A little direction please

Hey guys,

A little direction.

Im level 30. So many things to do.

Are most weapons bought? Or given through quests? No reason to camp certain mobs for weapon drops right?

Just trying to stay on track with gear.

Thanks for the help. Advice

While leveling you will get most of what you need by following main scenario. If a particular piece of your armor is falling behind because you didn't have luck on dungeon treasure coffers then yeah just buy something from a vendor or market board.

Also don't forget your Grand Company offers special gear too in exchange for Company Seals you would be earning if you're doing FATEs. The gear can't be sold, usually can't be dyed and cannot be spiritbound either, but some of it is unique in appearance and often has stronger stats than equivalent crafted gear for that level so til level 50 at least it's still useful while levelling up (also GC gear has an added benefit of the more 'GC' gear you equip, individual pieces often have small bonuses stacked on them like buffs to a certain stat based on how much GC gear you currently have equipped, making it very worthwhile.

Either way, it should go without saying but GC gear can be acquired from the Company Quartermaster at your GC HQ.

I'm going to say simply don't bother with gear and certainly don't waste precious gil, or GC Seals which you'll need a lot of simply to rank-up. Frankly this game, like most MMOs, is extremely undemanding on gear while leveling. Certainly until you hit Heavensward zones you'll continue to get quested gear up to iLevle 110 which is more than sufficient to being HW, at that point you can see what your gil resources are and decide if you need any from other sources.

GC gear is nice but you'll have out-leveled it before you gain enough Seals to buy it, and if you buy it then you'll strugggle for a long time to get more to rank-up.

As Rufalus said, you'll get all the gear you need from quest rewards even if you are very unlucky sand don't get any dungeons drops. At level 45 you'll get 4 parts of the old job AF gear and at level 50 you'll get the 5th part as well as an entire set of iLevel 90 gear (the gear you used to have to grind for days/weeks to get).

Basically my take on leveling is this: if you're VIABLE in the gear you're in, not struggling in groups (as a tank you're obviously looking not to make your healer's life hard due to being undergeared) then you don't need more gear at that moment!

Welcome to the game!=] Hope you're having a good time. If youre on Gilgamesh NA I'll be happy to make you gear via crafting. My ingame name is Nagoto Netherfrost.

As others have said though - until you hit a point where the game goes "You are REQUIRED to have ___ Item level to do this. " gear isn't a huge concern. It can make leveling a bit easier but you should be fine regardless. Save your gil and grand company seals. If you talk to some crafting mentors and ask them about different ways to gear. Some. Maybe will offer somthing similar to what I did. It doesnt cost us gil but time so if they do be appreciative! (I'm by no means saying to around begging for gear though).

The main and side quests will literally throw gear at you, you should be fine while leveling as long you stick with one job until reaching max level. The quests will give a choice between a mage robe, dps armor or tank armor as reward but as long you stick with one class you shouldn't need to buy gear while leveling.

I'm coming back from almost 2 years of break and decided to start a new character, i'm currently at Garuda quests and not even once i had to buy a single piece of gear for my main job (WHM) and it seems the lvl 50 job quests now gives i90 gear so you can start the 2.x with some good gear.

The quests does a good job on keeping your character gear up to date while leveling. If you're out-leveling the quests rewards then that means you're also out-leveling the quest (and dungeons) itself, had that happen a lot of times with me so i can confirm. Also you can save the gear for leveling alts that share the same gear (between lvl 1~50 most gears are shared by a lot of jobs, especially DPS).

Good luck!

I see that you're a gladiator. If you're maining tank I recommend you at least keep your weapon as up to date with your level as possible. If you're still in the Novice Network, asking nicely will generally get you a bored omni crafter like myself who'd be happy to make you an HQ weapon.

Gearing for your level is important as a tank in order to hold hate against overgeared dps, and be less squishy for your healer.

I don't agree with those saying not to bother with gear while leveling. Especially for a tank, you're going to be trying to hold more aggro than your frequently over-leveled and over-geared teammates. You won't be able to do that without some decent gear of your own. That's especially true for your weapon, but the major armour pieces are important, too. (Jewelry maybe not so much. The differences between one tier and the next can be pretty minor there.)

And while it's true that quests can provide some gear, it's often gear that you've already out-leveled, or else the coins you could take as a reward instead would be enough to buy you something better. (Not always. The prices for leveling gear vary a great deal. Sometimes the pieces you want won't even be available. Other times they'll be wildly expensive for their level. And other times they'll be offered for just a few gil.) I usually found it better to take the coin rewards from the quests and then buy gear.

