How long does HQ pentamelded gear last a player?

[Renryuu]

Hiya, so after years of playing this game since 2.0, I've finally got all my crafters to max level and become an omni-crafter and one of the first things I did was make myself a HQ set of Neo-Ishgardian gear and fully pentamelded it since it's something I've never done before. I was just wondering how long the gear will last me, or what gear will be objectively better to upgrade to from it? I'm a more casual player so I don't have access to savage gear, only the weekly tomestone gear and whatever drops from normal/24 man raids.

[Sabora_Makingai]

Unless youre going to be doing savage content, the gear will last you till the next major content patch (next savage tier). If you do plan on upgrading it, the next logical step would be tomestone gear (upgrade-able to 500 after the next 24 man comes out).

[Mhaeric]

Until you put it in the glamour dresser and don't read the warning but still accept it.

[CKNovel]

A long while. It can take up to 8 weeks after clearing all the savage before you are BiS (Bests equipments in slots).
So basically, you are safe until you have all the tomestone gear which can take 14 weeks if you aim for a full tomestone gear. But if you are doing EX content, you can skip the crafted weapon. EX isn't that hard but if you're playing casual you'll definitely need some practice.

[Frizze]

Realistically, you could take a 6 month break from the game without upgrading another piece. Then when patch 5.4 drops and the next tier of gear is available, youd be in a good enough position to do all the "casual content" on day one. As for upgrades, some of the 490 tomestone gear will be a little better(ditto the 490 gear from the next 24 man that will drop in 3 months), most of the upgraded 500 tomestone gear will be better - but if you dont savage then you cant do these upgrades until the next patch anyway. Pentamelds are already going to be better then almost all(probly all) non-savage raid pieces(same ilvl with limited materia means lower substats).

[ForteNightshade]

If you aren't doing Savage, pentamelding battle gear is more or less a waste. Even the i470 gear from last tier is overpowered for most of the content. Pentamelding battle gear is more for raiders trying to squeeze hoe extra damage and get a head start on their FFlogs page.

[snipski]

i feel bad wearing crafted stuff and not fully penta melded tho