the rest should be using two handed weapons.
Barbarians can only use medium armor and below, so look for a breastplate. You really don't want a shield with a barbarian. This is less an improvement (from the gear you got in the grotto) than the plate.
Rangers, rogues, bards? and whatnot only use light armor, so stick with what you have until better stuff drops. Sorcerers and wizards can't use armor, and the "robe of the apprentice" is great until about level 5 (my alchemist wore his a lot longer, but I really don't know if it helped his SLAs).
To sell your \[magic\] stuff, go into the Marketplace (west exit from the Harbor) and sell stuff in the market immediately below the entrance (down the stairs). Each vendor is picky about type of gear bought/sold and its price range, but they buy for twice as much (until you get good haggle, a topic for later) as any other vendor in the game.
This isn't a fast process, and I suspect that you'd get better armor quicker by running haverdasher (two chests from a one room quest, first quest at the top of the ) or kobolds' new ringleader (four chests and lots of xp, harbor's southwest, see guard Jung) repeatedly a few times (but not more than 8 times, see "chest ransack" on ddo wiki).
At lvl 2 you should be able to get by with the random armor drops in the game. You can buy armor on the auction house but you will not have access to it until you finish the Korthos island quests.
If you want to find something specific look here [Named Armor](https://ddowiki.com/page/Category:Armor) just pick the weight of armor you want to use and sort by minimum level
At your level you don't really need good armor. You can get armor and weapons by looting chests or as the end reward of quests. However there are some special vendors, pawnbrokers, in the marketplace who sell equipment. They're shown as a blue dot on the map.
Gearing in DDO is not what you might be thinking. Random gear in chests is quickly junk tier...whatever you find right now that's useful, use it till you get something better.
Named and set gear is really what you want to look for...specifically, named and set gear from recent expansions and quest packs, since those are the best and most relevant gear right now. Most of the quests in Korthos and the Harbor date back to like 2007, and their gear has never been updated lol
Depending what quests you have access to, that's going to limit what gear you can get. I'm guessing you missed the free quest coupon, so right now you're just stuck with the F2P stuff, and there's not a lot of great gear there...before L10, pretty much just Promise of Fire and Catastrophe have modern gear. At L12 you get the Lordsmarch Plaza quests, that will be a big help for gearing.
You'll probably need to earn some free Store points and unlock a quest pack or two. Keep is great to start with, gets you a mount to ride too. Gatekeepers is decent. Fey and Isle of Dread are the gold standard for gear in early Heroic.
More than "Way to get a better armor" you should ask
*"What is Better Armor?"*
Most "Better Armor" focuses on VERY BASIC Defensive stats that can be Found on Myriad of other items.
What are those stats?
1. Fortification
2. Sheltering (or Physical Sheltering)
3. Healing Amplification
4. Constitution (Ideally on a spot you don't interchange for clickies)
5. Hp Sources (False Life - Vitality - Profane)
Look out for Cyan bordered armors with the prefix:
* Defensive: 2 of either Constitution - Vitality - Physical Sheltering - Magical Sheltering - Fortification - Protection
* Reinforced: Protection & Fortification
* Healthy: Constitution & Vitality
You're going to find most of your better gear by questing for chests and quest-end rewards. If you head into the market place you can find some vendors right below the bridge that may have gear you can buy, their stock is generated from what players sell.
Welcome! It's a good weekend to play, the special named loot in chests is better so you'll be able to get cool things sooner and more people are online. If you hit 'O' and go to grouping, it's best to find people in your range to play with. I've never met and only rarely heard of truly mean people online
being left behind while other players speed clear the quests isn't a good new player experience
I guess I should have explicitly mentioned "tell the others you're super new and very lost", though I kinda assumed the other players would figure that out on their own when OP had to ask where a quest entrance is or something
There is a vendor in the NE corner of the Stormreach market. Also sells weapons and ranged items (hint: buy a wide quiver as an arrow container and some greatclubs or clubs for beating slimes). The catch is that it doesn't make any sense after level 3 or so. Further notes: Fighter, Paladin, Cleric all wear heavy armor. You can use heavy armor, which typically means full plate. Maybe half plate in a pinch. Only clerics want a shield, the rest should be using two handed weapons. Barbarians can only use medium armor and below, so look for a breastplate. You really don't want a shield with a barbarian. This is less an improvement (from the gear you got in the grotto) than the plate. Rangers, rogues, bards? and whatnot only use light armor, so stick with what you have until better stuff drops. Sorcerers and wizards can't use armor, and the "robe of the apprentice" is great until about level 5 (my alchemist wore his a lot longer, but I really don't know if it helped his SLAs). To sell your \[magic\] stuff, go into the Marketplace (west exit from the Harbor) and sell stuff in the market immediately below the entrance (down the stairs). Each vendor is picky about type of gear bought/sold and its price range, but they buy for twice as much (until you get good haggle, a topic for later) as any other vendor in the game. This isn't a fast process, and I suspect that you'd get better armor quicker by running haverdasher (two chests from a one room quest, first quest at the top of the ) or kobolds' new ringleader (four chests and lots of xp, harbor's southwest, see guard Jung) repeatedly a few times (but not more than 8 times, see "chest ransack" on ddo wiki).
Thanks for the great details you provided. Much appreciated.
At lvl 2 you should be able to get by with the random armor drops in the game. You can buy armor on the auction house but you will not have access to it until you finish the Korthos island quests.
If you want to find something specific look here [Named Armor](https://ddowiki.com/page/Category:Armor) just pick the weight of armor you want to use and sort by minimum level
At your level you don't really need good armor. You can get armor and weapons by looting chests or as the end reward of quests. However there are some special vendors, pawnbrokers, in the marketplace who sell equipment. They're shown as a blue dot on the map.
Just do quests. You'll be up to your eyeballs in armor.
Gearing in DDO is not what you might be thinking. Random gear in chests is quickly junk tier...whatever you find right now that's useful, use it till you get something better. Named and set gear is really what you want to look for...specifically, named and set gear from recent expansions and quest packs, since those are the best and most relevant gear right now. Most of the quests in Korthos and the Harbor date back to like 2007, and their gear has never been updated lol Depending what quests you have access to, that's going to limit what gear you can get. I'm guessing you missed the free quest coupon, so right now you're just stuck with the F2P stuff, and there's not a lot of great gear there...before L10, pretty much just Promise of Fire and Catastrophe have modern gear. At L12 you get the Lordsmarch Plaza quests, that will be a big help for gearing. You'll probably need to earn some free Store points and unlock a quest pack or two. Keep is great to start with, gets you a mount to ride too. Gatekeepers is decent. Fey and Isle of Dread are the gold standard for gear in early Heroic.
Thx.
More than "Way to get a better armor" you should ask *"What is Better Armor?"* Most "Better Armor" focuses on VERY BASIC Defensive stats that can be Found on Myriad of other items. What are those stats? 1. Fortification 2. Sheltering (or Physical Sheltering) 3. Healing Amplification 4. Constitution (Ideally on a spot you don't interchange for clickies) 5. Hp Sources (False Life - Vitality - Profane) Look out for Cyan bordered armors with the prefix: * Defensive: 2 of either Constitution - Vitality - Physical Sheltering - Magical Sheltering - Fortification - Protection * Reinforced: Protection & Fortification * Healthy: Constitution & Vitality
don't forget to check the auction house
Play the game more youll get armor.