I’ve had my eye on the Ninja Scripture gear ever since it was first shown off a couple Producer Live Letters ago. It’s generally been pretty rare that we get Scouting gear that looks fitting for infiltration and other stealth-oriented pursuits, with the general thematic trend for Scouting gear usually falling more on the “daring rogue” side of things. That’s a result of a number of things, from Scouting gear often sharing models with Aiming stuff to most Scouting gear being designed to fit Final Fantasy Rogues (and indeed, the character of the Rogues’ Guild in FFXIV itself), who normally dress on the “flashier” side of things.

Thankfully, the key element to the set, the Shire Emissary’s Jacket, has a decent enough stat spread for Ninja that I could easily make it my first acquisition of the new patch. And while I’m not thrilled about the item’s base colors, I still like it enough that I want to wear it for awhile even if we can’t yet dye it.

Glamour Components
Head: (none) | Body: Shire Emissary’s Jacket | Hands: Replica Allagan Gauntlets of Striking (Jet Black Dye) | Legs: Lady’s Knickers (Black) | Feet: Scion Healer’s Halfboots

All of this is pretty standard stuff, of course. The Jacket is thankfully quite easy to work around, given how simple and utilitarian its design is. Eventually, I’ll probably pick up the Shire Emissary’s Gloves to complete the look—since the Scripture gear is Sharlayan in theme, it shares some things in common with the Scion Healer’s garb, which means they pair well with the boots from the set. It’ll be awhile before I get them, though, since they’re itemized very poorly for Ninja and there are more important pieces to obtain first.

I’ll probably be working on this look incrementally until 3.5, which will be the point at which I’ll probably get the Augmented Jacket (since I’m not likely to have a raid static anytime soon). I’m actually not bothered by the sleeves on the jacket so I know I can probably use a different pair of gloves—the Allagan Gauntlets just fit in well enough that I didn’t spend a whole lot of time trying on different pairs.

I’m very curious to see how the Jacket dyes—I’ve not seen anyone on Balmung with the 270 version yet (which is understandable). My highest hopes for it are that the black straps will remain that way. If the red bits go two-tone from the primary color, they’re minor enough that it shouldn’t cause any major clashing issues. If the straps do, though, it’s going to really take away from the look of the overall piece, and make it pretty hard to use in Pure White. If the straps do dye, it’ll mean using the Jacket in Metallic Silver, Jet Black or other dark colors almost exclusively, at least for me.

But that’s a long ways off. And while I still love the Lady’s Togi, it’s nice to be in something more combat-ready again.