Things You Wish You'd Known

Hi All,

I played phases 2 and 3 of the CB but didn't sub right away due to playing other games at the time. I just officially subbed the other night and am having a superb time thus far. I wanted to ask you vets though, what are the things you wish you'd known about this game when you started? Things that would have made your leveling/character-building much easier. I've found that all MMOs have a lot of aspects that you learn about over time, tricks or shortcuts or easier methods that us noobies don't know yet but could sure benefit from, lol.

So basically just wanted some general things that might help me out. I'm a longtime MMO player and general FF fan, but still kind of feeling my way around here.
Thanks! :cool:

The two biggest things for me are that I didn't pay attention to the various sources for items, and I thought it was a good idea to hold onto materia-convertible gear until I was totally done with it.

I mined so much more crap than I would have otherwise, because I didn't know it was available at a vendor. And I bought so many things off of vendors that are usually cheaper on the Market Board.

And I held onto regular lowbie gear for ages because I knew I'd be using it on another class, when I could've converted it, bought a new one, sold the materia, and had more gil.

I wish I knew that I would soon be short of wind shards.
I wouldn't have given so much of them to other players. ^^"

Please mark my words, new players!
Don't give your shards to strangers!

I wish I would have known not to put all of my bonus stats in STR as opposed to VIT as Gladiator. I honestly had no idea my class was not a tank class until I got to the Brayflox dungeon.

Didn't help that I had all of the chat turned off because I thought I could play solo, so I can only imagine what all of the poor party members that had to suffer through my not so tanky tanking were trying to say to me.

Yes, this is my first MMO :(

You want to level your miner and botanist before you do any of your crafters. With those 2 gatherers in place, you can actually be self-sufficient leveling any and all crafters.

Hitting the Minus button when removing Gil from your retainer is so much easier than typing the number of gil you have.

Didnt know this for the longest time. lol

Level your cross class skills Before you hit 50.

Always double check Vendors before you buy something on the Market Board, a lot of people are trying to make Gil off of careless/lazy players.

Gear from dungeons > Vendor Whites - dont be that guy at 45 with full Vendor Whites trying to do Stone Vigil.....

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Originally Posted by JTribal

I wish I would have known not to put all of my bonus stats in STR as opposed to VIT as Gladiator. I honestly had no idea my class was not a tank class until I got to the Brayflox dungeon.

Didn't help that I had all of the chat turned off because I thought I could play solo, so I can only imagine what all of the poor party members that had to suffer through my not so tanky tanking were trying to say to me.

Yes, this is my first MMO :(

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NO CHAT ALLOWED. Seriously? Well at least your not the dragoon that thinks he can solo dungeon mobs

So sorry for minor derailment*
This question is for JTribal, the Gladiator.

I have been putting bonus points into Vitality, (maybe about 6 so far?) Is Vitality not the main stat for Gladiators/Paladins?

I had read something on the wiki that Vitality increased damage reduction, while STR increased straight damage thus indirectly increasing emnity; although our STR stat could never be high enough to allow us to dps and hold threat?

What should i focus my bonus points on? STR or VIT?
Thanks

I wish I hadn't used 2 vials of fantasia to change my character before I found a good glamour to use. They feel like such a waste now.

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Originally Posted by Strigoi

This question is for JTribal, the Gladiator.

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Too bad, I'm answering, too!

VIT = HP. It doesn't decrease incoming damage, it just gives you more of a cushion.

STR = damage. Damage = threat. STR also increases the amount you block/parry when you block/parry (though not the rate at which you do so). It takes a lot of STR to make a really visible difference, though.

Which one to take is debatable. Especially while you're leveling. More HP means your healers can relax a little more, but more damage means you have a better chance of holding threat. Either choice could go poorly depending on the parties you get & their experience & capabilities. If you can't hold threat, it doesn't really matter how much HP you have, since mobs won't be attacking you. But if you can't survive, it doesn't matter how well you hold threat, since you'll be dead, and the monsters will attack the healer next.

Once you're at 50, it's more about what content you're doing. If you're doing hard progression content for your gear level, VIT is generally safer, because threat is not as much of an issue as survivability during progression. If you're doing something you overgear and/or have on farm, STR is generally better, because of the extra damage.

Note that you can respec with an item from your Grand Company for 10,000 GC seals.

Really, as long as you keep your gear up to date, STR/VIT won't make an enormous difference either way. Personally, I've gone full STR on my GLA/PLD, because when I'm healing, I get far more annoyed at tanks who can't hold threat than I do at tanks that make me heal harder.

Oh, also, on topic: Always eat food. Preferably one that boosts a useful stat for your class, but if +VIT is all you've got, eat that while you're crafting anyway. All food gives you +3% XP, and it adds up.

