If you’re at the top of your game in Final Fantasy XIV, there’s a whole lot of gear available to you. A great static group can dive into Savage and Ultimate raids and hammer at them until they succeed. If you’re good enough, you’ll reap the rewards with the best gear in the game.

What if you’re a more casual player, though? FFXIV can be played solo in many respects, but overall it’s still a team sport. If you’re going to be tackling normal raids and Alliance raids like Aglaia, it’s worth having the best gear you can get. We’re here to help you gear up properly without having to throw yourself into Savage content. And if you do want to start Savage raiding, having the right gear is important.

But we can’t forget about those willing to grind out the toughest fights for the best possible gear. While this guide covers Best-in-Slot (BiS) gear for casual Paladins, we also included a true Paladin BiS setup for those who clear the hardest content on the regular are willing to grind it out.

Here’s our Paladin BiS gear guide for both casual and hardcore players as of FFXIV Patch 6.18.

FFXIV Paladin Best in Slot Non Savage

Best-in-Slot Paladin Gear for Non-Savage

With Patch 6.18, the best gear you can grab as a Paladin tank is going to come from Tomestones. More specifically, you’ll be purchasing gear with Tomestones of Astronomy and then upgrading that gear with Aglaia Coins from the Alliance Raid. This is going to take some time, as the Tomestones of Astronomy are capped at 450 per week and you can only gain one Aglaia Coin each week, rewarded at the end of the raid.

Best in Slot Paladin Gear (Patch 6.18)

Main Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Bastard Sword
Off Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Shield
Head: Augmented Radiant’s Helm of Fending
Body: Augmented Radiant’s Scale Mail of Fending
Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gauntlets of Fending
Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Cuisses of Fending
Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Sabatons of Fending
Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Fending
Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Fending
Wrists: Augmented Radiant’s Bracelet of Fending
Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Fending
Ring #2: Augmented Classical Ring of Fending or Radiant’s Ring of Fending

This set of Item Level 600 gear is going to take a long time to grind out. First of all, you’ll need to grind out an entire set of Radiant gear for your Paladin. The gear is sold by Cihanti in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.4) for the aforementioned Allagan Tomestones of Astronomy.

Best in Slot Paladin Gear Resource Totals

Radiant’s Bastard Sword (350 Astronomy Tomestones, 1 Discal Tomestone)
Radiant’s Shield (150 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Helm of Fending (495 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Scale Mail of Fending (825 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Gauntlets of Fending (495 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Cuisses of Fending (825 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Earrings of Fending (375 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Choker of Fending (375 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Bracelet of Fending (375 Astronomy Tomestones)
Radiant’s Ring of Fending (375 Astronomy Tomestones)

That single Discal Tomestone is obtained by completing Asphodelos: The Fourth Circle — each time you do, you’ll get an Unsung Blade of Asphodelos. Collect four of those and trade them in to Djole in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.3, Y: 9.7) for the Discal Tomestone.

Counting up all those Tomestones, that’s a total of 5,015 Tomestones of Astronomy. Given that you can only earn 450 per week, it will take you at least 12 weeks in order to get a full set (if you’re starting from nothing). You can check out our guide on how to farm Tomestones of Astronomy, but the short answer for the most effective way of achieving this is by doing all your Duty Roulettes each day.

Alternatively, you can run the Level 90 dungeons — The Dead Ends, Smileton, The Stigma Dreamscape, and Alzadaal’s Legacy — or jump into some rounds of Crystalline Conflict for 50 or 20 Astronomy Tomestones, respectively.

Likewise, the Augmented Radiant gear is obtained by trading in Aglaia Coins to Nesvaaz in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.5, Y: 10.1) for one of three items: Radiant Roborant, Radiant Twine, and Radiant Coating. Each item costs one Aglaia Coin and augments a different type of Radiant gear: Roborant upgrades weapons, Twine upgrades armor, and Coasting upgrades accessories.

This means you’ll need 10 Aglaia Coins, which will take a total of 10 weeks to farm. Once you have a piece of Radiant gear and the correct Radiant upgrade item, talk to Khaldeen in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.4) in order to exchange them for your Augmented Radiant gear.

Best-in-Slot Paladin Materia Melds (Non-Savage)

Most of your gear at these upper levels will have two Materia slots each. As a Paladin looking to stay on top of your game, which Materia should you be using in those slots? As a warning, you generally want to be using Materia X for these slots.

First thing to know is that the cap for additional stats is per item. When you look at the Materia Melding menu (right-click on a piece of gear and select “Meld”), you’ll see the specific cap on each item. Click on a piece of gear and then hover over your available Materia to see the benefits. If the text is red, that means that Materia would go over the cap for that specific stat on that piece of gear.

Using the Augmented Radiant’s Bastard Sword as an example, Determination is already capped on the weapon, so melding any Savage Might Materia would be a waste of time.

For a Paladin, you’ll want to first meld in Critical Hit (Savage Aim) on each piece of gear unless you’d max out the stat. Then, you’ll want to use a little Skill Speed (Quickarm) to find a rotation that feels good for you. Finally, you can fill out the rest of the slots with Direct Hit (Heavens’ Eye).

Why? Let’s go over the stats as they stand. Most of your standard stats that are needed for tanking are already covered by your gear, as the FFXIV team wants to make sure that every tank is viable in most content. You also can’t meld for basic stats like Strength. That leaves your melding to fill in the gaps in your gear.

While surviving a hit is the key facet to being a tank, the truth is that you want to be able to deal damage as well. Damage helps end any encounter quicker, even the lower damage a tank does compared to DPS. So, you want to make sure you hit and hit hard when you do, hence melding for Critical Hit and Direct Hit as needed.

