[Durahansolo]

If the only reason they kicked you was because of your gear, then that is wrong IMO, especially if you were pulling your weight in the party. However, if you weren't pulling your weight and it was because of your gear, then I think there may be a problem. The only way to know for sure was as Feba said would be to get a Parser and grab a party. That way you can know for sure if you are doing OMGWTFBBQ damage or not. Especially if you think you were outdamaging that other DRK.

[Armando]

You need to stop eyeballing. Feba said it, but it needs to be stressed, you cannot eyeball. You'll never ever get a notion of your performance that's even remotely close to being accurate by eyeballing. It's a fact of life, your brain can't keep tabs on what your min/max damage has been, what your average swing damage has been, how often have you hit or missed, how many WS you're doing per fight, etc, much less all at the same time. As such you have pretty much 0 credibility when you say you don't miss much, and considering you apparently had time to do 3 WS per fight on average, I HIGHLY doubt you weren't missing much with the gear you have.

In short, yes, save for a few things like the Amemet Mantle and the earrings your gear is poor, no two ways about it. That doesn't make you a bad player, but you're going to have to put some effort into this if you don't want to suck. Farming a Haub isn't that hard; if it is, you're not doing enough research. Crab meat sells well, beehive chips sell well, honey sells well, silk thread sells well, BCNMs drop good gil, there are ways to get 200k in a relatively short time period if you're willing to put in the effort.

This is what your gear should look like:
Main: Ivory Sickle
Sub: Pole Grip
Ranged: Lightning Bow (until you have Bomb Core; afterwards, for pulling only)
Ammo: Bomb Core
Head: Chaos Burgeonet
Neck: Royal Guard's Collar
Ear1: Fang Earring
Ear2: Fang Earring
Body: Haubergeon, Jaridah Peti until you can afford that.
Hands: Fourth Division Gauntlets
Finger1: Ecphoria Ring
Finger2: Venerer Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle
Waist: Life Belt
Legs: Royal Knight's Breeches
Feet: Tiger Ledelsens

Significant improvements over your current set with only one item (Haubergeon) exceeding 60k by Midgard prices. Haubergeon is a must, no two ways about it. Double Acc rings are a must, and I'm not asking for double +5 Acc rings. Pole Grip is better than Sword Strap for a handful of reasons I won't go into right now.

Perhaps your damage isn't too bad. Perhaps, because of poor decisions, other party members may have even been performing worse than you. However, that doesn't change the fact that the above gear set is NOT unreasonable and I wouldn't expect any less from a pick-up DRK.

[Lunaryn]

Ultimately, it depends on a lot of factors, but keep in mind that subjective impressions almost always win the day unless your party leader is one of those who obsesses on the ins and outs of the system enough to actually know at a glance exactly how particular pieces compare (not just what's best, but exactly how sub-optimal the not-best is, as otherwise people just fixate on certain pieces anyway).

The biggest issue that I can see from your gear is the full-AF thing. Even without a /check, wearing full AF carries a significant stigma for most jobs, because of the combination of their tending to be both sub-optimal as sets and highly popular with non-minmaxers due to unique appearance. Perhaps a side effect of Rainbow Pimp Gear is that if your gear looks good and too well-coordinated fashion-wise, it must suck in gameplay terms.

Whether or not it really makes that much difference, psychologically speaking I think you'll get the best results out of focusing on visible gear, followed by belt and rings.

AF Head -- Not bad, but I'd swap this in for souleater, really, if you can manage anything better. TBH I personally like the Cobra Hat, but I'm a Tarutaru who uses spells extensively, so that's not going to cut it for everyone. (And even then, I swap it with Walkure Mask or Empress Hairpin)

AF Body -- Not as bad as some people are making it out. Had I gotten DRK to this level before the introduction of Jaridah Peti, this would have been what I wore until Hauby. I think I recall someone mentioning SH here, what the heck? +Evasion? Let's just ignore that. (edit: Gah, why the hell do I keep forgetting SH has +Acc? Probably some leftover from one of my old gear-balance considerations as compared to Jaridah Peti. At any rate, I still prefer Jaridah Peti over SH, and certainly I'd want to grab a Life Belt before I even considered SH). Seriously, though, big bonuses like Atk+10 Acc+10 shouldn't be ignored. Hauby is clearly the biggest priority here. (Good for you grabbing the mantle, though; psychological effects aside, Hauby + no mantle (or a mantle that gives nothing relevant) is not that much better than AF body + NQ mantle (and arguably just slightly worse than Jaridah Peti + NQ mantle, unless you're hurting for raw STR or DEX). Always keep an eye out for the easy/cheap improvements you can make and not just on the expensive/rare stuff.)

AF Hands -- Honestly, especially post 2H update, these seem like the best overall piece in the AF set. I full-time these and I could get Fourth Gauntlets any time I wanted them. I would say these are probably the last thing to worry about, even if there are more optimal things out there.

AF Legs -- These are actually a really nice piece for those of us who do a lot of spellcasting and can use the extra help in shutting down resists, but the usefulness is highly dependent on what mobs you're after and how much INT you can stack while casting. Definitely a swap-in piece. You should have already been wearing a Republic Subligar for a long while before getting these, and you should still be wearing it when you're not casting.

AF Feet -- Arguably the most useless AF piece. Swap in for Arcane Circle if you're actually fighting weapons or bombs or something, I guess. Maybe they thought a lot of people would be subbing WHM at this point? Not sure what the +MND was about. Replace these with *anything* that gives you a relevant stat boost. Depending on race, your RSE might be a good bet. If not, look around. I mostly use Bounding Boots because I'm a THF main and foot gear doesn't see the kind of broad differentiation many other slots do. DEX+3 = Acc+2.25 when using a 2H weapon.

