Make or Buy - Leveling Advice

Morning

I'm wondering whether looking to make all my gear and equipment, taking the time and effort, will be beneficial to me as I progress through the story rather than buy from the marketplace or stores.

I would have to catch up/start the relevant profession as well due to leveling so fast. I'm sitting at 55k gil or so just from story/questing etc and not buying but I could imagine buying will start to add up.

So which is best for a new player?

If you enjoy crafting, making your own gear feels good. That said, leveling up multiple crafting classes will cost you something. When leveling crafting classes you either pay in gil or in time. Paying in gil would involve buying other peoples high quality crafted items to turn in for leve-quests to speed level, paying in time is gathering materials and making your own turn-ins(turning in lower quality items for less exp until you learn to make hq items, etc) along with using other leveling methods. You arent far enough in the story to have started unlocking friendly beast tribes, but a few of them are in need of crafters to help them with projects(and as such, their quests involve crafting and give crafting exp) - something to keep in mind for later. So for upgrades in the meantime, my advice would be to look at how much of an upgrade youre actually getting from an item. Gear goes up slowly in power until you hit 50, then it jumps wildly up(51-59 is a medium build, 60 is a jump, 61-69 is medium, 70 is a jump - obviously theres a pattern). Jewelry in particular gets very little boost before 50. If your armor and weapon are within 10 levels of you(until you get to 50), you should be more or less fine. If you need a boost to get by something, the biggest difference comes from your weapon(then chest/legs, then arms/hat/boots, then belt and jewelry). Check the market board(sometimes things will be really cheap), but keep in mind that the most recent outpost youve been to will probly have an npc selling white gear for a fairly reasonable price(often less then players will list something for - never by normal quality white gear from the board without checking first). Also, if youve made any higher level friends who craft sometimes your upgrades will be ridiculously easy for them to put together if you ask(as a level 70 omni i could gather the materials and craft a full set of gear for a level 40 monk in under 20 mins if i felt like it - it might honestly take longer to make the list of everything i needed then to gather it all and put the items together). And of course, an extra dungeon run or two is always an option too.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

If you enjoy crafting, making your own gear feels good. That said, leveling up multiple crafting classes will cost you something. When leveling crafting classes you either pay in gil or in time.

*snip*.

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Thank you Frizze with your very quick response. I was unaware about buying HQ items to fill quests and leve returns; this may be beneficial for starting my crafts off and giving me a quick boost and keeping costs and time low! I also wasn't aware of the friendly beast tribes, is that something like the Sylphs? I have just done that MSQ part and so they may give me crafting quests?

It's good to know what to focus on first in terms of items. It's difficult with my game time as it is lacking and when I do play I just want action and story! So usually want a quick fix. Maybe I just need to chill and tell myself the story isn't going anywhere, and do a bit of crafting :P

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Originally Posted by Mikazuki

It's good to know what to focus on first in terms of items. It's difficult with my game time as it is lacking and when I do play I just want action and story! So usually want a quick fix. Maybe I just need to chill and tell myself the story isn't going anywhere, and do a bit of crafting :P

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If you do more of the optional quests, the game will provide you with all the gear you need for you first class/job. If you plan things out correctly you will also be given enough gear for a second class/job too.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

as a level 70 omni i could gather the materials and craft a full set of gear for a level 40 monk in under 20 mins if i felt like it - it might honestly take longer to make the list of everything i needed then to gather it all and put the items together

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I would like to reiterate this point. I am also a lv70 omnicrafter and it my Free Company's policy to freely provide levelling gear for our members as the materials usually very cheap and easy to create HQ. As a newer player, I would recommend you find a free company which offers progression support to new players or levelling.

The crafting tribe in the ARR section of the game are the Ixal. There are friendly non thralls of any tribe you've had to kill a primal for. Starting in Heavensward the game will give you HQ gear. With crafting up to 50 at least get everything to 15 because of the skills you can use in the roll slots that will make it easier to craft things and make HQ gear. Crafting can take up a lot of space. Doing your grand company turn ins also can help speed up your leveling.

I would say its always worth having your gear up to date, especially as you progress to the instanced dungeon content. You wont be any good to your team if you're under geared when trying to progress through a dungeon as part of the main story. Crafting is an investment of your hard earned gil either way unless you make more than you need and sell it on the market as all those materials have gotta come from somewhere!

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Originally Posted by ChameleonMS

I would like to reiterate this point. I am also a lv70 omnicrafter and it my Free Company's policy to freely provide levelling gear for our members as the materials usually very cheap and easy to create HQ. As a newer player, I would recommend you find a free company which offers progression support to new players or levelling.

