When should I start worrying about gear?

[Bixby]

I wouldn't pay that much, either, unless they were HQ. You can get level 15 leggings all over the place for 450 gil. Level 15 gear in general, I wouldn't bother with the markets unless they had some bargain basement deals going.

[lujate]

Real life got in the way, and I didn't get to run Sastasha until last night.

I guess my gear was good enough, barely. I survived all the way to the end. I died on the final boss, but the healer and two DPS were able to finish (although finishing the dungeon dead was kind of a buzz-kill).

[PetiteMalFleur]

As a dps your gear is unimportant unless you're failing solo instances. As a tank I think it's just common courtesy to keep your gear up to date. No one wants to spend an hour wiping over and over in a 30 minute low level dungeon because the tank didn't bother equipping any accessories or upgrading their gear beyond what they get in their class quests.

[Urthdigger]

Even if you're a DPS, you should take care to keep your gear updated. Your job is to help things die faster, and if your gear is out of date you won't be doing very well there. While the tank and healer can technically kill things for you, it's rather rude to make them do all the work. In addition, later dungeon fights will often have phases where dealing enough damage fast enough is a requirement, usually either in the case of something that must be destroyed before it can do a powerful attack, or continually summoned reinforcements which will swamp the party if not dealt with fast enough. In those cases, you cannot simply mooch with piss poor gear.

[JMadFour]

Piggyybacking this thread instead of making a new one.

When should we start being concerned with putting Materia on our gear?

Also, I despise crafting in all MMOs. What would constitute a decent tip for having Materia melded for me?

[Urthdigger]

Honestly, most people don't put materia into gear as they level. Most of the stats you'll actually care about will be capped on your armor and weapons if you get a HQ item, making materia just for tertiary stats that might be nice. It's mostly a concern at endgame, where you might want stuff like +crit capped on ALL armor, not just the ones that happen to have it, or accessories with both caster stats AND vitality.

Of course, if you're converting your old gear when you're done with it and thus getting tier I and II materia (Not that valuable to the endgame crowd), feel free to have someone meld it into your gear. Just take care to have it done on a piece of gear that doesn't already have that stat on it, since the existing stats count towards the stat caps.

Oh, and I usually tip 500 gil.

[beatsstayflowin]

Being a tank, I really believe having to worry about gear before Brayfox is overkill. However, I highly recommend running Hakkue Manor multiple times to be sure that you are geared up for Brayfox.

The difficulty jump from Hakkue to Brayfox is huge. They even make you look for AoE in water. Why the hell would they make you do that?

[lujate]

Is there a general rule of thumb for iLvl for normal mode dungeons, or is it come-as-you-are?

[Urthdigger]

Ideally I'd say your weapon no more than 5 levels below the dungeon and armor no more than 10 levels below as a bare minimum. That said, exceeding the minimum is always appreciated. If it's your first class you should be able to gear up well enough via sidequests. If it's a second class, may want to befriend a crafter, or become one yourself, to ensure you can get the gear you want.

[juniglee]

Don't forget that past Level 20, you can get gear from Grand Companies too. If you are on a second class, chances are you have a lot, or capped out on seals.

Urth's thumb of rule is good to follow. Weapon having 5 iLevels below the dungeon you are doing, and armor having 10 less. Don't worry too much about accessories though. They're not as important as armor, but they do give you some stat benefits.