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I just hit lvl 45 and working on my Dragoon gear through quests. Well I know that's just the start of the end game gear. Once I'm finished getting the helmet at 50. What do I start working toward for the real end game gear. Will I be working on dungeons or raid dungeons or do I need to start grinding crafting? Another question would be since heavens sword is incoming what is the most realistic end game gear I should be shooting for?
I'm sure there will be several others who will have better or more specific answers than me but ideally you want to shoot for ilvl of 100 to finish the storyline all of the way to 2.55. When you finish the 2.0 story you unlock a ton of extra content. I used a combination of dungeons, beast tribe quests and hunts to build up tomes and seal to get everything upgraded. Some people enjoy crafting and can make some gear that is equal or better than the tomes gear. There is also the relic questline that can give you a very good weapon if you want to invest the time and money for it.
Hello!
There are lots of options. Crafting is one way, but unneccessary and much more work. Most end game dungeons have gear in, currently ranging from ilevel 55 to i100. As your ilevel goes up, you'll be able to unlock higher dungeons. There's also the 24-man raids, Crystal Tower (ilevel 80 gear), Sycus Tower (i100) and World of Darkness (i120), and the 8-man raids Binding Coil of Bahamut (i90), Second Coil of Bahamut (i110) and the Final Coil of Bahamut (i130). Coil is the hardest content in the game when released, and as most players are overgeared now Binding Coil and Second Coil are much easier, but Final Coil is the hardest content in the game at the moment so you won't be aiming for that just yet any way. There's also hunts, which you unlock from your Grand Company, which you could farm seals for.
You'll also start collecting two types of tomestones: Allagan Tomestone of Soldiery, and Poetics, which you collect and trade in at Mor Dhona for i100 and i120 gear.
Personally I'd unlock Crystal Tower straight away and grab gear from that, and work your way up unlocking all the dungeons which you'll grab gear from & lots of Solidery to spend. Aim to unlock everything, and you'll pick up lots on the way! i100 is enough to get you through nearly all content. I'm not sure if there will be enough time now to get a full set of Poetic gear (you can only collect 450 tomes per week) by Heavensward's release, but a mixture of that and WoD pieces are achievable and what most players have now. With Heavensward it'll all be obsolete any way. :)
Edit: Oops, typo. Not tombstones. Don't want to be collecting those. :D
Crafting is NOT necessary by any means. Crafted gear is basically for the people who want to customize their stuff for very specific things like Coil.
Quinnie explained everything above basically.
The first Crystal Tower, Labyrinth of the Ancients, has a requirement of ilvl 50 (so you can get in as soon as you hit 50 and get accessories, basically, since you get your ilvl 50 artifact set) and drops ilvl 80 gear.
The second, Syrcus Tower, has a requirement of ilvl 70, and drops ilvl 100 gear.
The third, World of Darkness, has a requirement of ilvl 90, and drops ilvl 120 gear.
You can get gear from those, while getting soldiery and poetics tomestones (not tombstones c;) for other gear to fill in the gaps. But really, don't fret too much. There are lots of things you can do. Most notably, make sure you do all the MSQs as you gear up! You need to have finished 2.55's to play Heavensward.
Realistically, you should shoot for ilvl 90-100, but that's easy peasy to get. You could do Hunts (Elite marks...the quest should be around your GC HQ somewhere once you're 50) with people for a few hours and get tons of soldiery if you're in a rush. You also get allied seals for hunts, which you can use to buy Blood-Spattered Mark Logs to exchange for Sands of Time (3 logs) and Oils of Time (2 logs). You use these to upgrade your soldiery gear from ilvl 100 to ilvl 110. They also drop in Syrcus.
Quickie walkthrough on upgrading: You buy the Logs at your Grand Company's Hunt Billmaster (in the HQ), then you take the logs to Aelina in Mor Dhona - she's in the same tent-stall as where you buy your soldiery gear - and exchange them for a Sand or Oil. Then, you go to North Shroud and head up to the very top, where the forge is in the little settlement, and you trade the sand/oil and gear/accessory/weapon for an un-weathered versions.
Either way, you really don't need to worry about getting super geared. As noted, it's going to be obsolete - people in i130 will probably be getting replacing it by level 55 come expansion.
Just reach level 50
Get carried thru content by over geared players in Duty finder whether u like it or not.
-Get gear via sol/ poe tomes
-save ur gil and don't spend it on soon to be obsolete gear cuz its almost heavensward
-run the Crystal tower arc
-farm world of darkness till ur eyes bleed
-congrats u r now almost i130!
best way to approach endgame if u wanna save gil and time.
You also get an absolute ton of soldiery from first time bonuses for completing dungeons. Make sure you pick up the Hildibrand quest chain as well, it's essential for unlocking trials roulette and it's a really entertaining quest chain anyway.
Basically, do all the dungeons once to unlock high level and expert roulette, buy a load of soldiery gear, and faceroll your way through Labyrinth and Syrcus Tower before doing WOD over and over again. Make sure to cap out on poetics and do the weekly quest for clearing all three Crystal Tower instances and you'll be geared up in no time.
The Hunts you can start now if you're interested in getting a head start on good endgame gear. In your late 40s with the partial AF you got from your level 45 quest you should be geared well enough for them provided you also have a good weapon for your level. Spend a couple evenings running around with a Hunt party tracking down A and S rank marks and you'll have enough Soldiery and Allied Seals to get several pieces of iLvl 100 gear. (I think last time it took me about three or four evenings to get a full set. I did keep playing pretty late a couple of those evenings, though, so it might be more if you play just a couple hours at a time.) That will leave just your weapon and then further upgrades beyond 100 to focus on after you hit level 50.
(The downside of gearing up in advance like that is that your level 50 job quest rewarding your final piece of AF gear is a bit anticlimactic, as you'll already have outleveled it. Still makes a nice cosmetic, though.)