Huy's blag

It's time for a list of apparently useful gear again. Not that much has been introduced to the game with the Fall 2011 update, but there most certainly are a few gems in there. Literally.

Without further ado, gear!

Weapons

• Coruscanti [BRD]
• Lux Pugio [BRD]
• Surya's Staff +3 [BRD] [SCH]

Obvious staff is obvious. It presumably grants Cure potency +25%, which will get you dangerously close to Cure potency +50% (cap) without the help of Korin Obi. Especially with some more new gear.

Other Trial staves are getting +3 updates, as well, so have a good time grinding!

Apart from those staves, some non-Relic, non-Mythic, and non-Empyreal daggers look interesting, namely Lux Pugio and Coruscanti.

Grips

• Wizzan Grip [SCH]

Finally, a real update for nuking grips (not counting Vivid Strap +1). It's pretty much a no-brainer for nuking.

Ranged + Ammo

• Memoria Satchet [SCH]
• Ombre Tathlum [SCH]

While Memoria Satchet is just a small upgrade from Witchstone for nukes, Ombre Tathlum is a huge upgrade from Phantom Tathlum for Helices. Taking into consideration that INT+4 is almost equivalent to MAB+2 for SCH (the real ratio is somewhere about 2.2:1 for most SCHs, I think), a single Ombre Tathlum does just almost as well as a Memoria Satchet, if you really need those inventory slots.

Head

• Nefer Khat +1 [SCH]

Nefer Khat +1 probably is the new hat to cast most offensive SCH magic in, except for Helices (Teal Chapeau or any other high-INT hat) and arguably Aspir/Drain (Argute Mortarboard for cutting down recast timers). Thanks to its rather high enmity reduction, you could as well use it for that purpose during Light Arts action, as well.

Neck

• Moepapa Pendant [SCH]
• Saevus Pendant [SCH]
• Wiglen Gorget [BRD] [SCH]

Savant's Chain is the new lazy mage gear piece, now that you have one piece to cast Helices (Moepapa Pendant) and one piece to cast nukes (Saevus Pendant) in. This pair also pretty much obsoletes Uggalepih Pendant, as each of them consistently outdoes the latent effect on their own. Saevus Pendant also gets close to Artemis' Medal around Full Moon, so you could save yet another inventory slot here, if you wanted to.

The MACC-3 effect in my opinion looks worse than it actually is, because you could easily compensate for that downside by gearing for MACC a bit more in some other slot, if you really needed to.

A big question mark over my head appears when I'm trying to figure out whether to wear a Wiglen Gorget or a Twilight Torque. You obviously wouldn't want to wear Wiglen Gorget when going against spellcasters primarily, but the question here is whether gaining Regen is worth the downside of taking more magic damage, if you are going to be hit. I tend to stick to Wiglen Gorget most of the time, I think...

Earrings

• Brachyura Earring [BRD] [SCH]
• Earthcry Earring [BRD] [SCH]
• Enchanter's Earring [BRD]
• Strophadic Earring [SCH]

Depending on how big the bonus on Brachyura Earring is, it might be a horrible piece of crap... or not. Testing will tell. Earthcry Earring adds yet another Stoneskin piece (SE could as well just have introduced Stoneskin II...) and Strophadic Earring is clearly better than Moldavite Earring for anything offensive SCH magic, especially Helices, but still is inferior to Hecate's Earring for regular nukes.

As for Enchanter's Earring, it should be superior to whatever you have been using with your Musical Earring until now, when it's about offensive magic.

Body

• Heka's Kalasiris [BRD] [SCH]
• Nefer Kalasiris +1 [BRD] [SCH]

If you have Heka's Kalasiris, you obviously don't even want to look at Nefer Kalasiris +1, because the rare/ex piece is better no matter how you look at it. It almost gives Pluviale a run for its... effort as a idling piece and is obviously huge for curing purposes. Cure potency +40% with just Heka's Kalasiris and Surya's Staff +3 is just awesome. Since the Serpentes' set grants another 5%, it's just a short trip to 50% from there.

Hands

• Alucinor Mitts [BRD]

Gogogo, lolmeleebrd. Even though you can easily get Haste +26% already...