Honestly, the parsing thing goes both ways, because most people don't religiously parse everything. You don't really know how much your gear was affecting your performance, and neither did they. If there's a problem, you're an easy scapegoat in full AF. If there isn't, then they were basically being assholes. Either way, it's kind of the whole 'look busy' thing at work: Unless things go drastically wrong and you get a chance to save the day with some quick thinking, whether you're pulling your weight in a party is often not as significant as whether you look like you ought to be.

I'll refrain from giving too much specific equipment advice, since I'm stuck in a trio that never fights anything higher than VT, so my requirements aren't as stringent particularly as regards Acc. I will note that Life Belt is something that is a particularly good investment overall for two reasons, though:
1) All Jobs -- this equipment can enhance any job that melees. If you think you might ever take more than one job past sub levels, that comes in rather handy.
2) When combined with Swordbelt/Swordbelt +1, this gives you an easy way to instantly swing your Attack/Accuracy balance to react to situations. As a Thief I find it helpful to be able to DoT with Life Belt (and thus focus more on +Atk elsewhere), then swap it for either Swordbelt or Warwolf Belt for SA/TA, and also switch to DoT in Swordbelt if going after less evasive mobs (or Warwolf and Eva gear if I need to tank on THF/NIN or THF/DNC).

That said, aside from people who are specifically "Life Belt or GTFO", not many people are likely to notice or care, so I'd let that one lag behind visible gear, especially Hauby.

[Durahansolo]

One good thing about the present day is, on my server Hauby/Hauberk/SH are consideribly cheaper than they were when I bought mine (Haubergeon was 380-400kish SH was around 250-300kish, and Hauberk was about 420kish. They are now about 200k cheaper if not more).

[Cotners]

Originally Posted by Durahansolo

One good thing about the present day is, on my server Hauby/Hauberk/SH are consideribly cheaper than they were when I bought mine (Haubergeon was 380-400kish SH was around 250-300kish, and Hauberk was about 420kish. They are now about 200k cheaper if not more).

Be eternally grateful that you did not need to buy them during the christmas '05 inflation when they costed several million each.

[Mhurron]

Originally Posted by Cotners

Be eternally grateful that you did not need to buy them during the christmas '05 inflation when they costed several million each.

No shit. I bought an Aquilo's staff the other day. It cost as much as most of the NQ elemental staves did then when I bought them.

/just wanted to share. Harder on new players now my ass.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by Cotners

Be eternally grateful that you did not need to buy them during the christmas '05 inflation when they costed several million each.

Oh god I have to comment. So my first job was drk. I leveled drk when it was PAINFUL to do so. God damn penta whore drgs!! So anyways, I get to the haub stage and there was NO WAY IN HELL I could afford one at those prices. When you saw someone in a haub they were freakin UBER! So time went by and I leveled up without but finally had enough money for one and then Hauberks were one level away. So back and forth what should I do....haub or hauberk. Well the logical side of me went with Hauberk because the only melee job I was taking to 75 was drk.....or so I thought. >< So....several million later I have a Hauberk and I stop playing that character....one level short of wearing it. It was just too friggin painful to level drk so I moved on.

Flash to more recently and I finally get my drk to 75 YIPPEE!! So I'm struting around in my Hauberk thinking I'm hot crap on a tin plate because I'm wearking a several million dollar body piece! WHOO HOO! And then I see a shout for one......and the price.....ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY K!!! 1.......5...........0........K...............WTF! So now I'm basically gimp even though the gear I have WAS uber at one time but the game moved on without me. I know people shudder when they see me arrive at parties so I've taken to getting merits on my rdm instead (which is also gimp but they don't care as long as I cure!).

Ok...thats all for story time....next week on story time I'll tell you all about how I leveled whm/nin waaaaay back in the day.....


EDIT: LOL @ Mhurron...I can SO relate!

[Cotners]

Originally Posted by Mhurron

No shit. I bought an Aquilo's staff the other day. It cost as much as most of the NQ elemental staves did then when I bought them.

/just wanted to share. Harder on new players now my ass.

This is so true I almost cried. I still have a 500k Fire Staff.

[Feba]

500k? That's practically pocket change!

I still remember when carrying a few mil made me feel poor.

[Cotners]

I meant I paid 500k for it back in the day. Now a fire staff goes for 20k or so.

[Durahansolo]

Originally Posted by Cotners

Be eternally grateful that you did not need to buy them during the christmas '05 inflation when they costed several million each.

Yeah I didn't start playing until APR 06 so I ended up missing out on alot of the price inflations. I think I bought Haubergeon near the end of 2007. APR 08 I had my account stolen, and they took my hauby, but when I got it back, I was gonna rebuy hauby, but hauberk was so much cheaper so I bought it instead.

[Malacite]

DRK is trash save for the helm.

Get yourself some R.K. gear or a Haubergeon (they're pretty cheap now)

[eticket109]

Originally Posted by SomeDRK

If the AF truly is my main problem, I think I'm fine with sucking.

As Yoda would say... 'and that is why you fail.'

Your gear needs improvement, but so does your attitude. You asked for feedback and then brushed it off when it was given. Maybe your gear or performance wasn't the only reason that party kicked you.

Armando gave you some great gear options pretty much in line with what I would suggest.

Granted, gear may not be everything, but a lack of effort isn't exactly commendable either.

[Lmnop]

Fourth Division Boots aren't bad for DRK, I think? Nice instead of ledelsens. Also, I would't even worry about Bomb Core 'til everything else is taken care of.

You'll prolly actually make money (like 4k? ) by selling merman's in favor of R.G. Collar.

If you made some nice, cheap gear upgrades, it sounds like you actually [1]play[/i] DRK pretty well. So do yourself a favor and get the gear.