Its weird to me there are no mobs to camp for drops...or special items....actualy makes me sad......

if your in a FC sometimes you can get crafters to help you out with weapons at least, which as others stated you want to "at least" do this if you are leveling as tank. Otherwise just stick to quest rewards, they will keep you more or less decently geared and worst case for dungeons and tanking, just try your best. (world is full of overzealous dps anyways, not winning this fight while leveling :P) Also never buy overpriced high quality low lvl gear XD....just don't XD (as a rule i try to find out how much a merchant would sell it for and use that to decide if its overpriced)

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Originally Posted by Gumbercules

(as a rule i try to find out how much a merchant would sell it for and use that to decide if its overpriced)

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I like the Libra Eorzea app for this (as well as other things). You can search for gear by type and level, then under its item listing, get a link to NPCs that sell it, and from the NPC vendor's listing, see what the item costs.

I guess for those who play on computer maybe it's not really an issue, as there are plenty of websites where you can search out items with their prices and locations where you can buy them, but I play on PS4 and don't always have my laptop handy, so a cell phone app with a complete item database (and recipe database, and quest database, and so on) is nice to have. It's basically a cellphone version of the Lodestone's Eorzea Database

The issue im having is feeling locked in.... it seems gear is easily available...and upgrades every 2-3 levels. Im missing the old school feeling of camping a mob for drops..... or rare spawns that give resources or jewelery drops or weapon drops.

Seems like mobs are just here to grind n then move to a new area...im not asking for sandbox.....but its starting to feel VERY cookie cutter to me.... like 1-50 is like 15 weapons every one uses...

I hope im wrong

This game is still one of the besti have played in many years. Im just used to everquest style. So i wasnt trying to desparige the game at all.

In fact its one of my favorite because of the lack of p2w..... love the fact that square cares enoughabout its players and product to not adopt the free 2 play, pay to win model.

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Originally Posted by Kaosfury

The issue im having is feeling locked in.... it seems gear is easily available...and upgrades every 2-3 levels. Im missing the old school feeling of camping a mob for drops..... or rare spawns that give resources or jewelery drops or weapon drops.

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That role is filled here not by mob drops, but by some of the better gear that can come in dungeon treasure chests.

The level 15 green-quality gear that can drop in the first trio of dungeons got kind of trivialized when Hall of the Novice was added, giving equivalent gear much easier. But there are a few nice pieces you can get in Halatali, Toto-Rak, or Haukke Manor. And then when you get to Brayflox, there's the Calvary set for tanks, Infantry set for DoW DPS, and Battlemage set for DoM. And so on throughout the game. Instead of camping mobs to try to get the drops they want, people keep running dungeons to try to get the drops they want.

(At least the players who are interested in that do. There are other players who just rush through wearing quest/vendor gear and don't care about what they're wearing or in some cases even what they're doing until they hit end-game, but I think they're missing out.)

As for rare and difficult spawning mobs, there's the Hunt marks at level 50 and 60. But those don't drop gear, just end-game (or former end-game) currencies.

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Originally Posted by Kaosfury

This game is still one of the besti have played in many years. Im just used to everquest style. So i wasnt trying to desparige the game at all.

In fact its one of my favorite because of the lack of p2w..... love the fact that square cares enoughabout its players and product to not adopt the free 2 play, pay to win model.

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lol it's funny you say that because I switched to FFXIV from FFXI because I was tired of that whole NM camping stuff...amongst other reasons....gear is definitely easily attainable if you are either willing to dungeon grind or make it yourself if you enjoy crafting! (I said easily but yeah its all depending on your frame of mind)

Happy Hunting!

There is indeed no gear drop in FF14 but only mats.
That's mean you "farm" mob to have mats and craft the gear.
No "special" gear from drop nor in dungeons. The only "special" thing you have in dungeons is skin but no effect or real stat boost.
(btw I understand you. I liked farming mob for a rare special piece of gear that feel really better than common one but unfortunatly that doesn't exist here, only the ilvl matter)

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Originally Posted by Jeycht

No "special" gear from drop nor in dungeons. The only "special" thing you have in dungeons is skin but no effect or real stat boost.

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For the better items, there's a real stat boost. I don't know if it's a big enough stat boost to interest you, but it's often BiS at its level, beating anything else available in the game. At endgame, raids take over from regular dungeons for providing the BiS gear, but it's the same basic pattern. You can get good-enough gear elsewhere, but plenty of players want the best available, and will run dungeons or raids in hopes of getting it.

I know exactly what you're talking about, so don't worry. That's part of what I call the old era of MMORPGs, mostly MMOs before WoW revolutionized everything. However, some MMORPGs even today do something like what you're saying, most obviously in Blade & Soul, but I think Guild Wars 2 and Rift may also do something like that and perhaps TERA too. Both old and modern MMORPG design has its benefits and drawbacks. Though I personally prefer most of "modern era" MMORPG design, I have fond memories of Ragnarok Online, Lineage II, and some other great oldies.

For better or worse, FFXIV is a simplified version of a modern era MMORPG. It's designed this way on purpose to be accommodating and comfortable to people brand new to MMORPGs and those that got tired of partly just what you're describing. Not having to care about exact gear numbers is also one of those deliberate design decisions. So I know it's difficult to get used to a different design, but if one lets themself really get into and enjoy the story, scenery, and the overall presentation of everything in FFXIV, it's a great game.