Tired of my Dragoon looking like she got the boot from the Tanks Only Society

[van_arn]

... so glamour something else? There's hardly a lack of options for non-armor glamour.

[Iscah]

I would like to see the relic gear draw from a different inspiration to the spiky black armour sometime, though. Shadowbringers could have been a good time to nod to FFIII gear designs and give us their gold-and-royal-blue knightly dragoon armour.

I liked the FFIII magus (black mage) and summoner outfits too.

[Vyrerus]

Here in FFXIV, prior to level 50 where the armour isn't divided into strict roles yet and are effectively tiered by weight, dragoon is THE medium armour user. Things that are restricted from use by the other DoW classes yet (sometimes arbitrarily) apparently not as heavy as the gear that is strictly tank-only. At periods in the levelling process their best gear is also the best gear for tanks, including most of the gear dropped from dungeons. And of course, since day 1 it's been leading up to the very armoured Drachen Mail.

And this changed recently too, at least for a few of the new armor sets gained from leveling dungeons pre-50.

In Aurum Vale, the green/bark colored platemail set given to tanks as need allows DRG to wear platemail, and its stats are largely Crit/Det. It's the same model as all platemail sets prior to this, that DRG cannot wear. It's kind of funny.

Also note though that the dilneation between "medium" and "heavy" armor is largely a video game concept, rather than a real world one. There are plenty of armors that we'd look at in the real world that are very heavy, but by video game standards are, "medium." Chainmail in the real world can weigh upwards of 30kg (66 pounds) depending on its size and construct. By comparison, the heaviest plate armors weigh upwards of 45kg or so, while the chainmail does weigh less, it's still very very very very heavy in terms of combat and extended use.

The only real way to make armor medium or light is to go by having less actual armor on a given piece, with gaps filled in by cloth, bare skin, or leather. A lot of what we consider medium armor in video games would be heavy, since it covers the entirety of the body, regardless of the components of its construction.

[Vyrerus]

I would like to see the relic gear draw from a different inspiration to the spiky black armour sometime, though. Shadowbringers could have been a good time to nod to FFIII gear designs and give us their gold-and-royal-blue knightly dragoon armour.

I liked the FFIII magus (black mage) and summoner outfits too.

Interestingly, the DRG look from FFIII is actually the DRG look from FFII, slightly altered. Ricard's battle sprite on the NES/Famicom is blue and gold, while his menu portrait is a black, horned helmet, most similar to FFIV's Cecil's DRK portrait.

[Jettinson]

Maiming is fine since it was mostly thought on dragoon with heavy like armors and such.
Reaper might be a little awkward though so I wonder how EW will play out with armors.

I think the biggest annoyance comes to Scouting gear personally. Not really enjoyable to find decent gear in general

[Allegor]

Like physical ranged jobs. I love my Dancer so much but holy crap, I hate those stupid trenchcoats and cowboy hats. Dancer should wear lighter stuff, not leather coats. I can't stand Aiming gear, it's why I started playing Red Mage, now I actually look good, lol.

DNC and BRD are both basically stage performer, leaving MCH as the odd one out, yet, ironically, most aiming gear lately fits MCH the best. I'm not going to say gear sucks because there are good options here and there, but for once, I actually prefer the AF gear for my DNC over anything else /shrug

More on topic, I actually like DRG being a 'discount tank', I generally tend to incline to plate/heavy/gladiator armor aesthetics, and DRG is the only one that can use such armor without being shoehorned into playing a tank.

[TeraRamis]

... so glamour something else? There's hardly a lack of options for non-armor glamour.

The problem, had you bothered to read the post, is that the vast majority of Dragoon armor options - especially raid-tier stuff - are just recolors of the fending gear. There isn't 'something else.'

[Iscah]

The problem, had you bothered to read the post, is that the vast majority of Dragoon armor options - especially raid-tier stuff - are just recolors of the fending gear. There isn't 'something else.'

There isn't "nothing" though, because even the tanks get lighter gear sometimes.

At a quick skim of Garland Tools, having filtered out level 1 gear (and ignoring all the repeating gear under 50):

- Ala Mhigan gear
- Alliance vest
- Altered woolen shirt / Vigil shirt / Holy Rainbow shirt
- Archaeoskin jackets / Hussar's jacket
- Asuran togi (semi-armoured but not tanky)
- misc leather armour and ARR DoW gear
- Blade's harness (cloth vest)
- Bozjan
- Bonewicca - not shared with anyone and a cool design
- Brightlinen tabard
- Chivalric coat (leather with pauldrons)
- Daring Duelist
- Crystarium tabard
- Doman steel tabard
- Edenmete coat
- Eikon corselet
- Foestriker
- Gazelleskin
- Genji (cool coat in a tier where most got heavy armour)
- Ghost Barque tribal mage set
- Filibuster
- Heirloom / Voeburtite
- ARR tabards and tabard-over-chainmail - always nice for a light but armoured effect
- Infantry shirt
- Ironworks is semi-armoured but nice and shared with melee rather than tank
- Ivalician Lancer
- Ivalician Royal Knight
- Ivalician Uhlan
- Kirin's osode
- Midan jacket
- Neo-Ishgardian
- Nightsteel
- Nomad
- Omega
- Onion
- Orthodox / Dravanian
- Picaroon
- GC gear
- Shadowless robe
- Sharlayan
- Shisui
- Sharlayan
- Valerian Rune Fencer (was unique to DRG before tanks stole it)
- Warg
- Woad
- YoRHa sets x 3

Side note: the unique design Slipstream and Serpentliege sets are mid-to-heavy armour.

