Edit: What i wrote below is no longer relevant. I'm giving updates throughout the thread marking my progress and asking new questions. So i no longer need replies directly to the OP.
I'm new-ish to FFXIV. This is my first time actually leveling through to the end, and I've got a few questions about my progression.
Everything was pretty linear at around 1-30, i kept up with the main storyline and everything was progressing smoothly. Recently, i've noticed that i'm struggling to keep up with the main storyline. I've been doing all the side quests i can find, a levequest or two where i can, fate now and then, but that doesn't seem to be enough.
I'm finding that every now and then i hit a snag and I end up being a level below what i should be to progress onward, and it's been happening over and over leveling to 36.
The only thing i've been doing to catch up are levequests and grinding the duty finder.
Is there something else I should be doing?
I've noticed it's also getting harder to kill groups, and many quests spawn groups of things on top of me
If this is of any relevance, i've been leveling a black mage.
Did i make a poor first choice of class?
Am I doing everything right?
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03-15-2015, 01:24 PMAveraxAm I doing everything right?
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03-15-2015, 01:29 PMPicori
Blm is a good first choice to level up. Just keep at it. Make sure your in area that has the side quests, you can do low level duty once a day. That gives you like one level a day.
Just make sure your gear is up to date. Like try get gear from dungeons, and buy some from market board.
Like good to upgrade every 5 levels at less. -
03-15-2015, 01:39 PMAeika
I prefer to grind fates while waiting on dungeon queues until I can continue the main story again.
While quests are an option, its WAY slower.
This game isnt meant to be rushed to 50, and takes forever on purpose. -
03-15-2015, 02:04 PMAveraxHonestly, i've just been looking for an excuse to level up my arcanist/summoner. I thought BLM was going to have more going on with it, and it gets tiresome. The short amount i've played Arcanist (until i got Physick) was way more fun than my experiences with BLM. But i told myself to just wait until i'm max level, and then i can switch. I've contemplated just starting over, but i've already invested too much time into this character to turn back now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Picori
On the next point, daily random is good, and that's usually the first thing i tackle when i log in.
Also, what's the market board? Is that this game's version of the AH? -
03-15-2015, 02:17 PMEstellios
Luckily you already have Swiftcast which is the absolute best cross class ability for mages, so if you feel like changing jobs you won't need to come back to BLM for abilities.
For what it is worth, BLM gets a bit faster paced as it levels up. Fire 3 and Ice 3 both let you swap between max fire and ice stacks immediately, and Firestarter and Thundercloud get you some luck-based triggers to pump out some extra damage.
You should under no circumstances make a new character just to change jobs, IMO. Not only will you have to unlock a bunch of stuff all over again, changing to a new class will give you a permanent 50% XP bonus until it becomes your highest level battle class and it really speeds things up. -
03-15-2015, 02:28 PMKeydahDon't view it like that! If you aren't enjoying what you're playing, then go ahead and try something else. It's better to get to 50 and enjoy it than to groan your way there. This is a game, not a chore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Averax
My first class was BLM, and I really enjoyed it. I now main SCH and almost never touch either of my other 50 classes (BLM & NIN) but BLM was pretty fun to me. BLM got a lot more fun for me in the later 30s or early 40s, when you get Fire III & Blizzard III and you no longer need to Transpose and build your Fire/Ice stacks back up (Fire III = instant 3 stacks of Astral Fire, even if you have max Umbral Ice, and the opposite for Blizzard III). Honestly, the fun for me is watching the gigantic numbers pop out of my fireballs and generally feeling badass. I miss playing my BLM now.
I believe they meant class. Their character's lodestone page shows them having leveled arcanist already on their char, or I would've said the same thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Estellios
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03-15-2015, 02:36 PMAnapingofness
From what I can tell, you are doing everything right!
But just in case it needs to be said - Keep doing those quests!
Until you get the armory bonus, they are some of the best source of exp since leves don't give as much.
Make sure to unlock your challenge log.
The challenge log resets weekly and scales with your level.
In addition to that, make sure to keep up on your Hunt Log. While it doesn't reset, each class has one and they give nice boosts to exp.
Also, make sure you do your Guild Hests. Doing them the first time as your class will give you a bonus. Doing your Guild Hest Roulette gives a nice bonus to exp too. The bonus will scale up with your lvl as well.
As you level and you devour all of the side quests and main scenario quests, don't be afraid to nab a passing FATE or two. I never FATE farmed for exp- too boring for me, but if I was in the zone running quests, I would always do the FATEs I ran across.
