How are you preparing for the release of RDM/SAM? Collective Tips and Suggestions

One week until StormBlood's release! RDM has me completely won over and I know allot of people are dying to be a long sword weilding DPS as SAM. Out of boredom/anticipation, I've been passing the time by doing things, I feel will make my leveling faster and more convenient.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

• Obtain a level 50 i130 set. You can do this by farming poetics and then farming Carboncoat/Carbontwine from one of the poetics ladies is Mor Dhona. Its about 5,000 poetics if you start from scratch from never leveling a caster/monk. Doing the final coil will also drop i130 peices as well as the EXPENSIVE upgrade cost of Carbontwine. World of Darkness also drops it and its part of the Tower Weekly reward.
  
  
• Obtain a level 50 i130 weapon proactively. Exchange 1,000 Poetics for 10 Rowens Tokens of Poetics. You will also need an Encryped Tomestone, which you can buy from one of the poetics ladies, do Final Coil, do World of Darkness, or do the weekly Tower quest.
  
  
• Level up your Palace of the Dead Weapon/Gear. Do palace until you're close to or become 99 on weapon and 99 on gear. This will help you to have faster clears. RDM especially will have a great time in Palace of the dead, with its potent vercure and later verraise, in the 50+ floors at least. Crafting some Echo Drops if RDM and some Spine Drops wouldn't be a bad idea.
  
  
• Craft a 56 set or Farm the Vault. Your i130 set starts to wear out after 56. If you're bored and a crafter, make yourself a 56 HQ set. No dungeon before it beats the stats at an ilevel of 139. The Vault is another option, equipable at level 57. You cannot unsync the Vault, so this choice of insanity is up to you, since you'll be competing against others rolling. I am currently stock piling, Crit IV and some other materia, but not melding them into my sets, since Accuracy is being removed we don't know what exactly is going to be in its place on each individual peice. I'll meld it at an NPC when I hit the level, personally.
  
  
• Obtain a a level 60 i260/i270 set. Use Alex savage, Scripture tomestones, Ultima Jewelry or Dun Scaith to obtain a high ilevel set. With every completion of The Void Ark, Weeping City of Mhach and Dun Scaith you will receive a token. One of each token can be traded for one upgrade item to upgrade you i260 shire peices to i270. Always upgrade you left side first, then move to jewelry. I chose again not to meld until i reach 60.
  
  
• Obtain a level 60 i255/i265/i270/i275 weapon proactively. Doing Alexander Savage, if you have it on farm, is one way to get the best starting weapon from the get go. 8 pages should get you started at 275. The most convenient starting weapon will be an upgraded Shire weapon. Trading in 1,000 scripture tomestones for 10 Scripture tokens with a Microtomestone, which can be obtained by beating a12 normal 4 times for Alexander Gears or winning the roll in a10s, will give you an i260 scripture weapon. Just like the gear, doing one of each of the 24 man Void Raids will allow you to trade in for an Illuminati Darkest Gobcoat, which will then make your wep i270. Successfully completing Zuravan 10 times, should let you exchange for a Rapier/Katana at an ilevel i265 from the starting gates fairly easily. Lastly, at i255, you can materialize your palace of the dead weapon for 30 armor/weapon and then upgrade it for 60 more, requiring at least 90 to do so.
  
  
• Stockpile on supplies. Craft a cheap but good food. For RDM I crafted 99 Sohm Al Tarts. HQ/NM Hi-Elixers for level 50 content and Max Ethers for level 60 content. Who knows when you'll need to clutch mass raise?! If you do palace of the dead, you'll be sure to get 50+ Max-Pots for your Sam. Save up some mateira if you choose not to meld until after patch. Crit is never wrong.
  
  
• Get a head start on leveling. Pick up as many Large Leves as you can. I picked up 10, a week ago and 5 more this week, so that I'm maxed out on the number of leves I can do. Start from the 60 leves and work down. This will help you to have access to easy EXP without being punish by the leve allowance by already having them in your journal. Don't forget to pick up a stack of Ghysal Greens for your Choco!
  
  
• Get another head start on leveling. You really have two choices here. I chose to do, but not turn in all the level 50 quests from Falcon's nest, Foundation, Sea of Clouds and a couple 52 quests in Tailfeather. Doing about 26 of these will leave your journal open to accept a few new quests, but giving you about half a level of dirt easy exp. One quest i did, took less than 10 seconds in Falcon's nest. You can also, do 58 quests in Idylshire, since leveling those last two levels, escaping from The Vault can take a bit.
  
