food, potions, and gear for synched content in [current year]

[HeavenlyPete]

i posted this discussion on the subreddit as well, but thought i'd also ask here to cast a wider net;
if you're running ilvl synched content, what should you be using for food/potions/gear?

i searched around for an answer to this through various sources (other forums, other subreddits, discords, etc) but ive been getting different or even contradictory answers from different places, not to mention answers from older posts. so i apologize if this should be common knowledge but i thought i'd ask here.

with some deviations the main two answers for food i've gotten are either

go one lvl cap higher (i.e. if you're running 50 content eat 60 food), which will cap out your stats or

eat current endgame food, you still get the full percentage boost

and for gear i've gotten

wear the gear that came with the content since you lose out on melds otherwise or

just wear current endgame gear since the bonuses cancel out/are greater than what you could get from melding older gear

these answers seem mutually exclusive to me, and it still leaves me with some questions; do stat bonuses from food/pots cap out at a certain point if consumed while synched? are these caps excluded from percentage boosts that food gives? or something in-between?

i'm looking to get some definitive answers (preferably with sources) before i drop any of the very little gil i have on anything. is anyone familiar with this topic?

(side note: i'll be going to bed shortly after i post this but i'll be reading/replying to any answers i get tomorrow if this doesn't get deleted).

many thanks in advance.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Whatever food you will receive max stats from.


Gear, mostly current is fine except for Alexander ultimate. You'll want 470 for that I believe.

[HyperiusUltima]

i posted this discussion on the subreddit as well, but thought i'd also ask here to cast a wider net;
if you're running ilvl synched content, what should you be using for food/potions/gear?

i searched around for an answer to this through various sources (other forums, other subreddits, discords, etc) but ive been getting different or even contradictory answers from different places, not to mention answers from older posts. so i apologize if this should be common knowledge but i thought i'd ask here.

with some deviations the main two answers for food i've gotten are either

go one lvl cap higher (i.e. if you're running 50 content eat 60 food), which will cap out your stats or

eat current endgame food, you still get the full percentage boost

and for gear i've gotten

wear the gear that came with the content since you lose out on melds otherwise or

just wear current endgame gear since the bonuses cancel out/are greater than what you could get from melding older gear

these answers seem mutually exclusive to me, and it still leaves me with some questions; do stat bonuses from food/pots cap out at a certain point if consumed while synched? are these caps excluded from percentage boosts that food gives? or something in-between?

i'm looking to get some definitive answers (preferably with sources) before i drop any of the very little gil i have on anything. is anyone familiar with this topic?

(side note: i'll be going to bed shortly after i post this but i'll be reading/replying to any answers i get tomorrow if this doesn't get deleted).

many thanks in advance.

While I do not have a source, I can tell you from experience.

It mainly depends on where you stand with your character and story progression. If you're Lv 80, then you don't have much use for in-dungeon gear unless it's literally the current patch Expert Dungeon and you're behind on Tomes. iLv Sync usually by X.3 begins to outweigh everything in a previous expansion due to how the system works when egregiously high iLv gear comes into a dungeon like say, Sastasha. Same goes for UCoB and UwU in this regard.

As for Food/Pot stat bonuses, they do not sync down. They still act like they should, providing full benefits, so the higher iLv food you use the more stats you'll get from it compared to that expansion's end-game food.

Though, I would like to know: What content are you attempting to be asking these questions? It's unusual to see someone ask a rather broad question without mentioning the content.

Edit: Lenneth is also correct for TEA. That's the only exception for gear given that's in the current expansion.

[HeavenlyPete]

Though, I would like to know: What content are you attempting to be asking these questions? It's unusual to see someone ask a rather broad question without mentioning the content.

sorry, i should have specified; im doing all the old savages/extremes synched with a static for the challenge. with what you said though it seems like we'll be more than fine (even having a bit of an advantage) if we just use current food/gear/pots, and same for if i were to try and run the 70 ultimates?

[HyperiusUltima]

sorry, i should have specified; im doing all the old savages/extremes synched with a static for the challenge. with what you said though it seems like we'll be more than fine (even having a bit of an advantage) if we just use current food/gear/pots, and same for if i were to try and run the 70 ultimates?

