Question: as a PLD what should be melded into a rose gold ring?

[Maelwys]

HQ Gryphonskin Ring comes with 9 Str/9 Dex/12 Acc/9 SS, and you can meld up to an additional 10 Vit, 12 Parry and 9 Crit Rate via materia. (Crit IV x1, Vit IV x1, Parry III x2 and Vit III x1). Compared to a Rosegold Ring, you'd be able to get an extra +2 Dex and +9 SS.

HQ Rosegold Ring comes with 12 Acc, 10 Vit and 9 Parry, and you can meld up to an additional 9 Str, 7 Dex, 3 Parry and 9 Crit Rate via materia. (Crit IV x1, Dex IV x1, Str IV x1, Str II x1, Parry II x1). Compared to a Gryphonskin Ring, you'd probably lose a good bit less money on melding-related materia breakages since two of the ones required are only Tier 2.

Is it worth it? Well it pretty much depends on your playstyle and the content you are running. Taking Two Gryphonskin Rings instead of an Allagan/Heroes Ring combo would mean you'd lose 10 Vitality and 3 Parry, but gain 18 Str, 18 Dex, 8 Acc, 18 Crit and 7 SS. Which pretty much translates to trading 150 HP for slightly higher damage and aggro control. Personally, I'd consider that tradeoff to be worth it for a Warrior (where the amount of self-healing they can do relies directly on their damage output) but probably not for a Paladin (since their damage output really doesn't matter as long as they can hold hate reliably) unless you are already "too survivable" for whatever content you're doing.

(Taking this theorycrafting to extremes: the HQ Gryphonskin Wristbands and Rosegold Ear Screws can both hit 9str/9dex/12acc/6det/10vit/12parry/9crit, and the HQ Gryphonskin Choker can hit 9str/9dex/9acc/8det/10vit/12parry/9crit. Combined with the aforementioned HQ Gryphonskin Rings, the total gain compared to Allagan Gear would be: 45 Str, 45 Dex, -25 Vit, -10 Parry, 3 Acc, 45 Crit, 18 Det, 7 SS. Technically a tank could throw all of their 30 distributable points into VIT and load up on ilevel 70 Gryphonskin accessories, and come away with more VIT and STR - not to mention Dex, Det, SS, Crit and/or Acc - than a tank who threw all of their distributable points into STR and loaded up on ilevel 90 +Mitigation Heroes/Allagan accessories)

TL;DR: If you want to go for +VIT ALL THE WAY - Gryphonskins are not BIS for you so stick with Allagan/Heroes gear. However if you want to go for extra +STR (even if it's just a little bit) then go for some Gryphonskins if you can afford them because they will give you much better return than redistributing your stat points from VIT into STR. Gryphonskins are always going to be better than Rosegolds for min/maxxing.

[ken00]

the materia set is for dragoon? Str/Det/Parry might be better for the Paladin? just an idea though im thinking what materia to put in my rose gold ring.

also 2.1 is coming in a month or 2 so wouldnt it be a waste of money because everybody will be using 80+ stuff by then, unless of course you have the gil ~

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

From a financial standpoint, I think the Rose Gold Rings may be less expensive on your gil purse than the Gryphonskin. I imagine a lot of people will go for Gryphonskin and this will start to push the price of Vitality, Accuracy

Depending on your server, you may be able to purchase Strength and Dexterity materia for less than Vitality and Parry. If your server has a high competition for Battledance III materia for the tank relics, you may find that it'll be more difficult to outfit your Gryphonskin Ring in a defensive orientation using the third tier too. Speaking only from that perspective, you may be able to afford a quintuple meld from the Rose Gold Ring before you can Gryphonskin. If Tier IVs are scarce on your server and these items will contain Tier IIIs at the end, then this may not matter as much.

e.g. Strength IV may be 40k. Dexterity IV may be 75k. Vitality IV may be 180k. Parry IV may be 160k.

[Coramac]

Dex is a great stat for tanking but it requires an all / none gearing approach which makes it much more complicated. The first benefits start around 217 and then from the testing we have, you gain an additional 1% chance to parry at some value that lies between 14.5 to 27 points (not enough testing to determine a more narrow range). If you aren't selling out for Dex (in pure terms of itemization not stat allocation), it's just much of an improvement for the investment. If you go all crafted and max dex, you're going to get significant returns on blocking and parry. If you don't, you won't. Furthermore, none of the i90 tanking gear has dex on it. When you begin updating to that, you'll lose the advantage you got from dex in a hurry.