I’m still busy trying to get the last two pieces I need to complete the sets from Anamnesis Anyder, which are as elusive as ever, but in the meantime, I got a glamour itch a little while ago. Way back during my initial run through of the 5.0 Main Scenario for Shadowbringers, I fell in love with the Ravel Keeper’s Guillotine, but it took me so long to get one that I never got around to making a glamour for it before I hit 80 and got Shadowbringer itself, which I decided to use instead. My Gunbreaker hit 75 recently, though, and I already had the Ravel Keeper’s Sawback, which gave me the idea to see if I couldn’t do something based around that weapon instead.

I ran into a snag pretty quickly, though—the metal of the Ravel Keeper’s weapons is pretty much a color all its own. I couldn’t find a single tank item that matched it well, and none of our available dyes seemed to work, either. The closest match I found among tank pieces was one that probably got a bit lost in the flood of new gear introduced alongside 5.0: the Altered Cobalt Cuirass. A recolor of the very old Cavalry Cuirass from Brayflox’s Longstop, dyeable versions of the model had previously only been available to Dragoon, and it’s been in the back of my mind ever since launch as a potential glamour base.

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Glamour Components (Requirements: DRK/GNB/PLD/WAR 72)
Weapon: Nightsteel Axe (Gobbiebag Brown)
Head: Reading Glasses (Gobbiebag Brown)
Body: Altered Cobalt Cuirass (Gunmetal Black)
Hands: Deepgold Gloves of Fending (Gunmetal Black)
Legs: Woolen Trousers of Fending (Gunmetal Black)
Feet: Raptorskin Boots (Gunmetal Black)

Much as I had struggled with the Ravel Keeper’s weapons, I’d had trouble finding other pieces to combine with the Cuirass, though. The piece that gave me the avenue to go ahead ended up being the Deepgold Gloves, which have a close but not exact match in terms of metal—a closer match than the Cuirass had with the Ravel Keeper’s metal, most importantly. At that point I decided not to worry so much about using one of the Ravel Keeper’s weapons and switched over to making a Warrior glamour instead (a job that’s never really felt quite right for the glamour I’d been using).

Naturally, I kept Alahra’s glasses (because I have a hard time getting rid of those even for something like Warrior), and then I started looking for boots. Outside of the associated Altered Cobalt Sabatons (or the Ishgardian Thighboots, which I’ve been using rather often lately), the best pair I found to go along with the Cuirass was another piece sneakily added with 5.0: the Raptorskin Boots (another recolor of gear from Brayflox’s Longstop now available in dyeable form to non-Striking Disciples of War thanks to this new version). They were the piece that made me settle on Gunmetal Black for the rest of the glamour, as I rather liked the way they took to the new dye’s sheen.

The last remaining piece, then, was something for the legs. Normally, I’d go for a skirt or something (and I’ve done that a couple times with the Dragoon versions of the Cuirass), but I felt like doing something a little different this time. Thankfully, I didn’t actually have to search too long for something fitting: the Cavalry set always had one of the game’s few good pairs of trousers, and the set that goes along with the Altered Cobalt Cuirass are just as good, especially when dyed.

The end result’s not a glamour I’d be likely to tank into the Main Scenario for Dark Knight or anything, but it’s the sort of thing I’ve been wanting more of for tanks for a very long time. Solid light-to-medium glamour options for Fending gear just aren’t common enough in FFXIV for my tastes, and of the choices we do have, this Cuirass model has always been one of my favorites. I’m glad I got to put it to use finally, even if, in the end, it makes me think of being low level because of those long ago days running Brayflox’s Longstop on Paladin and later Dark Knight.