Equipment Guide (FFXIV)  

A guide by Osarion Durai

FFXIV's system for equipping weapons, armor, and accessories is both unique and a bit confusing. Although there are few real limitations on equipping gear -- almost any rank class can equip any piece of gear -- there are definite penalties for straying too far outside of the prescribed equipment suggestions. This guide should help unveil the details of FFXIV's gear system.

Contents [hide]

Optimal Gear Information Penalties for Gear out of Optimal Class Penalties for gear out of Optimal Rank High Quality Gear Gear Damage Repairing Selecting the Right Gear DoW Gear Suggestions DoM Gear Suggestions DoL Gear Suggestions DoH Gear Suggestions Accessories Slot Cost Attribute Bonuses by Slot Finger Neck Ear Wrist

Optimal Gear Information

Each piece of gear carries with it either a "Requires", "Suits" or "Favors" tag.

• Gear with the "Requires" tag not only requires a given class, but will change your current class to that one. Crafting tools, harvesting tools, melee weapons/shields and mage weapons/shields are the only categories of gear which have a class requirement.
• "Favors" gear may be equipped by any class. However, equipping these pieces of gear to classes outside of the suggested ones carries with it certain penalties. Also, equipping gear that is "favored" by your class will give the best results possible for that piece of gear.
• "Suits" gear seems to be more of a broader suggestion. It may be all classes, or all of one or multiple disciplines.

Each piece of gear also has an Optimal Rank level. This is the rank at which a piece of gear gives the best results.

Penalties for Gear out of Optimal Class

Equipping gear outside of optimal class results in a penalty to all of that gear's stats. Even at the optimal rank, you will still suffer a big percentage loss for that piece of gear. Not to mention, that gear will degrade much faster, requiring more money spent for repairing. For example, a Leatherworker wearing a Bronze Chainmail (Leatherworker and Armor are both rank 12):

Leatherworker Rank 12

Gear	Example Attributes	Adjusted Defense	Adjusted Magic Defense	Adjusted HP
Bronze Chainmail -Lv.12	39 DEF, 32 Mg. DEF, 22 HP	24 DEF	20 M. DEF	14

As you can see, the penalty for equipping a piece of armor that is not favored by your class is quite significant. The defense is much lower and the HP bonus is nearly halved.

Let's compare this to the Cotton Tunic. Whereas the Bronze Chainmail will only give you 24 Defense, 20 Magic Defense, the Cotton Tunic, even being one rank lower and cloth vs heavy armor will give you 38 Defense, 34 Magic Defense. So it's easy to see that wearing gear best suited for your class is the much wiser option. It is worth noting, however, that the penalties do seem to fluctuate somewhat. The given examples are just that, individual examples and may vary from different equipments/ranks. It does appear, however, that if you equip a piece of gear that is within the optimal rank, but outside of the favored classes, the gear is given a penalty multiplier of .6 to it's attributes.

Penalties for gear out of Optimal Rank

Equipping gear that has an Optimal Rank above your own will also result in a penalty to the stats carried by that piece of gear. This comes in percentage penalties to listed gear stats. The following tables show some examples of this.

Gear	Example Attributes	Thaumaturge -Lv.20	Conjurer -Lv.13	Penalty to Stats
Canvas Coif -Lv.21	16 MP, 26 DEF	14 MP, 21 DEF	12 MP, 16 DEF	20%, 40%
Canvas Tunic -Lv.21	29 MP, 54 DEF	25 MP, 44 DEF	21 MP, 34 DEF	20%, 40%

Gear	Example Attributes	Weaver -Lv.18	Carpenter -Lv.1	Penalty to Stats
Tracker's Tunic -Lv.29	70 Mg. DEF, 62 DEF	41 Mg. DEF, 36 DEF	25 Mg. DEF, 21 DEF	40%, 65%

Now, you might be looking at that Tracker's Tunic on your rank 1 class and think, great! It's still higher stats than what I'm wearing now, even with the penalty. However, on top of the penalty to stats, there is a significant increase in accrued gear damage for gear that is far out of your rank range. This, in turn, will end up costing you tons of gil, as higher ranked equipment costs a lot more to repair at the NPC. Again, it is worth noting that the penalties do seem to fluctuate somewhat. The given examples are just that, individual examples and may vary from different equipments/ranks.

