Yikes gathering is way too confusing

I just hit level 70 in the laziest way possible using pretty much only leve quests and wow I am so beyond lost. I've been googling guides and trying to do research for nearly a week on almost any spare minute I have between college and work and I still cannot make a dent in the wall of confusion.

I can't even finish my class quests...because my gear is bad? So I try to find how to get better gear...but that requires gil that I don't have, so the only way to get the gil is to farm items to sell, which requires gear...so do I just have to go grind dungeons for several weeks until I have the millions needed to buy a crafted 290 set? I can't even get the collectibles to the minimum range needed to turn in for the 220 gear?

I don't understand how to start the process of gathering, it seems like I have to invest what amounts to 4-5 million gil just to get the most worthless set of gear, and then grind for 6 months at a time for 3-6 tiers of gear after that?

I am so beyond confused, everywhere I look its 4.5 hour guides here, 32 page 'beginner explanations' there, all of which start off with "this guide assumes you have 320 gear level at least" or something, or its just a straight up spreadsheed and I feel like I should just go study calculus or open a small business at that point

Is there some kind of "gathering for dummies" guide out there some people used? At this point I feel like the only reasonable way is to just buy everything outright and avoid scrips completely, I can't wrap my mind around this progression system at all. Can someone please just explain the VERY STARTING step?

Its not that I'm impatient, I just...can't figure out what the heck I'm supposed to do. This is way too confusing. I literally learned VLSM and binary counting faster and easier than I am able to learn gathering progression on FF14.

It seems like using guides has caused your confusion. Since this is an online game which evolves over time I think it's best to avoid using guides unless they were written within the last few months (latest patches). There's nothing about the current dol/doh gear progression that take weeks to grind through. If you cannot afford the best gear and aren't a crafter, maybe a crafter friend could help you gear up at a lower price than the marketboard. You could also try melding materia onto the cheapest lv70 gathering gear to give you leg up in the mean time and see if you can earn gatherer's scrips currency. Avoid referring to collectable rotations written before 2017 since one of the actions had its GP cost and effect increased.

Get the best vendor gear you can for cheap. Shouldn't be more than 200k tops for a full set.

Gather loads of basic materials. Ores, Sands, basic Logs, that kind of thing.

Yes, the big bucks are in the top-end materials but mid to low end mats still sell very well. Hell, even stuff like level 20 materials still sell by the thousand each day.

Sell things in stacks of 20. People will be more inclined to buy a stack of 20 at 1000gil per item, than a stack of 99 at 700gil per item.

You'll soon make enough for the crafted set, but in the process you will also learn how gathering works as well as doing your job quests.

People are too impatient these days, always wanting to get the big score without putting time and effort in. Let this be a lesson.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

It seems like using guides has caused your confusion. Since this is an online game which evolves over time I think it's best to avoid using guides unless they were written within the last few months (latest patches). There's nothing about the current dol/doh gear progression that take weeks to grind through. If you cannot afford the best gear and aren't a crafter, maybe a crafter friend could help you gear up at a lower price than the marketboard. You could also try melding materia onto the cheapest lv70 gathering gear to give you leg up in the mean time and see if you can earn gatherer's scrips currency. Avoid referring to collectable rotations written before 2017 since one of the actions had its GP cost and effect increased.

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I was told you can only turn in collectibles for scrips 12 times a week? So by that calculation, it makes it seem like the maximum I could get is around 400-500, so it seems like doing that to get a full set would indeed take many weeks. Is that wrong?

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Originally Posted by kamikrazy

I was told you can only turn in collectibles for scrips 12 times a week? So by that calculation, it makes it seem like the maximum I could get is around 400-500, so it seems like doing that to get a full set would indeed take many weeks. Is that wrong?

