How do newly chreated characters / new players supposed to progress naturually

There's something to consider here: the game reached a stage where intermediate gear is becoming relevant.

In 2.3, you could get some nice i90 gear in almost no time, thanks to the Hunt and the myth tomstones raining from the sky without much effort.
Being i90 in the 2.3 era was good enough to do most of the content without too much problems in order to start getting i100-i110 stuff to do Ex Primals and Coil.
So, long story short, you could very easily jump from i50 to i90+ stuff in almost no time.

But now, things have changed. Getting Soldiery is harder than previously and you can't really gear yourself up with the Hunt anymore (or, at least, not as easily as it was in 2.3). Since you won't be able to really farm Poetics if you are freshly 50, and that it your take quite some time and investment to get Soldiery i100, you have to find something else between your i50 and the i100-i120.

So, what's left? Well, if you are a fresh 50, chances are that the market boards are not available to you, unless you made a ton of gils in some way. Therefore, the only real things left are: dungeon gears.
You'll now have to farm some dungeon to start getting your iLv up with intermediate pieces of equipement such as the good ol' Darklight and the i80 stuff. Only then you'll be able to go into CT1, get some more gear and then start doing CT2 in order to get closer to i80-100 to start farming Soldiery efficiently.

I think the way 2.4 made the gear evolve, but also the way to obtain it is very clever. It give a fresh new use to the abandonned stuff below i100, which was completly ignored during 2.3.
By adding new content and raising the difficulty of obtaining the new "i100-i110 base", SE managed to bring back old content into the scene for fresh 50 players to use... personnaly, I find that very well done.


tl;dr: People now have to stop thinking that running dungeons for i70-i80 stuff is useless, because that stuff just became more relevant to the character progression towards end-game.

they just get the best gear available (ToP gear) like everyone else, the rest of the gear is irrelevant, can be collect for glamour

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

The point is, by the time you're geared enough to run those dungeons you've already outgrown it. Also, it's still a random drop in a chest. There's no guarantee you'll get the headpiece, legs or body. It's entirely guesswork as to which armor drops in the dungeon, and you're still lotting against other players to obtain it. Tomes are earned regardless.

Asfor how much soldiery you get, I'd say you get sufficient enough amounts to gear up even on lower tier dungeons like Amdapor Keep. The downside now is that they've effectively cut off some players from being able to use Duty Roulette because... well, they're stupid. They've gone and attached the old 'extreme' roulette dungeons to the hard mode roulettes effectively increasing the ilvl requirement and the total number of dungeons you need to complete before it unlocks.

I think SE just hates new players.

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I think most of what is said here is totally innacurate since none of you are actually new players and are just making assumptions. I am a new player who is still under the one month free trial (4 days left) and I just reached 50 not long ago.

So, far, I have not actually outgeared any content and all the gear I get are usable. I have cleared Ifrit, Garuda, Titan Ex and all the high level dungeons so far through the DF, after I barely made the ilvl requirements. I can assure you we don't lose anything not being able to do roulette right away. The gear progressions is just fine.

Of course, we won't be able to do content at the same difficulty as release but that is the nature of all MMOs. Old content need to be easy to allow new players to get a party easily by making it attractive for old players to do those old dungeons. One of the difficult things new players face in an MMO is getting to the same tier as the rest of the playerbase. As of now, I think SE is doing a great job. It is neither too fast nor too slow to catch up to the current playerbase. Once we get to your level, then we can experience content at the same difficulty as everyone. If gear progression is too slow or old content still too hard, then it will be impossible for us new players to reach to the current content. We would forever be playing catch-up, until an expansion releases where gear is reset.

So, I must say good job to SE. Sure there are problems like slow queue times for DF and players wanting to disband after 1 wipe but that is a problem of the playerbase and not SE. As of now, SE is making FF14 a great experience for new players at 50 to catch up to the current playerbase, unlike any of the other MMOs I have played where it is either impossible to reach the current content or too fast.

@OP - at my own experience of playing a level 50 character as warrior, I'm simply gearing up from each dungeon. I'll queue up for Amdapor Keep, and Wanderer's Palace (believe it or not some of those dungeons can offer somethings worth of value to yourself and others) I get that tank gear, then i move on to, Pharos, Copperbell, and Haukke.

Again some items in some of these dungeons worth of value. Plus the accessories from these are great, for i60 gear.

then Move onto Brayfox, Halatali, and Amdapor Ruins, for the i70 gear, this is where I'm stuck and have been for sometime now (I play slower than most). But it's pretty solid progression and fun. I have have some encounters where people will complain to me. But we progress pretty rapidly either way, just not break-neck speed.

As for the weapons, Primals are your friends :) I did, give-or-take 10 ifrit runs for my Axe, and like eight Garuda Runs for my i70 axe. As soon as i'm geared with full i70 (including accessories with the exception of the one ring). I'll start doing Titan.

I'm having a blast doing it though :) I'm having a lot of fun doing this and it's more of a personal challenge and if this is the road you might want to use as a template, I'm glad I was able to give you some ideas.

-Tari

I posted in this in another unrelated thread but it seems still relevant.

