Twin Adder Dragoon

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

The Grid Overcoat is one of the best melee bodies in game at the moment. It's competitive with DL if you keep sanction up. I use it on drg and mnk myself, and I know some people use it on bard when they aren't on ballad duty.

NQ Darksteel haub isn't worth the cost in my opinion, especially when you have the grid overcoat as an option. I probably wouldn't replace my overcoat with less than an HQ pie > crit atk double meld, but that's getting into prohibitively expensive territory for most players (myself included). If you aren't going with the overcoat or HQ darksteel haub, double melded cobalt haub is the next best option.

All this is going to change (well, could change) in the near future and that is always an important consideration. However, from what little review I have done it appears that your primary and secondary stats are far and away the most important thing to gear for, prior to your stat cap (determined by weapon DPS). So, from that understanding, the Grid body would only be better if you were still able to reach stat caps associated with your weapon. If not, then the Darksteel Hauby or whatever else (cobalt, rainmaker, turtoiseshell) with appropriate secondary stats melded (i.e., piety) should be better.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[Perin]

All this is going to change (well, could change) in the near future and that is always an important consideration. However, from what little review I have done it appears that your primary and secondary stats are far and away the most important thing to gear for, prior to your stat cap (determined by weapon DPS). So, from that understanding, the Grid body would only be better if you were still able to reach stat caps associated with your weapon. If not, then the Darksteel Hauby or whatever else (cobalt, rainmaker, turtoiseshell) with appropriate secondary stats melded (i.e., piety) should be better.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Generally speaking that's correct. But don't forget you're getting 10str and 10pie on the overcoat, and the 120 crit atk is roughly a III > IV > IV savage might meld (that's a lot lol). Added to that, the better atk/acc food gives 7 more piety. Piety caps around 310-315, so hitting that cap is a lot less of an issue, especially if you pick up 15 more piety with the grid officer's cap.

It obviously is going to boil down to what the rest of your gear looks like when it comes to deciding on what to upgrade to. But for me, I could cap piety without rings (and needed gc set bonus), so missing out on a piety melded body was a non-issue. And for twin adder dragoons looking to complete the lieutenant spear's set bonus, there aren't a ton of options (I had to use the +int/m.atk earring on drg until I got garuda's beak even with overcoat and cap).

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

Generally speaking that's correct. But don't forget you're getting 10str and 10pie on the overcoat, and the 120 crit atk is roughly a III > IV > IV savage might meld (that's a lot lol). Added to that, the better atk/acc food gives 7 more piety. Piety caps around 310-315, so hitting that cap is a lot less of an issue, especially if you pick up 15 more piety with the grid officer's cap.

It obviously is going to boil down to what the rest of your gear looks like when it comes to deciding on what to upgrade to. But for me, I could cap piety without rings (and needed gc set bonus), so missing out on a piety melded body was a non-issue. And for twin adder dragoons looking to complete the lieutenant spear's set bonus, there aren't a ton of options (I had to use the +int/m.atk earring on drg until I got garuda's beak even with overcoat and cap).

Pre food, what is your STR and PIE?

[Perin]

Pre food, what is your STR and PIE?

337 Str and 309 Piety

I usually eat smoked raptor/tuna miq'abobs since my str is well below cap.

what's skirmish fork compared to gc lance? @ least skirmish weps can be melded. ^^

As far as caps, it's around ifrit I think (330 or so strength cap). I haven't really tested it, but I believe the consensus came to needing a double tier IV atk meld on skirmish lance to catch up with ifrit's (or use skirimish to cap stats and go double/triple atk bracers). Maybe someone who's actually done the work to parse both can chime in.