Skill Speed is the stat you want to think about in-between those two and in this case, it’s all about personal preference and overall rotation. You need to meld Skill Speed in order to change your Global Cooldown. For a clean rotation, many point to global cooldowns of 2.45 seconds, 2.44 seconds, 2.42 seconds, and even down to 2.40 seconds. The lower the cooldown, the more Skill Speed you need to meld. For the purposes of this guide and the average player, let’s go with a 2.44 second GCD.

So you’re looking at something like this:

Main Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Bastard Sword

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Quickarm Materia X +36 Skill Speed

Off Hand: Augmented Radiant’s Shield

No slots

Head: Augmented Radiant’s Helm of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Body: Augmented Radiant’s Scale Mail of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gauntlets of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Cuisses of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Feet: Augmented Radiant’s Sabatons of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Earrings: Augmented Radiant’s Earrings of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Wrists: Augmented Radiant’s Bracelet of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Ring #1: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Ring #2: Augmented Classical Ring of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

That’s just an example following all of the stat rules, though you can play around and find some alternate options in there.

How to Get Materia

The challenging part is getting the actual Materia. The easiest way to do this is by earning Cracked Anthroclusters from doing your daily Leveling Roulette with a level 90 character and trade them in for whichever Materia you want. There are several NPCs that offer Materia trading, such as Khuzhal in Radz-at-Han (X: 11.4 Y: 8.6) or Auacyn in Old Sharlayan (X: 12.7 Y: 10.1). You can also purchase Materia X with Sacks of Nuts you get from Hunts, or Faux Leaves and Khloe’s Silver Certificates of Commendation. Any type of Materia X are available for purchase from the Arkasordara Tribe Quests using their Arkasodara Pana currency.

Best-in Slot Paladin Gear — Savage and Ultimate

If you’re ready to dive into the deep end, then you’ll need to start tackling the hardest content the game has to offer. That means you’ll need to start doing Asphodelos Savage and Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate). Currently, the only Item Level 605 gear pieces are the Asphodelos Savage and Ultimate Heavens weapons. Earning either one should be your first priority since it’ll yield the biggest benefit.

While they’re still Item Level 600 gear pieces, Asphodelos Savage gear substats differ from their Augmented Radiant counterparts. True BiS gear sets are all about spec’ing into certain stats to maximize your Job’s potential. The folks over at The Balance have crunched the numbers and come up with the full-fat Best-in-Slot for a Paladin, if you’re willing to tackle Savage content. This list includes the BiS gear and their optimal Materia melds.

Main Hand: Asphodelos Longsword

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Savage Might Materia X +36 Determination

Off Hand: Asphodelos Shield

No slots

Head: Augmented Radiant’s Helm of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Body: Asphodelos Chiton of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Gloves: Augmented Radiant’s Gauntlets of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Legs: Augmented Radiant’s Cuisses of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

Feet: Asphodelos Boots of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Earrings: Asphodelos Earrings of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Neck: Augmented Radiant’s Choker of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Wrists: Augmented Radiant’s Bracelet of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Ring #1: Asphodelos Ring of Fending

Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit
Heaven’s Eye Materia X +36 Direct Hit

Ring #2: Augmented Radiant’s Ring of Fending

Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit
Savage Aim Materia X +36 Critical Hit

You can find out more over at The Balance Discord, including alternative Paladin BiS sets for other GCD timings and the various stat configurations needed for them.

How to Start Your Gear Journey at Level 90

Now, if you’ve just reached Level 90 in FFXIV, you can’t even start on this journey because you theoretically aren’t equipped to meet the minimum Item Level requirements. The normal Asphodelos raids and the Aglaia Alliance raid all require Item Level 565.

As a Paladin, you get a head start on that by equipping the Artifact Gear you get for free at Level 89. Once you complete the Endwalker main scenario quest “A Bold Decision,” you can grab your weapon and primary set of gear from Varsarudh in Old Sharlayan (X: 11.7, Y: 9.9). This gear is entirely free for every Job once you unlock it and it’s all Item Level 560.

You’ll note that’s actually not enough to reach the necessary Item Level. You want to grab some Moonward accessories from your old friend Cihanti in Radz-at-Han (X: 10.8, Y: 10.4). The Moonward gear is all Item Level 570, which should bump you up to the requirements.

Alternatively, if you have Gil burning a hole in your pocket, you can purchase a set of Classical gear from the Market Board. The Classical gear is Item Level 580, but depending on your server, you’re talking 60 to 100k Gil per piece. Buying Classical gear does have another benefit we’ll talk about in the next section.

Once you’re above Item Level 565, you can run Asphodelos and Aglaia, which is where the real gear grind begins.

How to Fill Out Your Paladin Gear Set

While you wait for the full set of Radiant Gear, you’re going to need to augment your gear with the next best thing. Luckily, we’ve already given you one place to find solid gear to fill out your gear set. If you have the Gil laying around, you can buy some Classical gear from the Market Board. This gear is pricey, but it’s also Item Level 580.

You can also craft it yourself if you have high-level crafters. (Note: Classical gear can be upgraded to Item Level 590 Augmented Classical gear similar to the Radiant gear, but it’s expensive if you aren’t crafting it yourself.)

If you’ve read the last section and you’re ready to enter Aglaia, the Alliance raid is a great place to fill out your gear. Each boss has a chance to drop Panthean gear, which is Item Level 590. Assuming the random numbers fall in your favor, you can get a full set of armor from the raid itself. Finishing the raid also nets you the Allagan Tomestones of Astronomy and Aglaia Coins you need for your Augmented Radiant set.

For accessories, you’ll want to use either the Classical accessories on the Market Board or the Limbo accessories gained by trading in Unsung Rings of Asphodelos from completing any Asphodelos raid.

Quickarm Materia IX

Details

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