Gear Prep for Dawntrail: crafted 640 enough?

You can always just wait for Dawntrail release and get the last set of augmented tome gear for poetics. Just make sure you max them out and you should be able to get a couple pieces, then grind for the rest.

Augmented tome gear usually lasts pretty far into the expansion.

Yes it is. Usually, the game add a crafted catch up gear that is 15 ilvl lower that the best gear of the previous extension (not counting the weapon). HW added a lvl 50 ilvl 115 gear when the ARR best one was 130, SB added a lvl 60 ilvl 255 when the best HW one was 270, etc. With how formulaic FFXIV is with that, DT will add a lvl 90 ilvl 645 gear. Your 640 gear will be enough, 5 ilvl difference is nothing.

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Originally Posted by kaynide

It's not really until 90 that the difference becomes quite large.

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I think it's worth noting that while the individual piece differences are small, wearing a full set of augmented tomestone gear in the Lv_5 dungeon is similar to wearing a full set of Lv_5 dungeon gear minus one large armor slot (chest or legs), at least in terms of defense, and this is why the Lv_5 dungeons traditionally hit so much harder than the Lv_1 and Lv_3 dungeons. So while you can wear a full set of augmented tomestone gear to the new cap, a healer will notice if a tank isn't updating their gear because they'll need to spend a few GCDs on heals during trash pulls.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

I think it's worth noting that while the individual piece differences are small, wearing a full set of augmented tomestone gear in the Lv_5 dungeon is similar to wearing a full set of Lv_5 dungeon gear minus one large armor slot (chest or legs), at least in terms of defense, and this is why the Lv_5 dungeons traditionally hit so much harder than the Lv_1 and Lv_3 dungeons. So while you can wear a full set of augmented tomestone gear to the new cap, a healer will notice if a tank isn't updating their gear because they'll need to spend a few GCDs on heals during trash pulls.

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This is usually how I do it; basically not bothering with new gear until the _5 dungeon, and by then with doing daily roulettes and local quests, I’ve typically been able to keep 2 jobs fully geared at any given time as I progress to cap.