Lancer r50 buildFollow

GC stands for Grand Company.

Weapon: Ifrit Harpoon are quite outdated if you want high-end set up. There are three spears that are high-end, which are GC Lieutenant Spear, Garuda Spine and Gae Bolg. The Obelisk is a contestant for high-end with double/triple meld and/or HQ, however you can't use it as a DRG. Gae Bolg win uncontested, but it also takes ages before you can touch it. Reason being Acc bonus is actually quite good and DPS is more important than DMG. Ifrit, Mog Fork and HQ Hart-Guisarme are useful while you work toward the high-end spears. The GC Sergeant Spear is quite good, however you should rather save the seals for Lieutenant version.

Body: Darksteel Haubergeon is very pricey and only the HQ version has extra PIE. At the beginning you should just find any body pieces that give STR/ACC/ATK and double meld it with PIE or Crit Attack. Alternatively if you want you can just use the AF body piece since it's free and quite easy to get. What you want to work toward is Darklight Corselet but it will take ages. GC Lieutenant Body depends on company (Twin Adder is extremely good) and Double/Triple Meld HQ Darksteel Hauby are alternative if you can't work toward DL Corselet.

Head: There are far better stuff than the Chain Coif, the Veteran Pot Helm for example is extremely cheap. There are unfortunately nothing good to meld on Head slot for DD. What you would want are either the Achievement Crown for all lvl 50 DoW/DoM, GC Lieutenant Hat depends on the GC (the Twin Adders one is awesome, I can testify as much :P +15 PIE and +15 ATK is good) and at the very top is Darklight Eye Patch.

Legs: Boarskin Skirt or Felt Trousers with double meld STR/DEX or STR/VIT. AF pants for cheap alternative. Finally Militia Subligar (drop from Gold Bazaar Hamlet Battle).

Feet: Veteran Moccasins or AF feet. Best is of course Darklight Caligae. There are useful crit atk materia for boots but they are very pricey.

Waist: LNC can't use Cobalt Plate Belt. GC Sergeant Belt (depend on GC). Veteran Field Belt or Explorer Tool Belt. Any lvl 41+ Belt with double melded Enmity down or TP bonus (very pricey). Finally, Veteran Sash (add +3 PIE) which is very cheap.

Hands: AF hands is very easy to get and give +40 ATK. You can use Cobalt Gauntlet with double meld STR or ATK, but I would prefer Felt Bracer as it's useable by all DoW. STR is better than ATK if you get a high DPS spear. Best is Darklight.

Ears: You got it right. Also have a look at GC Earrings, depends on the GC some are quite good.

Neck: Explorer Choker or GC Choker or Electrum Gorget +1, depends on your set up.

Rings: Explorer Ring is not very good. You want HQ Rubellite or Tourmaline Ring.

What is the extent you are willing to go for gearing up?

Edited, Jun 24th 2012 10:31pm by Khornette

ATK stat boosts your auto-attack and increases Weapon Skill marginally. STR/PIE boost your auto-attack and increase Weapon Skill by larger extent, however these two are capped by the Weapon DPS (the lower the DPS is, the lower the STR/PIE cap). DPS affects Weapon Skill damage the most, as it limits the effect of STR/PIE on WS beside directly increasing WS damage. That is why despite Garuda Spine, Obelisk or GC Lieutenant having lower DMG stat they do lots more damage than Ifrit Harpoon on WS.

At the start you would want something around 37.5-38.00 DPS, 300 STR/280 PIE and 350ish Acc. Once you get there start finding ways to improve those parameters.

No the Ifrit Harpoon DPS stat is wrong, it's 39.60ish. The rest are correct.

Once you unlock DRG, you can equip job stone to become a DRG. Basically it's a more specialised version of LNC that you can change back and forth by equip/unequip the job stone, and it shares level as LNC so you don't have to grind level on DRG. You however have to do quests to unlock more skills as a DRG.

If you have static, go for Skirmish it's the fastest route to good weapon. Unless you are very rich, don't try to double meld Giantsgall, double melding is all chance and I have been blowing up a lot of stuff to Grade III/IV double meld. A single melded Acc should make the Giantsgall comparable to Moogle. A double melded/triple melded Giantsgall is very good but I doubt it can still outperform Garuda/Lieutenant nor Relic, simply because DPS is quite a big factor on your stat. From people posted tests, around 40.00+ DPS will have a cap of 350 STR 310 PIE where over those figure will yield diminishing returns. However SE also stated they are aiming to make it 1:1 regarding character attributes from level and attributes from gear in v2.0, which means that gear attribute will be lesser compared to current where triple/quad meld yield insane value. If you have time, just do Chocobo escort to pick up Grand Company armour pieces (cause the Lieutenant Spear/Trident/Lance can take quite a lot of time to purchase).

For PUG you would want Backside (or w/e skill that forced crit from rear attack), Second Wind and Feathered Foot. For ARC you want Decoy, Chameleon and Quelling Strike. That's 6 out of 5 skills you can equip, so choose the skills you want to equip depending on the situation (Decoy is mostly not useable in most NM/Primal fight, though for some other they are highly valuable).