My answer. Run all the 50 content once. The content tiers nicely and gives a new 50 player a whole lot to do while gearing and improving their skills against mechanics. At any point on this list you could choose to rerun a dungeon for another loot chance and that will only help you further.

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Originally Posted by Tiggy

OK so I'm a brand new player. I just dinged 50 and I walk up fresh to dungeons with my AF set. My intention is to run all content at least once. At any point along the way if I get caught by an iLv limit use the existing soldiery obtained to buy something to help buff iLvl.

Step 1: Buy inexpensive accessories to fill out my ride side. Using cash obtained selling allagan coins from quest rewards
Step 2: Buy GC weapon.

At this point you're going to be right around iLv50.

Step 3: Run all the dunegeons.
- The Wanderer's Palace (Level 50) (50)
- Amdapor Keep (Level 50)
- Copperbell Mines (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 48)
- Haukke Manor (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 48)
- Pharos Sirius (Level 50) (iLvl 48)
- Halatali (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 55)
- Brayflox's Longstop (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 55)
- The Lost City of Amdapor (Level 50) (iLvl 55)


-- At this point your gear from random drops should have you at least in the 60's and possibly early 70's. --

Step 4: Upgrade relic weapon. You are now geared enough this shouldn't be a problem. Possible temporary weapon upgrades along the way. You can probably mix and match this and step 3 together as you see fit.

-- At this point you have an i90 weapon and assorted gear above i50. You're probably in the i70s by now easily, and probably ready for the expert dungeons. --

Step 5: Unlock the Labyrinth of the Ancients (Level 50) (iLvl 55). Obtain i80 piece.

Step 6: Run Syrcus Tower (Level 50) (iLvl 70). Obtain i100 piece.

Step 7: Run new Expert dungeons and possibly obtain some i90 gear tokens for turn in.
- Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 70)
- Stone Vigil (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 70)
- Hullbreaker Isle (Level 50) (iLvl 70)
- Sastasha (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 80)
- The Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard) (Level 50) (iLvl 80)
- Snowcloak (Level 50) (iLvl 80)

-- At this point you're probably in the i90s. Maybe even further than that based on your luck. --
Step 8: Ultima for possible accessories.

Step 9: Run Ex primals ifrit, garuda, and Titan. This get's you both experience in tougher fights and good accessories to upgrade your right side. Also your first completion gives you another weapon giving you an option to skip the relic step if you're gutsy.

Step 10: Run First Coil through once.

Step 11: Use Soldiery and Poetics gained from doing each dungeon once to fill out holes in gear. You'll likely have a bunch of points by now.

Step 12: Start practicing and looting Second coil and running weekly dungeons. This will get you your baseline i110 gear and start moving you to i120. Wash, rinse, and repeat each week.

Step 13: Full on end game in coil 3.

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Originally Posted by Kallera

It would've been better if the Ilevel sync was made a little more tighter to provide for the relevant content, instead of a flat 110 post 50

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I feel this would only serve to make them take longer and be potentially less appealing to a majority of end game players, for the sake of the minority who actually want them to be a challenge while no longer relevant. Most players running roulettes are not doing so to go enjoy old content as it was meant to be experienced initially, they're doing it for the bonus roulette rewards. Making these duties more of a hassle would likely mean less end game players doing them, which would potentially mean less people queuing and longer wait times for the new players actually progressing through the content. I agree with SE's decision here; it would be a bad business decision to take the risk and make older content more difficult and time consuming than what end game players are used to, unless they reasonably increase the rewards.

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Originally Posted by ChibiChan_Hyperion

I feel this would only serve to make them take longer and be potentially less appealing to a majority of end game players, for the sake of the minority who actually want them to be a challenge while no longer relevant...

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It isn't for the difficulty. there can be large disparities between the ilvl of players that enter tge content as it is. New players that go into these fight with a decked out player, if they are a tank or healer role, may find it difficult to perform their role due to the vast difference in damage output and speed in dungeon attempts which leads to deaths and/or arguing.

What amuses me in all of this is you are all assuming that the OP wanted a guide on how to gear. From what I read, the OP is asking how do you do a path of content from 2.0 to 2.4 without missing out on the challenge that was initially there when the content was released.

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Originally Posted by Dimitrias

It sux for new players to once they hit 50 and can't experience the game like we did in the past, or is it still possible to progress naturally with endgame, from 2.0 to 2.4?

It also seems like you would get Caried through all the older content aswell, and some people would like a challenge :(

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OP: If you are looking for the content to progress in a similar fashion and still be challenging, you should find 3 other like minded individuals. This would let you challenge each dungeon along the way in gear that is the iLvl that the dungeon was designed for. If you are relying on DF and hoping to do this solo, it is not likely that it will happen as those who have been in the game for the last year have no interest in gearing down to an instance that they have cleared time and time again.

It is a shame that a new player won't get to experience many fights in the game that were great fights which will never be the same. AK, Ultima, Titan, Caduceus, etc. Even I miss when those were fun and challenging.

BCoB T1 is unlocked at ilvl70 and drops i90s. With nerfs and speedrunners for gear/desynth, it's basically faceroll content now and great for gearing up.