Question on Gear

Hi,

I was wondering, which one is better regarding gear?

It is better to have more defense and magic defense or have more stats increase?

Here's an example :

Better This -> http://xivdb.com/?item/3686/Choral-Ringbands
or
This -> http://xivdb.com/?item/3652/Aetheria...torskin-Gloves

Please note that the Aetehrial Fingerless that I have are dungeon drops and have
+7 strenght, +7 dexterity, +7 vitality, +10 accuracy, +7 Determination, +11 Skill Speed

So, Choral = Defense 51, Stats total 40
Aetehrial = Defense 44, Stats total 49

Thank you!

The Choral Ringbands are better and you got a nice bonus in crit rate

Each stat has a weight. Others on the forums have theorycrafted what the weights are.

Here is a quote from EasyModeX but many seem to disagree with her/him on exact values but it is probably close enough.

Quote:

---

WD 7.849
DEX 1.000
DET 0.228
CRT 0.222
SS 0.131

---

So 1 DEX is worth roughly 4 DET or 4 CRT from that weighting.

VIT is always nice to have. SS (skill speed) seems to be a waste. You shouldn't worry too much about accuracy on a BRD since Dark Light gear seems to give more than enough.


I would go with the Choral Ringbands without hesitation.

Honestly, this game does a great job of making it easy to select gear. An easy way to figure out what's best for you is as follows

1: Check if the gear is for your class. Whether you can equip it or not is the obvious check, but also see if it has stats for you (STR for all DoW besides Archer, Dex for Archer/Bard, Intelligence for DPS casters, Mind for healing casters). If you can need on it in a dungeon, it's quite obviously for your role. Really, the only hard check is tank gear versus DPS gear, but frequently tank gear is GLA/MRD only.

2: Compare item level. Item level determines the stat caps for the item and if it's HQ or a dungeon drop (Or unique quest reward, like the choral gear) it will be at or near the stat caps for the stats that are on it. If it passed test #1, then it will have more of the main required stat for your class. In the case above, you'll notice the choral ringbands are 50, while the aetherial gloves are 45. The choral gloves have the higher dexterity, among other things.

This isn't FFXI where you use the same piece for 50 levels just because it has some accuracy on it. Following these two rules will work in just about every case. The exception is once you start getting way into endgame to the point where you're comparing between endgame pieces of identical item level (Between Allagan and AF+1 for example), or in highly situational cases where you may want to use materia (Apparently the crafted level 70 pieces can outshine even level 90 pieces for certain classes.)z