A few more questions...

[SharMarali]

Re: A few more questions...

Its gonna cost some money to get both austere's and vermy, but what you could do is use austere's when you have an avatar out, since it looks cooler, then use vermy when you don't for the refresh effect.

Although I think I'll have to agree to disagree with you here on the austere set looking cool, I did this until I got my Yinyang, because of the blood pact timer reduction on the austere body & head. I still use the austere head and will continue to do so unless I can get an AF2 horn. ::dreams on::

Personally I couldn't wait to get rid of that pigfarming shirt. And I hope I can get rid of the hat one day too.

[Tirrock]

Re: A few more questions...

I'd like to touch a few things that weren't already talked about much...

First, crimson roar won't stack with warcry, since they're the same thing. Not that you asked, but just throwing it out there.

Second... Obligitory comment about summoning magic skill. I'm of the belief that it doesn't do anything to effect the over all strength of the avatar. Believe what you want about it though, it doesn't effect me.

Now then... AF questions... The majority of SMN AF1 has little to no use (unless you're broke and can't afford replacement gear). The horn, the doublet, and the gloves aren't very useful at all. And they even hurt you if you're using your avatar to tank.

The AF legs and feet have uses though. I've heard both that AF1 legs accuracy bonus works on blood pacts and that it doesn't... My belief is that the accuracy effect doesn't stack with SMN AF2 gloves accuracy effect, but that's just me...again, believe what you want on this, there isn't much you can wear on your legs that will give more MP until zenith anyway. (And I personally prefer AF or AF2 legs over zenith anyway.)

With body there's just so many good (yet kind of pricy) items that you can wear here that there's not much reason to hang onto this. Austure, while ugly as sin, is great and is lower level than the AF doublet. Vermillion cloak is even more pricy, and is almost as ugly, but I think it's slightly more useful than the austure robe until you get to level 70, or unless you're doing BCs.
(My logic behind that is: Refresh is always on, it helps you when you rest, and VC will give you more MP overall than austure robe. But at higher levels when your blood pacts do respectable damage or in BCs when you need shorter blood pacts, austure robe is better. The VC gets less important once you get to 72 anyway, thanks to errant robe and it's +5hMP.)

Dalmatica is the grand-daddy of expensive for SMN gear. And isn't really worth it considering that Yinyang robe is free and for most, easier to obtain. I believe that yinyang robe is the best body gear for SMN for most many situations. For the rest of the time... SMN AF2 body. -3 avatar perpetuation cost depending on day is nice, and the +crit rate is neat too.

AF feet...well, there's not really much better to wear for a while anyway, unless you have RSE that gives you MP on the feet. The evasion for avatars is pretty useful at high levels or when you're soloing.

A few other things to note...
Earthen Ward stoneskin is only 200HP at level 75.
Crimson Roar is really expensive for how useful it is...which isn't very in my opinion. >_>a
...I had others, but I forgot... I think my post is already long enough though...