Is the best gear a standard now?

[Lenneth]

Just incase anyone didnt want to read all those text walls Gear > Skill as long as your not a retard.

 

[Bajaratt]

I was thinking about money making strategies over lunch...and something I've yet to find is a gardener who uses me directly. I've had 5 goldsmith's make offers to craft beads, but no one has offered to work out a deal for supplying me with ores. I've had people offer them once in a while, but nothing where I could count on a regular amount coming in at certain intervals. If you talk with my goldsmith, you know my tips aren't dependant on failure or success during the craft.
I'm sure there are a ton of crafters out there who would love to have a steady supply of materials they use on a regular basis, for AH price - tax outside the WW'rs as well. Its guaranteed income, they can tell you when not to farm because they're building a surplus, and if you do end up with extras and clear it with the crafter, you can still make money by then AHing the rest.
This will reduce the headaches of undercutting as soon as you put something up, so having to resell time and time again.
Note: This idea was in the Brady Games guide if I remember correctly too, just thought of that while typing it up lol

I'd do that if my luck with ores wasn't completely random. I've had no ores in a single harvest to six ores; doing the exact same thing both times, it's just too random for me to try setting up a deal with someone.

 

[Lukas]

I think that for low level jobs, where most of the "best" gear is relatively cheap, well you kind of have to ask yourself why not? If you're just levelling a sub then you'll be selling it all back anyway. If you decide to keep it for level capped stuff then common sense would dictate that you would fare better in BCNM/Mission "X" if you are geared with the "best".

When the gap between acceptable gear and the best gear broadens as you level, it becomes a bit more understandable to not pay 400k for one extra STR or something absurd like that. But still, ultimately one's goal should be to eventually optimise every gear slot - this of course takes time, gil and patience.

 

[Kirlua]

I think it depends on what job you are refering to, if you refer to DDs that are very dependant on gears rather than skills, then yes gear > skill.

If you are talking about mages, i have to say skill > gear, but when i say skill> gear, i do mean gears that are acceptable for your jobs on your lvl.

For example, at lvl 75 RDM, you can buy +5int / +5mnd ring or stick with +3 or+4 ring. Or you could buy Mahatma Gears (hq? i forgot which) etcetc. The +5 int/mind ring would probably be considered around best gear but if you have +3 ring with considerable play skill, it probably won't different much.

However, i do notice that, a lot of players with "godly" gears are really sucky in their play skill. Maybe it's over-reliance on their gears? or maybe it's their effort to cover their sucky skill?... Hmm, nevermind, a lot of players with sucky gears have more sucky skills.... which is worse D:... *Shrugs*

In general, if you play mage jobs, you should try to improve your skill and try to obtain acceptable gears on him, aka please don't use INT ring on WHM etc.
For DD, sadly for most of them, it's gear > skill , maybe except thf... because i fail at playing THF D:

Side note: Eventually tho, you should try to get the best gears for that job, which is possible for you to obtain ^^v
Edit: Well Celvantes pretty much cover all what i'm trying to say.
http://www.qcdn.org/ffxi/showpost.php?p=723194&postcount=19

 

[meeze]

I'd do that if my luck with ores wasn't completely random. I've had no ores in a single harvest to six ores; doing the exact same thing both times, it's just too random for me to try setting up a deal with someone.

Ores used to be so money. Pretty much 2-4 every mule made things nice and easy...except for selling cinnamon sticks and rock salt lol.

 

[Bajaratt]

I think it depends on what job you are refering to, if you refer to DDs that are very dependant on gears rather than skills, then yes gear > skill.

If you are talking about mages, i have to say skill > gear, but when i say skill> gear, i do mean gears that are acceptable for your jobs on your lvl.

For example, at lvl 75 RDM, you can buy +5int / +5mnd ring or stick with +3 or+4 ring. Or you could buy Mahatma Gears (hq? i forgot which) etcetc. The +5 int/mind ring would probably be considered around best gear but if you have +3 ring with considerable play skill, it probably won't different much.

However, i do notice that, a lot of players with "godly" gears are really sucky in their play skill. Maybe it's over-reliance on their gears? or maybe it's their effort to cover their sucky skill?... Hmm, nevermind, a lot of players with sucky gears have more sucky skills.... which is worse D:... *Shrugs*

In general, if you play mage jobs, you should try to improve your skill and try to obtain acceptable gears on him, aka please don't use INT ring on WHM etc.
For DD, sadly for most of them, it's gear > skill , maybe except thf... because i fail at playing THF D:

Side note: Eventually tho, you should try to get the best gears for that job, which is possible for you to obtain ^^v
Edit: Well Celvantes pretty much cover all what i'm trying to say.
http://www.qcdn.org/ffxi/showpost.php?p=723194&postcount=19

Skill really only outweighs gear when you're doing something that can't be improved through gear. No amount of skill is going to let you cure for more, nuke harder or hit more often; just like no gear is going to tell you when to cure, when to use your abilities or when you should hold back a bit.

