Question Regarding Items

[Trussblink]

Well, a few questions; what do the little tiny circles in the top right of an item indicate?

Also the rarity of gear, I understand, but is it an arbitrary rarity system, or based on item level somehow?

Is there a way to view an armour or weapon's high quality stats without owning the item?

And finally is crafting weapons or armour worth it at all, or do the crafting classes (no offence to people who enjoy crafting) become redundant due to the higher level gear available from raids or dungeons, etc.?

[Enkidoh]

Welcome to Eorzea!

Firstly, the little coloured circle shows that piece of gear can be dyed, that is, it's majority colour can be changed (the colour in the circle shows the colour it is currently dyed as, if this circle is clear, then it is currently undyed and showing it's default colour). The quest to unlock the ability to dye gear becomes available at level 15 from Vesper Bay in Western Thanalan, of which more info can be found here.

Secondly, the only way to check a piece of gear's HQ version is by browsing the Market Board as it will list the normal version by default, but also list the HQ version in the same column as well. Hence this is where an online resource like the Lodestone's own equipment database or a third party site like Gamerescape comes in handy, as there is no easy way to check a HQ version stats on a NQ item I'm afraid, at least as far as I'm aware.

I'm not a crafter so I am afraid I cannot answer that last question fully, but from I understand it can be useful and slightly cheaper than getting the gear yourself from other sources like the Market Board... however, bare in mind you need to source the materials and unless you are also harvesting materials with farming classes as well, buying the materials to craft can often be more expensive than simply buying the finished item off the Market Board. A lot of players craft though not to make money or supply themselves with gear, but just because they find it fun, which is after all the whole point to the game.

Really, because of the Armoury System encouraging you to try different classes, go ahead and try crafting for yourself! You never know until you try after all.

[Caitlinzulu]

Difference should be that HQ is around 10% higher stats. Used to be 20% difference but it got changed in heavensward i think.

[Frizze]

Rarity isnt directly based on level. There are green and pink rarity items as low as like level 15. It is more related to the source of the item typically.

And a crafted HQ item will be 10% better on advanced stats(str, vit, crit, etc) but not on damage or defense values. The damage and defense numbers wont be quite that big of a jump.

Ok, those questions were both kinda answered already, so i mainly posted to answer your crafting question. Here goes. Crafting is definitely relevant. The current crafting tier allows making gear of ilvl 250. The newest tomestone(scripture) is exchangeable for ilvl 260 gear, and completing the hardest content in the game currently rewards ilvl 270 stuff. But you need to remember that you can only earn a limited number of the current tome per week, so it takes awhile to get a full set of gear that way. And you dont just start doing the hardest content with a fresh level 60 and the roughly ilvl 145 gear they would have. You need to upgrade to even enter the savage scene. This doesnt automatically mean crafting - there are other methods of getting your gear up to par. They just take time and effort or gil(you know, if you decide to just buy a set of 250s someone else crafted). In addition, crafting is an excellent way to gear up a new class you may decide you want to level later on. And it isnt just gear, there are other things crafters make that people still need at high levels. Every raider wants good food and potions to get the extra advantage on their opponents too. So... no, crafters arent redundant.

[Urthdigger]

You can view an item's HQ stats by pressing a button to toggle what the tooltip shows, I believe it's R2 on the controller. No idea what it is on keyboard.

About gear rarity, it actually means VERY little. This is not Diablo or Borderlands, in this game it is the level of your item that matters. Specifically item level, which can differ from equip level.

White gear is your commons. The vast majority is craftable, but there are some pieces here and there that cannot. It should be noted that for the craftable gear, high-quality gear is the baseline that all other gear is compared to. Normal quality takes a step back. For levels 1-49 equip level will always match item level (with the exception of "damaged" gear from dungeons, see below), but past level 50 the item level jumps up due to the rise gear took when level 50 was endgame.

