Red scrip Gear discussion?

[MN_14]

The main purpose of the i180 gear is to prepare for 3* crafts while avoiding grinding for favor items or the high cost of purchasing red scrip materials/favor items, but at the cost of slow progression. It's also a slow method of meeting the 2* requirements, but melded i150 gear is the better method, provided that you can afford the melds. If you can meet the minimum 2* craftsmanship/control requirements and have around 440 CP with food, you'll be able to handle 2* crafts fairly well.

The major downside to the i170 sets would be the time required to grind for favor items or cost to purchase materials, as well as the astronomical cost of melding them. From my experience, the cost of melding the i170 accessories alone is on par with all of the i150 melds combined.

[Mycow8me]

The HQ version of the i170 gear opens up alot of room for CP, even if you don't craft a HQ, it would still be better for the hands/arms/feet/legs slots just because of that. Even with just tier 3 materia advance melded after a Tier IV... it could have a better end result IMO. Yeah mats are ... out there but still better in the long run. Question really is how long before its outdated?

I see the use of the i180 gear but ultimately, it's just not worth it when redscrips can aid in getting you mats to make the 170 gear unless your in a hurry to get some ilvl80 gear or are using it to gear up some of your alt crafting classes. Arguably you could sell HQ items that you have been turning in to purchase some i170 gear off the MB or HQ mats to make your own instead of using the redscrips at all depending on what your selling and how much gil you can make in a day I suppose.