Another small thing you can do is always log out in sanctuaries and have some type of food. You can get cheap food from NPCs but that 3% exp buff certainly adds up.
As far as making a new character, I wouldn't bother with that at this point in time. FFXIV is designed so that you can do pretty much everything on one character.
Not to mention, you will need certain cross class abilities from your black mage for your summoner, so you'd be leveling blm up anyway.
So if you want to give Summoner a go, by all means- go for it! All you need is to equip the correct weapon and you're set!
While you're at it, feel free to experiment with other classes! You may find one you like even more. ^^ -
03-15-2015, 03:57 PMBelhi
BLM starts off slow but gets better as you level. I didn't really enjoy BLM till I got into the 40s. BLM's are squishy though if you have a healing chocobo companion they can help. If you have multiple enemies spawn don't be afraid to use sleep. For BLMs it is a very powerful CC and allows you to take groups one at a time.
As for the leveling, I found a fair amount to do. Sidequests spawn in new areas the Main Scenario takes you to and you can miss them. Also its worth getting some food cause that 3% might not look like much but it adds up over time. If you have a Botanist there are a fair few harvestable things that provide the food buff even if they don't give you a stat buff. -
03-16-2015, 03:17 PMsangzGC choice
I know this is totally a random question. I am still a newbie too. I have no idea which GC to choose. Either Maelstorm/Immortal Flames. I am not joining the tree hugging gridenians :P Maelstorm - well badass pirates, Immortal Flames - My fav npc is there- Thancred (OMG I love him so much). I am inclining to rouge class btw. Need your advice guys. GC Storyline matters too. Must be interesting. Any advice, guys?
Just random thing: Why is it still showing my main class: thaumaturge instead of rouge in the forum? -
03-16-2015, 04:24 PMAzalie_eriza
Also, dont make the mistake i made, took me a extremely long time until i realised i missed to unlock My mount chocobo, and with little gil at hand(and wanting to save by not teleport that often) the quests took quite some time because i ran Around everywhere :)
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03-16-2015, 05:34 PMKeydah1. That's just up to you. It doesn't really matter and I don't honestly remember there being a GC storyline, but it's been a year and a half so I dunno. Either way, Thancred is a Scion, he has no relation to Ul'dah that I remember. I liked Maelstrom a lot, but I also like Flames (It's my Nanamo bby's city's GC, after all). If you plan to PvP you'll get steamrolled if you join Maelstrom, at least in the Aether data center.Quote:
Originally Posted by sangz
2. You need to change it in your forum settings (it doesn't change automatically), but rogue isn't available to be selected as your main class on the forums yet. -
03-16-2015, 05:39 PMGarlyle
OP: You're doing it right! As you start hitting the 30s (and moreso the 40s), the EXP needed per level goes up faster than the increasing EXP rewards from everything else. Doing sidequests, dungeons, and FATEs will net you plenty EXP. Do your daily Low Level Roulette if you haven't already; even if you get a lower level dungeon, the bonus EXP at the end is easily a level+.
As for class swapping, that's up to you. You do get +50% EXP when levelling any battle class lower than your highest levelled one, which helps some. It'll be a good chunk of FATE and dungeon grinding to get it up still, but it's not too bad. And ultimately, some people are just more prone to certain classes than others (or, alternatively, have been playing them wrong and thus they don't feel good/interesting/strong). I know I don't really have any more plans to touch THM if I can help it, personally.
The Grand Companies don't actually have different storylines; there's some minor variance on events, but for the most part, the GC are functionally identical. Your choice of GC affects:Quote:
Originally Posted by sangz
1. Where your GC headquarters are for things like picking up GC quests, turning in GC seals, etc.
2. The look of your GC gear (GC gear has functionally equivalent pieces in each GC, just with different looks)
3. The salute emote you get
4. Which faction you're going to be teamed with if you ever enter Frontlines PvP (You're teamed with other players of the same GC allegiance).
That's about it really. And you can change later if you really want. -
03-16-2015, 05:46 PMExiledOne
OP: FATEs are a great way to level up, Costa del Sol has some great 30+ level FATEs and Coerthas has 40+ and there's usually a group of players running them.
