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Amianne · **12-07-2015, 12:51 PM**

I have a real hard time choosing gear.. or knowing just what is the best gear for me. I'm playing Paladin right now, level 54. I love the job. My main goal is to have very high Vitality, and then Strength. And then Dexterity.

So is there a chart somewhere that has the gear progression for Paladins? See in FFXI, there were numerous sites that had like.. well you can look at your level and then the site, and see what is the best gear for that level. Does such a thing exist for XIV?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Vyce · **12-07-2015, 12:59 PM**

It's really not a big deal until 60, at which point your options are either Eso gear or Gordian gear. You would then stack materias as applicable.

Olofantur · **12-07-2015, 01:00 PM**

Ignore Dex, focus on making sure your weapon is as upgraded as possible, more VIT is rarely bad (outside of progression where its all a DPS check game.)

http://www.garlandtools.org/db/ isn't bad for a casual overview as well as looking at where you can get certain things/what to save crafting mats for.

Once you reach 60, this will be more important:
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/

**Unnamed Mercenary** · **12-07-2015, 01:06 PM**

To add another site like the ones Olofantur linked, there's also http://ffxivcrafting.com/equipment for crafting needs.

Generally speaking though, if you're getting dungeon loot at-level, you'll probably be fine. Unlike FFXI, there are no skills tied to equipment and until endgame content, pretty much anything at-level or a higher item level (if it's green, blue, purple gear) will be better than anything before it.

The game does a decent job of feeding players decently good gear towards the end of 2.0 content leading into 2.1+, from what I've heard. (Adjusted quest rewards).

Warren Castille · **12-07-2015, 01:09 PM**

Gear philosophy in XIV is much more pared down compared to older brother FFXI. Barring few exceptions item level is king, so there's no real worry about optimizing until you're level 60 and grinding i200+ equipment.

There's some discussion about when tanks should change from Vitality accessories to Strength accessories, with valid points across the board. I personally wear VIT for trash pulls because we have no real offensive threat capability and then swap in STR for bosses. While leveling, just go with what's the highest item level.

Melkire · **12-07-2015, 01:16 PM**

Wear the gear with the highest item level you can that is appropriate for your role. Typically for tanks that means gear that is restricted to GLD/PLD/MRD/WAR/DRK. Be wary: some class-restricted gear looks like tank gear but lists LNC/DRG as well. These typically have lower defense values than tank gear of equivalent item levels.

The rest takes care of itself. Left-hand side tank gear gives the highest amounts of STR and VIT relative to other pieces. At that point, the only question is whether to wear STR accessories or VIT accessories. STR is preferable but VIT is more accomodating and friendly for new players / new tanks.

You do not have to worry about secondary stats at all until you have hit level 60 and reached as high an average item level as your skills can earn you. At that point, the rule of thumb for tanks is to prioritize Det > Crit > Skillspeed/Parry, in that order, while meeting any desired accuracy minimums for end-game content.

Coatleque · **12-07-2015, 01:18 PM**

There really is no gear progression in this game. All tanks wear the same stuff on the left side of your character screen. If tank gear drops from your dungeons, grab it up if you can and it's got better defense than your current stuff.

Once you hit 60, you really have only one choice depending on your path. You can grind out the Esoteric gear if you aren't into raiding. You can get gear drops from Savage mode Alexander. Or you can settle for the void ark drops.

The only real 'customization' is if you prefer strength vs vitality accessories (right side).

Sounsyy · **12-07-2015, 01:27 PM**

I'd highly recommend FFXIV Ariyala. It breaks down all dungeon and raid gear by Item Level and tells you its stats in side by side comparison with other contemporary gear. It also tells you where to get the piece and specifically out of which coffer. For tanks, it defaults Vitality accessories but there's an option to show STR accessories as well! At the very bottom, it tallies up your gear and shows your total stats.

As far as gearing up your PLD, you'll want to avoid DEX altogether. Don't waste accessories on it. STR is a PLD's main stat, as it greatly increases the potency of your weaponskills and spells, including Clemency and Flash. That said, many PLDs prefer the HP buffer provided by stacking VIT. For some raid content, the increased HP is advantageous, but in 90% of content, its superfluous and you're better off with the increased dps, enmity, and healing from STR.

As far as secondary stats go, you'll want to stack as much Determination as possible without sacrificing your minimum accuracy cap, which is pretty easy to hit on PLD. I think for current endgame content, tank accuracy requirements cap out near 650. Seeing as you're not yet there, you can afford to be much lower.

