FFXI Compare - Build And Compare Gear Sets Online

Take a hard line. Don't budge. Don't be that guy wearing Ambu +2 gear for TP. Throw that ***away.

I used to for EPing random jobs because
1-you can store Ambu gear, you cant store Ody gear
2-EP trash is no threat whatsoever

We definitely are.


Absolutely. I suppose what I was trying to say is that using the sim vs. an eyeball approach helps to quantify the difference between two pieces for whatever specific metric you're interested in.

In this case, simming Tali'ah/Gleti's/Malignance and comparing average rounds to WS would allow for a more precise picture than "6 TA > 11 STP, ergo BiS".

I don't think older gear being omitted from the sim tool was meant as a snub for casual players, more that those players aren't looking to min/max their sets enough for a sim tool to be useful.

Not to dig up this corpse of a post but....

BLU is also on Pinga, so their BiS FC legs are Pinga+1 with 13 FC, not Enif Cosciales. Not even close.

BIS doesn't really work for FFXI. In other games, all your stats are coming from gear that scales based on item level. We don't have uniform stats on our gear sets and we long since left the trend of ilvl gear scaling anyway.

Best in situation is probably more applicable for FFXI, but who wants to make a guide with the 50 different TP sets you might need depending on whether you need to maximize damage, rush 3k effective, not die to AoE or magical damage, deal with the 2H MNK that turned on you.... ect.


Beyond a certain point, the amount of time you save rotating your gear optimally is about the same amount of time you'd save if you skipped going to the moogle and putting away slips...

Possibly, but in timed events like Odyssey or Sortie you can't apply the time gains from the porter moogle to your timer inside the event, so this comparison kinda falls apart.

I think "bis" is a bit of a silly term in FFXI as well, sure, but there are definitely bis pieces for plenty of sets (WAR relic head for Warcry) and, crucially, for a specific set of circumstances there is still a bis piece for each action for each slot.

"bis" in other games might be "never take it out of this slot" but in this game it means "best in slot for this particular action under these particular circumstances." If you don't understand that (not referring to anyone in particular here) then you have a misunderstanding about the way FFXI works, IMO.

Oh yeah, well how come I have Pinga legs and they aren't in my BLU FC set, huh? (seriously, thanks for the correction lol)


Very well put. I feel like pretty much everyone here gets that, but nice explanation. I might have to save that for some of my friends who are FFXIVers stopping by to visit Vana'diel (a surprisingly large number of them, these days).

And honestly, this is probably THE #1 reason I've been playing XI for 20+ years. The depth that comes from having a multitude of different pieces that all remain useful for different purposes is fascinating to me.

I'm not suggesting that skipping the moogle would be the same as adding time to the event. The point is that you can clear a seg run in 23 minutes or you can clear in 27 minutes, but the effort and reward are the same. Kill the boss with 8 minutes left or 6 minutes left, really no difference.

Kill the boss in 14m30s, don't kill it in 15m10s, big difference.

The difference one piece of gear makes is not that significant Maletaru.

I love how you suggested that it was a 2 minute reduction in kill speed you shrugged it off like NBD, but I suggest a 40 second kill speed difference and now I'M the one being radical about how much difference the gear makes.

You should be debating that Seun guy, he's the real radical here.

Also: have you never timed out at < 5%? Have you never cleared a boss with seconds to spare? Have you never just BARELY eek'd out another 5% on a boss just in the nick of time? Because it's happened to me at least a half dozen, maybe a dozen times. All of those would be fails/worse results if not for the tiny improvements.

Here you go, some examples with timestamps.

For every timeout at 1% there are probably five or ten times as many deaths due to one-shots, if you're talking Ody V25.

And if you're wearing Ambu +2 in Ody V25.. timing out is not your problem.

Context matters.

Yeah, so you remember when I said this:


Most V25 fights would fall under the content that need you to be turtled up 24/7. But I'm a little curious why you opted to use a one-and-done V25 fight to try to make your point?

I can't think of any other fight in the current game where you might time out at <5%. Maybe Male can clarify what they mean by that, idk.

Mboze25 we were close to timing out and I went into full squishy set for the extra DPS and we barely cleared. But the first 14:00-14:30 of the fight I was definitely in a turtle focused DD set. Also in that fight a TP move could end you no matter what you are wearing. Its all relative but that's what toggles are for.

Edit: Here's the video, we won with seconds to spare.

https://youtu.be/D2guKi_xQdw?si=L2Zb_IwDgvg7b0L4&t=915

Lots of fights can turn into a situation where seconds count. Not all situations are using optimal meta setups with players who know what they are doing and have the best gear, people make mistakes, etc.

Easy example: you really don't think it's possible that a Sortie group could find themselves with time running out, and need to pick up the pace if they want to kill one last NM? There's a situation where you might take more risks to go all out on offense at the expense of some defense, to get the kill before the clock hits 0:00.

