Getting started?

If you're just getting started, this might make your time a little easier if you intend to play for any length of time.

1. play a Bounty Hunter

Bounty Hunters are the "effort = results" class, where the more time you put in, the better they get. The catch is that it takes way more time than Mage or Warrior for a couple of reasons:

• Bounty Hunters share basically NO gear with Mages and Warriors (except Capes). Not only are their Gears unique, but so are their weapons. That Legendary Diedre's Resolve you got? Completely useless to a Bounty Hunter.

• Bounty Hunter gears are diluted across 4 sets, instead of just 3. To get a single good set or set item, you need to farm significantly more items.

• Bounty Hunters only have ONE good weapon (Hailstorm), instead of the multiple choices that Mage and Warrior share. It's good, but limiting.

Mage and (esp.) Warrior are (much) easier to get started; Mage and (esp.) Warrior) also top out (a lot!) sooner. OTOH, despite this, Bounty Hunters dominate the high level rankings, and there's a good reason for that.

2. buy the living Stormgun

It's only $0.99, but it makes a HUGE difference in the early game, simply because good guns are so hard to get. Buying the gun saves a lot of effort farming and crafting one decent gun, and honestly, there's so much farming to do for a BH, every little bit helps.

3. farm 6/6 Assault gear

Bounty Hunter effectiveness depends pretty much entirely on having a 6/6 Assault gear set. The extra Scatter Shot attack power, bonus movement, and halved Rapid Fire recovery are what elevate an otherwise terrible class right up to the very top. Even if it includes some blue / lv.60 pieces, the full 6/6 Assault set bonuses easily outstrip the smaller bonuses from Stalker or Havoc, to say nothing of Adventurer. Even 4/6 Assault is a big deal for the +Move.

4. farm Integralas Mantle & Hailstorms

A Legendary Mantle & pair of Hailstorms are the little shiny bits that "finish" the class. Paired Hailstorms proc twice as often, and the effect is quite noticiable compared to just one. A purple 2nd Hailstorm is much better than the Stormgun or regular Legendary gun.

5. make the jewelry in the background

I think jewelry is "nice to have", but it isn't as important as the gear you farm. However, as you have nothing better to do with the gold (you farm everything else), you might as well work on making a good set of jewelry.

Hope this helped! I could have probably saved a couple months by doing this, and then building up my Mage in the background.