There are some stats which have a severely negligible impact on PLD, and these are Parry and Critical Hit Rate unfortunately. While it's not a bad thing to have some amount of these stats on your gear, you should avoid purposefully stacking large quantities of either when there are more effective stat options. Skill speed favors PLD this patch as does Determination.

Hope this helps! ^^ Lemme know if you have more questions.

Melkire · **12-07-2015, 01:34 PM**

Now I have to ask because I'm not familiar enough with PLD: why do they favor Skillspeed over Critical Hit Rate this patch? As far as I know, that they lack any standout benefits from Crit is no reason to stop stacking it, and it's not as if PLDs have been given a new TP regen/management method as of late which means they still suffer from TP drain when stacking too much Skillspeed.

So... why?

Or is this just a matter of their end-game gear favoring one stat more than another?

Warren Castille · **12-07-2015, 01:39 PM**

(12-07-2015, 01:34 PM)Melkire Wrote: Now I have to ask because I'm not familiar enough with PLD: why do they favor Skillspeed over Critical Hit Rate this patch? As far as I know, that they lack any standout benefits from Crit is no reason to stop stacking it, and it's not as if PLDs have been given a new TP regen/management method as of late which means they still suffer from TP drain when stacking too much Skillspeed.

So... why?

Or is this just a matter of their end-game gear favoring one stat more than another?

I'm admittedly out of the meta, but it's probably just a side effect of the gear all having it. Skillspeed actually ends up being a bit of a bitch to work with this round, because Goring Blade gets clipped if you're going too fast and you lose the last tick. So you're either waiting 2 seconds to reapply it with a fresh one, or you're letting it drop for 7 seconds until you come back around to Fast>Riot>Goring.

Sounsyy · **12-07-2015, 02:23 PM**

(12-07-2015, 01:34 PM)Melkire Wrote: Now I have to ask because I'm not familiar enough with PLD: why do they favor Skillspeed over Critical Hit Rate this patch? As far as I know, that they lack any standout benefits from Crit is no reason to stop stacking it, and it's not as if PLDs have been given a new TP regen/management method as of late which means they still suffer from TP drain when stacking too much Skillspeed.

So... why?

Or is this just a matter of their end-game gear favoring one stat more than another?

More than anything else, it has to do with most i210 gear favoring either DTR or CHR exclusively, only rarely upping both. When it comes to this choice, always go for Determination. Fortunately for PLD, their BiS allows for a decent increase to Crit while still focusing Determination. But future patches might not always be so. The reason I say opt out of crit for other stats when its possible is due to the change to stat formulas in 3.0. 600 Crit roughly equates to a 12% Critical Hit Rate, while 802 Crit only equals 15.5%. And for PLD, that's it. They have no way to increase their CHR past their gear. I'm in no way saying Crit stat is bad for your dps, but when it comes in between stats which scale better, you could throw every stat you have into Crit and probably not push 16% but end up sacrificing other stats.

As for Skill Speed, it scales slightly better while buffing your DoT dmg and timing. And as Warren pointed out, you don't need a ton of it to see the effects. Fortunately, it comes paired with a lot of PLD's crit gear this patch so you can kinda get best of both worlds.

Melkire · **12-07-2015, 02:26 PM**

(12-07-2015, 02:23 PM)Sounsyy Wrote: More than anything else, it has to do with most i210 gear favoring either DTR or CHR exclusively, only rarely upping both. When it comes to this choice, always go for Determination. Fortunately for PLD, their BiS allows for a decent increase to Crit while still focusing Determination. But future patches might not always be so. The reason I say opt out of crit for other stats when its possible is due to the change to stat formulas in 3.0. 600 Crit roughly equates to a 12% Critical Hit Rate, while 802 Crit only equals 15.5%. And for PLD, that's it. They have no way to increase their CHR past their gear. I'm in no way saying Crit stat is bad for your dps, but when it comes in between stats which scale better, you could throw every stat you have into Crit and probably not push 16% but end up sacrificing other stats.

As for Skill Speed, it scales slightly better while buffing your DoT dmg and timing. And as Warren pointed out, you don't need a ton of it to see the effects. Fortunately, it comes paired with a lot of PLD's crit gear this patch so you can kinda get best of both worlds.

That's fair, and I've had a bad habit of forgetting that 3.0 featured a change to Skillspeed in that it now affects DoT damage courtesy of faster tics. Thanks for the explanation!

...diminishing returns suck. Tonberry

Paladin Gear Progression

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes