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I've been making full HQ gear sets for my retainers but in looking, I've not been able to find how much of a difference it really makes or if it's even beneficial to replace my retainer's gear every 3-5 levels with the best HQ stuff.
Both my retainers are Archers, as I found it easier to make the gear for two identical classes. I also felt it was safe to assume that in terms of venture rewards, DoW would recieve the same rewards no matter what class they were.
In regards to DoW/DoM, it seems that they are based on average item level. At a certain point, a minimum item level is required to bring back certain materials, and then when you get them to 50, 3 18-hour ventures become available (along with the others as you progress, requiring different item levels as well) that require average item level 50, 60, and 70. With that said, you should notice an improvement in amount of items and quality as your item level increases. Since HQ does not increase item level, I do not think it makes a difference, but as you get higher up in level, you can make better jewelery and such to increase the average level. I think the max items you can get is 10 from a single hunt, and the lowest amount of time is 40 minutes. There "may" be another factor that determines whether you bring back HQ items or not, but I cannot say with 100% certainty.
It seems that quick ventures are the way to go in almost every situation, is this not the case? It seems like doing 5-10 quick ventures throughout the day as oppose to just 1 field exploration would be far less profitable and offer less reward potential.
Please correct me if I'm wrong though as I'm not entirely sure. :)
You are correct Aronos, however that is quite a bit of venture tokens every day! Of course, if you FATE spam for ATMA and do your beast dailies you most likley will not run out of them.
I have level 50 archer, fisher, miner, botanist retainers. Mainly did hunt/gather for personal crafting stock, with the occasional quick venture which sometimes yielded a decent amount of XP. It looks like you are 50 in all crafts and gathering. I highly recommend doing the daily GC supply/provisions, especially with HQ items if available (also note the star next to the item which doubles the seal amount I believe). Handing in all HQ crafts would usually get me close to 7-8k seals in one go, depending on how many items are starred. I have also been leveling Dragoon with levequests that reward ventures, and also doing beast tribe quests.
I've been slacking off on upgrading my retainers' gear and letting them coast on gear that's now 10 levels below where it should be and I've noticed that when I send them on botany/mining ventures that are supposed to bring back 20 items they'll only bring back 15 or so.
Exp bonuses seem to remain the same so they'll probably coast a little while longer because I don't actually need this many iron acorns. NO ONE needs this many iron acorns.
. . . This may have been a glitch, it only happened a couple of times and then I never saw it happen again.
I more or less replaced the gear whenever a new gathering/item level was required, then I went full HQ. I'm kind of curious about the quantity discrepancy. I only noticed it when I sent out my fisher to get Silver Sharks. The initial screen said 3, but the confirmation screen said 2 (after the retainer had returned once with only 2 instead of 3). Other than that, I'm fairly certain the number listed on the gathering screen was accurate, although I never confirmed. Whenever I improved the gear, the number listed on the first screen would increase, and the time required for lower level gathers decreased to a maximum of 40 minutes. Have you considered maybe gathering the Blood Currant Seeds instead? They might be worth something, or end up being worth something if needed for a specific cross-breed. You only need to gather it once, and it's only 1 per venture, so save on inventory space.
For your retainers who have been coming back with i50+ weapons like the Mogbow, what level were your retainers; how were they geared, and were you using regular ventures or quick ventures?
For mog weapons and others Ilvl 55 to 70 equipment my retainers did start to bring back to me since lvl 15. Now they are 30+
Only quick ventures do that.
About equipment they only have what's necessary to reach requirements, until they are lvl 50 I am not putting much trouble to equip them.