High Quality Gear

While crafting, players will have a chance to get a High Quality (HQ) result. There are HQ 1, 2 and 3s which will result in +1, +2 and +3 items. Pictured above is a Silver Scepter +1

The stars next to the listed attributes indicated those attributes are given bonuses. Note: Even though there is a bonus to the items attributes, it will not show up in the listed numbers. A NQ Silver Scepter, a +1, +2, and +3 will all show 77 Magic Potency.

• +1 gives a 5% bonus.
• +2 gives a 10% bonus.
• +3 gives a 15% bonus.

These bonuses may not be as pronounced on lower level gear. 10% on a 10 Defense item is only 1 extra DEF point. However, as your character progresss, you're definitely going to want to snag those HQ items if you see them for sale. Crafters will charge extra for them, but it's usually worth it. When you start to get up there in levels, you'll be using this gear for a good amount of time. You'll want it to be the best that it can be. Once it's time to outgrow it, have a crafter repair it, and sell it back to another player!

Gear Damage

All equipment in FFXIV decays with use. This is known as "wear". Your gear's wear can be viewed on the screen for the item itself and is listed as a whole number, rather than a percentage while looking at it through your equipment menu. Repair NPCs will show you it's exact percetage, though. However, no matter how badly damaged your gear may get, it will never completely break. It is also believed that dying will cause a certain amount of damage to your gear.

Equipment will wear by doing anything in the game that requires abilities. Doing battle, or even crafting will cause your gear to wear. As your gear wears, it becomes less effective. Note that this will not show up in your attribute listings. Your Defense attribute will not go down in numbers as your armor wears, nor will your HP or MP. However, the effectiveness of your defense will definitely be affected through the Gear Damage and Heavy Gear Damage debuff you'll receive.

Update from Patch 1.16: When the optimal class or optimal rank for a piece of equipped gear is met, that item's condition will deteriorate at a reduced rate. If both values are met, the deterioration rate will be slowed even further.

When your gear falls below 35%, you will receive the Gear Damage status.

• Weapons: Receive a penalty to damage and accuracy.
• Armor: Absorbs less damage, lowers evasion and any other bonus given by that piece of armor.

When your gear falls below 25%, you will receive the Heavy Gear Damage status.

• Weapons: Receive a heavier penalty to damage and accuracy.
• Armor: Absorbs even less damage, and further lowers evasion and all other stat bonuses for that piece of armor.

Repairing

Each of the three city-states has an NPC that will repair your gear for you. You will be charged for each piece of gear you wish to repair, however, and the NPC will not repair jewelry. The cost of the repair is based upon the tier of the piece of gear. Also, Repair NPCs will only repair your gear to 75% In order to get your gear repaired to 100%, you need to have it done by a player crafter. For more details on repairing, please see Wint's Guide to Repairing.

City-State	Repair NPC	Location
Gridania	Meara	(3-8) Ebony Stalls
Limsa-Lominsa	Braitognieux	(5-5) West Hawkers' Alley
Ul'dah	Gogorano	(6-3) (West side of gate)

Selecting the Right Gear

Whether you're a Weaver or a Gladiator, picking the right gear for the task is essential. Not to mention, what this guide is all about! One of the best ways to ensure that you will be a more well rounded class is with balance. Balance means not making yourself incredibly powerful in one area, while sacrificing the others. Don't go full out defense as a gladiator at the expense of being able to deal any damage, as this also helps generate enmity. A Thaumaturge would do well to invest is items with Magic Accuracy, rather than go all out in potency; hitting hard, but much less frequently.

This way of thinking is especially true for crafters, too. As you'll see below, crafters have many things they need to pay attention to that will directly affect the outcome of their synth. Too much control at the cost of Craftsmanship/Magic Craftsmanship means you probably wont see much aetherial sparking, but you're much less likely to be able to synth any decently challenging items! And vice-versa.

DoW Gear Suggestions

Disciples of War, as the Melee classes of FFXIV are going to want to use mostly medium to heavy style gears. They're able to use light armor, but there's almost no point in it.

The key attribute bonuses you're going to want to look for are:

• HP
• Strength
• Vitality
• Dexterity
• Accuracy
• Defense
• Magic Defense
• Evasion
• Attack

The following shows a sampling of examples of gear by tier. Each class will vary slightly, so use this table as a general idea only! Click on the individual links to get a full listing of gear using the ZAM Item Database.

