Please consider adding armor to the sparks vendors.

[Economizer]

Can we have armor added to the sparks vendors at all level tiers, or at least 50+?

A lot of relevant gear, simply no one is selling it....

I'm inclined to agree (although definitely not because of Maat, and maybe not for sparks - low level characters would be wiser to start investing in chapters or something in my opinion).

But I have to ask, which specific gear do you want to see sold by an NPC? I'd like to see this idea expanded on, but without specific examples its harder to get behind.

[madmartin]

I had no issue gearing up a new character just opening the gold boxes as I leveled. I got plenty of good armor.

yes, not really needed, im also killing nms for some good armor!

[Mizuno]

To some extent this would help, however as the levels get higher, the gear gets more varied. There's no "Standard" and thus SE will have a hard time figuring out what sets to add in.

[Kensagaku]

Two things on this:

First, I agree with adding some sparks armor. If it's added, hoour wever, I'd like it to be "basic" gear - i.e. for light armor you'd get Brass Harness, Bronze Harness, Beetle Harness, Leather Vest, etc which is all decent in terms of defense for their level but has no additional bonuses. This is because this is just stuff you pick up as you go, compared to stuff that has to be put together. Which brings me to my second point.

I know people are probably getting tired of me being on my soapbox about this point, but the whole "no one is selling the gear I need" is sort of a weak argument. Why? Because you can get the materials yourself and shout for a crafter. If you're willing to buy the finished product off of the AH, then why wouldn't you buy the pieces and get someone to make it? Takes the crafter no time so they'd rarely say no, and there's almost always tons of materials on the Auction House. I mean, I've been getting stuff crafted for my mule's NIN as I've leveled him; stat boosting rings, Haubergeon, Scorpion Harness, katanas, etc. Sure, I've bought some pieces directly off of the AH when they're up, but there have been times I've just had to get some purchases and hand 'em over to someone - either shouted or LS - and gotten them made. Even if it's not on the AH, it doesn't mean the item exists; it means you have to just spend a little gil and a little more time looking up the recipe, and you'll still end up with the same result.

[Ris]

I'm inclined to agree (although definitely not because of Maat, and maybe not for sparks - low level characters would be wiser to start investing in chapters or something in my opinion).

But I have to ask, which specific gear do you want to see sold by an NPC? I'd like to see this idea expanded on, but without specific examples its harder to get behind.

yes, not really needed, im also killing nms for some good armor!

To answer these and Crevox's posts at once--some gear is crafted only. I didn't include specific examples of stuff I'm watching the AH for because I didn't want the discussion to get derailed on specifics that don't really matter much (which happens a lot on forums everywhere), and I think this applies to people on other jobs than what I'm working on.

But since these items aren't getting made, I think there should be alternative to getting them. Maybe not sparks necessarily, but something. I did think about leveling some crafts but with the 40 point limit I wouldn't be able to make everything I need anyway...

Two things on this:

First, I agree with adding some sparks armor. If it's added, hoour wever, I'd like it to be "basic" gear - i.e. for light armor you'd get Brass Harness, Bronze Harness, Beetle Harness, Leather Vest, etc which is all decent in terms of defense for their level but has no additional bonuses. This is because this is just stuff you pick up as you go, compared to stuff that has to be put together. Which brings me to my second point.

I know people are probably getting tired of me being on my soapbox about this point, but the whole "no one is selling the gear I need" is sort of a weak argument. Why? Because you can get the materials yourself and shout for a crafter. If you're willing to buy the finished product off of the AH, then why wouldn't you buy the pieces and get someone to make it? Takes the crafter no time so they'd rarely say no, and there's almost always tons of materials on the Auction House. I mean, I've been getting stuff crafted for my mule's NIN as I've leveled him; stat boosting rings, Haubergeon, Scorpion Harness, katanas, etc. Sure, I've bought some pieces directly off of the AH when they're up, but there have been times I've just had to get some purchases and hand 'em over to someone - either shouted or LS - and gotten them made. Even if it's not on the AH, it doesn't mean the item exists; it means you have to just spend a little gil and a little more time looking up the recipe, and you'll still end up with the same result.

I've seen those shouts sometimes... seems like it's pretty pricey to get a crafter's attention, like it'd cost a lot more to do it that way than buy on the AH, if only the AH was stocked... And of course, that assumes a crafter with the right primary craft and support crafts is even available, which might be why those seem to get ignored sometimes...

I know it's not much to endgamers that can solo farm those dynamis or salvage things but to lower level players those aren't open yet.

And to add one last thing... even getting materials can actually be kind of sketchy. There's stuff I've look for that aren't finished products and you have to be kind of lucky to find it in stock. Even stuff for like the gobbie bag quests is hit and miss

[Raydeus]

For the longest time I've been saying that all NQ craftable gear should be available from vendors and at a decent price. Both in case people stopped crafting the gear and to serve as an upper cap for prices at the AH.

Nowadays though... I've been leveling my mules and I can say there just isn't much need for low level armor anymore. You can level up solo very quickly as long as you have a decent weapon and trusts, and having the gear would only ever so slightly increase your survivability and killing speed. Not to mention you already get tons of gear from coffers while killing mobs for GoV pages.

I wish this had been implemented 7 years ago, but nowadays it just wont make much of a difference.

[Bebekeke]

I just beat Maat on my mule. It's not quite the same as beating him on your main the first time around, but it was still somewhat difficult (I went 1/2, fighting MNK at lvl 70).

I say it's not the same as beating him on your main, because I sent my mule a boxer's mantle, Cobra feet and a black belt from my main (I was gutted that I couldn't send my Rajas Ring!), but the rest of my gear I got on the mule.

Initially I was using an emp hairpin that I had camped on my mule, and a scorpion harness that I paid over the odds for on the AH when one finally popped up. After the first loss I swapped to Arhat's +1 for the PDT. I also used counterstance, 2nd time around so not sure which helped more.

Hands were my biggest issue though. I ended up wearing velvet cuffs. I couldn't get hold of anything with any useful stats on them.

The only thing that was really expensive was the Toreador's ring (900k) which I used to replace the Bastokan ring I wore for the first attempt.

The other way to get equipment is of course to gather the materials for the item you want crafting, then shout for someone to craft it for you.

[Xantavia]

I've seen those shouts sometimes... seems like it's pretty pricey to get a crafter's attention, like it'd cost a lot more to do it that way than buy on the AH, if only the AH was stocked... And of course, that assumes a crafter with the right primary craft and support crafts is even available, which might be why those seem to get ignored sometimes...

If you think the shouts seem pricey, it might just be the items people are asking for. If it is something that sells on the AH for 5 mil, sure the crafter is going to want more than 5k from somebody. But if you gather all the mats yourself and offer close to what it sells for on the AH, I don't think you will have too many problems. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've had crafters not even want my money since I was asking for some unusual or basic quest item.

[vienne]

Why not consider tabs to acquire NQ lower lvl gear instead of sparks? Make them sellable through the Ground/Fields tome so people can keep lvling instead of going back to town to get new gear. I've never had much trouble with gear since I still have all my old gear from in ye' olden days but I can imagine all the semi-naked players out there.

[bungiefanNA]

You don't have to be geared perfectly to beat Maat. If you do the regional RoE objectives, and open brown chests from FoV/GoV then you get a lot of armor you can wear for the fight. That's why they added that stuff to the game, since the AH is not worthwhile for selling low level gear anymore.