LVL 40 Armor for PLD

[Arximiro]

What do u all think is the best armor for a lvl 40 pld, the Royal Sqr. Chainmail looks nice buts it 30k which is way overpriced. You can get the breast plate with the same def jus dont have DEX+1 for 9.5 k and it looks awesome. I really want the iron muskateers set it looks awesome, I seen an elvann that must have had the max body size in all iron musk armor It was awesome. What do you all think looks the coolest, Brigadine is pretty sweet too. :confused:

[Somajan]

I like the Royal Sqire's Chainmail, I could get the whole set for free if I had to (I'm sandorian), If you're on a tight budget then stick with the cheaper breastplate, if not then go for the gold!

IM is level 50 and Brigadines are level 45 btw.

[imac2much]

I personally think Sandorian CP armor is ugly, but maybe it just looks ugly on my Galka self (highly likely). As for IM armor, body and legs are level 50, helm, boots, and gloves are level 40. At level 40 I mix/matched IM helm,boots, gloves, with Ryl Sqr Body and normal cuisses... boy was that a painful sight to behold. Oh and I switched to Brig at 45... another ugly piece of armor but good stats.

[Arnda]

When buying armor, you need to be a cheapskate where it's effective to be a cheapskate. To that end, it pays to know where your investment pays off the most. Note that all armor follows the same pattern of protection, from most defense to least:

1. Chest
2. Legs
3. Head*
4. Shield**
5. Gloves
6. Boots
*(for some reason, a lot of people don't wear headgear; while I can understand wanting people to see your pretty face in town, when in the field you damn well better put a helmet on, because the defense is NOT trivial)

**Your shield is generally fourth, though at early levels it tends to be fifth.

The gain in defense as armor becomes better and better widens the gap between armor pieces significantly. For example, Greaves (chain boots) have a defense of 7, IIRC. Sabatons offer a defense of 9, and I think IM boots are 9 or 10 with some ranged accuracy. It's not much. By comparison, the Iron Mask (chain head) has a defense of 11, and the Iron Musketeer's Armet has a defense of 17 with +2 VIT besides.

Keeping this in mind, the three most valuable Lv40 conquest pieces are the Royal Squire's Chainmail and Cuisses, and the Iron Musketeer's Armet. If you are San d'Orian, 16000 CP is a pretty good investment at Lv40 as it will give you by far the most defensive return for "free." If you are Bastokan, the Iron Musketeer's Armet is absolutely essential. The gloves and boots do not even compare to the defense and, notably, the VIT. Indeed, you could argue that the gloves and boots are, to a certain extent, not worth the 16000 CP that it would cost you. For that you could get an IM Cuirass (which most definitely is worthwhile to get for "free") and save it for Lv50.

On my server, a Breastplate will run you 10k at most, and the Gauntlets and Sabatons 5k apiece. Compare this to 15-20k for IM Gauntlets and Sabatons and 30k for the Royal Squire's Chainmail, and you can see that the economical choice for someone low on CP (such as myself :p ) is to concentrate on buying pieces in this order (I'm Bastokan BTW, if you're SDO you should get the Squire and try to acquire the Armet first, if you're Windurstian, well, I'd try saving up for TM Espadons and selling them to the other PLDs ):

1. IRON MUSKETEER ARMET (I'm not kidding!)
2. Iron Musketeer Cuirass (unless you plan to make 32k CP from 40-50)
3. Iron Musketeer Cuisses
4. Iron Musketeer Sabatons
5. Iron Musketeer Gauntlets

If you are not San d'Orian and are not involved in a CP exchange (i.e. I'll buy you an 8k IM Armet if you'll buy me an 8k RS Chainmail), I'm not sure the Squire is worth your time and money. A Breastplate/Cuisses combo is just far cheaper, and not that much worse. In terms of the helmet though, nobody from any nation can really afford to skimp; it's a sexy helmet statwise and makes you look like a robot. Who can resist?

Note that this is a strict by-the-numbers look at this, as I am not (nor do I claim to be) a 40+ Paladin. I'm just looking at the numbers and the prices and explaining what is most economical. 1 def and ranged accuracy is no big loss, but a DEX or VIT bonus plus extra def is not trivial. Of course I plan to get a full suit of IM eventually, but until I can actually afford it (with CP, preferably), I'm going to get what I can buy. And given that I get a whole 1 def and 5 Ranged Accuracy from IM Sabatons, I'm not going to spend 8k CP to buy them when I can spend 5k gil to get regular ones, or have spent 16k on the lv50 pieces.

