Warrior Material

[Molly_Millions]

If you equip -enmity gear instead of DD gear, you'll do less damage.

Wrong, Flame Sergeant Tabard has -enmity, and it's DD gear. If we're only talking about rings, accessories, and materia, then I will agree. If this is meant to be more general, then it's simply not true as in the case of the GC tabard.

Other DD have aoe too and it got improved, your damage & range got nerfed and it still makes you suck in damage on Garuda compared to other classes.

Not true, look up. I've parsed the fight quite a few times and usually come up 3rd in dmg, 1st when ranked against other physical attackers. Also the nerf to the range of steel cyclone should have no effect on weather or not you can take down the plumes since you should be hitting them before they move out of range.

[KumaAkuma]

Wrong, Flame Sergeant Tabard has -enmity, and it's DD gear. If we're only talking about rings, accessories, and materia, then I will agree. If this is meant to be more general, then it's simply not true as in the case of the GC tabard.

It's not the best DD piece you can get. You are downgrading.

Not true, look up. I've parsed the fight quite a few times and usually come up 3rd in dmg, 1st when ranked against other physical attackers. Also the nerf to the range of steel cyclone should have no effect on weather or not you can take down the plumes since you should be hitting them before they move out of range.

Then you're playing with other suckers.

[Molly_Millions]

It's not the best DD piece you can get. You are downgrading.

Then you're playing with other suckers.

It's not the best, however the results speak for themselves. The GC tabard holds it's own against average melded gear. On top of that, the average party does not have better than average gear. If you don't listen to the facts, then you are a fool.

Lets take a look at the stats on the GC Tabard for comparrison:

Flame Sergeant's Tabard
HP : +60
Str : +10 << you can't put STR on a chest piece via materia
Accuracy : +5 << you can't put ACC on a chest piece via materia
Enmity : -20
Flame gear set (3): Crit Attack Power +40 << big plus if you have 3 GC items on and + crit rate accessories


Cobalt Cuirass
HP : +60
Vit : +7
Attack Power : +4 << STR on the Tabard is MUCH better than this even with + 7 VIT

* With more VIT, the cuirass could be better for DD than the GC tabard depending on how much damage each point in VIT is worth as a dmg modifier. In general though folks add HP to thier chest pieces because of the negligible damage mitigation of VIT. For DD, if you are using a meldable chest piece, it's probably a good idea to use something like crit attack power materia assuming you have the crit rate gear to back it up. The cost of such materia makes it so that it's not really an attractive option, however.


Fighter's Cuirass
Redirects magic damage during Vengeance
HP : +50
Attack Power : +6
Accuracy : +6
Vit : +7 << again, the +10 STR on the tabard is better for DD, but with the +6 attk probably evens out
Evasion : +3


In the end, I do more damage wearing my GC tabard than I do with my any of my double melded cuirasses (I have 3) or my Fighter's Cuirass. For DD, it's definately not a downgrade in most situations. (a melded cobalt cuirass may be an exception depending on what's on it, such as double or triple melded one with VIT.)

[KumaAkuma]

It's not the best, however the results speak for themselves. The GC tabard holds it's own against average melded gear. On top of that, the average party does not have better than average gear. If you don't listen to the facts, then you are a fool.

Lets take a look at the stats on the GC Tabard for comparrison:

Flame Sergeant's Tabard
HP : +60
Str : +10 << you can't put STR on a chest piece via materia
Accuracy : +5 << you can't put ACC on a chest piece via materia
Enmity : -20
Flame gear set (3): Crit Attack Power +40 << big plus if you have 3 GC items on and + crit rate accessories


Cobalt Cuirass
HP : +60
Vit : +7
Attack Power : +4 << STR on the Tabard is MUCH better than this even with + 7 VIT

* With more VIT, the cuirass could be better for DD than the GC tabard depending on how much damage each point in VIT is worth as a dmg modifier. In general though folks add HP to thier chest pieces because of the negligible damage mitigation of VIT. For DD, if you are using a meldable chest piece, it's probably a good idea to use something like crit attack power materia assuming you have the crit rate gear to back it up. The cost of such materia makes it so that it's not really an attractive option, however.


Fighter's Cuirass
Redirects magic damage during Vengeance
HP : +50
Attack Power : +6
Accuracy : +6
Vit : +7 << again, the +10 STR on the tabard is better for DD, but with the +6 attk probably evens out
Evasion : +3


In the end, I do more damage wearing my GC tabard than I do with my any of my double melded cuirasses (I have 3) or my Fighter's Cuirass. For DD, it's definately not a downgrade in most situations. (a melded cobalt cuirass may be an exception depending on what's on it, such as double or triple melded one with VIT.)

Why are you listing those for DD and not for example a cobalt haubergeon melded with crit attack
or even now the sexy Darksteel Haubergeon:

Str+7, Attack+7, Acc+8, Crit Attack+10 , meldable.

If you're trying to get the set bonus, then you're downgrading other equipslots.

[Molly_Millions]

Why are you listing those for DD and not for example a cobalt haubergeon melded with crit attack
or even now the sexy Darksteel Haubergeon:

Str+7, Attack+7, Acc+8, Crit Attack+10 , meldable.

I ignored the darksteel stuff because it's prohibitively expensive. Like I said, the GC tabard isn't the best, but it holds it's own against average gear, being that the darksteel hauby is so expensive, it doesn't fit the "average gear" model. If we're gonna consider the darksteel gear, then we should also consider the darklight gear, and well, the GC gear won't hold a candle to that stuff.

If you're trying to get the set bonus, then you're downgrading other equipslots.

Not really, you can't put acc on your waist via materia for example. So by wearing the Flame Sergeant's Sash in addition to my gc tabard (the two having a combined 15 ACC), I can replace an ACC ring with the flame segeant's ring, which gives me 20 more attack power. Also, I could be wrong on this, but I believe the extra DEX on the sash helps add dmg to weaponskills as well.

Believe me when I say I did my homework before I bought the stuff. I thought it would be a bit of a downgrade, just as you obviously do, but I didn't think it would be huge. But it turns out I was wrong, for DD, the GC gear is very decent. The parse results don't lie. Again, you can make better gear with materia but it better have double melded tier IV's all over the place, and not just any tier IVs will do.