Explorer's Tabard (Why?)

the argument on hauby > tortoiss is moot if you don't have tripple melded pie body. You have to remember in order to craft hauby it costs easily 3x as much per synth. Also HQ'ing tortoiss is a piece of cake, I went 10/10 and then of the 10 hq's I got a tripple pie body among a few double crit power's and sold a few to make the whole process free. Hauby is a freeking bitch to HQ, making all those damn HQ ingots > rings is very annoying rather then:
ingot (low lvl synth)
shell(5-10k on wards hq)
boar leather (low lvl synth)
raptor leather (easy synth with at least 1 hq skin + hq alumen)

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Originally Posted by Tango

the argument on hauby > tortoiss is moot if you don't have tripple melded pie body. You have to remember in order to craft hauby it costs easily 3x as much per synth. Also HQ'ing tortoiss is a piece of cake, I went 10/10 and then of the 10 hq's I got a tripple pie body among a few double crit power's and sold a few to make the whole process free. Hauby is a freeking bitch to HQ, making all those damn HQ ingots > rings is very annoying rather then:
ingot (low lvl synth)
shell(5-10k on wards hq)
boar leather (low lvl synth)
raptor leather (easy synth with at least 1 hq skin + hq alumen)

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I don't quite understand why the arguement is moot unless you have triple pie melded.

with a triple pie body you should already be blowing stat cap way out of the water and hauby would still be better due to base strength and attack instead of additional piety and attack. I can do about 373 strength and 320 piety with a triple meld hauby, even allowing me to wear Darklight Eyepatch instead of the darklight helm because i dont need the strength, allowing me to increase crit rate/crit attack while still capping stats.

It is a preference thing either way, and you should choose what works for your gearset, but I see the hauby as the more beneficial piece any way you slice it.

And there is a very minimal difference in stats between HQ and nq, 1 additional attack power from hq tortoise(so 3 higher than hauby in total) and ease of HQ are not enough to make me want to lose 6 str and accuracy for it. Pie is capped easily with either body and I prefer extra strength/acc.

this thread seems old but i started stackin crit atk power a lot more with the increase in crit rate stat on gear and the increase crit chance on like 3 of DRG's ws's.

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Originally Posted by Technyze

this thread seems old but i started stackin crit atk power a lot more with the increase in crit rate stat on gear and the increase crit chance on like 3 of DRG's ws's.

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That is why I wear the DL eyepatch instead of helm now, because I can still hit strength cap without the 15 str on helm. Combined with garuda beak and DL caligae im at 95 crit att power but I still wouldn't want to swap out my piety hauby for a crit body atm. I would fall considerably short on piety.

I have also considered probably wearing Explorers choker since with power surge up, Dragoons are already swimming in attack power and i figure accuracy+ critrate would be more beneficial than +30 att power on top of 900+ attack power already with surge lvl 3

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Originally Posted by Mister-Wonderful

I don't quite understand why the arguement is moot unless you have triple pie melded.

with a triple pie body you should already be blowing stat cap way out of the water and hauby would still be better due to base strength and attack instead of additional piety and attack. I can do about 373 strength and 320 piety with a triple meld hauby, even allowing me to wear Darklight Eyepatch instead of the darklight helm because i dont need the strength, allowing me to increase crit rate/crit attack while still capping stats.

It is a preference thing either way, and you should choose what works for your gearset, but I see the hauby as the more beneficial piece any way you slice it.

And there is a very minimal difference in stats between HQ and nq, 1 additional attack power from hq tortoise(so 3 higher than hauby in total) and ease of HQ are not enough to make me want to lose 6 str and accuracy for it. Pie is capped easily with either body and I prefer extra strength/acc.

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I think the HQ body is for the higher double/triple meld chance. While Cobalt Haubergeon might be the better body choice, as a practical matter the stack of HQ bodies you need for double/triple melding might dictate going with the Tortoiseshell armor instead.

Once you can go above STR/PIE caps, then the question is how does Crit gear stack up? Especially after last patch I don't know the answer to this.

Can you list your gear set? Since you are above the STR cap (I assume) you might be better off with a Crit Atk body.

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Originally Posted by HoolieWho

I think the HQ body is for the higher double/triple meld chance. While Cobalt Haubergeon might be the better body choice, as a practical matter the stack of HQ bodies you need for double/triple melding might dictate going with the Tortoiseshell armor instead.

Once you can go above STR/PIE caps, then the question is how does Crit gear stack up? Especially after last patch I don't know the answer to this.

Can you list your gear set? Since you are above the STR cap (I assume) you might be better off with a Crit Atk body.

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Well I am definitely above STR cap with my usual set but have been also testing the 2nd build with more Crit Atk and that could possibly benefit more from a crit atk melded body than the piety I have, but I have a +40 PIE body and that is what is doing most of my Pie cap, so I would take a heavy hit in that respect but without testing it there is no way of knowing if its better or worse :)

I'm currently working on melding a Rainmaker's Tunic with Crit attack, once I get at least a double I'll start messing around with more Crit attack body and see how my parses stack up

*I also eat Jerked beef bringing my Pie to about 313 first pic and 316 in the 2nd pic.

