Darklight vs Darksteel

i was going to craft myself a set of darksteel for my dragoon as i hate to look the same as everyone else. however i am struggling to justify the cost. lets take the gauntlets for example

Darklight Gauntlets (Tomes needed 495)
Str 12
Vit 14
Det 11
Skillspeed 11

Darksteel Mitt Gauntlets
Str 11
Vit 11
Acc 13
Det 6

the darklight at first glance looks far better however you can meld/HQ the darksteel still when you take into account the mats to make it you need 18 coke thats a whopping 2250 tomes you can get most of the darklight for that.

maybe its just me but i think the price to make the darksteel is way to high concidering the base stats are worse than a item thats 4.5 times cheaper

I'mma say this plain and simple. Crafted gear sucks.

SE really needs to rethink the cost of coke or how many coke are needed for these items. As it stands they really aren't worth it at all.

DL and DS aren't the best gear sets in the game so go for what's easier at the moment.

You'll be getting Allagan and AF2 soon enough so pick which you can get faster more than anything as both will be suitable.

I'm not too sure what the iLevel is with Darksteel but this may effect which dungeons you can do when they put iLevel requirements for things like Crystal Tower and Coil.

HQ bonus makes Darksteel Mitt Gauntlets better, but you'd be right to say that it's currently far from worth the huge cost difference. The purpose is to keep players from buying their way into the current endgame content. A year from now, endgame will have higher content and Darksteel equipment will be easier to make. I don't really agree with it, but I'm pretty sure that's why they did it.

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Originally Posted by Molly_Millions

SE really needs to rethink the cost of coke or how many coke are needed for these items. As it stands they really aren't worth it at all.

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I completely agree. 9 pot ash for one friggin qiqirn? Fizk that.

The difference is that you can't trade tomestones, but you can trade coke. Especially now with 10 minute WP runs for 100 tomestones, the price of philo mats are dropping. 18 coke may be expensive, but if you've capped myth for the week and don't have a coil group, an overmelded HQ darksteel piece is better than darklight.

What SE needs to do:

Add these mats as drops or..I don't know - maybe add them to a chest in...well nevermind there's no open world dungeons.

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Originally Posted by Zeidrich

The difference is that you can't trade tomestones, but you can trade coke.

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Exactly. That's why the material prices are exorbitant -- pass ilvl70 mats around and everyone would leap right over the grind and head straight to BC. SE can't afford to have players blow through content so quickly right now.

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Originally Posted by Tupsi

What SE needs to do:

Add these mats as drops or..I don't know -

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I'm going to bet that the current tome mats will be mined from the level 60 unspoiled nodes in the future. That will come along when there's more content to pad the endgame grind.

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Originally Posted by SnickleWhiskers

I'mm say this plain and simple. Crafted gear sucks.

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If you're saying that with any sort of seriousness YOU are simple.

You are correct that there is a big difference in cost but only a moderate/small difference in stats between the two sets. If those were the only end game options, then one could possibly justify the crafted equipment in the sense of: It *IS* the best, it costs a LOT more than anything else for only a little more.. but.. what else am I going to do?

However, there is gear (Relic AF/AF2/etc.) that is even better than the best crafted. So one could argue that it is more profitable to get the final AF2 equipment than it is to spend time getting the crafted equipment, as the crafted would be 'quickly' replaced by something even better.

Me, as it stands.. I would not go for the crafted equipment... and I'm a crafter who would normally craft that equipment >.>;

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Originally Posted by Aicasia

If you're saying that with any sort of seriousness YOU are simple.

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mustnotfeedthetrollmustnotfeedthetrollmustnot Ah Fizk it.

The time/gil spent getting the mats for HQ Duostars is not worth it therefor sucks. The usefulness of the gear itself is sub par with it being replaced rather easily.

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Originally Posted by Tilio

the darklight at first glance looks far better however you can meld/HQ the darksteel still when you take into account the mats to make it you need 18 coke thats a whopping 2250 tomes you can get most of the darklight for that.

maybe its just me but i think the price to make the darksteel is way to high concidering the base stats are worse than a item thats 4.5 times cheaper

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The BASE stats are worse, the MELDED stats are not, and you may be missing this point. Indeed, you get MORE stats per item when melded, and in some cases higher depending on how much materia you get into them. Because the Darksteel Gauntlets lack Skillspeed, you can fill them up with them (Quickarm), and from the looks of it also plug in the Determination (Savage Might) deficiency they have. And then you get free Accuracy (edit: Heaven's Eye) on top of that.

A full suit of HQ Heavy Darksteel armor, with all appropriate materia in it, will be better in all stats generally than the Darklight armor, especially when you consider it's not a onesie, and can thus "turn off" the helm.

But, of course, the issue is cost, but when taking this into account consider that the armor is better than Darklight and, in many cases (for some pieces) the armor is better than Allagan. This is why as a BLM I am wearing the Vanya robes, made HQ, and with the appropriate materia (most of them, anyway).

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Originally Posted by Balaur

And then you get free Accuracy (Savage Aim) on top of that.

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Savage Aim is crit. You mean Heaven's Eye.

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Originally Posted by Gamemako

Savage Aim is crit. You mean Heaven's Eye.

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Damn this memory. Thanks, and emended.

hq craft gear has 1:1 the stats of dl, if you put materia in it you can have overall + around 200-300 stats which makes a difference

Customization, in real life and in game is always far more expensive than a 'standard package'.

I just don't think the cost justifies the stat increases, but that's my opinion. Now if I had the time and money I would probably get a two star set crafted and melded, but I play too many classes at once and help others more than myself, so for me, I'll settle with tome gear. I'm satisfied with that.

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Originally Posted by SnickleWhiskers

mustnotfeedthetrollmustnotfeedthetrollmustnot Ah Fizk it.

The time/gil spent getting the mats for HQ Duostars is not worth it therefor sucks. The usefulness of the gear itself is sub par with it being replaced rather easily.

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That's not how that works. Regardless of the effort it takes, Crafted is better than Darklight. That's what this is about. It is objectively better, your opinion cannot change that.

I'm guessing it's because ilvl 70 crafted gear can be turned into materia whereas darklight gear cannot.

As far as my PLD goes, my HQ Darksteel Flanchard without materia are exactly equal to the Heavy Darklight Flanchard. Furthermore, I have four Battledance IV materia in them, making them superior to Darklight at a cost of 1125 tomestones and a handful of Gil vs the 1320 required for the Darklight, plus I can convert them later on.