Making Neo-Ishgardian for retainers, does HQ matter?

[Liam_Harper]

Neo-Ishgard is fairly unnecessary. As far as I know hunting retainers cap at a fairly low ilv. You could kit them out in dungeon gear, older tome gear, cheap Centurio (Sack of Nuts) gear, whichever is easiest. I'd lean towards Centurio gear myself.

[Angelhearth]

Neo-Ishgard is fairly unnecessary. As far as I know hunting retainers cap at a fairly low ilv. You could kit them out in dungeon gear, older tome gear, cheap Centurio (Sack of Nuts) gear, whichever is easiest. I'd lean towards Centurio gear myself.

If you dress a hunter retainer in low lvl 80 gear you get half the return as if you get him in HQ. Where the break point is, I don't know, but it's somewhere above absolute minimum lvl 80 gear.

[Jojoya]

Sorry.

Perception increases HQs on gathering (mining etc. and 18 hour) ventures. It is not useless. iL on gathering retainers maters on quick and 18 hour ventures. Only GPs are useless.

Just dressing them on your castoffs is enough.

If you did some prolonged testing using Perception, I and others would love to see the numbers. Only thing I tried at start of the expansion that had an effect on HQ was Gathering. Melding Perception wasn't changing anything for me. I don't know if the greater ilvl range on now available gear would allow Perception to show a difference since it can get stacked higher than at the start of the expansion.

Considering HQ mats are nearly useless now as long as your gear is up to date for what you're crafting, it really doesn't matter either way. HQ might make a difference with gear being added in 5.4 but our retainers won't be able to gather those materials.

If you dress a hunter retainer in low lvl 80 gear you get half the return as if you get him in HQ. Where the break point is, I don't know, but it's somewhere above absolute minimum lvl 80 gear.

Yield caps somewhere between ilvl 425 and 430 (can't remember the exact number). 440 seems to trigger a decent, though not consistent, percentage of HQ. What the ilvl for max HQ yield is, I don't know. I don't care about getting HQ back anymore so I haven't been paying attention to what percentage my retainers bring back now their gear is up in the 460s.