Need help on best gear for lvl 36 tank

Had major issues today with someone bugging me about my sad gear and that my hp needs to be higher and moaning about my dps.all this doesn't make sense to me.too much slang.i don't tend to read up about things I just play the game and most of the time don't interact with other players.so now I'm finding things tough to get to grips with.any help you can give me would be appreciated

Sounds like you just had a trigger happy DPS that refused to watch their threat. They love blaming the tank for losing aggro, even through it's not 100% in their control. There are things we can do to generate the optimal amount of threat, but unless you over-gear the DPS you're with, they HAVE to watch their threat. Your gear is fine for what you're doing.

There are some good tips in my 10 steps to being a bad pld guide here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...eing-a-bad-PLD

Don't let the name fool you, it's actually a guide to being a good PLD.

Also, you can't see my UI, but if you watch the video I have linked in my sig, you can see how I rotate between targets to hold aoe threat easier.

Ok thanks.i thought I was doing or wearing the wrong gear.i ended up having a huge argument about it .ended up in insults all over the place lol

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Originally Posted by Lush74

Ok thanks.i thought I was doing or wearing the wrong gear.i ended up having a huge argument about it .ended up in insults all over the place lol

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Yes unfortunately that does happen. If you still want better gear though, the cavalry set is the best items you can use right now. They drop in Brayflox.

http://i.imgur.com/r2pmvcD.png

The best tanking set at your level is the Calvary set that drops throughout Brayflox, but if you're having troubles, Brayflox can be a nightmare.

Brayflox also has some other tanking pieces (Bosses can drop calvary, chests scattered throughout can drop other pieces).

Here's how Brayflox works - the first boss, you have to get hate on the boss and adds, pop rampart immediately. Instruct the dd's to always kill adds first. Two flashes will probably hold the adds long enough.

Immediately after the first boss, rush up hill, you'll find a solo drake. Kill it, a npc goblin will thank you and give you a treasure chest that can have good loot in it.

Kill the next pair, and then a trio after that. Now you can go to your right through a small path and kill three small flying dragons ('puks") and have a chance at more loot. Go back out of there, and you'll see a bridge. DO NOT get near the bridge. Facing the bridge, to the left is a goblin standing by himself. 2 puks will spawn, kill those, get more loot. Cross the bridge, run up the hill as fast as possible, and run in the center of the trio of puks and flash asap. That goblin dies fast. You might even want to sprint and just burn all your mp on flash to hold hate while some tp regenerates. (Not necessary, but whatever).

Second boss is a drake, start beating on it. About 30 seconds into the fight, a friendly goblin and a baby drake will spawn. Attack the baby drake. If you have a whm or blm in group, the boss drake can be slept so that will help. Kill the baby, get back on the boss, and kill it.

Through there is a watery-pond area. Hug the left wall, go down spare paths you find for af ew mobs and MORE chests. Along this wall, you'll find stuff to kill and nearby pathing fish (pugils), just kill them and save the group the trouble of hoping they don't agro.

Third boss is pretty tank and spank. DPS/Healer will get trapped in water bubbles (healer can still heal if someone is in the bubble, or they are). You shouldn't help get the person out, because you'll end up getting them hit with big damage. Just whittle at the boss.

After that, you go up through a path, kill all that stuff, go up through another path, and fight the end boss. End boss is easy, kite him around the outside of the room. His red attacks are very fast so you need to be ready to move.

Ok thanks I will have a search on the net and give this a go.he also made comments about my jewellery saying I need stuff to improve my health.whenever I search for better jewellery nothing seems to make any of my stats better.am I just looking in the wrong places?

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Originally Posted by Lush74

Ok thanks I will have a search on the net and give this a go.he also made comments about my jewellery saying I need stuff to improve my health.whenever I search for better jewellery nothing seems to make any of my stats better.am I just looking in the wrong places?

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You could stand to improve them, but it's not the end of the world, I was using a really good pink ring I found at like lvl 30 something all the way to 50. Just buy the static crafted ones if you haven't found any from dungeons. At your level you want the sphene earrings/rings/bracelets, then heliodor are lvl 39, and amber at 49.

http://xivdb.com/?item/4448/Sphene-Ring

The main stat you're gonna want to stack as a pld is VIT.