Ah, so doing the old content. Generally you shouldn't have to worry about anything as long as your gear is from 5.3 onwards; so Allegory will sync down to all of them just fine at a minimum.

[HeavenlyPete]

yeah from what im hearing here and in the subreddit thread is that i should just to use current gear/pots/food for synched content 80 and below since it would provide equal (or even superior) stats to trying to meld the relevant cap's gear/use the cap's pots + food (even for relatively difficult fights like the 70 ultimates), with the sole exception of TeA

[ItMe]

sorry, i should have specified; im doing all the old savages/extremes synched with a static for the challenge. with what you said though it seems like we'll be more than fine (even having a bit of an advantage) if we just use current food/gear/pots, and same for if i were to try and run the 70 ultimates?

I can answer the question as it pertains to gear.

When you look at your gears substats, one of them will be higher than the others.
For example, let's say you are looking to making a set to rock Shiva Unreal (like I did).
Thay duty synchs you down to iLVL435.
If you wanted to make a set of old gear that won't synch down, you'd use your iLVL430 job gear.
Now...
On each piece, there is one substat that has a higher value than the others (on the PLD 430 hat it is 262 from vitality). This is the number that gear of higher iLVLs will synch down to. If you
That highest number is what higher iLVL gear will synch down to. If you can get a newer hat where all of the substats are around or higher than 262, you're golden. All of your fancy new hats substats will synch down to 262, the lone stat that had the highest value on the old gear. So your new gear will be giving you stats that were impossible to have at that level (as was the case with Shiva.)
However, if your substats aren't crossing that highest number... don't do it. Because when your gear synchs you lose the benefit of all materia on it and will be worse off.

Making a set for an old raid is a game of balancing the buffs you get from materia vs the better substats.

This is why people are making sets for TEA, but no one is for UCOB or UWU.

Also, it's kinda cool because it let's people also "make sets" for the old ones in terms of basically being able to customize which substats you want.
If you know your PLD hat is synching down to 262, as long as all your hats have their stats above that you're free to pick the one that enhances the substats that are more important to you.


As for food/pots, I thiiiiink you just go for whichever is best.

[technole]

Whatever food you will receive max stats from.


Gear, mostly current is fine except for Alexander ultimate. You'll want 470 for that I believe.

Alex Ultimate syncs to 475, there are some better i475 dungeon gear pieces from Shadow's Gauntlet with better substats to reach the cap aside from the Eden 475 weapon if one is looking for a "newer BiS".

Basically the better of the two between 470 and 475 pieces will be best along with melds. Like the healer pants from that dungeon has the same substats as the Eden 470 but with more MND/VIT/Det/Crit so that's obviously a newer BiS.

[Eclipse12187]

As far as food goes, whatever is readily available (endgame food since you won’t really have to go out of your way for it).

Now in terms of gear you have 2 options, you can either use at level sets and meld stats you want OR you can use gear that is at least 100 ilvls over what you get synced to with sub stats you want. So as a healer or a tank you’d want at level gear in order to meld direct hit (if it makes that much of a difference) but as a dps wear your current bis/endgame stuff. The way ilvl sync works is that it syncs your stats AND sub stats down to whatever the cap was for that level. And at around 100ilvl over what it was that secondary substat (the one that’s not capped on gear) will have enough of a stat budget in order to be synced to max value.

So for an example, arhat dogi of casting is ilvl 300, with 220 int, 203 vit, 163 crit, and 233 spell speed. You can meld 70 more crit in it to cap it or 80 of any other stat. Ilvl 406 ravel keepers casting coat is 376 int, 381 vit, 334 crit and 234 spell speed. When you sync that coat down to ilvl 300 it will lose its materia bonuses but it’s stats will become 220 int, 203 vit, 233 crit (+70 over same ilvl) and 233 spell speed. Since the stat budgets of the 406 were higher than the 300, even synced and losing melds your stats end up the same if you capped crit via melds on the 300.