I did not intend to preclude you Bixby! I thank you for your input!
Well I feel kinda like a dolt now! From what I have read Maurader's tank through dps and high health pools where as Gladiators are more about avoidance/mitigation?

I will try to balance the 2 stats for my bonus points. Do bonus points end being a lot of point spread? Does it effectively stop me from ever having my Gladiator main an AGI or Discipline of the Mind class because I spent my bonus points in stats that are not ideal for them?

Thanks everyone (Bixby hehe)
- Strigoi

There's not too much difference between the two tank classes, aside from the fact that MRD/WAR has an easier time at AOE tanking and GLA/PLD has a few more defense cooldowns. There is the occasional fight where one will be a little better than the other for whatever reason but generally which tank you have does not matter as long as they are being played correctly.

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I will try to balance the 2 stats for my bonus points. Do bonus points end being a lot of point spread? Does it effectively stop me from ever having my Gladiator main an AGI or Discipline of the Mind class because I spent my bonus points in stats that are not ideal for them?

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It sounds to me like you think bonus stat points are shared between all classes. All classes have their own bonus points separate from the others, so don't worry about it - you can play all classes/jobs just fine. The only special case is Arcanist - Scholar (a healer) and Summoner (caster DPS) both come off of Arcanist and so they share stat points. If you end up playing that you will need to decide to focus on one or both, but it's nothing to lose sleep over.

Also concerning bonus points for Tanks: Either STR or VIT or a split doesn't make too much of a difference. In the current endgame there is actually a point where you can reach more HP than you actually need and can safely wear STR accessories instead of VIT ones to help push out damage and make fights quicker. Having all STR, all VIT, or a split just changes when it's safe for you to switch to STR accessories, really.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Strigoi

I will try to balance the 2 stats for my bonus points. Do bonus points end being a lot of point spread? Does it effectively stop me from ever having my Gladiator main an AGI or Discipline of the Mind class because I spent my bonus points in stats that are not ideal for them?

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Each class gets its own set of bonus points, so the points you spend as GLD apply only when you're GLD or PLD. You'll get another set of bonus points for each other class you have.

This is, however, by class not job, so Arcanists have a bit of a distribution issue when they reach the point of upgrading to both Summoner and Scholar. Since those two jobs have the same base class, they share the same bonus attribute points. But since they fulfill differnent roles in the group, they generally don't want the same points. (SMN is better with +INT. SCH is better with +MND.) So far, however, since Arcanist is the only class that can upgrade to two different jobs, it's the only one where this is an issue.

[EDIT: Ah, Estellios beat me to it.]

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Originally Posted by Strigoi

From what I have read Maurader's tank through dps and high health pools where as Gladiators are more about avoidance/mitigation?

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Estellios covered it pretty well. Depending on where you've been reading, the impression you got may be a bit outdated. The differences between the two used to be more pronounced, but they were brought much closer together in patch 2.1. There are differences, but it's mostly visual (WARs do get more HP, but PLDs get damage reduction, so while the numbers look bigger for WAR, they end up in the same places). From a numbers perspective, they're pretty much the same, and anything that's a good/bad idea for WAR is a good/bad idea for PLD, and vice versa.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Strigoi

So sorry for minor derailment*
This question is for JTribal, the Gladiator.

I have been putting bonus points into Vitality, (maybe about 6 so far?) Is Vitality not the main stat for Gladiators/Paladins?

I had read something on the wiki that Vitality increased damage reduction, while STR increased straight damage thus indirectly increasing emnity; although our STR stat could never be high enough to allow us to dps and hold threat?

What should i focus my bonus points on? STR or VIT?
Thanks

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Bixby hit the nail on the head, sorry, I only get a chance to check the forums when I'm supposed to be doing something productive at work.

I should have known this but it was one of the things that escaped me. I came back after a few months break and started leveling my gathering and crafting classes because they were in the 40's and I wanted to finally have some 50's. Culinary was first and I went to do leves and had like 80 built up so I burned through em and got the cul to 50 then started on fisher and burned through the rest. The next day I went to weaver and there was only 3 lol, didn't realize you only get 3 a day so now it's the slow haul lol.

The big crystal in each town works as an aetheryte shard.

Level all craft classes at once. Have one gear set. Have all cross class skills available. Plus, you can make whatever crafted mats you'll need for other classes. ^^

Use leves for crafting and gathering. Use quests and dungeons for battle classes.

Go at your own pace. :) Don't allow others to bully you into doing otherwise.

Find a good FC.

Make friends.

Have fun! ^^

eta: Oh... and that Ifrit fight? Get the nails. ><''