Bard gearing question

[HyoMinPark]

For anyone reading this and feeling overwhelmed... Just use the higher level iLv stuff.

In the grand scheme of things, the difference between a BiS-but-lower-iLv item vs a higher iLv item is very small. Unless you're doing savage/ultimate content, you're not going to notice the difference.

Honestly, though, if people want to try to get gear with decent substats on them, even if they don’t raid, there’s nothing wrong with that. They may not get BiS, but that doesn’t mean that they have to just settle for higher item level. I’ll tell anyone who wants to gear BRD to just get gear that has crit on it over item level, regardless of if they raid Savage or not.
And really, no one should have to suffer with the i400 Genesis Bow.

[Raldo]

I’ll tell anyone who wants to gear BRD to just get gear that has crit on it over item level, regardless of if they raid Savage or not.

"Why are you using an i375 (or worse, i360) necklace?"
"It has crit!! It's the highest iLv neck that has crit, aside from the i400 savage neck!"
[Further clarifications/explanations ensue about how the increased DEX, at some point, surpasses the crit loss, and now the person thinks it's "too complex"!!]

Meh, just using iLv is easier. Like I said, it's just for the people who are overwhelmed by the attempts to clarify the reasoning behind why something of lower iLv might be BiS.

[HyoMinPark]

"Why are you using an i375 (or worse, i360) necklace?"
"It has crit!! It's the highest iLv neck that has crit, aside from the i400 savage neck!"
[Further clarifications/explanations ensue about how the increased DEX, at some point, surpasses the crit loss, and now the person thinks it's "too complex"!!]

Meh, just using iLv is easier. Like I said, it's just for the people who are overwhelmed by the attempts to clarify the reasoning behind why something of lower iLv might be BiS.

You’re strawmanning — I never said “take gear that is now irrelevant because it has crit on it”. Thank you for trying to misconstrue my advice though.

[Raldo]

I’ll tell anyone who wants to gear BRD to just get gear that has crit on it over item level

I do not believe I misinterpreted this statement (nor excluded any additional qualifiers), though I obviously cherry-picked a gear slot that exhibited the largest iLv gap I could be bothered to find. Now all of a sudden there's some sort of arbitrary "gear irrelevancy" threshold? Hmm, funny you didn't mention that before. (Fun fact: The i375 gear came out in the latest major patch)

[HyoMinPark]

I do not believe I misinterpreted this statement (nor excluded any additional qualifiers), though I obviously cherry-picked a gear slot that exhibited the largest iLv gap I could be bothered to find. Now all of a sudden there's some sort of arbitrary "gear irrelevancy" threshold? Hmm, funny you didn't mention that before. (Fun fact: The i375 gear came out in the latest major patch)

I said, “I would tell people to focus on crit gear when they’re gearing bard as opposed to just item level”. You brought up an example of someone using an i360 necklace because “IT HAS CRIT ON IT”. That’s a strawman. I never said I would tell people to wear irrelevant gear such as an i360 necklace.

That being said, the i375 necklace is not a bad necklace. It’s not like you need full i400 if you aren’t participating in Extreme/Savage/Ultimate content, and it’s actually BiS for UwU now.

However, this thread is not about this conversation. If you want to continue to cherry-pick, you’re welcome to message me on Discord.

[SaitoHikari]

My personal rule of thumb is to prioritize equipment with crit over higher ilvl gear, until the higher ilvl gear without crit is 20+ ilvls above your previous gear with crit on it. For accessories, that may increase to 30+, as last tier crafted bracelet was considered BiS because none of the bracelets available that tier had any crit on it, and the crafted one was the way to go for overmelding 100+ crit into that slot (as opposed to having just 40 crit using any other bracelet that tier).