Just came back from a break, can someone explain to me how the groupable gear works, I looked at Raspers and now im way confused...

You buy the appropriate Tinea and Cocoon from Zeb in the void. Combine the Tinea with your Seminal Luminessence or Incandessence in a Cocoon to make the tier 3 piece. Luminessences make Concordant and Incandessences make Discordant armor. Next you combine that armor with a Medial luminessence or Incandessence in a Temporal Molting Cell to make the tier 4 armor. Repeat that step but use an Eternal Luminessence or Incandessence instead of a Medial to make the tier 5 armor.

The order of the gems you use determine the name and graphics of the armor.

Tier 3 - Combined in a Cocoon

Seminal Luminessence + any Tinea = Concordant
Seminal Incandessence + any Tinea = Discordant

Tier 4 - Combined in a Temporal Molting Cell

Concordant + Medial Luminessence = Vested (V)
Concordant + Medial Incandessence = Balanced (B)
Discordant + Medial Luminessence = Balanced (B)
Discordant + Medial Incandessence = Chaotic (C)

Tier 5 - Combined in a Temporal Molting Cell (Same container as the tier 4 combine)

Vested + Eternal Luminessence = Ordained (ord)
Vested + Eternal Incandessence = Tarnished (tar)
Balanced + Eternal Luminessence = Tarnished (tar)
Balanced + Eternal Incandessence = Tainted (tai)
Chaotic + Eternal Luminessence = Tainted (tai)
Chaotic + Eternal Incandessence = Inflicted (inf)

I strongly suggest that you decide which tier 5 armor you want before you start making them as the emblem augments for the chest power up as you wear more of the same kind of armor.

You don't have to have access to Void E to make the tier 5 armor. Tavid Dennart (sp?), just east of the magus, in the Guild Lobby will give you a limited number of containers to combine your armor in. He will also give you a limited number of containers that will change a Luminessence to an Incandessence and vice versa. Just hail him and follow the dialogue and he will explain which containers he offers and their function. However, you still need access to the correct Void instance to obtain the Tineas you need for the initial combine.

wow thanks Sorrian, so what is the best route to go

Ordaned tarnished tainted inflicted ?

The differences are trivial. I believe the AC, hp, and mana are the same regardless. The only thing different are the modifiers and resists that I recall. The stats I think were the same also, but I'm not positive on that. I chose inflicted because I had a bunch of Incandessences before I started making the armor.

It's really just personal preference as far as I know.

For my druid, i wanted to max certain mod2's
First off, stun resist, because if healing or evacing, stuns really suck.
And secondly, if stun resist was the same, then avoidance, for a similair reason. This led me to the following list

For dru: what final sod t5, based on stun resist, avoidance
armwraps tarnished
boots ordained
cowl tainted
gloves inflicted
leggings inflicted
chest ordained.
wristguard tarnished

And one note: I have met people in the game that didnt know that you can both convert and extract Essences off stuff tavid gives you. You should be able to get yourself a full T5 set of armour without buying any containers from Zeb in the void.

Also, with just void a, you can get t5 armour for your wrists, which has a very nice healing focus. Also can get hands t5 at void A. At void b can get head and feet. Arms and legs at void C. And chest at void D. Only need void e to go into korafax, and buy the containers for combines if Tavid runs out on you ( and buy a few other items like spells if you want). he has around 8 or 16 for the containers so you almost certainly won't use up all that he has.

For my war, i chose a very different set of t5; based on shielding and avoidance.

For a dru, you could focus on clairvoyance, or heal amount, or any other mod2 you really like.

And if you want to pull your armour apart, and reconstruct it, you always can, as many times as you like; tavid gives you containers to do it, and when that runs out, can buy them off Zeb. But the containers that extract essences from armour are expensive at 1k chronos each.

You can skip getting the T3 ess if you have the top gear from crystallos: chromatic. However, to combine this into a t4 armour piece I think you need void e to buy the containers; tavid doesnt give you these containers to bypass farming t3 essences.

Did they ever implement a way to downgrade the level of essence you have? Would make sense really.

Culling device avail from Zeb in Void D. Put in essence and 1 chronobine to change a T5 to T4 or T4 to T3.