Some good advice in here but you might want to take a look at your jewellery Lush Bunny :)

You could just get some HQ Heavy Steel stuff. Better stats than Cavalry (150 defense compared to 146 because it's item level 35 instead of item level 34), easier to get. Make an armorer friend. On my server, the materials to make it cost around 1k total, and the armor sells for 3.5k or so. I'd just make you a set, but you're not on my server.

Jewelry is negligible at level 35. You'll get +2 VIT on NQ sphene, which is worth ignoring altogether. For my leveling, I go fully DPS jewelry and full strength stat for max clearing times -- you honestly don't need to stack HP at all until endgame. You might want to take off those caster jewelry, though. You don't get anything out of intelligence or mind.

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Originally Posted by Gamemako

You could just get some HQ heavy steel stuff. Better stats (150 defense compared to 146 because it's item level 35 instead of item level 34), easier to get. Make an armorer friend. On my server, the materials to make it cost around 1k total, and the armor sells for 3.5k or so. I'd just make you a set, but you're not on my server.

Jewelry is negligible at level 35. You'll get +2 VIT on NQ sphene, which is worth ignoring altogether. For my leveling, I go fully DPS jewelry and full strength stat for max clearing times -- you honestly don't need to stack HP at all until endgame. You might want to take off those caster jewelry, though. You don't get anything out of intelligence or mind.

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You get significantly more VIT from the cavalry set though. You'd get 20 vit from NQ Heavy steal chest/legs (which includes head/feet). But you'd get 26 from the full cavalry head/chest/legs/feet. Adding on 2 vit per piece of accessory, thats 8 more (14 more total), so by ignoring the VIT stat, you're gimping yourself out of 203 HP compared the the heavy steel/dps accessories route. They both work though.

Not to mention, cavalry set is one of the best looking armor sets in the game, the heavy steel armors (darklight etc) look HORRIBLE.

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Originally Posted by Sephirah

You get significantly more VIT from the cavalry set though.

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This is simply false. They have identical VIT. Armor and Flanchard are +13, gloves are +5 and belt is +4. For Cavalry, the two +13 are split into two pieces with +8 and +5.

I find both Cavalry and Heavy Steel to be hideous. If you want appearance, HQ/Aetherial ilvl32 Steel Scale is the best you can do until 38, where you can switch to HQ ilvl38 Horn Scale.

Tbh, don't gimp yourself. Learn to tank Brayflox. It's the first hard dungeon, where stuff actually hits hard. If you can't tank Brayflox, there's about four other dungeons coming up, before 50, that you're going to loathe.

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Originally Posted by Gamemako

This is simply false. They have identical VIT. Armor and Flanchard are +13, gloves are +5 and belt is +4. For Cavalry, the two +13 are split into two pieces with +8 and +5.

I find both Cavalry and Heavy Steel to be hideous. If you want appearance, HQ/Aetherial ilvl32 Steel Scale is the best you can do until 38, where you can switch to HQ ilvl38 Horn Scale.

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We're talking normal quality, and that is +10 on the armor. We are comparing the difference in cavalry helm/chest/legs/feet compared to the heavy steal chest/legs (helm/chest/legs/feet); gloves and belt are not part of the equation as they can still equip those while wearing the cavalry set.

The cavalry helm/chest/legs/feet will give you 26 vit, the normal quality heavy steel gives them 20.

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Originally Posted by Sephirah

We're talking normal quality, and that is +10 on the armor.

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That would be true, if you're talking normal quality, but why in the seven hells would you want normal quality? HQ is dirt cheap.

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Originally Posted by Gamemako

That would be true, if you're talking normal quality, but why in the seven hells would you want normal quality? HQ is dirt cheap.

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Why waste money on HQ items at lvl 30? "Cheap" is a relative term, we have no clue what this persons money situation is like, and again, regardless of how "cheap" it is, it's a waste at lvl 30~.

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Originally Posted by Sephirah

Why waste money on HQ items at lvl 30?

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Why waste four hours spamming Brayflox for an ugly set that's already outdated?

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Originally Posted by Gamemako

Why waste four hours spamming Brayflox for an ugly set that's already outdated?

