Why do you recommend so much of stat X? Everyone knows that caps out?
The equipment chosen is meant to be the best all around pieces. A truly pimped out player would understand how to use the best gear available in the appropriate places, and would be aware of the various caps (25% haste, dex,int etc. in Abyssea, accuracy against Colibri, etc.). I do no factor any caps into my calculations. Please use the site to mix and match to your delight.
Why do you recommend a crossbow with a bullet?
Good question! The problem is that both are considered Marksmanship, and I haven't seen a way to programatically distinguish between the two. If I find one, I'll try to fix this.
Why do you recommend a sky wind for ammo?
On paper, them winds are pretty darn good. Sorry.
Everyone knows a BLM should use elemental staves and elemental obis, why don't you show that?
If everyone knows, why do I have to tell them? Seriously, elemental items are only good in certain situations. For example, using Vulcan's Staff while casting Water IV is going to give you no gain whatsoever. All the items, I list will help. The idea is that I suggest gear that is good in a general case.
How come you don't list stat X for armour Y?
There are a lot of stats. I've tried to grab the important ones, but some I've missed. If you think they're really important drop me a line on a forum.
When I do a STR build, armour X and armour Y have the same STR, but armour Y also has these other better stats, so why is armour X ranked higher?
The individual stat selections sort simply by that individual stat. In the case of a tie, they are basically ordered randomly. Any other way of breaking the tie would require my opinion, and the point of the individual stats was to provide a completely impartial ordering utterly devoid of my sometimes crazy opinions. Like many other things on this site, a little bit of user involvement is required.
What about this really sweet latent affect that always takes affect?
Latent affects and all other triggered affects are ignored by default. There is no indication for how a latent effect is triggered and many are useless once the trigger is in effect. For example, Magic Attack Bonus +50 for a BLM whose hp is in the red isn't always helpful. Some of the weapons that only require WS points to trigger their effect are quite nice, but again I can't know from the data what the trigger is.
Is there no way to take the latent affects into account?
There is a way! If you really want to take latent effects into account, use the "Triggered stats" option. Be aware that this will give you some completely unrealistic options like pumpkin heads for NIN and PLD.
How about this item that has a cool stat during the day and an even cooler one at night?
Since one effect is always active, probably the best thing to do would be to take the lesser of the two, but this would be tough. I don't think I'll ever implement something like this. (Fenrir Torque is a good example.)
How come you don't suggest more MP gear for Bard?
I ignore subjobs in all cases. MP gear is useless for a BRD/NIN. You do have a good point though. I may change my mind on this at some point.
Why do you always recommend a shield or a grip rather than a second weapon?
I assume you will not dual wield. However, there is now an option to assume dual wielding. Sorry, there is no option to choose whether or not to dual wield. (This could be interested for certain PLD builds.)
Why do you recommend a body equipment with 'Cannot Equip Headgear' and still have headgear?
This is kind of tough. Gear like this should really be penalized by the value of the headgear that you would otherwise be wearing. However, do I penalize by the best gear or a more likely item? It's too hard for me to decide, so I basically just ignore it.
Don't you know it's impossible to equip both equipment X and equipment Y?
Yes I know it's impossible to obtain both Hollow Earring and Ethereal Earring for example because they are mutually exclusive rewards for the same quest, but this is just a program. If the equipment said, "Cannot be equipped with so and so" maybe I could program it in, but chances are I'd just rely on the user to realize they can't do the impossible.
How come I don't see any differences when I run with different races?
You're not looking hard enough silly! Seriously, as of 6/19/07 you should see some differences when you rerun with different races selected. The differences shouldn't be major, but should slightly reflect the strengths and weaknesses of each race. There are also a couple race specific equipment options that pop up occasionally in the right level ranges.
Why do you recommend wearing this ring/earring which is Rare/Exclusive for both slots?
This used to be the norm, but as of 7/16/07, this shouldn't happen. SE's data can seem random so maybe I missed a rare flag. Please post to the forum.
Why do your recommendations for my job suck so much?
It's entirely possible that it's because I've never played the job. All the equations are based on my opinions of the relative importance of stats. I've played a reasonable range of jobs, but I haven't played them all. If you are an expert on a job and you don't agree with my recommendations, please join the forums and post with helpful advice on how to improve it. If you are nice and put up a good argument, I will consider changing them.
Why do you show a shield and also show a two-handed weapon?
Unless you manually selected an illogical pairing, as of January 13th, 2012 this would now be a bug. Please let me know about it.
How do you expect me to get all these items?
I don't. This is just a tool to try to give a comparision to different items, and to introduce you to items you may not have realized existed. Please use it as a reference, not a yardstick.
How the heck did you do this?
I used POLutils to get information about the gear and store it in a database. I then have a matrix of jobs, stats, and values. When a request comes in, I query the database based on job and level and then use my matrix to sum up all the stats and their values for equipment and voila! You're pimped! The totals in the bottom right and the flyover windows use AJAX stuff to reformat information from my database. I left some details out, but that's the gist of it.
Can you add a feature where I can decide the Pimped Out formula?
Theoretically yes, but it would be hard. The way I think I'd have to do it would also be very ugly. I may come back and do this someday. For now, you'll have to live with changing what stats are involved. This doesn't allow you to balance the input from each stat though.
Do you have any other future plans?
One of the plans from the beginning was to show what your character model looks like with all the pimped out gear on. I'd need some serious help to do this. If anyone knows how modeler type tools work and think they can help please send me a line.
Will you marry me?
How did this get in the FAQ? No one has ever really asked me that. Seriously though, get in line. Ladies are all over the Claquesous.