If I choose to pursue an armor or weapon "path" does this screw me over for changing my mind later?
For example: as a newbie, I choose to craft the Cobalt set rather than follow the Wolver craze that seems to dominate the realm. Then later I realize that the T3+ Cobalt-equivalent gear is not to my liking and I would rather follow, say, the Demo path how difficult is it to do this?
Is there really that much of a difference between end-game sets that I need to be worried?
The only thing in this game that is a permanent decision is the eye color you choose when you make a character. You can make as many armor sets as you want. So, if you don't like your Cobalt stuff, get the materials and make whatever else you want.
Zero commitment.
Think about it this way. This game has gone through extensive quality assurance testing using every equipment combination through every level. If a set of armor was so weak that you are not able to beat the game with it regardless of your skill level, then it would have been fixed already. We can't expect every set of armor to be perfectly balanced, but we can expect that they are pretty closely balance, and all fully viable. No matter which path you choose, you will do fine with it.
You're only at 2 or 3 star. Change now and get Wolver or Demo or whatever you want right now. I changed when I had 4 star Skelly, because it's utter trash in Firestorm Citadel or anything with fire. I wish I had the foresight to not go Skelly off the bat; however, eventually something requiring all this Shadow Resist will be out there, and I'll be glad I already have the 4 stars. It also looks awesome.
Don't worry about being set behind. Get the gear you want asap, so that you enjoy the game. And there will be a time where whatever you've already crafted will be a more suitable choice.
@ Tumble 'extensive quality assurance testing'
You can thank the beta players for that. Some equips were nerfed and re-buffed again within the same week
The Wolver gear are just plain better since it's buff before beta. The added piercing defense is fantastic against Jelly King. And further down the line, once you get to T3, you have the option of crafting the Vog Cub set. It trades piercing defense for elemental defense and ever-helpful fire resistance.
Plus the coat just looks sweet.
I've gotten a bunch of friends into this game and the first thing they always always always do when thinking about what to upgrade is do tons of research on what 5 star gear they want. Do. Not. Bother. When you start getting to T3 content you easily have enough crowns and mats to go back and craft through different gear paths. The real limitation is how (un)lucky you are with recipes.
Save yourself a ton of trouble and just worry about getting 2 star gear for T2 and then 4 star gear for T3. The only thing you might really want to put some thought into early is what kind of weapons you want to go for. Even then, you can't really tell what style suits you till you try it.
Thanks for all the tips & comments. Good to know I don't have to think a bunch about gear :D
Well I'm not a tier 3 person and I don't have five star equipment (and wont for a long time if ever), but the thing about this game is even if you make bad item choices, you can usually make them work. So if you don't like your cobalt tier 3 equipment but you already made it, just go run tier 2 a couple of times since you should be pretty strong then. You can gain money with relative ease and work on finding the recipes you need to make a change.