  
• Get your Glamour on. Use WT or your modest wad of cash to get the core materials for the weapon glamour of your choice. Kingly Whisker prices are probably going to soar into the millions for a short time and Large Levin orbs are probably going to go around the same price as kingly whiskers now. Stockpile similar item for each recipe. If you don't like what they look like, just sell the mats, You'll make a profit. New content ALWAYS increases the general prices of the market board for a time.
  
  
• Set you hotbar up. This one is for the crazies. I am a crazy. By now, you've researched RDM and SAM and know all of its skills and how they interact with each other. Use macros to label the skills and place them on an existing class to simulate how it will look. Don't forget to put INT/STR pots somewhere in your core hotbars, so that you start with them as a skill, instead of relearning them later. I used THM to hold my skills and gear. You can easily transfer the template to the new class with the following command. This one will transfer crosshotbar or hotbar one to the new RDM from THM.
  PS4: /chotbar copy thm 1 rdm 1
  PC: /hotbar copy thm 1 rdm 1

__________________________________________________________________________________________

If anyone else has any other crazy ways they are preparing for the release of RDM/SAM I'm all ears. xD

From what I gather RDM is more casting vs melee. I have prepped myself for RDM by being comfortable with the current (3.x) Bard/BLM/SMN. I think its going to function as a BLM with a few weapon skills. I currently use repelling shot as a Bard for a part of my rotation for additional DPS.

Whoops. I spent the last hour typing everything I have done to prepare, but seeing your edit it won't be necessary for me to put it all into writing.

Yes I have done most of what you have listed, including having farmed both The Aery and The Vault for complete sets that have already been glamoured. For macros, the use of "placeholder" macros is what I use to get accustomed to a new layout for existing jobs, but for Red Mage and Samurai I created different macros.

Example:

/hotbar action Jolt 1 1
/hotbar action Verthunder 1 2
etc.

With those, it takes just a couple macros to get those hotbars fully organized. It should work fine as long as the names of actions remain unchanged.

Personally I've emulted the allocation of SAM/RDM skills in my controller hotbars on excel... cuz I don't need to be in the game to board the hype train >:|!!

Don't forget the primal weeklies in Mor Dhona for glamour. I'd imagine SAM/RDM is being added in to those as well, and could be cool looking. It's taking a shot in the dark, but the DRK i90 primal sword was pretty cool looking, maybe SAM/RDM could be cool as well. I crafted up sets for each job at 54, 56, and 58. I've also got mats on standby for weapons at the same level, assuming BSM will craft them both. The gear is also already pre-glamoured. Dont forget save up for a fully rested xp bar if you don't already have everything to 60. Also.......leave bad attitudes at the door. You're going to probably be running content with other SAM/RDMs who are just as new to the job and perhaps with less (or more) player skill. Be patient. I'd also farm up the scripture for tokens, but DO NOT PURCHASE yet. There's a chance the price for those drop when the expansion hits. Also, try to cap out all your tomes if you can.

Doesn't PotD leveling nullify the first 3 points?

Yeah, I'm mentally preparing for that...by not running PotD until early access. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anastacy

Doesn't PotD leveling nullify the first 3 points?

Yeah, I'm mentally preparing for that...by not running PotD until early access. ;)

---

I want options. Sure I'll do POTD for a few levels, but eventually, I'm going to stop and do a roulette.

I have both my lvl50 (i130) sets ready (and glamoured lol) along with enough tokens and twine to get both ironworks weapons and their upgrades. lvl60 caster stuff is done, not too worried on the striker stuff (I plan on leveling SAM at some point just not right away).

Probably going to do a mixture of Roulettes, PotD, Hunts, and Beast Tribes (don't have Vath or Vundu 100% capped) to level. Hoping to have RDM leveled to 60 by launch day.

My FC has tons of XP buffs ready to go and will probably be running leveling groups like crazy. Got some of those XP scrolls from squadrons (do they stack with FC buffs or not? Some say yes, others say no).

Why can't next friday come fast enough...

Well at least I already have all my i130 gear ready, including the mats for the i130 tome-weapons!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RezWolf

Why can't next friday come fast enough...

---

Lets try kicking the ground at the same time to see if we can make the planet it spin faster, on my mark, 1, 2, 3!!

I was under the impression that rdm and sam start at level 30

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Okamimaru

I was under the impression that rdm and sam start at level 30

---

They start at 50

Sadly I cannot play on early access. It be probably take a few hours of download then next day resume. So I would say I start a day or 2 days later after early access hit.

