Just hitting 50

[Shardbearer]

Is it worth it to pick up some crafted gear such as the heavy darksteel pieces? If I do, do I slot parry or vitality materia?

Also, does it matter if mobs are hitting me from the side or the back?

Are there certain dungeons I should run to get specific pieces of gear?

[FullmetalMuse]

Enjoy the Philo/Mytho grind. I'd focus on armor and pants first... either way you go DL/Darksteel

[TaranNos]

I probably wouldn't use darksteel anymore. I'd run CT til you get tank chest or legs, then get darklight/myth to complement it.

You can not block/parry mobs hitting you in the back, so try to have them facing you. I'm not sure to what degree they can be on your side before you can no longer parry them.

[Yunnie]

I don't recommend getting crafted armors (anymore). But I do recommend accessories like rings and stuff. Ct gear is easy to gear up, and myth is faster to obtain then it used to be. You can get ct body and myth head, and then ct legs and myth boots in 3 weeks time. Ct gives so many philo tomes that you can get full dark light in a matter of days, so wear your 55/60 greens until you get either ct body or legs, myth the sister piece and then darklight the other combo. The only armor piece you might want to consider for crafted 2-star is the gloves since its not a double piece. For materia on accessories, prioritize str or vit depending on what already comes on the piece, then parry (and then probably acc but I could be wrong here) reason I say this- is because on dark light and i90 accessories, you cannot get both str AND vit. This is where 2-star accessories shine!

[Kerwin]

Crafted armor is a joke now. You will spend more philo tombs on mats then you do for darklight. And darklight is better.

[SpookyGhost]

1. Darksteel is good compared to Darklight, but it will all be quickly replaced so I would just save yourself the trouble and go with Darklight. If you have 50 ARM and a buttload of gil, that's the only case where I'd recommend just buying mats and getting Darksteel. Don't even need to meld any of it except pentamelding ACC 3 on the legs (for Coil). But otherwise you'll want DL - make sure to pick up HM/Pharos Sirius gear on your way too.

2. I believe you can't parry if a mob is behind/to the side of you, so its helpful to keep them all in front (facing away from the party obv).

3. WP -> AK -> HM Haukke Manor -> HM Copperbell Mines -> Pharos Sirius -> Crystal Tower. Not sure how much gear has shifted but that should be the order where you'll get upgrades, CT having the highest ilvl (80, surpassing Darklight)

[bob13bob]

WP through Copperbell (all under i70) is irrelevant compared to Darklight (DL) (i70) now. The only reason to run these is to farm phil tomes (WP runs)

[bob13bob]

No Gear check
1. Run CT until you get one piece/week (i80)
2. Run the Duty Roulette that gives bonus phil + myth tomes once/day
3. Buy an i55 weapson from your Grand Company for seals Unless you get a lucky ifrit HM drop. GC seals are not good for anything else except stat reset.
4. You can do WP runs to farm phil + myth after you exhausted your DR bonus once/day. You should cap your myth/week (450)
Pretty soon you'll have Full DL. DL so easy to obtain, don't bother farming anything under i70.

1st Gear check.
1. Once you're in Full DL, Go through your relic chain HM = ifrit < garuda < titan. For titan and Garuda you need be full DL or higher. Full DL with 2 piece of Myth (buy myth pants first) + GC weapon in step 3 will average you about i75. Get your relic weapons + shield i80
2. Start using myth to fill in your lowest pieces.
3. Run coil 1.

This is where I'm at at i75 average. Can someone else add where to go from here as I don't know outside once/week CT and

[blowfin]

The OP has a 50 DRG, he can skip straight to full DL really. i55 and i60 shouldn't even come into the equation.

Can someone else add where to go from here as I don't know outside once/week CT and

Farming Ultima HM for an acc isn't a bad way to go. It's a fun fight and takes a bit of time to master.

Also, learning to tank Thornmarch is a useful exercise. Plus you might get an i75 weapon. May or may not be useful, but better than Ifrit and Garuda weapons. It also makes a moogle sound.

Primals can be done easily enough before you get full DL, just for WAR, you NEED provoke for Garuda.

After that there's Garuda EX and Coil etc. etc.

[Gamemako]

Crafted armor is a joke now. You will spend more philo tombs on mats then you do for darklight. And darklight is better.

Darksteel Armor/Flanchard are 1125 tomes, Darklight ones are 1320 tomes. There is no Darksteel belt, so the only other piece are the gloves, which cost more tomes but can be better than Darklight with melds (but not worth the extra 630 tomes).