What do I do when I hit 99?

[ArbokSweater]

So, I'm not precisely a new player anymore- I've been here for two months and have 99drk and 95 thf. Of course, WHM or DNC is always my sub of choice, and I don't have a weapon skill over 210. I'm not sure what direction to go- I've tried doing merits, but I'm not sure what ones to get, and I'm not sure what missions to go do...

Can anyone link an up-to-date guide or give me an idea where I should be looking?

Arbok

[Caketime]

Become an alcoholic.

[ArbokSweater]

Done. Lol. I live in Germany, and we lovem the beers

[Caketime]

Well you're off to a great start, next up is to look into fancy accessories like a Brutal earring and maybe work on a Relic. DNC owns Dynamis, and THF does great in there too, so you've already got solid currency farming jobs for your Relic or just making gil to pay for something else.

E: The Schlenkler Urbock is my absolute favorite, though I probably spelled it wrong.

[ArbokSweater]

So look into a cool weapon, an earring, and something that sounds like spelunking. This game gets WAY cooler at 99.:P

[Toadie-Odie]

lol You could also take a gander over at http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. There you can find lists of the missions and quests. You can research the merit system and consider what they do and how they would benefit you best before you start putting points into anything. Relic/Mythic/Empyreon weapon info is there too if you want to look them up too. There are other sites to go to, but this is a good place to start.

[Weiko]

you might want to skill up a bit frist, before you do anything else :D

[ArbokSweater]

Yeah, I'm leveling up WAR currently to do the mandy thing....But beyond that, I'm not even sure where to start, as I can't hit anything

[Aethon]

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category%3ACombat_Skills
This will help you find out what level mobs you need to fight to skill up at. You can fight too weak stuff if your skills aren't up to par.

As for merits... if you plan on melee most of the time (and whm geared right can melee pretty well solo style) you will want STR and probably dex merits. Follow that with critical hit rate. Do your weapon skill level merits of course for whatever you plan on using. Merit WS are good but can be time consuming if your don't power merit all the time. And lastly HP merits are good. even a mage needs hp.

Mission wise. Getting rank 10 in your or all nations is a good idea and can mostly be done solo. CoP missions are long but worth it. (you WILL need help on some parts of that) ToAU and WotG have some good rewards too.

And finally, trial of the magians. The biggest time sink but can get good stuff. It's almost custom weapons. Every job can benefit from doing those and most of it just requires time and patience.

[Rustic]

This is one case where Abyssea hoses new players.

Yeah, you hit the level cap. You have minimal gear, no Gil, and your skills bite, hard. On the other hand, now you get to skill up. A lot. Offhand, I'd do it while leveling a few more jobs, like SAM or WAR for your DRK, SCH or BRD for your WHM, and probably Ninja somewhere in there as well. It'll likely let some of those defensive skills go up in the process, and depending on how cruddy you've been, some of your spellcasting skills as well.

-Don't- level them all the way up in Abyssea-style exp alliances. Do some solo GoV/FoV, then some GoV parties for a few levels, then solo again to give your skills a chance to catch up. In the long run, you can't avoid improving your actual skills, regardless of level.

(And this sorta situation is why L99 newbies exist- and shouldn't. Yeesh.)

[SpankWustler]

This guide (http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Returning_to_Vana%27diel) was really helpful to my best friend when she came back after a few years away, and should be helpful to a new player as well.

It provides very honest appraisals and very practical information about a lot of end-game activities.

If you're subbing White Mage or Dancer on Dark Knight, though, you might need a little more help than that. I strongly recommend leveling Warrior and Samurai to 49, and I'm not sure what kind of resource to recommend that talks about game mechanics in such a general way that it could be useful for you.

My suggestion for skilling up is a bit cynical, but very pragmatic, so pursue it at your own risk: just multitask and do it while you're collecting the merits for Resolution or Last Resort or STR. You'll eventually need a lot of cruor to buy a bunch of key items from Abyssea and Voidwatch NPCs and even more Cruor to upgrade Atmacites in Voidwatch, so that's one more thing to rack up at the same time.


Become an alcoholic.

This is also solid advice.

[Mirage]

I'm not sure what missions to go do...

All of them. You could start with your nation, then go on to RotZ, then whatever you want.