My Main build

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...6/dragoon1.png
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...6/dragoon1.png


MH: Garuda's Beak
Head: Darklight Helm
Body: Cobalt Hauby +40 piety
Waist: Scarlet Sash
Hands: Fingerless Raptorskin Gloves of Slaying +45 str triple meld
Legs: Felt Trousers with 20 STR
Feet: Darklight Sollerets (would probably still swap these for caligae, as I just recently got them)
Earrings: Explorer's Earrings
Neck: Electrum Gorget +1
Wrist: Tourmaline Bracelet
Rings: x1 Rubelite Ring +1 x1 Tourmaline Ring +1
Food: Jerked Beef
_______________________________________________________________________________


Crit attack build (In progress :P )

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...6/dragoon2.png
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...6/dragoon2.png



MH: Garuda's Beak
Head: Darklight Eyepatch
Body: Cobalt Hauby +40 piety
Waist: Scarlet Sash
Hands: Fingerless Raptorskin Gloves of Slaying +45 str triple meld
Legs: Felt Trousers with 20 STR
Feet: Darklight Caligae
Earrings: Explorer's Earrings
Neck: Explorer's Choker
Wrist: Tourmaline Bracelet
Rings: x2 Rubelite Ring +1
Food: Jerked Beef

Well, that does show how hard it is to free up the body slot and still stay at or near the stat caps. Without giving up the Eyepatch about all you could do would be improve the gloves. Barring that it comes down to Crit vs PIE.

I personally use a Crit Atk melded body even though my Piety isn't capped. I had it made before the stat caps were raised a couple of patches ago and haven't bothered to change it. Now it might be worse than a PIE melded body, might be a wash, I don't know. At least it's better after this most recent patch buffed crits.

Oh, I also suppose you could go with a hybrid body with PIE + Crit Atk, but I don't like that idea.

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Originally Posted by HoolieWho

Well, that does show how hard it is to free up the body slot and still stay at or near the stat caps. Without giving up the Eyepatch about all you could do would be improve the gloves. Barring that it comes down to Crit vs PIE.

I personally use a Crit Atk melded body even though my Piety isn't capped. I had it made before the stat caps were raised a couple of patches ago and haven't bothered to change it. Now it might be worse than a PIE melded body, might be a wash, I don't know. At least it's better after this most recent patch buffed crits.

Oh, I also suppose you could go with a hybrid body with PIE + Crit Atk, but I don't like that idea.

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Yeah i'm not fond of mixing materia either, I like to stick to one stat per piece. Once I get a double meld crit I'm definetly going to start playing aroud with that too, since I did see a noticable increase in crit damage from the eyepatch and caligae alone.

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Originally Posted by Mister-Wonderful

Yeah i'm not fond of mixing materia either, I like to stick to one stat per piece. Once I get a double meld crit I'm definetly going to start playing aroud with that too, since I did see a noticable increase in crit damage from the eyepatch and caligae alone.

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Mixing materia types gives better meld rates, though, does it not?

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Originally Posted by Frein

Mixing materia types gives better meld rates, though, does it not?

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It does, but Melding success rate has never deterred me! BREAK ALL THE THINGS! :p

I just prefer to stack 1 stat and have multiple sets of gear than to mix and match a single piece. I have made my Crit attack body on Rainmakers tunic so I can use it on all jobs instead of a hauby.

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Originally Posted by Mister-Wonderful

It does, but Melding success rate has never deterred me! BREAK ALL THE THINGS!

I just prefer to stack 1 stat and have multiple sets of gear than to mix and match.

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You must be drowning in gil, materia and pieces of equipment. I get incredibly frustrated just trying to do a simple double meld, draining me of my time and my gil and emptying the wards of affordable materia. Yeah, I really hate this materia system.

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Originally Posted by Frein

You must be drowning in gil, materia and pieces of equipment. I get incredibly frustrated just trying to do a simple double meld, draining me of my time and my gil and emptying the wards of affordable materia. Yeah, I really hate this materia system.

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Not a fan personally either, I just spiritbond all the time. I do have a nice amount of gil if I do feel the need to purchase materia, but most of it is created by me.

Tortoiseshell looks cooler.

So now it looks like Darksteel Haubergeon +1 is pretty boss. Even the NQ is nice if you don't need that extra 7 PIE, which if you were using Cobalt Haub before you wouldn't have had anyway.

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Originally Posted by Riv

So now it looks like Darksteel Haubergeon +1 is pretty boss. Even the NQ is nice if you don't need that extra 7 PIE, which if you were using Cobalt Haub before you wouldn't have had anyway.

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I really do want it, but after finally getting that triple on cobalt i'm not going to bother, as i'm pretty much capped anyway. If I hadnt made one yet though that thing is amazing, especially HQ. I just like the look too :cool:

It's rather challenging to HQ, though, seeing how the garlean steel plate is super rare and how HQ coke doesn't exist. IIRC the recipe itself is also much more difficult than any other armourer ones I've tried.