Darklight VS HQ forbidden materia melded Heavy Darksteel

[Firescorpio]

so here's the deal, while the NQ items are by far inferior to darklight The end result of a HQ melded materia Darksteel & rosegold jewlery seems to outdoo the benefits of the Heavy Darklight / darklight accesories, my question is has anyone tested, how much benefit does one actually get is it far above what darklight give?

Is it even worth it when BCoB items right around the corner to invest the 8+mil on the gear for tanking?

[pepero]

The only players I can even see investing in full HQ 2 star gear are ultra hardcore Coil farmers who's FC is about min-maxing as much as possible as soon as possible.

[Gamemako]

Is it even worth it when BCoB items right around the corner to invest the 8+mil on the gear for tanking?

It costs fewer philotomes to make heavy darksteel chest/head and legs/feet than it does to buy the equivalent pieces of Darklight. If you have a local ARM willing to make it without charging you an arm and a leg, it's smart to go ahead and get HDS for those two pieces. For the other pieces, just go with the DL equipment and replace with AF+1 gloves and Allagan belt. The cost is insane and benefits pretty marginal.

One of the main benefits of HDS is that if you don't take it to BC, it never binds, so you can resell it any time.

[javid]

well HQ craft is best. Warrior example
Darksteel accessories is as follows.

Being HQ best crafted gear has room for 8 VIT in each slot at 9 STR per item:
Neck: 9 STR 8 VIT
Ears 9 STR 8 VIT
Wrist 9 STR 8 VIT
Ring 9 STR 8 VIT
Ring 9 STR 8 VIT

total of: STR 45 (a tier mind you in Parry) VIT 40 ( 868HP additional after defiance)

or you could do Straight up Darksteel accessories:
Neck: 10 VIT
EArs: 10 VIT
Wrist: 10 VIT
Ring: 10 VIT
Ring: "something else" (can't have 2 of the same darksteel piece)

Total str: 0; total vit "40"

[magicninja999]

Darksteel is junk....

ur bis chest, hands and legs are AF2, alg head and feets and alg jewls, and if u get ur relic....+1 the shield first ffs

OH and if your a WAR either reroll PLD or go outside and slam ur d!ck in a car door 5 or 6 times, cuz that's what it will be like tanking....

[Ninjiitstu]

Darksteel is junk....

Incorrect. HQ Darksteel has the same stats as Darklight, except you get 5 Melds. It is STRICTLY better then Darklight.

In some cased, HQ Crafts are Best in slot. Gryphonskin Accessories ( Any accessory with 9 str 9 dex ) are best in slot for any tank, by a large margin. One thing you do have to worry about though is the attribute walls. If for some reason you can't hit the next Dex/STR wall with your last accessory, then i90 is better. Though given the walls for DEX are every 15 points, its unlikely that you would not be able to hit one, but still possible.

[magicninja999]

Incorrect. HQ Darksteel has the same stats as Darklight, except you get 5 Melds. It is STRICTLY better then Darklight.

In some cased, HQ Crafts are Best in slot. Gryphonskin Accessories ( Any accessory with 9 str 9 dex ) are best in slot for any tank, by a large margin. One thing you do have to worry about though is the attribute walls. If for some reason you can't hit the next Dex/STR wall with your last accessory, then i90 is better. Though given the walls for DEX are every 15 points, its unlikely that you would not be able to hit one, but still possible.

Oooook, I guess if you are gonna hard core min/max then w/e if you got the gil to buy it, guess I should reword that and say "IMO, for the price of Darksteel, its junk" there, that's better.

[Ninjiitstu]

Oooook, I guess if you are gonna hard core min/max then w/e if you got the gil to buy it, guess I should reword that and say "IMO, for the price of Darksteel, its junk" there, that's better.

No. That isn't better.

If HQ Darksteel and Darklight have the exact same stats, and you can get 30 total secondary stats from melds, you are getting a FREE 30 secondary stats. That isn't "hardcore min/max". That is considerably better by a large margin.

[Sapphidia]

If HQ Darksteel and Darklight have the exact same stats, and you can get 30 total secondary stats from melds, you are getting a FREE 30 secondary stats. That isn't "hardcore min/max". That is considerably better by a large margin.

I definitely understand from an item-budget perspective that the difference is huge.

However - what is the -actual- benefit of those 30 total secondary stats you can get? You can't make them Strength, Vit or Defense due to caps, so you're limited to making them Crit, Skill speed, Dex or Determination. And from what i've seen... the impact of those secondary stats on threat is fairly low relative to wepaon damage/strength... and unless you hit a parry chance Dex cap likely has no impact on survivability.

Seeing as threat isnt really a concern for paladins if you keep your weapon up to date... ARE the stat points really as big an impact as people say? Especially considering that from a survivability point of view, the extra Vit + Defense of getting the AF2 set is surely more attractive? I can see HQ 2 star being super optimal for DPS classes over even AF2... but for tanks? I'm not convinced.

[Alzelia]

I have 2 darksteel ingots from 1.0 still and I was considering making some heavy darksteel gear for my pld once it hits 50. Which items would be the best for me to make and what materia should I meld to them?