4.4 DRG BiS List.

[Ralos]

Tentative DRG BiS is currently one of the following two builds:

Floor tank at mach speed!
Crit Machine!

In the latter case, you will meet thresholds with those pentamelded accessories which makes up the loss in STR. That being said, the difference isn't too substantial if you want to aim for full i370. Of course, this is all based on early theorycrafting, so it may change. If you opt to try the Skill Speed build, I highly recommend testing it out on a dummy first. You will not be able to double weave whatsoever at that level, so there will be an adjustment period. I put together a relatively easy hodgepodge of gear just to hit 2,400 and see how it felt.

Are the crafted 380 pieces really better than i400 pieces? I know you have more materia melding control but you lose alot of our primary stat, right?

[lulunami]

Are the crafted 380 pieces really better than i400 pieces? I know you have more materia melding control but you lose alot of our primary stat, right?

I doubt it. Only proc centric jobs like Bard would benefit from Crit that much to sacrifice main stat.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Are the crafted 380 pieces really better than i400 pieces? I know you have more materia melding control but you lose alot of our primary stat, right?

They are. While main stat is typically better, secondaries can pull ahead if you meet certain thresholds. Since 655 is the ideal Skill Speed, anything above that is essentially wasted stats. That 264 extra Skill Speed is completely worthless. Additionally, you're losing 237 Crit and 128 Direct Hit. Because we can break into another threshold, Crit scales high enough it beats out the 30 Strength. At least according to simulations done by The Balance discord. It's mainly how useless Skill Speed is unless you go for the monster tier that lets the crafted pieces pull ahead.

With all that said, this extremely fine tuned min/maxing. You aren't going to suffer much loss if you opt for i400 pieces. It's entirely up to you if you want to squeeze out every bit of DPS or lose a little and save the gil.

I added a link to Balance's discord. You can ask the theorycrafters directly if you want more details.

I doubt it. Only proc centric jobs like Bard would benefit from Crit that much to sacrifice main stat.

This isn't necessarily true. Machinist has a BiS using the Tome Weapon because the Omega Gun is awful. Ninja and Monk also run a pentamelded ring this tier. And we all know tanks have been using crafted accessories pretty much the entire expansion. Three are still BiS despite the added Strength. Bard may value Crit far higher, but there hasn't been a single tier when at least some jobs aren't running pentamelded crafting accessories if they opt to hyper min/max.