AF gear already "obsolte"

[Rydin]

or instead of Darklight, there could have been some epicly rare drop that power upgraded your AF

[Babydoll]

A lot of the AF stats are disappointing...I thought they said they would be better then the current gear that has materia? I really wish they would be honest...or is there something I am missing about this stats that is better >.> Oh well I still wear it anyway..IDGAF hehe

[Geesus]

Lets take (readies flame shield) FFXI for example, they had crafted gear close to lower end endgame gear so when you level a job you get crafted gear, then come endgame you use it until you get the endgame gear (which could take a few months) this keeps crafters in demand and content useful, admitedly with the fact most people have all lvl 50s now it wouldnt work as well but I think thats what the devs need to go for.

This is honestly what I thought they would do...idk...because it worked in that game and other games. O.o *shrug*

[Richard_BG]

HOW I SPELL OBSOLETE

[Filtiarne]

>Patch 1.21
>Still tanking with Pld/Gla
>ISHYGDDT

[Mortikhan]

To me, AF was mainly about 3 things.

1) Getting stats on a piece of gear you could not normally get that stat on through binding materia.

2) Getting a Job specific full set of gear that catered to the role of that Job and being able to control how certain things happened with that Job or its abilities.

3) Offering a way for casual players to be able to function in events without requiring the time and gil sink that materia bonding and attaching can be.

Can you tailor a set that is beyond what a set of AF can do...in most cases yes. Will it be an easy task to do so without giving up something the AF offers that either can not be duplicated or not duplicated easily...not a chance. Some people want nothing to do with Materia bonding beyond one piece for now. Please keep in mind that any level cap increase will more than likely nullify both crafted and AF gear. So which would you rather put your time into at the end of the day with the probability of a level cap increase within the next year?

Some of the AF does not offer a bonus to a particular ability that a job may have. I am looking to replace that gear if anything and will work toward that end but for now I am happy with most of the AF and think most of it works quite well. Sure the PLD AF could use some work but it was bound to happen that one of the AF's was going to be viewed as "the worst" of the group. I think this has more to do with the fact that tanking is a vital part of a party. If it was MNK AF then most people would have said, "Oh boy, there goes PUG gettin screwed again." and it would not have been such a big issue since there are plenty of other jobs to resort to for compensation until SE fixed it.

SE is also walking a fine line here. If they make all the jobs and their gear 10x better than the classes they came from then no one would ever play the classes again. Mixing and matching party sets between classes and jobs is something SE wanted to accomplish. People need to stop looking at it like we do not have a new and improved tank and start looking at it like we now have three tanks overall now (PLD WAR GLD) that function in different roles.

[Sagagemini]

You guys need to relax.
They are going to improve jobs.
As for the AF gear, i agree. They should be better.
Melded gear is better.

[TheFatHousecat]

HOW I SPELL OBSOLETE

OBSOLOTE?

OBSOLUTE?

OBSOLITE?

Forget this, obsolte.

[Zantetsuken]

Not in one slot, but if you 3x meld all your gear you can beat it, lets say you get lucky (or spend alot of gil) highest att power+ materia is +30, 3x meld that to hands and you have +90 att power, highest str is +20, 3x that to your weapon is +60, crit att power+ triple meld that on body (+50 each) is +150.

Thats:
att power+90
STR+60
crit att power+ 150

and PUG, GLA and ARC can put 3x INT or PIE on their head, making +60 to those.

Beats darklight hands down.
ACC and DEX isnt really needed because we hardly miss anyway.

Well, I'm going to take the weapon out of your equation for obvious reasons...

So that leaves us with hands, body and head (Ill use PGL for this example)

Crafted

Felt Bliaud +1 (DEF 111, INT+5, MND+5, Magic Acc+6)+ 3x Savage Might IV [+50]
Fingerless Raptorskin Gloves of Slaying +1 (DEF 43, Mag Eva +10, Atk Pow +5) + 3x Heaven's Fist IV [+30]
Raptorskin Pot Helm +1 (DEF 69, Acc+6, Int+2, Fire res+10) + 3x Intelligence IV [+20]

Total:

DEF 223
Atk Pow +95
Crit Atk Pow +150
Acc +6
Magic Acc +6
Magic Eva +10
Fire Resist +10
INT +67
MND +5


Total Success Rate to achieve triple meld: ~3%
Cost of materials per failed triple meld: Head - 400k, Body - 2.8mil, Hands, 1.3 mil
Statistical Gil cost of obtaining all three items: ~150 Mil

Darklight - Bracers, Corselet, and Eyepatch

DEF 243
ATK +55
Crit Atk Power +60
Crit Rate +40
Store TP +40
ACC +53
STR +20
INT +20
EVA -24
HP -100

Drop Rate: ~10% per run - need 3/13 all Darklight items
Failure Cost: variable time spent per run
Statistical cost for obtaining all 3 items: 130 runs (if party members pass those 3 items to you)

Summary:
Crafted gear does beat out in the main 3 categories, but loses out on special Crit Rate and Store TP bonuses. Darklight obviously wins out in style points and the cost of obtaining the Darklight could be considered far lower than the Crafted gear - assuming that most players can't consistently earn ~ 1mil per hour.

[Geesus]

Well, I'm going to take the weapon out of your equation for obvious reasons...

So that leaves us with hands, body and head (Ill use PGL for this example)

Crafted

Felt Bliaud +1 (DEF 111, INT+5, MND+5, Magic Acc+6)+ 3x Savage Might IV [+50]
Fingerless Raptorskin Gloves of Slaying +1 (DEF 43, Mag Eva +10, Atk Pow +5) + 3x Heaven's Fist IV [+30]
Raptorskin Pot Helm +1 (DEF 69, Acc+6, Int+2, Fire res+10) + 3x Intelligence IV [+20]

Total:

DEF 223
Atk Pow +95
Crit Atk Pow +150
Acc +6
Magic Acc +6
Magic Eva +10
Fire Resist +10
INT +67
MND +5


Total Success Rate to achieve triple meld: ~3%
Cost of materials per failed triple meld: Head - 400k, Body - 2.8mil, Hands, 1.3 mil
Statistical Gil cost of obtaining all three items: ~150 Mil

Darklight - Bracers, Corselet, and Eyepatch

DEF 243
ATK +55
Crit Atk Power +60
Crit Rate +40
Store TP +40
ACC +53
STR +20
INT +20
EVA -24
HP -100

Drop Rate: ~10% per run - need 3/13 all Darklight items
Failure Cost: variable time spent per run
Statistical cost for obtaining all 3 items: 130 runs (if party members pass those 3 items to you)

Summary:
Crafted gear does beat out in the main 3 categories, but loses out on special Crit Rate and Store TP bonuses. Darklight obviously wins out in style points and the cost of obtaining the Darklight could be considered far lower than the Crafted gear - assuming that most players can't consistently earn ~ 1mil per hour.

I see the point you're trying to make but you forget there are people still looking for their first Moogle drop or win or Ifrit drop or win lol. So you're more or less speculating on the drop percentage for getting that gear. Imho your ~10% is a tad high and there are, if you're not aware, things you can do to have a solid chance of doubling or tripling your melds. And depending on how idiotic you are about the gil you spend on Materia, only a FOOL would waste 148 mil LOL. I have a LS mate with some solid pieces it did take him 10 mil to socket but that's WELL below your 148mil.