It’s that time again! You all voted for a tank glamour for this month’s special spotlight, and for once, I actually put together one that’s not job specific! Pretty early on in Stormblood, I resolved to make a glamour for the new Doman Steel Tabard of Fending. It’s one of the few body pieces for tanks that’s reminiscent of Paladin’s original Artifact body from A Realm Reborn, which is a piece that I’ve always loved but only rarely used due to its job-specific nature. The Tabard gets around that, but it’s actually taken me a long time to use it because my normal process didn’t work. Since I’m writing this, I obviously figured out a way to use it, though!

The thing that gave me trouble with the Tabard was the way it dyes (or rather, in this case, what doesn’t dye). The pauldrons on it are accented with bronze, and my normal inclination is always to match any other metal elements in a tank look to things like that. The shade of the metal isn’t one that we can match, though, and so I’ve been at a loss as to how to use the Tabard ever since I got Paladin to 66 quite some time ago. All I had to do was lighten up about matching that bronze color, though—things were surprisingly easy after that!

Glamour Components (Required Level: DRK/PLD/WAR 66)
Weapon: Aettir Lux (Replica) (Mole Brown)
Shield: Priwen Lux (Replica) (Mole Brown)
Head: Reading Glasses (Mole Brown)
Body: Doman Steel Tabard of Fending (Pure White)
Hands: Replica High Allagan Gauntlets of Fending (Mole Brown)
Legs: Gryphonskin Pantalettes (Loam Brown)
Feet: Replica Heavy Allagan Flanchard (Mole Brown)

I arrived at the final look by accident, honestly. Because I’ve been using Lyse’s gear so much, I was experimenting with it to see if it might work for Paladin in some way. I really liked the way that the High Allagan Gauntlets looked with it (in their default color scheme, they have red that matches the Scion Liberator’s Jacket), but I couldn’t find other pieces that really created a good look. I still had the Gauntlets active on the preview window when I next tried on the Tabard, and the way they paired with the body piece really stood out to me in terms of shape and profile.

The trouble, of course, was that it was difficult to find a good color for them. The Tabard itself is red and black by default, but black didn’t look right on the gauntlets. Now inspired and a bit determined, I went through every shade of yellow and brown looking for the best match to the bronze on the Tabard’s pauldrons. Nothing matched, but Mole Brown somehow worked in spite of the color difference. Once I realized that, it was an easy decision to also add in the Heavy Allagan Flanchard, and the look was already nearly done.

The hardest decision ultimately came down to the Legs slot. I knew I wanted something short, like usual, but the Tabard is just short enough that most things I tried (like the Guardian Corps and Storm Elite’s Skirts) were just visible enough in the front that things looked awkward. At this point, thinking to use the Scion Liberator’s Pantalettes, I moved to Pure White for the Tabard, but since those Pantalettes aren’t the same sort of fabric, they looked off in motion (which is really the only time they were visible). The Gryphonskin ones, though, were the right length and also dyeable, which let me go with something more fitting for the overall color scheme.

For just a little bit more of that Alahra flair, I went with the familiar Reading Glasses, dyed, as usual for these kinds of things, to match the Gauntlets and Flanchard. I would have tried out the Ghost Barque Circlet of Fending, but I found out while putting this together that I apparently turned mine in for seals (and let me tell you, I wasn’t really in the mood to farm Sirensong Sea when I had a perfectly serviceable option already). I’m still way too happy with my current Dark Knight glamour to move to this one for that job as well, but the benefit of Stormblood giving us Artifact sets via quests again is that I have sort of an excuse to have different glamours for both of them, which is a wonderful side benefit of a return to something like A Realm Reborn‘s system for Artifact Armor.

I’d also like to take another moment to thank all of you for your continued support to the site. With the current content drought (since I’m not even anything approaching a raider anymore, anyway), I’ve actually been a bit down on the game, but keeping the site going—which I’ve been encouraged to do thanks to all of your support—has kept my interest going and also kept me writing regularly, which is something that’s very important to me. I can’t thank you all enough for that, but thank you, regardless!