I'm just farming glams like crazy :(
I NEED the Weeping city monk torso for my SAM. I need it so much... ç-ç
Getting a few other stuff too, like Alexander (A9-12) gear for SAM, and midas (A5-8) gear for RDM. Sor Khai torso is a must have for RDM too!! Lots of stuff to get...

This is such a helpful little list thanks for posting it!! I already have my i130 set all ready to go and glammed up for red mage and the mats needed to exhchange for the 130 weapon!! Can't wait!! \o/ 6 days til early release!!

I think for RDM I'm gonna just do POTD to 60, and then grab a Scripture weapon and upgrade from the vendor in Idyllshire, and hope that takes me close to 70.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Demielle_Tournes

Sor Khai torso is a must have for RDM too!! Lots of stuff to get...

---

YESS I need that top for my RDM too!!

"RDM especially will have a great time in Palace of the dead, with its potent vercure and later verraise, in the 50+ floors at least."

Raise will not be available in PotD.


Also, it's important to have a full stock of rested EXP.

Because of rested EXP, by the way, lvl 50-60 via PotD is the only viable option to me. Doing dungeons or whatever wastes all of your rested EXP and then you have none for 60-70.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shayuki

Doing dungeons or whatever wastes all of your rested EXP and then you have none for 60-70.

---

Won't the SB MSQ take you from 60 > 70?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yiikes

Won't the SB MSQ take you from 60 > 70?

---

I'll be truly shocked if you can just go from MSQ to MSQ and end up being lvl 70 without rested exp and I really don't see it happening. Of course, if it will that'll be very welcome.

Hi OP! It sounds like you are having fun prepping - I think that is great!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rawrz

[*]Get a head start on leveling. Pick up as many Large Leves as you can. I picked up 10, a week ago and 5 more this week, so that I'm maxed out on the number of leves I can do. Start from the 60 leves and work down. This will help you to have access to easy EXP without being punish by the leve allowance by already having them in your journal. Don't forget to pick up a stack of Ghysal Greens for your Choco!

---

In regards to the above - are you doing this because you are leveling an existing job first? If not, I feel like perhaps I should remind everyone that leves can only be completed (and turned in) on the job that accepted the leve quest. You can not, say, get a bunch of leve quests on your SCH, do them, and then turn them in on RDM.

It is easy to forget this limitation because it does not exist for DoH leves...which I would wager was the vast majority of leves that players did in HW!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ayerinn

Hi OP! It sounds like you are having fun prepping - I think that is great!



In regards to the above - are you doing this because you are leveling an existing job first? If not, I feel like perhaps I should remind everyone that leves can only be completed (and turned in) on the job that accepted the leve quest. You can not, say, get a bunch of leve quests on your SCH, do them, and then turn them in on RDM.

It is easy to forget this limitation because it does not exist for DoH leves...which I would wager was the vast majority of leves that players did in HW!

---

Thank you! Its horrible and wonderful thinking of things to do. My last thing I'm doing is farming, Demimog materia. The downside is that I only have gsm/ltw desynth so i can only desynth MogFists and AST MogGlobes. DX At least its getting me closer to the parade chocobo. 30 more comms to go. ;-;

Also, you can accept leves on any class. A level 1 rogue if you wanted to. The class you activate the leve is the class that is going to get the exp. So, by accepting the leves now, and then later starting them on SAM or RDM, you'll have a bunch of easy exp available.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shayuki

"RDM especially will have a great time in Palace of the dead, with its potent vercure and later verraise, in the 50+ floors at least."

Raise will not be available in PotD.


Also, it's important to have a full stock of rested EXP.

Because of rested EXP, by the way, lvl 50-60 via PotD is the only viable option to me. Doing dungeons or whatever wastes all of your rested EXP and then you have none for 60-70.

---

I didn't list rested EXP, because you either have it, or you don't. Really hoping they adjust the leveling of 50-100 to match level 60-70 skills, which would allow the use of skills like VerRaise.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rawrz

Also, you can accept leves on any class. A level 1 rogue if you wanted to. The class you activate the leve is the class that is going to get the exp. So, by accepting the leves now, and then later starting them on SAM or RDM, you'll have a bunch of easy exp available.