Class	Rank 1-9	Rank 10-19	Rank 20-29	Rank 30-39
Misc. Disciple of War Classes	Hempen, Sheepskin	Cotton/War Garb, Dodoskin/War Garb, Bronze	Bronze,Canvas/War Garb, Dodoskin/War Garb, Leather	Leather, Mercenary's, Velveteen/War Garb, Iron/War Garb, Toadskin, Bronze Plate, Armored Boots

DoM Gear Suggestions

Disciples of Magic will typically want to stick to light/hooded armor. These focus more around attributes a mage would be looking for. They don't provide as much defense as heavier gear, but a good mage will always try to ride the line of damage/healing output vs enmity accumulated.

The key attribute bonuses you're going to want to look for are:

• MP
• Intelligence
• Piety
• Mind
• Vitality
• Magic Accuracy
• Magic Potency

The following shows a sampling of examples of gear by tier. Each class will vary slightly, so use this table as a general idea only! Click on the individual links to get a full listing of gear using the ZAM Item Database.

Class	Rank 1-9	Rank 10-19	Rank 20-29	Rank 30-39
Thaumaturge & Conjurer	Hempen,Sheepskin	Cotton,Padded Sheepskin	Cotton,Canvas,Leather	Canvas,Velveteen,Toadskin

DoL Gear Suggestions

Disciples of the Land have their own set of attributes that govern their success, which are listed in the table below.

Gear for Disciples of the Land are a little more generalized than War or Magic. A lot of gear's only requirement will be to be on a DoL or DoH class (aside from rank requirement). Also, as DoL classes are essentially useless in battle, you really will only want to look for the three below-listed attributes. Certain attributes will only be found on certain pieces of armor. Perception, for example, will only be found on headgear whereas Gathering will only be found on body and leg armor. The following shows a sampling of examples of gear by tier. Each class will vary slightly, so use this table as a general idea only! Click on the individual links to get a full listing of gear using the ZAM Item Database.

Attribute	Rank 1-9	Rank 10-19	Rank 20-29	Rank 30-39
Gathering	Hempen	Cotton, Sheepskin	Canvas, Dodoskin	Velveteen, Leather
Output	Hempen, Sheepskin	Cotton, Dodoskin	Canvas, Leather	Padded Leather
Perception	Hats

DoH Gear Suggestions

Disciples of the Hand also have their own set of attributes that are important to their classes.

Much like the Disciples of the Land classes, Disciples of the Hand are essentially useless in battle. You will want to focus on gear which provides the below-listed attributes. Also, like DOL attributes, DOH's attributes seem to be found only on certain slots of gear. The following shows a sampling of examples of gear by tier. Each class will vary slightly, so use this table as a general idea only! Click on the individual links to get a full listing of gear using the ZAM Item Database.

Attribute	Rank 1-9	Rank 10-19	Rank 20-29	Rank 30-39
Control	Hempen	Cotton	Canvas, Leather	Velveteen, Toadskin
Craftsmanship	Various	Cotton	Canvas	Velveteen
Mag. Craftsmanship	Various	Cotton, Copper, Maple, Sheepskin, Dodoskin	Canvas, Brass, Elm, Leather	Velveteen, Silver, Ash, Leather, Toadskin

Accessories

Another way to customize your character is through accessories. There is a multitude of choices with which to further deck out your character's attributes.

Accessories will actually appear on your character in FFXIV. You'll be able to see those rings, wristlets, earrings or chokers as long as another piece of armor isn't covering up your hands, ears, or neck!

Slot Cost

A limitation is put in place as to how many accessories you're able to equip at any given time. Looking at your Attributes & Gear menu, you'll notice a number underneath your Ring Finger slots. This number (currently maxed out at 12) represents the total slot points used and available in the form of xx/12.

Each accessory has a certain "Slot Cost" associated with it. They start at 2, and increase as the levels of the items increase.

Attribute Bonuses by Slot

Note that if a certain attribute is not listed, it is not attainable on that given slot. For example, there are no rings with Magic Potency.

Finger

• Accuracy
• Magic Accuracy
• STR/VIT/DEX/IND/MND/PIE

Neck

• Attack
• Magic Potency
• STR/VIT/DEX/IND/MND/PIE

Ear

• Evasion
• Elemental Resistance

Wrist

• HP
• MP
• STR/VIT/DEX/IND/MND/PIE

Thanks for taking the time to read through this guide! Special thanks to Pikko, Wint, Mitsudo, Uomaru, Artemed and Ciraj.

Final Fantasy XIV Wikibase™