After this whirlwind update the level cap has increased to 80 and introduced a lot (some might say... a plethora) of new equipment.  I've been having trouble keeping track of where things stand in relation to the best stats available in each category.  I think I've been long overdue to look into this myself and so I spent some time compiling sets of gear with the maximum possible stats in many different categories.

Not included in these sets are augmented items, items with latents or enchantments.  RSE is included for comparison but not totaled into the sum since it's optional.  There are also certain special items that shouldn't get overlooked such as the Serpentes Cuffs and Serpentes Sabots set (which paired together grant a constant refresh and regen) and magian items such as the Surya's Staff with +17% Cure Potency.  Thanks to augments, the best obtainable gear is more debatable than ever.

Obviously the provided lists are not intended as actual gear setups to use in game.  It would be just stupid to cast in a maximum magic accuracy set.  So please don't be as clueless as to blindly follow after whatever item just has "the most" x, y, z.  Hopefully some of you find this useful, at least until the next update.  Enjoy.

Even though Visions of Abyssea areas have become thoroughly explored, a lot of unknown information and mysteries remain.  In case you haven't been keeping up with some of the talk and forum posting among the FFXI communities, here's some of the latest info you might have missed.

The Bare Basics
This is going to be a very long post covering much of the info known about Abyssea so far.  If you're new however you might not care to read every single confusing detail.  You probably just want to go in and have some fun with a little advice.  So to start with here's a really quick generalized view of what to expect in Abyssea.

Abyssea blends together elements from Dynamis, Assault, and ZNM in interesting ways.  Abyssea areas are open to anyone with access to the Abyssea addons level 30 and above.  You can enter freely and do as you please however you're limited to the amount of time granted with your visitant status.  Defeating enemies in Abyssea rewards experience and cruor points.  Cruor are points used to buy rewards, buffs, and travel in Abyssea.

To enter an Abyssea area you must purchase the addon then trigger the cutscene in Port Jeuno.  After that speak to the NPC Joachim for your Traverser Stone.  Traverser Stones act similar to an Assault Tag or a Campaign Ops Credit to grant you time in Abyssea (more detailed info later).  Once you have the stone travel to any of the three Cavernous Maws.  All 3 are located in a teleport crag area right before you reach the exit to the starting player areas (e.g. LaTheine maw is right near the exit to West Ronfaure).  Check the Cavernous Maw and choose to enter to continue into the area.  Just be careful not to enter a maw if you have plans to go along on an Abyssea group event within the next hour or you may have to wait (see time restrictions for more info).

Abyssea areas are generally not that hostile to a solo player, unlike Dynamis and Salvage where it's difficult to get around and aggroing means a quick violent death.  All regular enemies in Abyssea can be avoided easily by using sneak and invisible to bypass, or are already non-aggressive.  The areas are very large and so sneaking around isn't really any issue.  Time and slow travel is more of an enemy than accidental aggro.  And so if you are truly unable or unwilling to party up many jobs can find something to do solo in Abyssea.  You could farm some items and cruor from enemies, or do quests as you see fit.  To defeat the more challenging NMs however you will definitely have to party up with a group of friends.

After traveling into Abyssea you'll notice that the areas are nicely distributed with the same types of enemies all neatly clustered together in their own section.  In general, it's pretty simple.  Killing enemies of each type will randomly drop an NM spawn item at a fairly high rate.  Usually that type of enemy will spawn a NM of that same type (e.g. Bat mobs drop trigger for bat NM).  So all you really need to do is find out what NM you're after, travel to those mobs and start farming them until you get an NM trigger.  The trigger target is also conveniently located right where the mobs are.  As you fight in Abyssea the enemies level and spawn rate will tailor itself to your party's.  Eventually the enemies will become Incredibly Tough to your highest members level.  Be careful however, some groups of enemies will not drop any NM triggers because the corresponding NM of their type is already pre-spawned or a lottery.  And so as the enemies become higher level a pre-spawned NM could ultimately become drawn to you as well.

Once you have some NM triggers, it works on a pretty familiar tiered system.  Most NMs require 1 item to spawn, others can require up to 5 triggers.  All of the first tier NM triggers can be purchased on the AH as well.  You will have to work your way up the system to spawn the more powerful NMs after that.

That's basically it.  Go in, target the enemy type of your choice, and get to killing for some exp and cruor.  Figure out which NMs have some nice loot and work your way toward them.  Now if you want to get into the details there's plenty more below.