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Custom Deliveries (to Zhloe, M'Naago, or Kurenai) are collectibles that can be turned in 12 times per week (6 per person, so you will always miss one). You gain at least 100+ Red/Yellow Scrips (depending on the collectability, not including bonuses for certain items) per turn in, so you can easily make 1500ish scrips in a week.

Regular collectibles can be turned in as much as you want (i.e. The Rowen's House of Splendor's tab).

You should be able to complete the level 70 class quest with roughly level 65 crafted gear(the kudzu/tigerskin set)... if not even slightly less gear. If you need to make some money before you get the ability to gather the newest mats, then the key is to spend a little time with your servers marketboard. Look at what you can gather now, look at how much it sells for and how often it sells, and find a couple items worth targetting. Then go get them, sell them, and repeat until your cash is in a better place. Some of the good mats will be lower level then you might think. The classic example is Alumen - mined at level 15 but used by leatherworkers until they get up into their 40s(being that this example is used a lot to explain the theory behind which types of mats to look for, on many servers its been over-farmed and the price isnt worth gathering). Some mats have longer shelf life(like alumen), some are used in great quantities(if the whole market sells out twice a day youre on to something), some are inconvenient to get(id rather pay someone then bother), some are only for specialty recipes that sell for a ton(think furniture).

Stella was right, theres more then one way to get scrips from collectables. The weekly custom delivery NPCs pay very well, but Rowena's people are available 24/7 and have no limit. So you want the overly-simple version of starting out on collectables? Ok. Get 600 gp(more is better, this is the absolute minimum as the rotation uses 600 points). That might mean better gear, it might mean melding, it might mean using food when you gather - for now, how you get there isnt important. Your overly-simple(no RNG) rotation is Discerning Eye Methodical Appraisal DE Meth DE Meth gather(1-3 items depending on node, 450% appraised). On a node with extra swings(this uses 4 steps, so without extra swings you get nothing) you could do DE Meth DE Meth Utmost Caution Meth Meth gather(1-2 items at 500% appraised). If this doesnt get you to the minimum to turn something in then you need more perception on your gear. Once youre more comfortable later on you can learn the Impulsive Appraisal version(potentially better returns, involves RNG). Side note: Using all(or even most) of your GP for each node either means downtime or cordial chugging, so plan accordingly.

Gear ... you can get any crafted left side gear NQ iL290 or below from a vendor. Tools also, but NQ tools might be cheaper on the MB. Jewelery is not vendored.

With that, and minimal melding, you should be able to do collectables and your class quests.

If you hit 70 with levequests, how can you not finish your class quest ?

I mean, you have minimal gear or else you wouldn't be able to do gathering levequests :confused:

Edit : do you mean the level 70 quest only OR the ones before too ?

This person most have bought a leve kit and now is in a panic that his/her investment was for not.

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Originally Posted by Wyvernheart

This person most have bought a leve kit and now is in a panic that his/her investment was for not.

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You can't level gathering with a levekit, except maybe fishing.

I remember having this exact problem, and the way I solved it was incredibly grindy but only cost me repair bills. I'm not sure what gear you have, but I spammed the Molybdenum Ore for yellow scripts until I could earn gear piece by piece. Time consuming and boring? Yes. Will it get you the gear? Eventually.

Do make sure to grab some red scripts for books so you can earn yellow scripts faster and get those fancy ores, and keep an eye out for those perception requirements for better ores so you can earn scripts faster.

Hey Kamikrazy.. I'm kind of in the same boat.. how to obtain decent gear with out mortgaging the farm. I'm only 60 and doing GC quest to level at the moment. I was wondering what you have decided to do and where you are at on this whole process.

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Originally Posted by Eric_Riot

Hey Kamikrazy.. I'm kind of in the same boat.. how to obtain decent gear with out mortgaging the farm. I'm only 60 and doing GC quest to level at the moment. I was wondering what you have decided to do and where you are at on this whole process.

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Just do custom deliveries for Zhloe and buy the gear with scrips you get. Doesnt take that much effort and it is slow i know but you will get there.

