While every single piece of gear is unique to its class, I am sure that some of you have paid attention to the fact that during the first 25 levels, Mages and Acolytes will share aesthetics, the same holding true for Archers and Thieves, but not Swordsmen. In case you haven't, that's what this guide is supposed to teach.
While aesthetics aren't the main priority of the game, I personally find them very entertaining, not to mention it's encouraging to eagerly await your next outfit without knowing what it looks like, or at times, hoping to wear it because you know it looks better.
The initial rule you must know in order to understand aesthetics is that every set of equipment changes in appearance every 5 levels. This doesn't mean there's no equipment between those 5, but as you've noticed, on your road there you'll only get recoloured versions of what you were just allowed to wear.
With this in mind, there are some exceptions that allow you to wield a tier of aesthetics earlier, yet this is rare, mostly seen in weapons, and generally encountered in weapons of Rare or Epic value.
However, even beyond level 25, some classes still do share outfits, don't they? Let me explain exactly how aesthetic sharing works.
All base classes share aesthetics based on their armour type until they upgrade. This means that, like I explained before, all Cloth Armour will look the same if it is on a Mage than if it is on an Acolyte. Only Swordsmen have unique armour given how they're the only ones who wield Heavy Armour, but otherwise, the same-level same-rarity equivalent will be the exact same for a Thief and an Archer in terms of looks.
Most base outfits look rather plain, and some (coughahemLevel15-19ClothArmourcoughahem) can get very tacky at times, though when you reach Level 25 and upgrade, your outfits will really start to represent your class.
Starting at Level 25, aesthetics are no longer divided by armour type, thus Mages, Acolytes, Archers and Thieves finally get semi-unique armour. Semi-unique coming because their 'branches' (i.e. Wizard and Sorcerer for a Mage) will now share looks for 10 levels.
For example, a Rogue's outfits from levels 25 to 29 can be considered to be Thief's armour moreso than basic 1-24 Light Armour, Because it's not shared with Rangers or Beastmasters this time, but only between them and Assassins until Level 35.
Ultimately, this means that an upgraded class's 'real' and own aesthetics don't actually kick in until Level 35. Before that, both class branches will get two outfits and all of their recolours just before they become recognizable from just looking at them, though at least they're no longer sharing appearance with completely different roles. I also consider level 25-34 armour to be 'base' armour (i.e. Mage, Acolyte, Thief and Archer) and level 1-24 to be 'novice' armour, if only because of how unimpressive it looks.
I hope I managed to make my point clear enough, though if you have any questions about how outfits work, or feel you didn't understand any of this, please state them and I might fix this main post as much as I have to. If possible, I'd like to make some manner of outfit compendium in the future, though this idea is rather loose as it is.
Edited by SorcerousPhantom, 23 May 2013 - 08:35 AM.