So in conclusion: If you want the top-of-the-line Conquest lv40 gear, either get very rich before you get there or find an EF party and repeatedly batter EF runs for CP. Or never spend any CP at all from the very first day as a WAR to the day your PLD hits 40.

[kainzero]

i went full plate, no CP. ranged acc doesn't do jack for me and neither does +1 def.

i'm not rank 4 yet, waiting on my LS to free up. but i do have 9000 CP saved up so i'm ready to buy it when i can.
instead, for now, i got a rad cuir headband. but i still want my helmet -_-;

it's odd to think that i made money selling centurion and buying plate.

[Arximiro]

I new the lvls of the brigadine and the IM armor, I jus knew u all would so i didnt mention them, Also 2 vit. only equals 1 def right?? thats what i hear. I got the breastplate last night and it looks badass. Im saving for the IM armet im almost there. I wouldda made it farming but the emergency maintenance messed all that up. Also who knows a good place to farm at lvl 40 i have my thf to 18 for farming. I usually go to dunes and kill gobs for kill and beastcoins and gob items. I also like to help the newbs that need help. I soloed a tremor ram for the first time last night, Ive wanted to do that forever. I know u can solo them at 25 but they are never spawned when i come through. So it was fun. I also chained 5 of the hard gobs in dunes and fought them all at once, thats always fun but ppl try to pull them off u to help. My whole LS is getting rank 5 , i need to get rank 5 , riding the ol chocobe is getting slow Neway all i really wanna know is where the best place to farm is at lvl 40?? thanks~~~

[imac2much]

This has been stated in countless threads already, but they're probably hard to dig up, esp for new users, so I'll try to convey the general gist.

VIT is not just about DEF. They are two very separate parameters in a damage calculation.

Yes, it's true that 2 VIT = 1 DEF. That's just a bonus of VIT. They check up against 2 different parameters of the attacker's stats: STR and ATK.

VIT and STR have a linear relationship, so at first you won't see much difference. DEF and ATK have an exponential relationship, and after your DEF reaches a certain point (= to the monster's ATK generally), you will notice diminishing returns. At this point, more DEF will still lower damage a bit, but not as much as before... and this is where VIT starts to shine since it is linear. This is why you will see most level 70+ PLD on your server wearing VIT rings instead of phalanx rings. You can increase DEF by percentages so it skyrockets (food, sentinel, defender, rampart, brd songs, protect spells, etc) and can effectively raise it by 200+ points. VIT, on the other hand, is a base stat, and as such is harder to raise.

And you don't need to be rich for CP armor really. If you're sandorian, there are several CP items you can purchase then sell on AH for good money, then use that to buy IM armor. Sandoria generally has the best cp->gil conversion ratio (at least on my server), and Bastok definitely has the worst. Windurst has great cp->gil conversion when they are #1 and you can buy that lvl 30 belt that adds +1 to most stats... that sells for a buttload and is only 4k CP. If you're Bastokian (like me, ugh), then you're kind of SOL, but at least you can buy IM with CP I guess

E.G. Sandorian RK Belt = 16K, sells for 90K = 5.626 gil/CP
Windurst Merc Belt = 4k cp, sells for... i don't remember but I think it was 30K = 7.5 gil/CP but only when Windurst is #1
Bastok IM Cuirass = 16k cp, sells for 45k = 2.8125 gil/CP
(Midgardsormr Jeuno AH prices, about a week ago)

As for gilfarming... it's actually kind of limited for PLDs. We can solo pretty well without much rest since we can heal ourselves, but the best farmers will always be jobs that can combine widescan with TH. IMO best farmer is a high level THF/BST since you have TH2, flee, widescan (which gets better as levels are higher), and charm for quick pulling. For PLD, I usually sub either PLD/THF or PLD/RNG for farming... pld/thf is a very nice soloer esp if you aren't looking for specific mobs, but PLD/RNG or PLD/BST is necessary for hunting specific mobs (tigers in battalia, tabar beaks in sauromugue, etc etc), but then you don't have TH and believe me, the difference is noticeable. Oh well, a decent way to farm is to just go in Yughutt grotto with PLD/THF and kill all orcs, lizards, and bats that move... not only do you get gil from orcs (and a key hopefully to open a chest), but also bat wings (for sandoria quest) and lizard skins (decent money in AH), and of course steal silver beastcoins. But honestly, at level 40 there was no exceptional place to farm... non-level-dependent pastimes such as fishing and mining were still viable or better alternatives at that level.