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Which is why I said originally, they don't REALLY need to worry about it at their level. They just had a bad experience with trigger happy DPS, these are just the 2 options available to them if they still WANT to improve their gear.

And the looks of the gear are all a matter of opinion, I think the cavalry set is the best looking armor you can wear before your AF set.

I don't have much money to buy armour or jewellery.i am relying on armour and jewellery I can get from quests or leves .i have been focusing on the main quest and lvls and haven't really lvled any skills yet.

Am i the only 1 who noticed this?

I think before looking for better gear, the best choice would be to lv Conjurer to 15 and Unlock Pld. Equipping the stone will increase you VIT(health) and Str.
From the 30quest you will also get sword oath it will help you with hate till 40, when you learn shield oath.

Steel Scale is better than Steel Cuirass at that level (for some ungodly reason that makes no sense) So consider that for Brayflox until you get Cavalry.

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Originally Posted by Stalkster

Am i the only 1 who noticed this?

I think before looking for better gear, the best choice would be to lv Conjurer to 15 and Unlock Pld. Equipping the stone will increase you VIT(health) and Str.
From the 30quest you will also get sword oath it will help you with hate till 40, when you learn shield oath.

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OH my WORD! Honey! Lush Bunny Honey honey hoooooneeeeey!!! You're not a Paladin!!! This is your biggest source of pain right now. ;-;

You should have your job right now, at level 30. You need to level Conjurer to level 15, and then from there you can get your Paladin job quest! You're going to be struggling at this level range without that boost in power.

Love it's fine if you're not going to talk to people or socialize, but this is an mmo. People are there to help you, and if you don't want help from others ingame, you have to help yourself. Google information on Gladiators, learn how to become a Paladin.

http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Paladin

The main issue is you don't have Sword Oath. This effect gives you the damage and bite you need at that range to hold threat better than others. It was designed like that. It was what you are destined to be.

http://www.paperspencils.com/wp-cont...3/Paladins.jpg

Ok thanks for your advice I will do some research about it.i am very happy for people in game or on here to help me but it's very insulting when you get sworn at and told your rubbish just because your not wearing the right gear and accessories.if the person was giving me advice nicely I would have been grateful.this is the first mmo I have played so I am new to a lot of things.i always just played final fantasy on my console .
Thanks again xxx

Hello Lush Bunny. You've gotten some good advice here. Firstly, those who say jewelry at level 36 doesn't matter are just wrong. I play WHM as my main and I can assure you it makes a huge difference in not just your ability to hold aggro but in your survivability. Having done brayflox over 100 times in duty finder I would say the party's opportunity to complete the dungeon would be impossible given your gear and not having your job unlocked. Your soul stone is extremely important for you to equip at this point. The stat boost and ease in tanking it provides will make an immediate difference no gear can provide.

If you cannot afford the jewelry you need to start doing all side quests. Even if you don't immediately see class appropriate rewards completing them will unlock quests that will gear up your character. You may also be able to shout for a level 35-40 crafter and request they make you the jewelry. Often they will not charge or charge you only for mats.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience where communication broke down in this manner. Please understand it is very frustrating, especially for dps, to wait sometimes 2 hours to queue in duty finder only to find they rolled a severely undergeared tank.

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Originally Posted by Lush74

i am relying on armour and jewellery I can get from quests or leves

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Oh my word, do not do that. Take the cash rewards (allagan pieces, sell to NPC for listed value). You can buy pretty much every optional reward on the market board for less than the amount you'd otherwise get from the quest.

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Originally Posted by PetiteMalFleur

Rubbish

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Just about everything said here is wrong. HP does not affect enmity in any appreciable way. It does not affect damage taken, so it does not even affect healing. The only thing you get is passive HP regen out of it, which is utterly negligible. Tanking jewelry does not matter one bit in terms of enmity. The only way you're going to have any trouble in Brayflox. The difference between the best defense gear and what you're wearing? 10% of incoming damage or so. Yes, it's that small. The impact on enmity from your PLD crystal is minimal; your base STR boost is 5 and you get a DPS stance which increases total single-target enmity by ~6% (and adds nothing to AoE enmity). The reason you'd want the job crystal is for the DPS boost, because clearing the dungeon faster is always better.

