Thread: Gear levels

Another topic I think that needs to be discusses that I have not yet seen many people talking about.

Some of this my linkshell has tested. Other things we haven't tested thoroughly, but we have done some observations.

Ok, so first off, Armor: Now we know about "Discomfort." But I've really only seen Discomfort apply when you change armor while someone in the party is engaged in combat. However, there something a bit deeper her.

I know everyone loves running around in their Haubergeons at rank 15 when the armor is actually 27. Turns out... the armor is less protective and helpful than leather harnesses the same level. If you're below and not of the suggested classes for a piece of gear, your bonuses are cut to worthless levels. This part is easy to figure out, and to most people shouldn't be new. I remember 2 members of my ls (Velhart and Dwimmerlaik) tried out a rank 20 or so piece of gear at about ranks 17 that gave +30 HP. I believe they reported it gave them +9.

I'm sure further testing is in order, but this is far from what I want to call attention to.

The main thing I want to call attention to is over ranked weapons. I'm pretty confident as I've been building this theory for the last 2 weeks. Over ranked weapons have a drastically lower chance of actually giving you a skill up than appropriately ranked weapons. The same also similarly applies to under ranked weapons, but that's something to still be looked at.

So, where am I building my argument from? First, when I tried a part in Coerthas. Velhart was using the Wood sword that's in the early 20s. He also had a Brass Gladius on him. He was complaining about how bad the XP was for him at first. He was also using an over ranked Bronze Scutum. His rank was 18. He was averaging around 80-140 skill a fight whereas I was getting 150-250 a fight with a more appropriately ranked weapon (admittedly It was still 2 ranks above me.)

I convinced him to change to his Gladius. His skill jumped to around 150 -300 a fight.

Tonight I finally hit rank 20 on Marauder. I started around 5k to 20. It took me 2 hours of solo leves and a few random kills to get that much to rank up. When I hit rank 20, I finally matched the rank of my Spiked Bronze Labrys. Within 20 minutes of my rank up, I'd already attained 2k into the rank. I got about the same amount of skill in 20 minutes that it had previously taken me an hour to get. Meaning not only did I get more skill a kill, but the skill up chances occurred more frequently.

Now. Does anyone mind doing some testing to confirm or disprove this?

If your gear is above your current rank, it will wear out faster then if you were of the appropriate rank. Weapons wear out fast enough as is.. using one 10 ranks above you will just make it that much worse.

That's a good question about using gear that is far below you. I would assume that the weapon rank is because you need so much experience to be able to use it properly, (ie, the increased wear when you dont have the rank) So, following that logic, using equipment below your rank shouldnt have any deterrents. But this is SE, and anything is possible.

I haven't noticed armor durability wearing real fast if its level is above my rank, but the weapons are a different story. Maybe only the weapons degrade at a faster rate if you are underleveled?

Originally Posted by Jet

if you were penalized for having under-rank equipment, then everyone would have to wear appropriately-ranked armor. So all Rank 20-25 GLDs would be wearing the same exact armor, all 25-30 GLDs would be wearing the same armor, all 30-35 GLDs would be wearing the same armor, etc. There would be very little variety. It doesn't seem to match SE's style.

Its the begining of the game, there really isnt that much for options yet. I think that's why SE made the different colours available. (besides filling out the Alch recipe list) But look at XI, take a stroll through the dunes and every tank will be wearing pretty much the same thing. It happens that way at low levels. It just seems drastic now because EVERYONE is a low level.

Not sure if this has been said but Ill chime in here with it just incase or to remind people...Try to equip gear that favors your main class as well...I know the Bronze Haubby looks great on say an archer...but trust me armor that favors you for the most part will be much better suited to your main rank class!

I have done a little bit of testing gear levels myself, and found that equipping items far above your level still gave me a very slight edge in the stats department after the penalty was factored in. Playing a caster, I was wearing a Cotton Turban as armor, but found it to be extremely ugly to look at. I swapped it out for a Skull Eyepatch (which favors only Disciplines of War) and still didn't take much of a hit in the stats department.

Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised to see if the gear levels are like everything else in FFXIV - very forgiving at early levels (just like guildleves) and much more complicated at higher levels.

Turbans look awesome on my Roegadyn. I look Russian.

sorry dont mean to hijack your post. I did a little research and put some numbers down in this post

It's not hi-jacking if it's relevant.

You did a nice job. Thanks for posting the numbers.

OK, so I've been playing around with this a bit on some Regional Leves myself. While chopping up dodos on LNC R15, I found this in terms of item durability:

While wearing a Trapper's Tunic (Blue) - optimized for R19 and NOT specified for LNC - it took me a full eight leves' worth of getting twacked around Thanalan before I received the 50% durability reminder. The tunic was at about 47%.

While wearing a Bronze Haubergeon - optimized for R27 and favorable for LNC (I know, extreme jump here, but the evidence is worth it) - I completed only two leves (Revenge of the Dodos and Popotoes in Peril - two of the same previously completed while wearing the Tunic) before the reminder showed. The Hauby was at a paltry 37% when I checked it.

I'll add that all leves completed were ~R10 out of Camp Drybone and were all performed on 3-star difficulty with Aspect active.

Hopefully this weekend I can analyze the durability loss per leve/per fight/per strike (and normal vs. critical hits) and see if I can't come up with something a little more concrete.

As an aside, the damage taken from foes even seemed a might higher when I had the Hauby equipped. Wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to specific numbers, but I was really cursing the Second Wind recast on leves of the same difficulty.