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Originally Posted by Caitlinzulu

Just do custom deliveries for Zhloe and buy the gear with scrips you get. Doesnt take that much effort and it is slow i know but you will get there.

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lol I love it when people say simple things like this and expect new people to understand what they mean... Like I know where it is or what to do when I get there... is it this?

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...c/f5ebc047f97/

Is it the quest "Arms Wide Open" because that looks like the reward is food. Does she unlock something? Is this connected to scripts? Is she a vendor? What is a Delivery? I guess I'll have to wait till I get home. Thanks for the advice I'll check it out later.

So there are only two options, pay million's for "Starter end game gear" or grind for weeks for "Starter end game gear".. *shrugs*.. if that's the only two options, it's not like I have much choice.

I think it is "Arms Wide Open" and the food reward listed there is just the reward for doing the quest that unlocks the weekly delivery.

Progression wise, I just buy the normal quality vendor gear for whatever level I am. That should get you through leveling. For the 70 quests I may have added some melds but you also have to know how to use the abilities or no amount of gear will help you. It can be confusing but there are decent guides combined with patience you should be ok. Also, don't be afraid to ask other gatherers in LSes and your FC for guidance.

I use this site to see what gear is available at each level while I am still leveling up:

http://www.garlandtools.org/db/#equip/leveling-BTN

http://www.garlandtools.org/bell/ even has the Leveling/Red Scrips 450 collectability. 600 GP. rotation right on it

I used http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/ to figure out how to do my materia melds to hit 600 GP

Most guides do have a "So you just hit 70" section, don't get bogged down in advanced stuff. Just the progression of vendor gear -> scrip gear.

Oh, I also have some of my squadron bringing me back scrip but you have to get lucky and get that as an option.

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Originally Posted by Eric_Riot

Hey Kamikrazy.. I'm kind of in the same boat.. how to obtain decent gear with out mortgaging the farm. I'm only 60 and doing GC quest to level at the moment.

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Unless youre going to be stuck at level 60 for awhile i wouldnt worry too much about gearing up into the various sets. The millions you might spend on an ironworks set would feel wasted when youve outgrown it around level 65. So if youre able to continue leveling, id recommend just powering through 60 via GC turn ins and maybe a leve or two then upgrading to the level 61 vendor/crafted set when you get there(though unlocking Zhloe is still a good idea, theres no such thing as too many scrips). If youre stuck at 60 then scrip gear is probly your easiest option. Zhloe only has the single quest line, which is indeed the one that opens Custom Deliveries. You gather her special collectables(must have previously unlocked collectables) and she pays in scrips. As you give her more stuff, her satisfaction level with you goes up and you can do more to help her cause. The Custom Delivery system has 2 more clients you can currently unlock at level 70 too.

Thanks for the feed back Yelta!

Thank you too Frizze.. I'm 62&63 now and just using vendor gear. Man these gates are annoying, I had to push though a "Duty" to get over the "wall" to get into the new land, then I had to push though the Main story quest to unlock "Rhalgr's Reach" but when I got there I didn't see any quest, I read online and found out that that you have to push though yet another gate to unlock "Arms Wide Open"... *whips forehand* all these gates... no use in complaining is not going to change anything..

FFXIV is lucky it's a very beautiful game.

I'm such an idiot! Here I am pushing the main quest in Stormblood and the quest is in Dravania Idyllshire which I already have access to. *hangs head*… Zhloe Aliapoh (located in Idyllshire x4.6 y6.8) gives crazy Xp but you can only turn in 6 a week.. grrr… Anyhow thanks for letting me know she exist.

Theres also a beast tribe that offers gathering quests(crafting too) for 61-70 if you get the main story a bit further along. The MSQ pre-reqs happen around level 66.

Eric, congrats on finding Zhloe, she is a great source of scrips. Once you get to 70 you get yellow scrips as well. Two other clients can open up after "Return of the Bull" late in 4.1. But only 12 turnins / week total.

