Gear from vendors vs quest rewards

Hi guys!

i've recently resubbed to the game and I'm playing an Arcanist. Loving it so far! I've a question about gear. Do I have to buy it from vendors or just grab the gear from quest rewards?

Second question: I'm advancing through the story by doing the scenario quests and sidequests one level below my current level. Is it a viable way to level or do I have to do leves too? I know about mandatory dungeons though :)

If I think of other q's I'll ask :)

Thanks :)

Gear from quest rewards are free :) you can buy it from vendors if you feel like you need to catch up a bit, but you don't need to.
dungeons will also drop good (free) gear to use.
In addition to gear, dungeons also give good exp.
You are already on the right track with doing side quest. Try to keep them close to your level.
And leves are not necessary, but they do mix things up and provide a different way to get exp, other than dungeons and side quests.
You,re already on the right track, so long story short, if you feel like doing it, then do it. You'll get the exp for it no matter what you do :)

Thanks for the reply nexas! :) I'm worried about duty finder though. I guess I'll have to wait a long time every time there's a story dungeon :)

How about endgame? Is it post-story or will the game force me into a mandatory HM raid as part of the story?

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Originally Posted by Darcorn

Thanks for the reply nexas! :) I'm worried about duty finder though. I guess I'll have to wait a long time every time there's a story dungeon :)

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Why not do leves while you're waiting for the duty finder?
All end game content (raids and hard mode primals/dungeons) is post story and optional. The main story quests will never force you into a raid or anything hard mode (except for a couple primals that, even though they are called hard mode, are just the regular versions of them )

Levequests are just another optional way to get exp. If you decide to do them, keep an eye out for treasure chests when you have a leve active as they can drop good aether armour (pink rarity).

Thanks for the replies! I've already done two dungeons (never waited more than 20 mins) :)

I'm curious. Can you level to 50 by only doing story quests and class quests? My tactic is doing the MSQs to the point when I'm underleveled and then just do sidequests one level below mine to catch up :)

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Originally Posted by TemetNosce

Levequests are just another optional way to get exp. If you decide to do them, keep an eye out for treasure chests when you have a leve active as they can drop good aether armour (pink rarity).

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Not to forget that there are also gear rewards from Leves in addition to the occasional treasure chest.

Loving this game more and more :) I've heard opinions that on your main toon you should do onlly story while leaving sidequests for other classes :)

Leves and vendors are mostly there for leveling your other other classes. For your first class, quest rewards will do well to carry you through.

I actually recommend doing all the sidequests you can on your first character. For starters, sidequests don't award THAT much xp compared to the time it takes to do them. Dungeons, guildhests (Doing them once on each class for the per-class first-time bonus), FATEs, and leves tend to be faster in my opinion, and are all infinitely doable (Well... leves have a limit, but you'll likely be swimming in allowances by the time you're seriously working on another class).

Secondly, a lot of sidequests unlock other things, and the best things are often not mentioned in the quest rewards window. Things like dungeon access, character customization options, minions, are all hidden behind sidequests. Even a quest with no immediate purpose may be a pre-requisite for a quest down the line with important rewards.

Lastly, if you care about the story, the quests that unlock during the main scenario (there are a handful of low level quests in all towns that are unlocked at the start, I don't mean these ones) tend to deal with whatever's going on with the MSQ at the time. In addition to shedding more light on the current situation, it also prevents the odd case of going back to do old sidquests and helping NPCs deal with something you dealt with months ago.

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Originally Posted by Darcorn

Loving this game more and more :) I've heard opinions that on your main toon you should do onlly story while leaving sidequests for other classes :)

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This used to be important when the game first released and there were fewer sources of XP. There have since been several significant boosts to the XP you get (particularly while leveling later classes), so saving sidequests to do then is no longer meaningful in that respect.

Some people still like to leave many of the sidequests until later just to have another type of activity with their later classes, while others prefer doing them with their first class when the stories of the sidequests are more likely to tie in with what they're doing in the MSQ. It's become a personal preference sort of thing.

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Originally Posted by Urthdigger

Secondly, a lot of sidequests unlock other things, and the best things are often not mentioned in the quest rewards window. Things like dungeon access, character customization options, minions, are all hidden behind sidequests. Even a quest with no immediate purpose may be a pre-requisite for a quest down the line with important rewards.

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For anyone who is skipping most sidequests or saving them for later, I recommend checking out GamerEscape's wiki guides on how various features are unlocked:
A Realm Reborn (1-50) Progression Guide
Heavensward (50-60) Progression Guide
A lot of the features and content are unlocked within the Main Scenario, so you'll get to those automatically so long as you continue following your MSQ. But pay particular attention to the features those guides list as being unlocked by sidequests. That will tell you which sidequests are important to complete. (Of course, "important" also depends on what you're interested in. For instance, it lists sidequests that reward minions, which are only important if you care about collecting those minions.) Other sidequests not listed there can generally be left for when you're leveling later classes if you want.

There's also an option of co-leveling 2 jobs at the same time - keep them at the same level - use side quests to catch-up one with the other and so on.