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Ahh may come in handy to ask around, I did join a FC quite quickly due to a helpful fellow although since then it has been very quiet and seems not much happening or on offer. Would a FC be offended if I leave? Don't want to feel tied down but don't want to be rude of course! Maybe I can ask if one of them can sort me out first :)

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Originally Posted by SannaR

The crafting tribe in the ARR section of the game are the Ixal. There are friendly non thralls of any tribe you've had to kill a primal for. Starting in Heavensward the game will give you HQ gear. With crafting up to 50 at least get everything to 15 because of the skills you can use in the roll slots that will make it easier to craft things and make HQ gear.

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Thank you. I've heard that all to 15 is a good starting point for those crossover skills. I will just have to progress as I haven't come across the Ixal yet.

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Originally Posted by Timmyz

I would say its always worth having your gear up to date, especially as you progress to the instanced dungeon content. You wont be any good to your team if you're under geared when trying to progress through a dungeon as part of the main story. Crafting is an investment of your hard earned gil either way unless you make more than you need and sell it on the market as all those materials have gotta come from somewhere!

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Yep I'm always conscious of my gear and wondering if its the best I can have, usually I'm getting stuff from story missions and it's worse! Which I can only imagine is a good thing! :)

Not everyone is interested in crafting, so the game provides plenty of other opportunities for gear. But if you enjoy crafting, making your own can be nice. Up to level 50 at least, crafting gives you access to better gear than quests and NPC vendors offer, and without having to wait until you get lucky with a good dungeon drop or someone offering what you want in high quality at a reasonable price on the market board. But that very slight advantage comes at the cost of a pretty significant time investment to level your crafting and gathering classes.

On its own, I would say the gear advantage is not worth taking that much time away from advancing the main story. But if you're the sort who really enjoys crafting and is going to take that time at some point anyway, then it might be worth doing it early, when you have that extra chance to take advantage of your crafting ability. So a large part of it depends on deciding how much you like crafting. I do think it's at least worth trying out the game's crafting system fairly early on, so you can see whether you like it or not.

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Originally Posted by Mikazuki

I haven't come across the Ixal yet.

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You'll need to get to level 41 and the Main Scenario quest "In Pursuit of the Past" (the one that has you do the Stone Vigil dungeon) before you can access the ARR beast tribe quests. Then the one for the Ixal is "A Bad Bladder". (You pick that one up in New Gridania. It will then send you to the North Shroud, where the rest of the Ixal quests are.)

Another good (though limited) place to get crafting and gathering XP is the Supply and Provisioning Missions available from your Grand Company's Personnel Officer. They ask for one item per day per class, so even if you're mostly focusing on one class at a time, it's worth unlocking all of them and doing at least that one item each before focusing the rest of your attention on a particular class. In addition to a bunch of DoH/DoL experience, you get a lot of GC seals that way as well.

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Originally Posted by Mikazuki

Morning

I'm wondering whether looking to make all my gear and equipment, taking the time and effort, will be beneficial to me as I progress through the story rather than buy from the marketplace or stores.

I would have to catch up/start the relevant profession as well due to leveling so fast. I'm sitting at 55k gil or so just from story/questing etc and not buying but I could imagine buying will start to add up.

So which is best for a new player?

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Crafting has a benefit of allowing you to repair gear in dungeons or instances. While it is a nice way to make gill it really depends on you. You can tome farm or craft, HQ would really be the only ones that are worth it in my opinion.

Retainers help gather most materials for you as long as you gear them and depending on your level and class would determine their cap. As a crafter I average about 1-2 mill a day depending on stock and up to 20mill depending on effort for the week. .

You're FC might be a ghost town due to us being in a Patch down time. We're getting a new patch near the end of May. I would doubt that they would find it rude as a lot of people leave FCs without a word on a regular basis. You can wait and see if things pick up the closer to the patch we get or try and find a FC that seems to be lively even when between patches boredom has set in.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

You're FC might be a ghost town due to us being in a Patch down time. We're getting a new patch near the end of May. I would doubt that they would find it rude as a lot of people leave FCs without a word on a regular basis. You can wait and see if things pick up the closer to the patch we get or try and find a FC that seems to be lively even when between patches boredom has set in.

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Thanks for the info, that makes it a little easier for me to think about leaving. Maybe as I continue to tank I'll get picked up by something active. Gave CUL a go the other day and enjoyed the first few quests! Quite funny :)