How good does my retainers' gear need to be?

[NationOfZealots]

This is about as random as Atma, not referring to the randomness of the item drops but as to how people manage to get "rare drops", to the point where I would probably discourage new venturers from going as DoL tbh. :-(

I have both BTN/MIN retainers with high enough gathering for the XIV Exploration, I sent them out on about 4 Quick Ventures each and quickly gave up as they were all useless (fish, housing items) and there seems to be less chance for useful item acquisition between DoWM and DoL. Not so much as a complaint as it is a system that was obviously not well designed (hence the 2.3 "nerf").

Its gotten to the point that I prefer to stick my retainers on shard duty.

[Kaaylryn]

The disclaimer regarding higher Ilvl or gathering skills is this:

Your retainer's current gear should improve chances of finding rare items.

The key word here is SHOULD, not WILL. So, yes, mine are primarily on shard/crystal duty as well unless there is a specific item I need.

[Nicobo]

This is about as random as Atma....

Yes the randomness is same as atma, same funny.
The result is random, but my four retainers very often got the same random result, ^^;
for example, all of them come back with their job relevent raw mats, or furnitures, or housing parts, or matarias..etc
All same, but not mixed.