Well I've finished up leveling Blue Mage for the time being and it's time to start getting ready for my fight with Dark Spark. This means I'll be needing to overhaul my sword and shield gear so that I can have a chance at actually winning the fight.
For the most part I've been neglecting my melee gear because it's not welcome in parties and what I had was always "good enough" for soloing on my own time. However I'm pretty sure this fight's going to be a bit more demanding so it's time to start the painful process of figuring out what I need to update. Unfortunately it looks like I need to overhaul just about everything, as my current melee setup is pretty sad:
Sword: Knight's Sword
Shield: Hard Shield
Head: Crow Beret
Neck: Black Silk Neckerchief
Earring: Morion Earring x2
Body: Brigandine Armor
Hands: Guerilla Gloves
Ring: Knowledge Rings and Saintly Rings...+INT/+MND respectively
Back: Red Cape +1
Belt: Mercenary Captain's Belt
Legs: Magic Cuisses
Feet: Warlock's Boots or Rambler's Gaiters
The good news is that just about any upgrade I make should considerably improve my performance so I won't have to worry so much about minuscule increases in performance or sidegrades. When you're at rock bottom the only place to go is up.
On the other hand, I'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to gearing for melee so I'm a bit lost as to how to prioritize stats. Oh and then we throw evasion into the equation and it all becomes a mess. Is that few points of evasion enough to help me survive longer or do I forgo it to make with the pointed sticks that make the enemies fall down faster?
Preliminary research has revealed a lot of options...and a lot of stuff that's simply out of reach for now.
Headgear options
Valkyrie's Mask
Walkure Mask
Shock Mask
Precision Bandana
Personally I'm leaning towards the Shock Mask just for the balance it offers. Valkyrie's Mask would be nice, but it'll break the bank for me.
Body options
Jaridah Peti
There's only the one option for me here but I gotta say, it looks pretty good.
Hands
Battle Gloves
Combat Mittens +1
Combat Caster's Mitts
Jaridah Bazubands
I have no idea what to pick here to be honest. They all look like decent options so I might just go with whatever is cheapest.
Pants
Republic Subligar
War Hose
My fashion sense won't let me pick up the subligar when there are such stylish pants to be had.
Neck
Tiger Stole
I don't know of anything else to put in here.
Waist
Swordbelt
Life Belt
Headlong Belt
These are all good. I guess this one will depend on what the rest of my setup looks like. I am decidedly undecided.
Earring
Beetle Earring +1
Tortoise Earring +1
It appears I'll be taking a hit to evasion regardless of how I gear here.
Ring
Assailant's Ring
Venerer Ring
Woodsman Ring
Ecphoria Ring
Ecphoria Ring looks like a good bet, and I guess I'll pick up one of the others as well as gil permits.
Back
Jaguar Mantle
Bellicose Mantle
Again I'd opt for the defensiveness that Jaguar Mantle offers. Maybe I'm over-thinking this whole thing.
Wait, no I'm not.
Swords
Wise Wizard's Anelace
Royal Guard's Fleuret
They're both stylish and offer awesome stats. I don't know what to pick. I want both of them.
There's clearly enough there to give me a huge boost in performance, but it's all so foreign that I'm struggling with the indecision.
Maybe the best thing to do would be to just start picking up gear for each slot and sort out the min/maxing later. It can only improve my performance so it's not like I can go wrong, right?
Yeah, I'm definitely overthinking this.
San d'Orian sunsets just aren't as nice as Bastok's.
It's the subtlety of the atmosphere that really brings this game to life for me. This isn't a cartoon, it's a living, breathing world.
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