How is ilvl an issue while leveling?

[Deceptus]

I have poor NPC bought gear when I level anything. But unless it's a tank with lvl 20 caster gear then yes I am concerned (this has happend) But ilvl does not matter at all when leveling.

I saw a dark knight once with caster right side gear. I face palmed.

[LineageRazor]

It's not even remotely uncommon to run into players running Doma Castle or Castrum Abania while still wearing some pieces of gear from Stormblood. This game awards exp MUCH faster than it awards gear, so unless you specifically grind for gear of appropriate level, or purchase it with gil, you WILL eventually begin to lag behind on ilvls. As noted, falling behind on ilvls can result in long, difficult runs of what should be faceroll-easy trash dungeons.

Since folks often want to rush to 70 as fast as possible, they rarely bother to grind dungeons for gear, and are often low on gil as well (and often have little patience for tracking down the NPCs that could sell NQ gear cheaply).

[MoroMurasaki]

Since folks often want to rush to 70 as fast as possible, they rarely bother to grind dungeons for gear, and are often low on gil as well (and often have little patience for tracking down the NPCs that could sell NQ gear cheaply).

I'm sorry if I misunderstand - if you aren't defending these points as legitimate reasons to not be up-to-date on your gear then excuse my post.

Not being willing to take advantage of the plethora of gearing options available to you is no excuse to have poor gear. Everyone has the same opportunities to gear up, some of which take literally the effort required to google a vendor and teleport to them.


Wearing Shire gear into Doma and Abania is really just lazy no matter how you spin it - you could have geared up in Bardam's, you could have purchased crafted gear from the MB, you could have purchased NQ whites from a vendor... there are so many options and if in the 'rush to 70' someone feels it's okay to burden their party by not doing any of these that is on them.

A lot of people justify not gearing up under this idea that the rest of the party will likely be geared just fine but imagine an entire party showing up to Abania in i255 - that's going to be a nightmare 99% of the time and needlessly longer than most runs. They all assumed someone else would pick up their slack.

[RiyahArp]

um NQ whites are worse than shire gear, I think. NQ gear in general is very bad when leveling, it's worse than the gear you get for dungeons. Like if you get the shisui set, nq gear is a downgrade, only HQ gear is a boost from that. There's a reason why every quest reward is HQ gear now, and why no one buys 350 nq gear.

And it actually is hard to gear up from bardams on, for some reason they seem to drop gear much more slowly. Like you get the guaranteed one piece, but when I lvled all my jobs to 70 bardams and on were very hard to get. Bardams in particular doesn't give gear from chests till the first boss I think. you end up outleveling the dungeons well before you get a full set.

I mean, you shouldn't be wearing all shire, just doing dungeons while leveling gives some, and some hq pieces are very cheap due to being common quest rewards. But they do need to work on gearing some at mid levels.

[kikix12]

um NQ whites are worse than shire gear, I think. NQ gear in general is very bad when leveling, it's worse than the gear you get for dungeons.

Of course it is worse than gear you get from dungeons. But if you put on gear that is a higher level, their "gimped" stats are still higher than the stats of the "superior" gears that are for lower levels.

Augmented Shire Custodian armor (ilvl270, lvl60 blue armor) have 480 defense, 480 magic defense, 169 strength, 190 vitality, 90 skill speed and 129 direct hit.
Doman Steel Tabard of Fending (ilvl279, lvl66 white armor) have 607 defense, 607 magic defense, 167 strength, 179 vitality, 99 skill speed and 142 tenacity.
Gazelleskin Coat of Fending (ilvl285, lvl68 white armor) have 723 defense, 723 magic defense, 176 strength, 182 vitality, 170 determination and 119 tenacity.

As you can see, at lvl66 the normal quality armor (you can buy from an NPC) is 25% better in defense and magical defense, only slightly lower in strength and only 11 points worse in vitality. Lvl68 normal quality armor (you can buy from NPC) is 50% better in defense and magical defense, 7 points higher in strength and only 8 points less in vitality. I won't compare secondary stats due to those being varied across multiple pieces and I compare only the body. And due to the fact that defense first and primary stats second are the ones really important. And starting at lvl66 at the latest, your performance will go up if you use NPC gear than augmented shire gear.