---

Oh I see I wrongly assumed when you said "easy" xp you were going to complete the quests ahead of time and just hand them in on RDM - rereading what I said I suppose I wasn't really clear what I meant by "accept" and "complete" either lol. I guess it is variety but unless HW FATES are buffed (as in, they get the bonus xp talked about for SB FATES in addition to the 100% armory) I imagine it will be so much slower than PoTD or maybe even the PvP leveling. I hope not though - I miss FATES :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ayerinn

In regards to the above - are you doing this because you are leveling an existing job first? If not, I feel like perhaps I should remind everyone that leves can only be completed (and turned in) on the job that accepted the leve quest. You can not, say, get a bunch of leve quests on your SCH, do them, and then turn them in on RDM.

---

The point he was making here was to have the 100 leve count available AND having the max allowable on hand so it bump up to about 118 available levequests for day 1 or so. The newer beast tribes lock in on pick-up from quest giver but leves have always kindof locked in AFTER you activate them in the green circle.
Now if he actually went to the circle and did them, moot. But picking it up so the allowances can recover and do the levequest later, totally possible.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OcieKo

The point he was making here was to have the 100 leve count available AND having the max allowable on hand so it bump up to about 118 available levequests for day 1 or so. The newer beast tribes lock in on pick-up from quest giver but leves have always kindof locked in AFTER you activate them in the green circle.
Now if he actually went to the circle and did them, moot. But picking it up so the allowances can recover and do the levequest later, totally possible.

---

Oh I know I did this with crafting quests *only* because you can do them ahead of time...battlecraft leves after the 30's are not worth it imo.

I'm not worried about gathering level 50 ilvl gear for my RDM, as I intend on pushing RDM to 60 through Palace and then using gear available for purchase in Stormblood to give initial ilvl gear to my RDM from my DRG character. I also have the advantage of having the entirety of Post Heavensward 3.xx content reward revisions to give to my RDM character as it will be on my secondary character.

This allows me to make more vain pursuits such as finding nice glamours for RDM to use during the awkward phase of generalized caster gear. My preparation consisted on pushing through Heavensard base storyline on Paladin.

Otherwise, catching up on some side stories I've been missing on my main character and just chilling out before Stormblood comes.

Do not forget about exp bonus:

Free Company Buff, food buff, Mercenaries buff (A mission in the Grand Company vault), leading you to an 28% exp increase.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nexxus

Do not forget about exp bonus:

Free Company Buff, food buff, Mercenaries buff (A mission in the Grand Company vault), leading you to an 28% exp increase.

---

If you are talking about Squadron Battle Manual, I'm pretty sure they don't stack with FC buffs, because it works the same as tier 3 FC buff. If you are talking about something else, I have no idea what you are talking about "GC Vault"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Souru

If you are talking about Squadron Battle Manual, I'm pretty sure they don't stack with FC buffs, because it works the same as tier 3 FC buff. If you are talking about something else, I have no idea what you are talking about "GC Vault"

---

That is correct - they do not stack. I'm not sure why people make such a big deal out of them for battle, specifically, as they *only* buff kill xp which is only a small percentage of xp earned unless you literally do nothing but grind dungeons (yuck) - especially when leveling your first job. They are useless in PotD and (probably though we don't know yet) useless in PvP. Now - the 20% xp buffs for DoL and DoH...*those* are pretty awesome unless leveling via collectibles is significantly easier this expansion (and they would still be very useful.)

I get people want variety, but the only realistic way to get to 60 on the new jobs is going to be running potd. You're better off farming 230+ gear from monk than wasting time gearing up in i130 gear. The queue times in 50-60 arent going to be worth it at all just for the sake of variety. Just put on your favorite music and grind out palace, gearing out SAM and RDM isn't worth it outside of glamour.

Spent 10 hours grinding mog hard. 8 hours using duty finder of which gave me ONE DEMIMOG MATERIA DX.... Then i finally had the bright idea to just solo SCH it. 4 minute runs. 2 hours for 5 more demimog. I had to level desynth to 75ish on crp/alc/bsm and that took a bit of time, but not really. Ready to be the supply to the demand that is moogle rapiers and katanas. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rawrz

Ready to be the supply to the demand that is moogle rapiers and katanas. :D

---

Oooooh moogle Rapier! If they don't mage the medium crystal a floating moogle I will FLIP

Im a crafter so i have the 130 gear for both and hq level 56+ gear then i260 gear set for rdm n crafted hq 255 set for sam.

I'm just waiting to obtain all this equipment using the SAM class. I want to play the SAM as many hours i can and not save hours of SAM playing because "i want a red carpet from lvl 50-70 experience".
Bushido path guys! <3