How to get better equipment?

[Major Noob]

Alright so I was around lvl 40 and I was doing a quest "The Culprit" and died in 1 hit. . . .I think I should be able to beat this guy right now. . .How do i get better equipment without blacksmith? Where do I do it? If I need gold, how much?

[Ranko]

You could always get a small party, but from my experience, bosses tend to be a pain without using skills a ton, if you rely on them, you can avoid most any attack. Still though, the easiest way would be to get a partner, bosses are a pain.

[Discipled1]

If you want defence, getting a shield is the best way to go early on. Armor really doesn't help much until upgraded and the mastery is leveled. Also there is the "understand the mechanics and don't get hit" option, but that has since fallen from favor.

[Seco]

ANother easy way to get passed boss type characters is to have a form of Trans Skill (Pally, DK, etc.) It makes you easily 400% stronger and you should be able to tank more hits. I'd say go Black Panther hunting near Raspa Volcano around 6PM every day to farm enough gold to get some better gear.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

I usually just smash their face in with a spear of god or two.

Though yeah...properly using the combat system you shouldn't really have much trouble.

Transformations help, but they're crutches if you rely just on their improved strength instead of getting better. Though some enemies are just so tedius it's better to simply blast their faces off with a Spear of God.

though it also depends on what exactly you've been spending your AP on. Lvl doesn't really mean much in this game, it's more a measure of what potential you could have, but if your picks haven't strengthened whatever style of combat you're attempting to master it's pointless. (like getting a ton of int skills but using primarily melee instead of building your strength skills or focusing on magic to better compliment the high int).

Pets can also be helpful. Especially ones with an attack on summon effect, since you can use them to interupt or as a distraction...or they might just be much stronger then you are if you've been leveling the hell out of them during their optimum build age.

[dr46onfusion]

The culprit is a Sword Art Online event where the final boss has advanced heavy stander and hits for quite a bit of damage (not insanely strong but strong against anyone under level 100 total without good armor).

Just get a Kite shield and upgrade it, then train Shield Mastery to rank 1 for the biggest boost in def/prot, and get the master of shield title for +10 def/prot.

I have a 35% protection rate without armor, and over 100 defense, and he still hits a bit hard (i think he naturally hits for 200 damage. With my heavy armor i'd go into around 45% protection and 130 def, possible to shrug off the attacks to 30-50 damage.

Pets and Summons won't affect this boss, can harm him or maybe alter his AI, but won't greatly affect him.

Unless you have many pets that does fixed damage like the battle pegusis, or the moped.