In summary, there is a LOT of dragoon gear that is light-armoured or not armoured at all, and not all of it shared with tanks. The options are there if you look for them and there's nothing more special about raid-tier stuff that says it needs to have a particular design style. As long as it exists somewhere in the game, you can glamour it.

[Vyrerus]

This is a long-term nit that I'm picking

Honestly, think it's a nit that's better left unpicked. DRG is one of the only DPS that consistently gets heavier armor, and that is part of its iconic look.

It also gives DPS players that want an option for a heavy tank like look an outlet. There's plenty of folks who want to be armored up in platemail armors, but also play DPS, and almost all of the DPS in this game wear leather or cloth.

Your complaint is also largely untrue for the majority of raidsets in the game.

In BCoB, DRG was given the same DPS set as all other physical DPS at the time, a farcry from the large pauldroned hulking armor that tanks got.

In SCoB DRG was given a purple recolor of MNK gear.

In FCoB DRG was given a unique maiming set completely different from every other set.

In Gordias DRG was given the same set as other physical DPS. Same thing in Midas. Same thing in Creator.

In Deltascape it was given a recolored set that looked much like Ninja's.

In Sigmascape it was given MNK's same body without the cape.

In Alphascape it was given the same armor as tank, and this was a blessing because the other DPS sets looked like they were made specifically for women.

In Eden's Gate it was given a unique maiming set reminiscent of Griffith's Band of the Hawk armor.

In Edenchoir it was given a paired down mail version of the tank's set.

In Edenmorn was a tank reskin, but damn it looks good and it's more coat like with a fur coat.

So 3/12 raid tiers it semi-matched tank gear, but was pared down. Though, in other tiers the tome gear does match, but barring a few exceptions, most of that is ugly anyway.

What about 24 man's you ask?

LoTA - Original Onion set, not tank set
Syrcus Tower - Shares same set as MNK
WoD - It shared with tank, but it was a very slender plate set. Different helmet entirely.

Void Ark - Shared with tank, but minus the skirt/dress. Ugly set anyway. Not plate.
Weeping City - Shared with tank, but looked damn better being black. Very lightly metaled, not plate.
Dun Scaith - Sort of like tank's, but no cool ass helmet. Disappointing. Some sorta void bone/cloth/leather combo.

Rabanastre - Recolored Ramza set, not plate, adorned with some armor and a cape.
Ridorana Lighthouse - Recolored Vaan's set shared with Monk.
Orbonne - Reskinned Agrias set. Shared with tank, but not plate armor.

Copied Factory - 9S style jacket. Not plate, not shared with tank
Puppet Bunker - Type 53 Coat, rolled up sleeve version of tank coat. Not plate armor.
Tower at Paradigm's Beach House - Type 55 Jacket - Shared with tank, not plate armor.

8/12 shared with tank, but that puts us overall at 11/24 shares with tank, leaving it with sharing tank armor in only 45.833% of raids, a clear minority of the time.

If you wanna count tome gear as raid gear, be my guest.

Wyrm Mail = not shared
i100/i110 body = not shared
i120/130 ironwroks = not shared with tank
i170/180 body = not shared with tank
i200/210 = not shared with tank
i230/240 = not shared with tank
i260/270 = Shared with tank, but missing the half cape, looks better.
i310 = Shared with tank, but altered, and not plate.
i330/i340 = Not shared with tank
i360/370 = Shared with almost everyone that tier. Ryumyaku sets were lazy.
i390/i400 = Shared with tank and is plate.
i440 = not shared with tank, but shared with MNK
i460/470 = Shared with tank but much cooler as it lacks the skirt/dress portion
i490/i500 = shared with tank but they're both ugly and not plate
i520/530 = shared with tank, not plate

7/15 shared with tank, so we're at 18/39 shared with tank sets, raising the % shared with tank to 46.1% sets shared with tank. There's some overlap with crafted sets in recent years too, but it doesn't change jack.

Your nitpick is bad.

Noticed my addition error, but the ratio is relatively the same. Nitpick still bad. Ratio likely goes up to 50%ish or more if we account for high end crafted and side content gearsets, as these usually are blow for blow reskins ala Elemental Eurekan Armor or Bozja. Not at first, but as you get closer to the present they share more and more often, and in some cases differ but are already using reskins of previously shared sets.

[Bright-Flower]

The simple fact of the matter is that we're not going to get unique sets for all seven gear groupings that are fully unique.

And for maiming, the most heavily armored of the three melee dps groupings, it makes sense to often pair it with tanks. SImilar to why healing/caster are often paired, and scouting/aiming are often paired.

It'd be nice to see more unique sets but I really don't think we're going to see the 3-4 unique sets with some people sharing go away entirely.

However, with Reaper joining Maiming and having a very different aesthetic to Dragoon, maybe you'll see more less armored maiming sets in EW.