Gathering Melding and Best in Slot Gear Meldsets For FFXIV Dawntrail Patch 7.1

This is our main "Best in Slot" set at the moment which with the whole set lasting until 7.3 (barring any minor adjustments to be optimal in future patches say for Cosmic Exploration).

The best food is currently Nasi Goreng due to giving GP allowing you to perform the 1000GP collectable rotation for collectable nodes, and simply more GP to gain yield with on Legendary nodes. This is because this meld sets hits the current nodes breakpoints without issue. The best food for legendary nodes will change with the nodes added in 7.2.

Benefits Include:

• Able to easily hit the all Node Bonuses on current Legendary nodes.
• Futureproofed around minimum perception calculations for future updates.
• Planned around calculated breakpoints for patch 7.2 and 7.3's legendary nodes where possible to calculate. For example it ensures you cap collectable skills for patch 7.3's aethersand.
• Enough GP to allow you to perform the 1000GP collectable rotation with Nasi and additional GP gained when hitting the node.
• Planned with big fish in mind with plenty of gathering to ensure minimums are hit.

Downsides:

• More expensive than the Mid Tier set for very little benefit at the moment.
• Unable to hit Bountiful Yield 2 +3 breakpoint (5593 Gathering) on glv700 nodes instead opting for more perception.

This is the Mid Tier gathering set for the Endgame gear offering lower stats and therefore less yield but having much easier melding. This is planned around having X overmelds (aside from a GP meld), cheaper overmelds in general and less overmelds to save even more gil while still hitting breakpoints.

The best food for this set currently is Stuffed Peppers so that you hit the 5085 Perception breakpoint to gain 40% Intuition rate on collectables as well as the GP to perform a 900GP rotation. No food is needed for legendary nodes at this moment in time.

Benefits Include:

• Significantly cheaper than the high tier set, using a lot more lower grade materia and less materia in general.
• Futureproofed around minimum perception calculations for future updates.
• Like the high tier set, this set is planned around breakpoints in patch 7.2 and 7.3. The main differences are that this set will be unable to hit any GP node bonuses and may not hit the +2 yield gathering node bonus in 7.2.
• Room to add GP materia if you want the 1000GP collectable rotation.
• Planned with big fish in mind with plenty of gathering to ensure minimums are hit.

Downsides:

• Will hit less node bonuses in 7.2 meaning slightly less yield.
• Low GP to make the set cheaper which impacts yield.

A budget set currently would be simply melding i690 gear until you reach 4540 Perception to be able to gather everything in the game.

The aim for budget players would simply be to upgrade to scrip gear in patch 7.2 and continue simply hitting the minimum perception. If you want to gather and craft materials for raid, you may consider the mid tier set which is still fairly cheap.