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Originally Posted by PetiteMalFleur

Having done brayflox over 100 times in duty finder I would say the party's opportunity to complete the dungeon would be impossible given your gear and not having your job unlocked.

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I have tanked and healed through Brayflox on both tanks and both healers in phase 3 and release. You could not even have a job at all in phase 3, and the dungeon was more punishing then (first boss adds hit like a truck then). Guess what: we all managed just fine. I've healed an MRD tank wearing swimwear through the dungeon while playing SCH, no problem. Playing as either healer means spending 80-90% of your time spamming DPS instead of healing already. If you come in with a naked tank, you just have to spend maybe half of your time healing. You will never begin to push maximum healing capacity, and you're never going to get bursted down. I've healed both PGL and LNC as tanks through the last two bosses (LNC with CNJ, PGL with SCH). The suggestion that anything is remotely "impossible" is absolutely ludicrous on its face.

Hi Lush Bunny! I'm in the same boat, kind of, as I started doing Brayfox recently just for the experience and maybe getting the calvary set from there. If you have the gold, you could pick up I think the lvl 35 Heavy Steel set someone mentioned here earlier that makes you look like a trashcan - if you sell some crystals or some allagan pieces you might even be able to get the HQ ones. With the HQ body-head and leg-feet, it puts me at 1816HP and 609MP - with about 40 more VIT than what you currently have and I'm lvl 35. I didn't notice much help after getting the sphene jewelry, honestly. But what I've really found in that dungeon, compared to all the ones before it, is that you really need a good healer. It seems many healers are used to not having to heal quite as much since those first early dungeons are so easy to heal, and in Brayfox I've noticed that if the healer isn't ready for the amount of healing they will need to do even on trash, it could mean bad new for you as the tank.

Another option since you said you were a little strapped for cash is to run some FATEs to get grand company seals and then trade these seals in for some really good pieces made for PLD/WAR tanks specifically (make sure not to buy the ones that just say "Disciples of War" -- you want the GLD/PLD/MRD/WAR specific armor and shields). Good luck and ignore all those mean people who say things about you as you're just learning. As I started out as a dps, yes - it was sad when runs didn't turn out well after such a long wait -- but it is better to help someone learn the instance and how to tank better than berate them :/

[QUOTE=Gamemako;1589830] stuff
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OP asked about gear and if you want to advise an inexperienced and new player that their gear doesn't matter then that's your prerogative. Obviously it was an issue with her party if it resulted in a heated argument. Brayflox is just the start. OP has many dungeons to come and I personally enjoy my characters more if I can come prepared to contribute what I can in my chosen role. The small numbers may not seem like a lot but can make the difference between if she can survive a 1k crit. My point is op should keep her gear up to date, including jewelry and it will help even more in future content if she remains conscientious of her overall iLevel when queuing in DF.

OP, at your level don't worry about HQ gear if you can't afford it. Just the base items will be enough of an upgrade and the stat difference is often not in areas that you're really looking at for damage mitigation anyway.

Keeping jewelry up to date is relatively important, esp once you get to 38-39 and the stats for jewelry start to get a little better. 5 pieces of HQ Heliodor is +20 vit and and +30 parry. And you can round out with STR, ACC, CRIT materia as needed. Fail to see how this is negligible (for any class..)

Gear gets out dated so fast due to fates and the way dungeon progression works pre-50.
Let me tell you something that I learned (the hard way), and others have mentioned.
Dungeons give great gear for the dungeon that your running, but the next dungeon is a couple levels away, so your gear gets out dated in a couple dungeons. Why farm dungeons for gear under level 50... If you beat the dungeon, then you don't need better gear so why farm a dungeon that's already beatable. Just buy gear as upgrades become available, but always keep Gil management at an efficient level.

First off, a level 20 dungeon is designed to be beaten with level 10-12 visual gear, because that's what they expect you to have obtained via quests. They dont even expect you to have peripheral gear like rings and stuff. So if your rocking a full set of normal quality level 15 gear including accessories, you should win with minor difficulty. At level 30, the gear requirements increase to level 25 gear and level 10 peripherals. If your rocking level 25-30 crafted gear, that should carry you to level 45.

