How good does my retainers' gear need to be?

Is there any benefit to maxing it out, HQ etc, or do they all just go off the ilvl or gathering value, and it doesn't matter if you're 1 over or 100 hundred over, you still get same potential xp? Looking to level them up as quick as possible.

I have equipped my DOL retainers with BIS gear from 2.0 and max melded their gear, hoping they return more items in HQ and/or return items of higher Value when I send them on the highest 18 hour venture available. But I do not see a difference, not the slightest, on any venture type.

If you can send them on the highest 18 hour venture, they are also able to bring back the best items possible on quick ventures. After gearing them up and doing a quick venture for the first time, you will see a text telling you that they are equipped well enough.

It seems, for DOL, the only value that is of interest is the Gathering value. Perception, as far as my observations can tell, has zero influence on any venture.

Combat classes only have to meet the ilevel requirements for the different ventures. Right now, Item Level 80 is the maximum you need. My combat class retainer is Item level 91 and I can’t see any difference, so over gearing also seems to be no help in getting more HQ or more valuable items. In fact, you do not even need to have items for the class. I have equipped my retainer Tank with BLM accesoires to meet the Item Level before I replaced them with true Tank equipment and there was zero difference in the results.

So all in all, my advice is to equip your DOH retainers just as much as you need to send them to the highest 18 hour venture and to equip your combat class with anything you have to meet the item level requirements of the different ventures. Everything else is maybe good for the Future but at the moment unnecessary.

My retainer is i96 and he still brings back crap like Coeurl Meat after 18 Hours.... 18 Hours and all he could get was... Coeurl Meat -_-'

Thanks for the info, ties in with what I'd heard but I thought I'd look into it a bit more. I waswondering if perhaps quick exploration might be best xp with best gear (and not too bad luck) but I think I'll stick with the item specific ventures.

It's totally random, some times I've sent my retainer out on a quickie and returned with 40k exp and other times over 240k exp... and the rare case of getting an actual useful item.

I ran tests and, outside of iLevel, gear makes no difference. Right now I have full healer i90 jewelry on my archer retainer to get her up past i80 :P

This is about as random as Atma, not referring to the randomness of the item drops but as to how people manage to get "rare drops", to the point where I would probably discourage new venturers from going as DoL tbh. :-(

I have both BTN/MIN retainers with high enough gathering for the XIV Exploration, I sent them out on about 4 Quick Ventures each and quickly gave up as they were all useless (fish, housing items) and there seems to be less chance for useful item acquisition between DoWM and DoL. Not so much as a complaint as it is a system that was obviously not well designed (hence the 2.3 "nerf").

Its gotten to the point that I prefer to stick my retainers on shard duty.

The disclaimer regarding higher Ilvl or gathering skills is this:

Your retainer's current gear should improve chances of finding rare items.

The key word here is SHOULD, not WILL. So, yes, mine are primarily on shard/crystal duty as well unless there is a specific item I need.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NationOfZealots

This is about as random as Atma....

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Yes the randomness is same as atma, same funny.
The result is random, but my four retainers very often got the same random result, ^^;
for example, all of them come back with their job relevent raw mats, or furnitures, or housing parts, or matarias..etc
All same, but not mixed.

For DoW and DoM, the gear level increases the chances of finding better and more HQ items, but I don't think it increases too much. Once you get them high enough do the highest grade gathering (XIV i think). Its good enough.

For DoL, I think you have to get them the ilevel 70 green weapons before they can gather the highest level item.

^^ not necessarily. My fisher retainer only has the AF rod. But you need to overmeld your gear to get to the stats you need. My miner and botanist have the Level 70 tools but it is too long ago so I can't remember if I did because I had to or if it was just the Nerd in me wanting to do it lol.

For DoL both gathering and perception matters. Gathering increases the yield at specific thresholds and Perception increases the likely hood of HQ. This was mentioned in the patch notes.

Each Exploration tells you what number you have to hit to even be able to attempt it. I Believe the highest Exploration 14 is 383. But I'm not by my retainer right now.

18 hour ventures have a very small pool of items, but you'll always get them consistently and the same amount of EXP. Quick ventures are a big gamble.