There is a gap in the Main Story Quest line after level 46 until 49, so FATEs are a good choice (or side quests to change pace) -
03-16-2015, 05:54 PMsangzQuote:
Originally Posted by Garlyle
Owh i see!! Maybe I will play as Maelstorm first, then immortal maybe. Thanks so much for your help, Garlyle and Keydah!! Btw, duty finder takes a lot of time to queue for main quest especially..Makes me kinda sad, no one is joining. Ended up cancelling sometimes becoz of other real life commitments.Quote:
Originally Posted by Keydah
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03-16-2015, 06:12 PMKeydahYou're a dps. There will always be more dps queueing than tanks & heals, so your queues are going to take a long time. :c Especially for the main story - especially with more people having already completed it and having no reason to re-do the instances.Quote:
Originally Posted by sangz
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03-16-2015, 06:42 PMGarlyleBasically this. The best you can do to reduce your queue times as a DPS is to make friends with a tank or healer and queue simultaneously with them. Otherwise, you've got to take what you can get, unfortunately; there's just far too few tanks/healers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Keydah
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03-16-2015, 07:06 PMBelhi
It might be different in my server but I've generally had not too much problems with the lvling instances except for the trials. A lot of people do do low level instances either to level extra classes, do relic quests(endgame stuff) or for the roulette which gives daily rewards. You will find much shorter queues if you queue as a healer or a tank though. I went through the main scenario story as a bard for open world stuff and a white mage for instances.
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03-17-2015, 04:56 AMAverax
Thanks for the advice everyone, i have a system worked out now for when i get stuck behind where i need to be.
1: Queue for daily random
2: Fate grind
3: Levequest grind if fates are not available. (I hate leves so much)
I'm no longer feeling underpowered either, i think i was just an awkward level. Things are dying fast again. I'm still looking forward to leveling Arcanist/Summoner when i reach max level, though.
Wat?Quote:
Originally Posted by ExiledOne
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03-17-2015, 05:10 AMEstellios
Something that might help with leves is that each different type of leve objective ("Kill all enemies", "Find the Necrologos pages", "Prevent the dude from escaping and calling reinforcements", etc) has specific artwork for its leve plate so if you hate leves because of one objective type, you can just take note of what the plate artwork is so you can avoid those leves in the future. For example, I hate the escort leves so I just avoid any leves with that artwork.
ExiledOne mentioned the main story gap... there is a point in the main story where you complete a level 46 quest and the next one requires you to be level 49 that a lot of people seem to get stuck on. I believe the quest in question is "Black Wolf's Ultimatum". Most people seem to miss it but there is a series of side quests that start in a side room in the Waking Sands once you hit the story gap that takes you to three different mid-40s areas. On top of that, you can unlock beastmen daily quests at all 3 grand companies, although keep in mind you have a shared daily quest allowance and the Ixal quests are crafters-only. -
03-17-2015, 10:32 AMGarlyleAt around level 46 in the main quest line, you'll very suddenly hit a point where the next main quest jumps to level 49. There are several sidequest lines available to you at that point however which start from Horizon and lead you to various level 45+ areas with more sidequests. There's also Beast Tribe quests available at 40 (daily repeatable quests with good EXP and unique rewards), a couple optional high level dungeons you can grind, and so on and so forth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Averax
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03-17-2015, 11:12 AMAveraxWell that's discouraging.Quote:
Originally Posted by Garlyle
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03-17-2015, 11:23 AMsangzYeah, one way to look at it. Make friends with tank and healers. I wonder why most of the classes fall in the DPS category. Limited classes only goes into tank and healer category. I have another question. For the job classes, do you need to level all of them? I am in a point where i cant find alumen reagent from any NPCs (leatherworks). I saw a forum stating that your mining skill must reach lvl 20 in order to that material. My mining, fish, botany level up really slow compared to others. Hehe, any tips on this?Quote:
Originally Posted by Garlyle
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03-17-2015, 05:01 PMBelhiIts not as bad as it sounds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Averax
While the side quests are not technically the main storyline they are flavoured in such a way that suits their place in the levelling process and are relevant. They are also effectively there own self contained quest chains and they will carry you a lot of the way to 49. In addition to that, by the time you hit 46 you will have unlocked a lot of options on making experience as well as many side things such as treasure hunting and such. Beast tribe dailies will have opened up as well.
You can usually get stuff you need of the Marketboard but it can be costly.Quote:
Originally Posted by sangz
To level gathering skills then by far the fastest way is with leves. You get a lot of exp for gathering leves and since the things you are gathering are at your level you get quite a bit from the actual process of completing the leve as well.
In addition, you will have daily hand ins you can give to your Supply officer at your Grand Company. With both leves and this hand in you get double exp if the thing you hand in is HQ.