In other words...at lvl68 buy the gear for tank if you don't have it from earlier drops. At least for top, pants and weapon, even if just normal quality, if you're cheap. That will make a world of difference.

[Jijifli]

Remember that you can only do MSQ once. This doesn't absolve people of needing proper ilvl to do dungeons - else it's a burden on the group - but after the first class you take through MSQ, you won't be getting those easy/free upgrades again. And most people don't want to grind dungeons to get a full set of gear. If it's their second class, that might be the issue. If they're on their first and selling their MSQ gear or turning it in for seals, that's their fault.

You don't have to grind dungeons?

The vendors sell gear you know. And by 70 it isn't hard to get the gil for them. Besides, most people will level via dungeons after 60, meaning they're constantly getting gear.

[AxlStream]

You don't have to grind dungeons?

The vendors sell gear you know. And by 70 it isn't hard to get the gil for them. Besides, most people will level via dungeons after 60, meaning they're constantly getting gear.

It's kind of a waste to buy vendor gear when you won't use it enough to do anything with it long term anyways. Especially if you don't have a good way of making gil.

[kikix12]

It's kind of a waste to buy vendor gear when you won't use it enough to do anything with it long term anyways. Especially if you don't have a good way of making gil.

High level set of gear costs how much?! ~120 000 gil in total?! Sorry, but how is that a lot when I don't even know from where I got two or three millions of gil since the time the houses were unlocked for private purchase, logging once every few days to finish a roulette or two and at best do Kojin and Ananta beast tribes?! And that doesn't even include whatever my retainer sells. I just sell whatever junk I get from those runs and do the beast tribes. And that's more than enough to get me enough gil to buy multiple sets lightly. Oh, and I have a retainer I sent on the 24h venture which I maybe actually accept twice or thrice a month. She brings some gil back with her in form of that purse or whatever that I can sell through her on the spot.

So yes. It's not a waste to have gear for those few runs before you reach the cap without causing issues to yourself and others in your party. Don't want to do it?! Go to a lower level dungeon and farm gear for free which you can pawn to the grand company once you're done.

Or level by beast tribes. It's 3-5 days per level using Ananta and Kojin from what I remember. No special gear required.

Or you can level exclusively through alliance, trials and 50/60 roulettes. These will never put you into a dungeon that your lvl60 augmented gear is too low for comfort until you are lvl70 and this becomes a non-issue with the class gear/hunt gear/tomestone gear etc.

[Makeda]

Why I said this:

It is amazing how often people defend this crap. That is a big reason people want change because they are hard to kick at times because people do not understand the game.

Yes, and well...

There is going into a leveling dungeon a little shy on gear and playing it safe... using ALL your cool downs, small pulls, and so on...

And then there is going into a leveling dungeon a little shy on gear and playing it Leeroy style - chain pulling in DPS stance, never using any cool downs, lettings mobs get on your back side, and so on... because "All the epic tanks on the forums say to use DPS stance"... and you think you're all that... but... they have the gear and rotation down, and you do not...

(you being our hypothetical tank... not any poster here).

Very often we get undergeared people who play it like they are overgeared... and that leads to all these fiascos.

There is also the situation of "my last healer was able to keep me up like this what is your problem" when that tank is maybe even 'of gear' but the healer is still leveling - and the tank is refusing to notice this...

And then there is the DPS that is "I'm overheard / good, so let's rush this thing" when the tank and/or healer are not overgeared...


In short, it's not so much that people run things they aren't geared for... but that when they do so, they just adjust how they play to accommodate that.

[Hasrat]

I wonder if they made a mistake, having raid/level cap gear remaining superior for so long into each patch. On the one hand, sure, it's nice not needing to worry about gear for so long, through half the dungeons. But on the other hand, it does encourage the lazy mindset, and does produce the idea that "well, it's just a few more levels til the next cap, that's the gear that matters." Perhaps if they made it so Augmented Ironworks/Shire were more quickly outclassed, more players would recognize how they're holding themselves and party members back by not keeping gear on par.