Pink gear is aetherial gear. This is the only gear with randomness, and drops from early dungeons. It will share a name with a piece of crafted gear and will have the same PRIMARY stats, but instead of the secondary stats the base piece has, it will be a random assortment of them. The item level is the same as the base item as well, but the equip level matches the level to enter the dungeon, which may be a few levels lower. There's also level 60 pink gear that comes from Diadem. This is mostly the same as aetherial gear, but it has an equip level of 60, there are different tiers of item level depending on the chest it came from, and the appearance is also randomized.

Green gear is your standard "rare" gear. For levels 1-49, green gear has a few item levels more than its equip level, while for 51-59 it is exclusively dungeon drops and grants gear for odd levels (while crafted gear handles evens), with a fairly linear progression as equip level rises, regardless of white or green. Green gear drops from dungeons, or is crafted using materials dropped from dungeons (the "damaged" white gear from dungeons typically), while green gear at levels 50 and 60 may be crafted using materials that can only be gathered at certain times of the Eorzean day, and represent the various tiers of crafted gear once one has hit endgame (The reason a lot exist at 50 was because that was the cap for a while). There's also a few green items that can be purchased with special currencies, such as from grand companies or PVP.

Blue gear is... precisely the same as green gear except for how it's obtained. Blues are more "significant" than greens, and are either purchased with tokens at endgame, or dropped by raids or primals, orobtained via quests and achievements. Typically, blue gear represents more of an accomplishment than green gear (which can usually either be bought or obtained from an easy dungeon), and also has a fair amount of lore attached most of the time. Still, the difference only matters for showing off, again, item level is all that matters here. Oh, there ARE some blue items that drop from dungeons, but those were formerly obtained with tomestones that have since been outdated.

Purple gear is used EXCLUSIVELY for relic weapons. These weapons are MASSIVE grinds, but tend to be quite flashy, have a TON of attached lore, and even allow you to allocate the secondary stats as you wish past a certain stage. They're also a way for players with more time than skill to have a decent item level weapon... or to show your dedication.

[Enkidoh]

Purple gear is used EXCLUSIVELY for relic weapons. These weapons are MASSIVE grinds, but tend to be quite flashy, have a TON of attached lore, and even allow you to allocate the secondary stats as you wish past a certain stage. They're also a way for players with more time than skill to have a decent item level weapon... or to show your dedication.

Actually, there is an exception to this - the wedding ring the Eternity Ring is 'purple gear' too, despite being a level 1 accessory with no stat bonuses, presumably showing just how precious and special it is. But other than that, you are of course totally correct about purple gear being otherwise exclusively relic weapons.

[LineageRazor]

A quick note about Aetherial gear (the pink gear)...

Excluding the Diadem stuff, Aetherial equipment is basically identical to high quality crafted gear, with random stats slapped on for good measure. HQ white gear can be made better than pink gear by attaching materia to it - however, this is rarely worth doing. Any content that you'd wear white or pink gear for is going to be content that's ALREADY easy enough to do without bothering to optimize your gear.

You can think of Aetherial equipment as though it's crafted white gear with a couple random materia socketed for you.

Also worth noting: Most pink and white gear are convertible. This means you can change them into materia once you've used them for a while, which gives you something useful you can do with them other than just throwing them away or selling them to an NPC for pennies. This is called Spiritbonding, and once your spiritbond with an item reaches 100%, you can convert it if it is convertible.

Most green and blue gear are NOT convertible. Some pieces are, but most are not. When you're done with these gear, the best you can do with them is trade them in for Grand Company Seals, a special currency that's useful for a few things.

One other use for old white, pink, green, and blue gear is Desynthesis. This is an aspect of crafting, and you need to be at least level 30 in a craft before you can desynthesize equipment related to that craft. Desynthesis destroys the equipment and awards you an item of some kind, usually a crafting ingredient, and sometimes quite valuable.

[Trussblink]

Thank you so much for all of this, truly; massive, massive help with great explanations from all- You guys are the reason this community's so nice~

[Ichirai]

not sure if someone did answer the part on seeing the HQ stats, but yes you can see the HQ stats from the NQ - on keyboard you hold down CTRL while you have the mouse pointer over the NQ item
SE added that feature not too long ago actually, I was very excited about that! it takes so little lol