Rings

• Aife's Ring [BRD]
• Paguroidea Ring [BRD] [SCH]
• Portus Annulet [BRD]
• Prolix Ring [BRD] [SCH]

The Regen effect on Paguroidea Ring is most definitely interesting, but I haven't tried figuring out whether damage reduction or Regen is more preferable to have full-time. It basically is the same question I didn't have an answer for above (Wiglen Gorget or Twilight Torque), but this time, the damage reduction from another ring most likely won't be as strong as Twilight Torque. I'd probably go with the Regen effect, unless I actually expect to be hit...

Using Prolix Ring however is easy: Strap it on precast, do your stuff a tiny bit faster, take it off afterwards. Same with the rings for lolmeleebrd.

Back

• Balladeer's Cape [BRD]
• Kaikia's Cape [SCH]
• Oretenia's Cape [BRD] [SCH]
• Romanus Cape [SCH]

Oretenia's Cape is yet another piece that enhances Cure potency, which actually makes me hope SE is going to lift the cap for Cure potency+ at some time. This cape is not as good as Twilight Cape, if you like having Aurorastorm on yourself when SCH-ing, but it most definitely is worth getting, granting an unconditional +4%.

Romanus Cape is the best nuking cape out there (possibly second to Twilight Cape for SCH), and a very close second to Potentia Cape (technically fourth, because Pedant Cape also gives INT+6). Can't really complain, I suppose. Kaikia's Cape also gives INT+6 and pimps Aero nukes as well as Anemohelix by a good chunk, but with INT+6 only, it doesn't get close to Romanus Cape for non-Aero nukes.

Balladeer's Cape makes you think whether you really need that skill for your Stringed instruments, as it doesn't really outdo good ol' Jester's Cape +1 for Elegy, which is best sung with a wind instrument.

Waist

• Casso Sash [SCH]
• Corvax Sash [BRD]
• Flume Belt [BRD]
• Harfner's Sash
• Phasmida Belt [BRD]

Out of the skill +5 sashes, Casso Sash probably is the most interesting one for SCH, especially since there is a lack of decent waist pieces for those purposes (Argute Belt and some Haste belt might qualify), anyway. The other ones that SCHs can benefit from only are of some use when they help breaking a given tier, which only applies to Enhancing Magic. But it's definitely not a downside that Olympus Sash comes with Elemental Magic +5...

BRDs get their own instrument +5 sash, which is pretty interesting. Assuming BRDs can still cap their songs as easily as before the update, they don't need that sash for buffs though, which opens up use cases for Corvax Sash. You could try and mimic the reduced recast effect using a Haste belt, but assuming Haste +6%, you'd need to face an unmodified recast timer of 34 seconds to do better than Corvax Sash with Haste +6%. Talking about Haste +6... Phasmida Belt is such a belt and it probably is the best belt you can TP in with your lolmeleebrd.

Flume Belt is an awesome idling piece for BRD. Not because of the effect when taking damage, but more because it's yet another damage reducing piece of gear. Getting back some MP is "just" nice to have.

Legs

• Galvanic Slops [SCH]

These pants are better than Cybele Pants for Helices (damage-wise), but still are a little bit worse than Teal Slops for nukes. But we're getting close to outdoing those Teal Slops...

Shoes

• Aife's Pumps [SCH]

Presumably the best shoes for SCH, when it's about nuking or Helices. Those MACC-4 aren't that bad, because of the high INT+ these shoes grant, which makes up for some magic accuracy. Savant's Loafers +2 still break these when adding Klimaform to the equations, but Aife's Pumps seem great, nonetheless.

I'm outta here...

Looking at these upgrades, I kind of am happy to see my good old Novio Earring are still worth the hassle I've gone through to acquire them. Not everything from "back then" has been obsoleted. But then, I look at some of the other pieces and see some huge power creep. Once upon a time, I told myself I'd never get a Prudence Torque by myself, because our luck with that pair of goldfish has been abysmal and the line for Prudence Torque was horribly long. These days, we're not talking about an unconditional INT+5, but about an unconditional INT+8, MAB+9, or INT+5, MAB+3, MACC+3. Most definitely feels awkward.

But thankfully, SE seems to have ceased continuing their (in my opinion horrible) idea of Abyssea, taking the action back to the "real" Vana'diel. Even though I'm not playing myself anymore, I'm kind of looking forward to see what ideas SE will be coming up with for the near future.

I'm especially looking forward to see how prominent the power creep will be once the level cap has been fully lifted to 99. I can see why gear for 91-95 should be reasonably stronger than gear for 86-90, I just hope it's not keeping that pace once level 99 has been established as the "real" cap. Like 75 has been for many years some time ago.