It’s been a pretty busy month in the world of FFXIV, with the launch of a new relic stage and a surprise addition to the Online Shop meaning I’m actually a little behind on various things I’ve been meaning to post for awhile! Among those are a few glamours that I’m putting finalizing touches on and also a number of galleries for the new sets added to the dungeons of A Realm Reborn as part of Patch 5.3’s big revamp of the new player Main Scenario experience. Plenty of these are interesting for a variety of reasons, so over time I do plan to get them all up on here! Today we’ll be looking at the “tank” gear added to Aurum Vale, which can also be worn by Lancers and Dragoons.

Set Details
Jobs: DRK/DRG/GNB/PLD/WAR — Level: 47 — Dyeable: No — Dungeon: The Aurum Vale
Head: Aurum Celata
Body: Aurum Cuirass
Hands: Aurum Gauntlets
Legs: Aurum Trousers
Feet: Aurum Sabatons

In terms of modeling, this set uses staple “basic tank” set from A Realm Reborn, which has always been a personal favorite of mine. The models are shared with various sets, like the Mythril or Militia gear for tanks, and since those models originate all the way back in the original FFXIV 1.0, they have less in the way of clipping than we’re otherwise used to today. The game’s original suite of gear was originally less elaborate (much of it reminiscent of FFXI‘s closer fit styles designed, which were designed to better fit all of the game’s races). As a result, there’s a only a small amount of tail clipping (with the belt on the Cuirass), and hair clipping should be overall pretty minor.

The set is undyeable, which is a bit of a disappointment, since so many of the other versions of this set are dyeable. However, one thing to note about this set of models in particular is that they dye somewhat strangely, losing much of their metallic sheen with dye, and this particular one gives us a lovely metallic shade of green that we don’t have a solid analogue for via dyes, especially on pieces such as these. That can be both a curse and a blessing, of course—it might open up some new glamour possibilities in combination with other pieces that have similar shades of green and gold, but it also means the set can’t really be matched to anything dyeable that doesn’t inherently match it (at least on the axis of the green). Still, the overall color scheme is pretty solid!

But the thing that I love most about this set is that it gives Dragoons access to models they’ve not been able to wear for roughly seven whole years! While they do have access to the Darklight Cuirass set, which is a bit like a more elaborate version of these original tanking models, they’ve never had access to tis otherwise great set (though there are one or two NPC outfits available on the Online Shop that offer a piece or two of the set). Of particular note in that regard are the gauntlets and the sabatons, which make great companion pieces for lightly armored looks, and the cuirass, which is still one of the nicest pieces of armor in the game for all its simplicity.