After a long journey around the circle of FFXIV‘s armor types, I’m finally able to start working on Dragoon sets. First up of these is (appropriately) the Lakeland Armor of Maiming. Like all of the sets from Holminster Switch, this one is level 71 and re-uses models from FFXIV‘s past, with this one built from pieces found originally in the Heavensward era. Unlike the others, however, the Maiming set doesn’t open up many new models within its armor type, based as it is on another Maiming set.

Set Pieces (Requirements: DRG 71)
Weapon: Lakeland Lance
Head: Lakeland Circlet of Maiming
Body: Lakeland Cuirass of Maiming
Hands: Lakeland Gauntlets of Maiming
Legs: Lakeland Brais of Maiming
Feet: Lakeland Sabatons of Maiming

For the most part, the set re-purposes the old Heavy Metal armor from Heavensward, one of the high end crafted gearsets from that expansion. Like that set, there aren’t any significant clipping issues with most of the Lakeland Maiming gear, but there is one exception. Instead of the original Heavy Metal Coif, this set uses instead a version of the Shire Custodian’s Circlet, which was previously available only to tanks. While it’s the only new-to-Maiming piece in the set, it has noticeable clipping issues with most hairstyles I tried, with the one on display being one of the few that had none.

While the rest of the set is generally free from clipping, the fact that the whole of the set is non-dyeable knocks the set’s glamour potential down quite a bit. While this is true of all the Lakeland sets, the Maiming set uses models from a set that was already dyeable, most of which are readily available on the Market Board or easily made by a level 80 crafter. Dragoon can’t use the original dyeable Circlet, but its clipping issues with hairstyles make it difficult to use, which does little to elevate the set in terms of glamour usage.

Used by itself (outside of the Circlet), the set does work fairly well for Dragoon, though—it’s not as heavy as the companion Lakeland Armor of Fending—and if nothing else, the re-used models do have a different base color scheme than the original Heavy Metal set, which might make them useful for a very specific color scheme. I’m not the one to figure out what that might be since I tend to avoid armored looks personally, but I know the possibility’s got to be there!