Spiritbonding Gear

[Classikal]

I've been away from the game for almost a year, about a month before Nvus stage of relic weapons got released. I was wondering what kind of gear people use for spiritbonding nowadays? Is there any new Spiritbonding equipment?

[Darra]

There are 2 primary types to spiritbond these days: 1, Ilvl 70, almost exclusively Gryphonskin accessories and armor sets (these are cheapest), these are bonded in T4 but can be done in dungeons such as Brayflox, Lost City and Halatali. 2: Ilvl 42-49, anything really especially HQ, these are done often times in Urths Gift in South Shroud, or, they can be done in Castrum. Some Ilvl 90 items are done too, but these take longer and require at least 1 hour to SB, and cost double what the Ilvl 70 items do, usually.

[Carvaka]

There are some good fate parties in northern than to sb if you need seals or relic at the same time, made a mill in about a week from there.

[StouterTaru]

Some Ilvl 90 items are done too, but these take longer and require at least 1 hour to SB, and cost double what the Ilvl 70 items do, usually.

If you do it in turn 4, it takes much less than an hour. Also, ilvl90 conversion rate is around 75% to TIV materia.

[Darra]

If you do it in turn 4, it takes much less than an hour. Also, ilvl90 conversion rate is around 75% to TIV materia.

Sadly in the Chaos server cluster, you can be waiting for 10 minutes as a tank or a healer to get into a T4 group, then you're in there for approx 5 minutes and you get, what is it, 7-10% SB? If you make a farm party it will go faster, or if you join a Light farming party for it, that's a good option too, but if you play solo and use DF's, it can easily take an hour.

[StouterTaru]

It's more like 30-50% per run in T4, depending on how much materia is on your gear.

[Darra]

It's more like 30-50% per run in T4, depending on how much materia is on your gear.

I read this and thought "am I wrong? damn" So I went and tested it. Using an ilvl 90 Saurian Belt of Healing my SB rates are as follows:
HQ belt, no melds, no buffs = 8% SB
HQ belt, 1 meld, No buffs = 10%
HQ belt, 1 meld 1 SB potion = 10%
HQ belt, 2 melds 1 SB potion = 11%
Now, on the surface it looks like a meld adds 2% maybe 2.5% to a SB from a T4 run, the potion doesn't seem to add anything. How on earth are you getting 30-50% per run? If the +3 from the potion adds 0-0.5%, then 2 meteor rings will be adding 0-1%. Add 2%-2.5% for each of the other melds and at best I can get it up to 23% per run (assuming everything adds at least 0.5%), which means I'd be losing 2 slots to meteor rings and a hat slot for the crown with +SB on it (assuming the +SB rate even adds any SB % at all). I'm sorry to report that your numbers are completely incorrect, and whilst 20% per run would be good, the cost of over melding each item to have 5 materia on it and making ilvl 90 items to begin with, cuts into your profits (if you want to make money). For almost the exact same effort (approx 18% per run), ilvl 70 whilst a bit more of a gamble at only 30-35% or so IV chance, is still a better option because you can use those extra 3 slots.

Note: Ilvl 70 with materia in it doesn't seem to give more than 0.5% bonus so it's not worth using materia at all with that in T4, unless you use NQ items, then 1 materia brings it up to the same % SB rate as an unmelded HQ.

[StouterTaru]

I was thinking it was on tier with the Snowcloak range of dungeon, must be ilvl70 that bonds that fast in there. Slap on 2 materia, and the 3 dungeons not ilvl110 capped, not in expert roulette get you about 50% per run.

[Darra]

Sadly it's on the same Tier as Halatali HM and Lost City. Which is why I said about an hour, or longer if you try it as DPS and get a nice 25 minute queue!

[Amnesia]

I SB i70 stuff in LotA. Q time is usually pretty short and you get decent soldiery as well...