The gathering and crafting classes complement each other a lot. While its not necessary to level all of them they do offer a lot of very valuable cross class actions and most of the things needed in crafting can be harvested or produced by one of the classes.
Finally, with crafting, once you get to 40 on your main combat class you will be able to do Ixali dailies. These are crafting dailies that are pretty simple and give quite a lot of exp to whatever crafting class you hand the quest in as even if you did the crafting as a different class.
Finally, you can get training manuals from your Grand Company Quartermaster that provide a temporary 50% buff to exp earned while crafting and harvesting. This can speed up levelling quite a lot, particularly with the harvesting.
Oh and one final thing, if your wanting to make a lot of things but don't want to use quick synthesis or go through the whole set of commands on every product, macros can help a lot. I don't have any particularly good links but you can probably find some good suggestions just googling it. -
03-17-2015, 05:36 PMAvenger
Beast tribe quests! Some people find them tedious but I enjoyed them quite a bit. It seemed like there were a lot of quests between level 40 and 50, so I had use multiple jobs to avoid wasting xp! Finishing hunting log and GC log also added quite a bit of xp. And try to do every fate at least once - they are also fun. And treasure maps. And hunts even at some point. If you can make friends to avoid df, dungeons give a lot of xp.
BLM is awesome though you have to not mind being flattened occasionally - it is the price of ultimate power! :)
Other jobs can be a nice break too - they are fun and they have cool stories for the class and job quests. BLM is a good one though, and it's also Yoshi-P's favorite job!! :D -
03-17-2015, 05:43 PMAvenger
Oh yeah and your chocobo is your best friend. :) He can take a lot of heat off of you, especially in defender mode. Or he can attack or heal or do whatever he wants to do.
Parties are also good - especially with people on your server.
One thing I have hardly ever done is guildleve parties, but they are also a possibility.
don't be discouraged by people who tell you to skip cutscenes either - they will in df and it is lame but hopefully you can find some good people who won't try to bully you that way and your experience will be much better since you can experience the story in context. -
03-18-2015, 11:47 AMAveraxI'm actually surprised that no one has asked me to skip one yet. In WoW it was go! go! go! And i'd see groups wipe because people didn't want to wait for people to watch a cutscene.Quote:
Originally Posted by Avenger
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03-18-2015, 12:56 PMAnapingofnessYou will run into those with the CM and Prae dungeons but as Avenger said, don't let people bully you into skipping.Quote:
Originally Posted by Averax
As for leveling, make use of the challenge log, side quests, fates, levels, daily roulettes.
There is enough methods to get exp that you shouldn't really have to grind.
Above all, make sure you have fun! -
03-18-2015, 03:45 PMBelhiUnfortunately this is true. The last two dungeons have a lot of Cutscenes and the groups that usually do the do them as speed runs. I would suggest watching the cutscenes though you will find yourself getting left behind and locked out of some of the fights. Still it gives far better context to watch the cutscenes in context.Quote:
Originally Posted by Anapingofness
If you do ever opt for skipping the cutscenes you can rewatch every cutscene in game you have experienced in the inn by interacting with the Journal. There is a drop down menu that lets you select between the different type of content the scenes appear in.
However with those last two dungeons don't get bullied. The people speed running it are getting almost double the rewards for completion for having you there so they are being more than compensated for the fact your taking a bit longer. You can always rerun the dungeons after to experience the fights you miss and you quite likely will have reason to since they are an excellent option for endgame currency early on. -
03-18-2015, 04:05 PMwicked-one
BLM is just as fine as everything else, i remember me struggling too, mainly because I didn´t read ^^
For Example, I really had hard times in the Mission in East Thanalan where you are supposed to sleep the Enemys, rather than kill them.
-- MainStory upto 50 is quite a tutorial, pay attention to everything they tell you.
The big Gargoyle with the Mage was also heavy stuff for me, back in Beta times. I tought, how the hell... then the Char was wiped and I started over, and when I came there second time, it was way easier
-- Gear is much more Weight than the Level, when you are stuck somewhere, try to get better gear to finish Monsters faster and stop being squishy ^^
HTH -
03-19-2015, 07:32 AMChukkaque
Answering only the original post:
First off I want to welcome you to the world of Eorzea! This place is amazing and wonderful, but I can be overwhelming. So I'm going to provide a couple tips and minor feed back, as well as my opinion.
I'm actually surprised to hear a newer player mention they're struggling to level up! When 2.0 first launched, myself and many others, leveled up just fine until about late 30's early 40's when you really had to FATE grind in Coerthas and run dungeons. So I am bit surprised by this!
