Gear Progression: Post-Shadowbringers 5.0

[HyperiusUltima]

So, I went and made an alt and noticed that there's a bit of an issue that I think they should've gone back and fixed. For some ungodly reason, they've kept the Deepshadow equipment at the same prices as Crystarium and I think it bogs down the climax of going to the Heroes' Gauntlet, all the way from 5.1-5.2.

The gear in question is iLv 460 Equipment, which is old. It was from last tier and should be reduced in price already - but for some reason they haven't done that. 5.3 is here, and we've had i490-500 gear out for a while since 5.2 dropped.

Can we please get a reduction in the Tomestones required to obtain Deepshadow gear in 5.35? To explain, I'll start with 5.1.

You get i430 gear when you finish your Role Quest. In general, this will push you to the end of 5.0 just fine; but after that, is where the problem is. Once you beat Hades, you're made to go on story for a while until you bump into The Grand Cosmos, the 5.1 Dungeon, which requires i430. Easy to attain by doing your dungeon quests. However, afterward you're stuck in a loop. You're having to grind Phantasmagoria many, many times through all sources just to even keep up, and it drags the story's feet towards the end. I can understand having a progression gate to prepare players for upcoming content, but on the downside you're keeping them out of story until they get the gear they need.

This creates a bad grind effect where you are forcing the player to find better gear that has a higher iLv just so they can continue the story. It breaks the flow, especially at the climax. Considering that The Heroes' Gauntlet has an iLv 460 requirement, you would need to get a full Deepshadow set in order to even enter it. Without it, you're grasping at straws trying to figure out how to enter and either turn to the grind or are stuck.

So please, SE, next time consider reducing the previous tomestone's prices when we have a new trial that is equal to that gear's iLv(in this case Deepshadow) so that the people trying to enjoy the story don't feel like they're stuck at a constant wall of Tomestones just to even get in(since I don't expect people whole-hogging story to go out of their way to do raids or the NieR Alliance Raid, but they could. It's just that the direction isn't there.)

[MistakeNot]

If you need gear to catch up, just go and buy a full set of of i480 crafted gear from the MB. Last I looked it was pretty cheap all things considered.
That's what I did anyway. No grind required.

[Jade3173]

If a person isn't aware of Normal/Alliance Raids, or doesn't want to do them, then they could also just use the weekly tomes to grab an i490 ring to rocket their ilvl up. Way back when I first joined in the 2.X era, I did that exact same thing, grabbed an Ironworks ring to boost my ilvl. Doing that in addition to buying Deepshadow gear and grabbing gear from the dungeons they're running for MSQ already would more than likely be enough to interrupt their questing by only a dungeon or two extra if unlucky on drops.

[Barraind]

Deepshadow uses a completely different tomestone to purchase, one which is uncapped and can be earned doing a variety of tasks.

You can make the tomes for a full set in 1 day doing hunts.

Or you can get crafted gear to get your ilvl to the right place.

[HyperiusUltima]

If you need gear to catch up, just go and buy a full set of of i480 crafted gear from the MB. Last I looked it was pretty cheap all things considered.
That's what I did anyway. No grind required.

Not everyone's going to have that kind of money - though, those who haven't spent a dime from ARR all the way to Shadowbringers probably would be fine. However, if they jumped to Lv 70, there's no way they can buy it. I've usually seen it at 500k on board.

[Absurdity]

Not everyone's going to have that kind of money - though, those who haven't spent a dime from ARR all the way to Shadowbringers probably would be fine. However, if they jumped to Lv 70, there's no way they can buy it. I've usually seen it at 500k on board.

Guess it depends heavily on time and data center. I've seen the gear drop as low as 18k for a piece but it most likely went back up in price since you can upgrade it to 490 now and it is therefore in higher demand.

[Iscah]

My main issue with the ilevel gating on patch dungeons/trials is that there's no effort to put a gate earlier in the story so you don't come up against it at a critical point. Even just one of those white-on-black "system message" text boxes saying it's recommended that you are at ilevel XXX before proceeding to the next objective.

I'm not sure if 5.3 had an easy point to suggest that check, but I remember for the equivalent in 4.3 it would have been really easy to suggest that you check over your gear and ensure that you're properly equipped before you embark on the boat to the castrum. Instead, you go there, see the scene that leads directly into the trial and... nope, sorry, you'll have to turn back.

[Vyrerus]

If you're just grinding the main story out as quickly as possible you're missing out on the multiple ways to gear. It's not all tomestone gear. Just go do the side dungeons and 24 mans. Copied Factory drops i460 gear for free that you can Need on, surely not all of your pieces will drop, but you're likely to get at least one piece per run.

Next there's the normal mode raids, where you aren't guaranteed anything, but most people don't care about such lowbie gear by now, so you're likely to obtain some i450 stuff, and can easily obtain head/feet/hands/belt/accessories since there's no limit on what you can take from them as well, in addition to getting tomes towards the other gear. After that is the Edencall i480 stuff, and while you're not guaranteed anything and some people are running that to gear alt jobs still, you're still likely to win a lot often.

Just running through the Grand Cosmos and Amanesis Anyder will net you possible i445 and i455 gear respectively, though you aren't guaranteed anything.

Nab an i480 weapon off the marketboard. Even if you can't afford a full crafted set, that will speed everything up for you tremendously by putting you at a tier of weapon capable of passing DPS checks for the current Savage raiding fights. Buy any other crafted pieces you can afford, because they are also an investment now since you can upgrade them directly to i490 once you have tomes for the Undersea Rain.

Doing the side content is a much faster and better way to gear than trying to just stick to MSQ and grind tomes.

[Eclipse12187]

Generally the first tier of gear gets placed into hunt vendors when the previous tier becomes unlimited. When 5.4 hits deepshadow will get a price reduction and crystarium will take its place, in turn we’re going to get a new capped tome with new tome gear. As others have stated you can get phantasmagoria very quickly now to get a set of 480 crafted gear. You could also get carried through normal raids if you have an FC willing to funnel you gear. Hunts are another option as they give tomes as well. Dungeon gear will be enough to get you by in terms of ilvl to continue MSQ, you’ll just need to get a weapon (you can get the current relic for 1k poetics when you get access to the zone and complete the duty)

[MistakeNot]

Not everyone's going to have that kind of money - though, those who haven't spent a dime from ARR all the way to Shadowbringers probably would be fine. However, if they jumped to Lv 70, there's no way they can buy it. I've usually seen it at 500k on board.

Most people should have enough money for the i480 gear. Prices will of course vary by server and over time, but last I looked you could get a full set for around 2M gil. Not a trivial amount of money by any means, but anyone who has reached level 80 should have at least a few million gil to spend unless they have either bought a house, or spent lots of money on glamour gear - there just aren't that many other things to spend gil on while leveling.