With mage jobs(healers more than blm's), skill is much more noticeable, just like with tank jobs; but their gear is still very important.

 

[Kirlua]

Skill really only outweighs gear when you're doing something that can't be improved through gear. No amount of skill is going to let you cure for more, nuke harder or hit more often; just like no gear is going to tell you when to cure, when to use your abilities or when you should hold back a bit.

With mage jobs(healers more than blm's), skill is much more noticeable, just like with tank jobs; but their gear is still very important.

Aye

 

[Oracle]

So... as a new white mage springing forth! I hit another level last night and I decided to farm for that Pilgrim's Wand. The lottery spawn is ridiculous for such a low level NM. I've was out there for 4 hours straight and not ONE pop. Go figure!

I'll try again tomorrow.
Also!
As a white mage, I'm needing the most MP boosting gear out there with (+mp per tick as a sub skill needed) I haven't looked into prices/gear stats in the passed day, so I was wondering if there where any recommendations for quests or shops/cheap items I could look into.

 

[Kirlua]

Ohhh yea, Pilgrim's wand is really nice for mages, highly recommend all new mages to spend sometime getting it.

 

[DarkMagnus]

Race also matters. Depending on the job, some can wear "ok" gear and still out perform a race with weaker stats in much "better" gear. Say a elf melee vs. a taru melee. Unless your name is ****** or seemehow.

 

[Khajit]

umm pilgrims wand which ya already know about. last tau patch gave up these little sashes at lv 20 and 40. They're only 10k in AH but if you cant afford em i think the ingredients are harvestable and you can get a clothcrafting freind to keep on trying for a +1 if you're so inclined.

baron's slops are 35k in AH for future reference incase you endup with tath lying around.

Grab some freinds and get your rse when it's time. This is one thing that I find extremly appaling for players not to have. I was a thf and got a full rse set by lv 27 yet some people that seem to think they're thieves make it to lv 75 without even getting the hume gloves which are like mini hecatomb gloves.
Many people dont mind helping out newbies with rse if they happen to be in zone or that was my experience when trying to help a frend back during the lowbie days for his.
The RSE pants and feet are the best mage peices you will find. the feet last until rostrum pumps at 75. I think some recent additions make them no longer the best lv 75 feet or something but you get the point of how bad it is to try and skip out on those rse feet till 75.
at lv 25 you can get mychophile cuffs. I doubt you can solo it at 25 but if you have help they should be useful to you until af levels I think for whm at least. just store some of the mushrooms from funguar that you kill for later.
Other than that and the basic hairpins, seers ect you pretty much should just keep on farming for when you actually do have big purchases in the future. if you wait until the lv that you need to be to wear the expensive item to start farming when you've never had to farm anything expensive before you are pretty much gonna burn out.

 

[Calais]

Honestly, what I would do if I were making a brand new character that was a mage:

-Level cooking to 25 or so. This is cheap and you can actually make a profit if you do it right.
-With cooking at 25, start cranking out Insect Balls. The ingredients are totally dirt cheap.
-Obtain either a yew or a hume fishing rod and fish the hell out of moat carp. 3k a stack and you can easily get 8-10 stacks a day in a minimal amount of time (a couple hours)

Now, there are a few reasons you did the above. Insect Balls cap at lvl 29 cooking. Pineapple Juice caps at lvl 30 cooking, so now as a mage you have a convenient and easy to craft source of refresh even at lower levels. I wouldn't break it out for a shitty pt, but if you're in a great one then go to town refreshing yourself for better xp. The moat carp you sell will finance everything you need at lower levels with ease outside of astral rings which I honestly don't consider important or really all that necessary.

Also, you want to get your hands on a Pilgrim's Wand. It's a 100% rare/ex drop from an nm bird in West Sarutabaruta that no one camps. It's like a baby Dark Staff that every mage job can use until lvl 51. It's free, and it's amazingly good for a mage.

Quoting again because it's a great post.
In addition to the above, I skilled up to about level 20 fishing, then went and fished up Nebimonites on the Selbina/Mhaura ferry. Just be careful of aggro and fishing up monsters.

OP: Quest a Friar's Rope in Sandy for a nice whm waist piece, look into a Mist Silk cape to fill up that back slot, and quest Justice Badge in Windurst.

 

[Oracle]

OP: Quest a Friar's Rope in Sandy for a nice whm waist piece, look into a Mist Silk cape to fill up that back slot, and quest Justice Badge in Windurst.

