Newbie f2p questions

Hello everyone,
I am a new player to FF - a free one and it is my first time in FF.
Before I spam you with questions: I play Lord of the rings online, my favourite class is Minstrel (ranged AoE nukes, good selfheals, some stuns). I came to FF hoping to play similar class.
Now up to questions:
1. Which class in closiest to Lotro's Minstrel? I chose Thaumaturgist with some half-elven race (starts in desert city).
2. Date of birth (1 moon, 1 day...) - is it of any real importance?
3. Deity I worship - any imoprtance? Can i change it?
4. Chats. Yes, as a f2p I cannot /tell, i cannot /yell. Since I am not in a clan or group - how do I communicate with the rest of the world, even f2p?
5. Crafting. As a Thaumaturgist - what crafting school should I choose?
6. Is there any way to trade items with other players, like - they send me stuff, I pay with gold (Lotro's C.O.D)?
7. Cosmetics. Is there any way to, say, find a nice costume - and equiop it cosmetically.?

1. I haven't played LotR Online, but I looked up minstrel and there isn't really any jobs except maybe BRD that fit that. I would recommend that you unlock them all and use them in palace of the dead* to try them out as they would be played at endgame.

2/3. Date of birth and deity have negligible effects on your stats, they don't matter.

4. Unsure if you can join LSs or FCs, but other than that I don't think you can. The reason for this is to stop RMT from using free accounts to spam.

5. THM likes weaver and carpenter for gear, and all jobs like alchemist and culinarian for food and potions.

6. Not exactly, but the market board works like that. Other than the market board there is a direct trade system (which you can use to trade gil).

7. There is a glamour system which you can unlock where you use glamour prisms to change the appearance of individual gear pieces.


*Palace of the dead is a piece of content unlocked at level 15 in south shroud that does not adhere to the levelling system outside the dungeon, instead you start at level 1 and as you go through the dungeon you can level up to 60 in a couple of hours (this does not persist outside of the dungeon).

Free Trial Players cannot progress past Floor 10 in the Deep Dungeon during the Free Trial. So, experimenting with that is still limited. Additionally, as level is capped at 35, even if you did want to grind those 10 floors to get a feel for "end game" play, might still be restricted by that (although I do not know if that cap exists for PotD, but, between those two points, you probably won't get far regardless).

Free Trial Players also cannot use the market board, trade items, or use Mogletters, so no, as a free player, you probably won't be trading anything with anyone.

Since you cannot trade or buy off the market board, and are capped to level 35, you will not be able to unlock the glamour system (available to crafters at level 50).

Free Trial Players cannot join Free Companies (FF14 Guilds), so the only means of wider communication is to be invited to a Linkshell, which is a group of players typically with a specific theme to the chat. If what you're looking for is some sort of World Chat, this game does not have that feature.

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Originally Posted by DarthOwl

1. Which class in closiest to Lotro's Minstrel? I chose Thaumaturgist with some half-elven race (starts in desert city).

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Conjurer (or White Mage once it gets its job upgrade at level 30) is probably as close to Minstrel as we have. It's a healer class, and this game is more strict about party roles in dungeons than LOTRO is, so a Conjurer or White Mage will always be taking the healer slot in any content where the game's Duty Finder is putting together a group (though you can ignore standard party roles if you put together a group on your own before entering). But healers are expected to both heal their party and dish out damage as needed, and CNJ/WHM is quite capable at both.

Or if you like the musical image of Minstrels, Archer gets a job upgrade to Bard, which can provide support buffs with songs, though they spend the rest of their combat time shooting arrows. They're a damage dealer, not the most powerful at damage, but they make up the difference with those support abilities thrown in as well.

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Originally Posted by DarthOwl

2. Date of birth (1 moon, 1 day...) - is it of any real importance?
3. Deity I worship - any imoprtance? Can i change it?

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Neither really matter for anything unless you roleplay with it. I don't think you can change them, though.

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Originally Posted by DarthOwl

4. Chats. Yes, as a f2p I cannot /tell, i cannot /yell. Since I am not in a clan or group - how do I communicate with the rest of the world, even f2p?

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There is a special linkshell just for new players and experienced ones who have chosen to offer help. It's called the Novice Network. Any mentor (players who have the crown icon by their name) can invite you to it.

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Originally Posted by DarthOwl

5. Crafting. As a Thaumaturgist - what crafting school should I choose?

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Weaver makes most of their armour and Goldsmith makes their weapons and jewelry, but if you get into crafting you're going to end up wanting to advance all eight of the crafting classes.

There are extra skills that once you learn them on one class you can use them on the others, and those cross-class skills will be important for generating High Quality results as you get up into higher levels. There's a set of such skills as you get each of the crafting classes to level 15, another at 37, another at 50, and the final ones at 54. (The level 15 ones are all pretty good. Culinarian has an important skill at 37, though the other classes' ones at that level are fairly useless. Then the level 50 ones are all good.)

The other reason for taking all of the crafting classes is the materials you'll need. For instance, Weaver will need not only cloth that they make themselves, but also leather made by Leatherworker. For the early few levels you can buy materials you'll need from an NPC, but as you go up in levels you'll reach ones that can only be made by players and it's cheaper if you can make them yourself.

Speaking of materials, you may want to pick up the gathering classes as well, or at least Botanist and Miner.

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Originally Posted by DarthOwl

6. Is there any way to trade items with other players, like - they send me stuff, I pay with gold (Lotro's C.O.D)?

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Not while you're on the free trial.

Once you buy the game, there is a two-way Trade feature for trading items in person. You can also send items through mail to people on your Friends list, though there's no C.O.D. option like LOTRO has, and you can't send mail to anyone not on your Friends list. And there's a Market Board for selling items to whoever will buy it at the price you set (no auction bidding like LOTRO's AH, just a set price.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarthOwl

7. Cosmetics. Is there any way to, say, find a nice costume - and equiop it cosmetically.?

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Once you reach level 50 you can unlock the glamour system that lets you apply the appearance of one item onto another.

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Originally Posted by Lambdafish

THM likes weaver and carpenter for gear, and all jobs like alchemist and culinarian for food and potions.

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It's weaver and goldsmith for gear. Carpenter makes conjurer's staffs, but goldsmith makes thaumaturge ones.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

... glamour system (available to crafters at level 50).

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Available to anyone t level 50, though it's crafters who make the prisms used as catalysts when glamouring gear.

...and spammig continues (sorry for that).
Once again, how do I join /Novice? Enter any player-Mentor and...? I cannot whisper, cannot send in-game mails - how do I communicate? Would this /Novice network available for me even at lvl.35?
Then: my status. What statuses are most important for my Thaumaturg? I am getting a bit lost in equipment that offers Mind, Agility and many otgher

Stay next to a mentor (crown status) and use /say to ask for the invitation.

Main stat for THM is INT
Spell Speed, Crit, Determination and Direct Hit are his secondaries