Tips for leveling are take any side quests you find, continue plowing through main story, use the daily DF due to the fact they give you EXP and gil bonuses (when below 50). Dungeons now give a lot of EXP especially if you're the same level as the dungeon. They often give 1,000 EXP per kill if youre right at the same level of the dungeon down to about 700 IIRC. So you can easily gain a level from those. Running FATEs and Grand Company Leve's and Leve's is also a good way to get EXP, Bonus EXP, gil, and items. Also don't forget your Hunter's Log. You get reward EXP for just killing certain enemies, so its we'll worth doing if you're not 50 yet.
If you're over level 30 and playing solo its a good idea to go do the Chocobo Campion questline in Central Girdania. This will allow you to summon your bird and start leveling it as a healer, dps, or tank(kind of).
When you log out for the day make sure its in outpost, inn, or your Free Company House. You'll get rested EXP and when you achieve maximum rest you get bonus EXP for battles for up to 2 levels! make sure to eat food, as this gives you an additional 3% bonus and if youre part of a FC see if they'll activate "Heat of Battle" which gives 5%, and if you're FC is rank 8 HoB2 offers 10%.
So there is a lot of ways to get extra EXP. Also when you start leveling a different job you'll automatically be taking advantage of the Armory System which constantly gives you an EXP bonus based on the level difference between your current job and your highest job.
For the groups of enemies you're running into just sleep the enemies and solo fight targets. You should also consider using Freeze which causes 8 seconds of Bind IIRC giving you ample time to start sleeping foes, or to flee from combat, or use an emergency X-Ether, or really any MP potion but its a bad idea to rely on this method since potions should be SOS items only due to the cool down.
Hope you find this helpful! -
03-20-2015, 03:40 AMAverax
I have now hit the 46 gap (daily duty is already done). What should i do now, where do i start. People mentioned sidequests, where are they?
Edit: Okay, so i googled it, and it said just to run Aurum Vale and Dzemael Darkhold a few times. -
03-20-2015, 04:53 AMBelhiThings to do:Quote:
Originally Posted by Averax
- Check the side room at the Waking Sands. There are three characters who will give a breedcrumb quest. One quest is at 46, one at 47 and one at 48. Each quest starts a quest chain.
- Your now high enough lvl to unlock all the Beast tribe dailies. These are available main city Grand Company bases usually.
- FATEs in Northern Thanalan and Mor Dhona will give quite a lot of EXP.
- Leves in Mor Dhona can net you 15k exp each.
- High lvl dungeons will give you a fair amount of exp.
- Keep an eye on your map when you zone into places as quests available will show up on the map. A lot of unlocks need you to pick up breadcrumb quests. While most are at 50 its worth keeping your eyes out for ones like the treasure hunting unlock which I believe is in Wineport if you haven't gotten it. Not a heap of Exp but if your up that way the treasure hunting can be a rewarding diversion.
- Now is also a good time to finish off your Hunting Log as finishing it will net you a ilvl 55 ring at 50 and a pretty decent chunk of exp. -
03-20-2015, 12:25 PMAverax
Okay, i'm about 25% away from being 49, and i hear from there it's smooth sailing. I'm going to log in and get my daily roulette done, then resume the main story.
So thanks everyone. All of your advice helped me a bunch. All the way from level 30ish to 50.
I do have one final question. Is the main story (once i hit 50), at any point, going to require me to raid? I'm not ready for that commitment just yet. -
03-20-2015, 04:52 PMBelhiNo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Averax
The main scenario will expect you to do dungeons and trials and some of the content will be eight man but all is very pugable and accessible through the duty finder and none of it takes more than about half an hour to run.
Having said that the Crystal Tower raids are actually very easy, particularly now and a good way to get gear. Again most people pug them since they are 24 man raids and they usually don't take more than 30 to 40 mins to run. There is a attunement quest but its pretty easy. 24 man raids do work a little different to how raids in most other games do as players are actually organised into 3 8 man parties but its pretty intuitive.
The main thing you want for fights at end game is just knowing the mechanics. In some cases they are so minor they can be ignored or you can be carried but others can one shot. My advice is to use an online video guide so you at least know what to expect. Even then you will often find the fight a lot easier than it actually looks in the guides. Two I use are:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Xehanort1227/featured
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5B...Nvds5sgE-JI6KA
The Main Scenario continues after you hit 50 and finish the 2.0 quests. You'll find a lot open up at 50. If you enjoy the story there is a lot more of it to come. :)