Traveling sucks pre-rank 5.... lol, but I'll look into the cape definitely tomorrow! I'll work my way to sandy shortly after. Thanks ​

last tau patch gave up these little sashes at lv 20 and 40...

Do you mean the Mohbwa Sash?​

...baron's slops are 35k in AH for future reference incase you endup with tath lying around...

This will definatly be one thing I save up for because I find the more +mp per tick you have, the easier it is to go about resting (duh)... I'm not familliar with most of these mage items because my last job wasn't spell based at all.​

...Grab some freinds and get your rse when it's time. This is one thing that I find extremly appaling for players not to have. I was a thf and got a full rse set by lv 27 yet some people that seem to think they're thieves make it to lv 75 without even getting the hume gloves which are like mini hecatomb gloves...

I'm definatly going for my RSE, that should be a cakewalk.​

at lv 25 you can get mychophile cuffs. I doubt you can solo it at 25 but if you have help they should be useful to you until af levels I think for whm at least. just store some of the mushrooms from funguar that you kill for later.

Thats definately on my checklist!​

 

[Bajaratt]

Traveling sucks pre-rank 5.... lol, but I'll look into the cape definitely tomorrow! I'll work my way to sandy shortly after. Thanks ​

Then just buy them, they're going to be insanely cheap since everyone gets them when they first start out. Justice badges went for maybe 1k when I first started out.

 

[Oracle]

Then just buy them, they're going to be insanely cheap since everyone gets them when they first start out. Justice badges went for maybe 1k when I first started out.

I'd rather get the quest done first. ^^ I'd rather knock out both stones in one toss. Thats the point on this character completely.

 

[Zaltana]

to much good advice in here.

 

[shmedly]

Just so you know, Nunynenc has a large pop area. If you are killing PH's it should pop every 2 hours. I know i've missed it a couple times when I've camped that thing. If i'm on and not busy when you are hunting it, I'll come out and give you a hand.

Peace,
Shmed

 

[neophytal]

Player skill is very important in this game. Many of us have seen great players leave the game and someone else inherit their characters and you can see the difference in skill like night and day immediately. Like Neo said though, it's not everything.

You need to realize that a large amount of your performance is based on math being done based on your stats. If you are a lvl 37nin you are not going to evade more hits than someone who has +20 evasion over you simply based on your player skill. Your player skill is not going to make you hit mobs more than a war that has +25 acc over you. Your blm is not going to outnuke another that has +10 MAB more than you. There are alot of things where player skill plays virtually no role whatsoever.

As far as HQ gear goes, I've always believed that it has more of an impact at lower levels than at higher simply because proportionally it's more of an increase since the lower level you are the lower your base stats are. If you have a base 20 STR then +1 is going to be more noticible than if it's a base of 75. If you have a base MP pool of 90 then +10 is going to be more beneficial than if your base is 1100. Also note that usually the HQ gear for lower levels isn't that much more expensive and when you outlevel it you simply sell it back and most of the time you will get what you paid for it or more.

thanks, you said what i wanted to say, but was too lazy to type... haha.

On a side note, is it just me or does anyone else find it weird when people talk about their characters in the 3rd person like it's a real person who is someone else? You're controlling the character, it's not a seperate life form.

man i hate that. or "toon". wtf.

 

[Vilurum]

I'd rather get the quest done first. ^^ I'd rather knock out both stones in one toss. Thats the point on this character completely.

That's a good policy for some but not all quested stuff. If you're gonna quest something that you'd use, you have two options:

1. If you can quest it in time to use it, then do that.
2. If you can't quest it in time to use it, then buy it. Quest it later and sell for a refund.

For example when your WHM gets to the teleports (36, 38, 42): Dem, Holla, Mea, and Altep easily fall under category 1, while Yhoat and Vahzl fall under category 2 unless you can get some high level help. Most of the quested BLM spells are category 1, but Sleepga II falls *very* squarely into category 2. And so on.

 

[K. Ishitar]

There is a difference between "best gear", "okay gear", and "I spent a total of 10k on all my gear"

Most people are happy with the middle one. But a lot of it is players skill. Hell the last 4 days showed me how stupid people can really be.

this post

and to expand a bit on skill>gear

most of your core ability comes from your lv and ability, gear enhances it slightly or greatly(certain pieces like tabard or blm hands which are downright powerful)

it's always good esp when it's your main job to aim for the first, I always do there are always sales on ah or deals in the lower ahes for good gear, hell i got my harvest earring awhile back for blu, i'll wait till minuet drops and snag it.

getting gear in advance when you dont need it atm and questing it, usually has a better outcome than waiting until you are that lv and you actually need it. which will do one of three things or all

1. put a hole in your wallet
2. It not being available
3. or if so at a much more expensive price than it was when you saw it available and not being able to buy it