FFXIV: Gearing Alts, Ready to Go!
Posted on January 5, 2026 by Aywren
Last night, I finally geared up Zuri with the full Courtly Lover’s Set – the newest crafted gear, which is ilvl 770 for level 100 jobs. While I’m not a huge fan of the way this set looks, it’s been a goal of mine to kit out this character for her path forward.
I knew that with FFXIV patch 7.4, we’d be getting the best crafted gear we’d be able to make during this expansion. Before the holidays, I’d finally finished most of the Dawntrail MSQ on Zuri, getting her to level 100, and unlocking the Dancer artifact gear. The AF set was really my main goal for Zuri as I knew I wanted to make it her new glam.
I also knew that the new gear was coming, and that I might be geared up enough on Amon’s crafters to make it for alts, rather than buy it. This was a good thing because even weeks after the patch release, the crafted gear is still really steeply priced. While my alt could afford it, it’s much cheaper for me to put the time into making it for myself.
This wasn’t quite as easy as I expected it to be. While Amon was geared up enough in terms of his actual armor and accessories, not all of the jobs had good main and offhand tools. This was one of the gear sets that you couldn’t even attempt to craft if you don’t have the proper stats at this point.
While I could have bought the tools from the marketboard, the cost has skyrocketed terribly since 7.4 dropped. Many of the tools are now priced near 1 million gil a piece, and I’m not paying that at end of expansion. Instead, I focused on getting the newest orange scrip tools, which gave me just enough stats to craft what I needed at normal quality.
For alts, I don’t worry about struggling to make high quality stuff. I mostly just want to craft them the ilvl needed to get through MSQ from start to end. My alts are never going to raid or do any high-end things, and mostly use Trusts to get through the story. So normal quality gear it is!
I’d put Zuri’s advancement on pause until I could craft this set for her. So now, I hope to start moving forward by completing Dawntrail and then starting the post patch content. This also opens the way for me to start progressing my three other alts – one at a time, of course!
Dawntrail isn’t a very engaging expansion for me, so it’s been somewhat hard to find the motivation to run it again and again on alts. Zuri has made my third time through, but she was motivated by earning that AF gear set for her main glam. I’ll have to find something to nudge me in the right direction on the rest of them!