Lots of other plausible situations where the timer could come into play. Maybe a group is doing Master Trials. Maybe somebody's soloing Omen bosses. Maybe there's a crew doing Ody Gaol that just isn't as well geared or as skilled as your team and they struggle to clear some random R15 NM in time. Maybe a group trying to full clear a Dyna zone cuts it close on time.

Here's one I personally saw recently: did a fairly lowman Ou run with a non-optimal setup, to try to get a newer guy some gear. We ended up barely winning in time due to some sloppiness (like dropping Ou's HP to below 10% before people were ready, Ou recovered, then the tank died a couple times to some silly stuff and we found ourselves pressed for time). DRK actually did take it upon himself to be "no time for safe TP sets, let's GOOOO" and that truly was the difference between winning and timing out.


Uh, not all groups can clear a seg run in 30 minutes! Maybe you have a group that's on pace to need 32 minutes to clear, and some tweaks to gear to squeeze out a little more DPS will be the difference between a full clear and timing out.

I've done Ou a lot in low-person non-meta setups and have never been in a situation where I went "gee I wish I had some ambu +2 gear right now" to squeeze a tiny bit more dps.

Taking two DDs as an example, War and Sam, what kind of gear choices would they have to be a bit more papery and do more dps.

War could swap to odin helm, no problem it's a big meva drop from sakpata but that content is already so old you don't need it. Would I swap from empy body to odin body? No, you could not pay me to do that and empy body is a great TP piece in any case. Likewise I would never consider any ambu +2 gear on war simply because its other options are so good dps wise and ignoring everything else.

On Sam, similar thing. You could swap from empy head to kenda head for more TA but empy head has a lot of storetp and it's probably a wash dps wise. Same argument with war on ambu +2 gear, its other options are great and much better all around.

Accessories wise it's only at V25 levels you need to go defensive there so nothing changes again.

A sam or war or drk that finds themselves with <1min to kill Ou can easily 1hr and blast it, which is a much bigger dps gain than a paper set.

So again, there really aren't any situations where ambu +2 gear would apply for someone with empy+3/odyssey/+4 armor options. That was the argument remember, not "I'm going to swap to my 35-40% dt set instead of full empy/ody armor 50% for more dps".

If you're planning to do multiple Ou runs, you probably shouldnt be relying on 1hr as part of the strat.

Weird, because DRK's best all purpose TP set is pretty much 5/5 Sakpatas. I'm curious what set he wore that made the significant difference between winning and losing, where 5 Sakpatas pieces wouldn't have been sufficient. Dagon/AF legs/flamma head/feet?

I mean, Ou doesn't even attack while readying his 30-second Prophylaxis move so yeah, that's one situation where you don't need defensive gear. Not that I'd bother making the change myself since I've gotten rid of my low M.Eva gear a long time ago.

I mean he already explained that with Mboze, getting a TP move off is instant death so TP moves are irrelevant...what do you need Meva for...his auto-attacks?

To answer the question more directly: you can put on a bunch of Ratri to get a strong Scarlet Delirium. You can wear all the Ambu+2 you want because there's very little, if any, chance of dying (if it's the first KI).

For the second KI you'd probably want mostly Sakpata but 5/5 Sakpata is absolutely not the highest DPS TP set you can wear on DRK so if you want to squeeze out more DPS you can swap in stronger, but defensively weaker, pieces.


I mean...you could go to MMM for 5 minutes and reset them. When I had/have weaker groups and need to rely on 1hrs I do this. Haven't you been a part of clears that rely on 1hrs before...? It's not as though you're locked in the lobby of Sheol:Gaol.

Another example where gear makes the difference: AFAC strategy. Making better choices could be the difference between "it dies before AC wears off" or "it doesn't die and AC wears off."

I'm not saying that tiny micro-optimizations ALWAYS get you a win. But there are plenty of times where it will.


Exactly this. Plus sometimes you'll have a death (or two or three), and the difference of your gear (or play) could make up for the kill speed you lost with the death(s).


Sortie is always the perfect example because there's BASICALLY always something else you could do with more time. So...yeah, killing a boss in 30 seconds instead of 40 seconds could be the difference between getting 8 bosses or 9 bosses, or 9 bosses / 9 bosses + Naakuals, minis, etc.

It's so prevalent in FFXI I find it extremely hard to believe you haven't experienced it.


SAM is on Tatenashi and FAMOUSLY the Ryuo Sune-ate you hate so much. So I wouldn't say there aren't any paper-thin DPS options for SAM.

You know what those pieces are? Inventory-2. That is all.

And you're right, I dropped them ages ago cause they're trash.

You're indicating a skill issue to make a point about gear? I think you can do better than this.