Tank gear from 30-60?

[Deathroes]

I just started my alt Dark knight. I've noticed that my health goes down really fast and I really don't want to stress my healers out too much. I know poetics gear is at lvl 50 (I am at sub lvl 40 right now) but I was wondering if I can just save my poetics for the lvl 60 ones instead. What would be the cheapest/ least time consuming way to gear up decently until poetics gear?

I am just using the bits and pieces of gear I have collected leveling my main right now...

[JowyAtreides]

You may as well buy gear with poetics at level 50, you will regain more than enough by 60 and then some more by 70 (all this gear is poetics now I believe)

Otherwise, just buy npc gear. Might be a little tense at times but 9/10 you'll have maxxed gear (for that content) healer who can manage or DPS who will burn things down faster than it was back when the content was relevant.

[Iscah]

Something to be careful with below Lv50 is that the "recommended gear" button is often very unhelpful and will give you higher-level but lower-defence gear that isn't meant to be worn by tanks, because they can also equip DPS gear (marked for all DoW) and mage gear (all classes), so make sure it isn't doing that to you.

If you want to use the recommendations, move all non-tank gear out of your armoury chest and double-check the stats of any "upgrades" it suggests for you.

Definitely buy poetics gear at Lv50 - at least your weapon and body gear, more if you can. Pick up an encrypted tomestone and some carbontwine from WoD if you can.
(But also check the marketboard for prices on anything better than the i90 gear you'll get from the Lv50 quest.)

[Noitems]

NPC gear is fine, but if you're tight on gil I would recommend running lower level dungeons so you save on money. The EXP does scale to match your level so it's not too bad.

Once you hit 50 you can get Ironworks which will carry you to about 53 and 55 if you augment it using poetics. After that it's best to grind the 55 dungeon for gear and bring that with you into 59 at latest, then when you hit 60 buy shire.

The process pretty much repeats itself from 60 onwards, but the power creep is much worse in Stormblood so at 65 before running that dungeon I would recommend upgrading if you're still using shire from that point.

[Gneo]

If you're choosing to level up via running the highest level dungeon available to you, each time you clear a dungeon you'll get a gear drop (that will be useable by your class) automatically at the end.
And of course, there's always the chance that treasure chests will drop more gear for you.
But absolutely DO spend poetics on Ironworks gear when you hit lvl 50, it will carry you all the way to lvl 60.

[Iscah]

If you're choosing to level up via running the highest level dungeon available to you, each time you clear a dungeon you'll get a gear drop (that will be useable by your class) automatically at the end.
And of course, there's always the chance that treasure chests will drop more gear for you.
But absolutely DO spend poetics on Ironworks gear when you hit lvl 50, it will carry you all the way to lvl 60.

The free gear at the end of the dungeon is only for Lv51+ leveling dungeons. You don't get anything from ARR or endgame dungeons.

And I don't recommend keeping Ironworks gear in the Vault or Gubal Library. Maybe it's fine for DPS, but not for a tank who has to take all the damage for the party.

[Niwashi]

Something to be careful with below Lv50 is that the "recommended gear" button is often very unhelpful and will give you higher-level but lower-defence gear that isn't meant to be worn by tanks, because they can also equip DPS gear (marked for all DoW) and mage gear (all classes), so make sure it isn't doing that to you.

The recommended gear feature looks at actual stats, not levels. Or rather, level is at or near the bottom of its priority list. I think the only time it chooses by level is when two pieces have identical stats but different levels, which can sometimes happen with a lower level HQ item and higher level NQ item. (It's not even limited to the stats an item starts with, as it can shift an item's relative value when you add materia, so it's not just looking it up in a fixed list.)

That's not to say it always makes the best choices. It seems to have a hierarchy of stat priorities and stops as soon as it finds a difference. It will favor even a single extra point of your main stat over any number of points of defense (which is the part that can make it seriously wrong for tanks sometimes) and even a single point of defense over any number of good damage boosting tertiary stats (which can sometimes be a poor choice for a damage dealer).

As to removing non-tank gear from your armory chest when leveling a tank, there are a few levels where the BiS gear for tanks is gear designed for LNC/DRG, and at least in early levels you might occasionally even have regular DoW gear that's better than your tank gear if you've gotten one of the better dungeon drops for DoW but have only regular NQ tank gear (especially if that tank gear is from a few levels earlier). I'd say it's better to just double check the recommendations. They're a good starting point, but if you know you have something better, equip it instead.

[Iscah]

That's not to say it always makes the best choices. It seems to have a hierarchy of stat priorities and stops as soon as it finds a difference. It will favor even a single extra point of your main stat over any number of points of defense (which is the part that can make it seriously wrong for tanks sometimes) and even a single point of defense over any number of good damage boosting tertiary stats (which can sometimes be a poor choice for a damage dealer).

To be exact, I'm told it's based on the Vitality stat for tanks - except that stat also gets added to a lot of gear for other classes as well, so it might as well correspond to level in that case.

And yes, rather than take everything out of your armoury chest at the beginning, take it out piece by piece if the recommender tries to give it to you (and you're not needing it for another class).

I do consider "tank-and-lancer" gear to be tank gear though.

[Urthdigger]

I know poetics gear is at lvl 50 (I am at sub lvl 40 right now) but I was wondering if I can just save my poetics for the lvl 60 ones instead. What would be the cheapest/ least time consuming way to gear up decently until poetics gear?

If you are seriously considering sticking with level 30 gear until level 60... yeah, no. Don't do that. Especially because at 50 and 60 there is a huge gap in ilvl due to the endgame at that phase. You might be able to get away with that on ninja, but that's just because people don't really care about asking DPS to perform and will usually carry you through even if you're AFK the entire fight. To actually contribute you absolutely CANNOT let your gear fall that wildly out of date with the content you're doing. If you're absolutely trying for the easiest method, I would say upgrade every 10-15 levels in ARR, get poetics gear at 50, upgrade to HQ crafted gear at 56, get poetics at 60, upgrade to HQ crafted at 66, get poetics at 70, repeat. That'll strain your healers a bit, especially as you're reaching the far length of your limit, but that should still be doable. You absolutely cannot use leveling gear from a previous expansion in a new one.