As a leveling tank, go for defense above all other stats. By design, this will also yield high str and vit. Don't bother melding materia, because you don't need to. Once you hit 45, you get free armor from your class quests.

If doing this gear progression proves too difficult to tank from your dps- think in your head that there is something your doing wrong player side and try to improve your personal playing skills. I'm not saying your bad or that you need to L2P or anything that. Just trying to prepare you for the rude awakening of obtaining level 50. A fresh 50 tank struggles to hold hate off the endless torrent of ilvl90 dps out there. You will have to play harder then good just to hold threat off 1 person with relics let alone 3 people.

If you are doing your side quests the rewards will keep your gear up to date. Those who say level 20 jewelry will last until 50 are right but it makes the dungeons take longer and wiping more likely. Maybe if you're doing dps it's fine since there's no dps check in the leveling dungeons and party survivability is not dependent on dps.

Well, not much of a dps check, anyway.

How the dungeon drops work is about every 4 there is a new dungeon. Brayflox drops a full gear set and the next will drop a weapon. Your next dungeon to drop gear is cutters cry and your gear from brayflox will last until then. So the dungeon drops will last you about 10 levels. If you choose to grind for them. But like I said: your side quests will gear up your character appropriately. As will your class and job quests.

Either you keep your gear + accessories updated through quest whites, or you must keep at one side updated through dungeon drops (aetherial not more than 2 dungeons gap, green rares not more than 3 dungeons gap).

The cavalry set is slightly better as tanking gear than the level 40 quest whites, which means that you're more or less on the same footing as someone who has full quest whites at level 41 going into Stone Vigil. Getting a few pieces from Quarn and Cutter's Cry will help, but not "absolutely necessary".

There is a little twist though. Aetherial gear gets additional randomized bonus stats. For example the Aetherial Heavysteel armor (head+chest) has 150 defense, 12 str, 13 vit as fixed stats, then it could get anything from 1 to 3 additional bonus stats.

Consider the following:

1. Cavalry head+chest = 146 defense, 11 str, 13 vit, 4 parry, 13 accuracy, 6 determination
2. Heavysteel armor that I have now = 150 defense, 12 str, 13 vit, 13 crit, 15 skill speed

It is hard to say which one is better. The Heavysteel is what we would call an enmity piece (it has no parry). But the Cavalry set isn't that heavy on parry either.

Aetherial gear with the right combination of parry could make it better than rare gear that is just 1 dungeon before. On the other hand, if the aetherial doesn't have the right stats (e.g. has skill speed, determination etc) then it becomes harder to replace the rare gear.

For that reason, a lot of people will be using the Cavalry set all the way to Stone Vigil. The fact that not many people farm Quarn and Cutter's Cry makes it harder for tanks to upgrade their gear, too.

As a rule of thumb, you want to be wearing at least:

• Green gear that is within 8~10 "required levels", e.g. Stone Vigil is Lv.41 dungeon, Cavalry set requires Lv.32.
• Unmelded crafted HQ gear that is within 5~8 "required levels"
• Aetherial gear that is within 5~8 "required levels"
• White quest (or NQ crafted) gear that is within 1~3 "required levels"

Melded HQ crafted gear will probably replace green rare gear that is over 4 required levels out, but I'm not sure of that.

Aetherial tanking gear exist at the following levels: 15, 20, 25, 28, 35, 40, 44, 47. There are some odd scale-mail pieces shared with LNC/DRG, they will be better than older aetherial tanking gear, but will mostly be worse than green rare gear of that level range.

All aetherial gear have their equivalent crafted NQ versions, which are exactly the stuff you get out of quests.

At level 44, you get to enter Darkhold, but it might be better to wait until level 45 when you get your 4 pieces of AF gear. Same for Garuda. No point stressing your healers at level 44 with very outdated gear like the Cavalry set. While the Cavalry set is usable for Garuda and Darkhold, it also shows a lack of dedication as a tank to invest time to maintain your gear.

At level 44, before doing Dark Hold, you should be at least wearing the level 44 whites (High Mythril; obtained naturally from quest progression) or aetherial mythril/heavysteel (lv.40/35). If you can't get those, then wait till level 45 to get your AF pieces.