Most of my red scrips come from my squadron. Have you unlocked squadrons? If you haven't it will take you a few weeks to tune them for scrips.

https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/S...der_(Maelstrom) The other GCs have the same quest.

NQ vendor gear and tools with materia melder NPC melds will get you to 70 no problem. But jewelry is not available from NPCs and the scrip jewelry is ... inferior to crafted with even one meld. Find a crafter and offer to trade gathered items for even minimally overmelded jewelry perhaps?

BTW, I have a fisher main alt. There are fish gated behind storyline even after the area is unlocked.

Just need to find a crafter buddy with mounds of mats and loads of Gil. I would craft a full set for you np. But I doubt you are on Balmung. (On mobile do cant see)

Gathering isnt confusing, it becomes from Level 50 onwards just way too miuch of an overcomplicated grindfest, thats all.

They need to removed these nonsensical garbage, that is timed nodes and the even more so nonsensical nodes, which spawn only a specific times that are shown with just only ??? and where you don#t see, where you find the item that you wan,t so that you have to waste first mostly all of your SP, just to be able to see, where you need to chop at to get somethings ..

Really overcomplicated and ridiculous becomes it first from Level 60 on in regard of it becoming a nonsensical grindfest, when you have to collect or create collector items.
Not to mention the heavy gear treadmill you are underlying from 50 to 70 just to be able to successfully craft and collect something without mindboggling low chances.
Yes, therefore are naturally certain skilsl there to buff these chances up.. but they SP costs are way too high for the kind of way of how way too slowly the player gets more SP through equipment in this game, that you are basically permanently independant on using this silly SP potions when you are doing something that shoudl give you some exp boosts like a crafting/collecting charter, which is sadly aside of the giving of stuff to one of the 3 factions the only way of effectively leveling the craftign/collecting jobs fast together with the exp buff items from doing squad missions or from your guild paired together ...
Otherwise levelign these jobs from doing actually normal collecting stuff (unless you craft/collect something NEW) is slow af... and its about time, that with the next expansion SE does somethign with the rebuilding of Ishgard for the craftign and collectign jobs, to make the levelign part from 50 to then 80 a more fun and not so grindy ultra boring snoozefest.

What this game needs are also Quests for Crafters and Collectors, when you get exp for something, that doesn't actually require of you to collect or craft a specific thing.
Combat Classes have thousands of quests that help them to level up, but crafters and collectors have absolutely none at all... not very seriously well planned through game design in my opinion there when one side literally has hundreds over hundreds of quests to do within level 1 to 69 and the other side has 0 to do in regard of quests and gets exp only through crafting/collecting things or bringing that stuff to one of 3 factions for some serious exp boosts or hoping to make soem good collector items at the later end of the game to get some serious exp boosts that are like 30 to 50 times+ as much of what you'd get of doing a craftign/collecting of an item of your appropriate level range ...

By these misdesigns you can clearly see, that crafting and collecting jobs, either have not been made by the same developer team, that also made the combat classes, or these jobs simply didn't got from begin on the same focus of attention, as like the combat jobs, which you can see, that the crafting/collectign gear level at Leve70 is even significantly lower, than that of combat classes, which have currently the highest Ilevel of 405 in equipment, where crafters/collectors aren't equal to that and can have so far maximum only Ilevel 340!! - at least thats the highest I know of and see everywhere ...

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Originally Posted by Kaiserdrache

What this game needs are also Quests for Crafters and Collectors, when you get exp for something, that doesn't actually require of you to collect or craft a specific thing.

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A quest needs to have a specific objective! On the other hand, you are free at any time to just go out there and hit gathering points to obtain items. While you don't have a "quest" to hand in for EXP, you earn it from the gathering itself, and then you can sell the items! (Unlike levequests where the items just vanish into the aether and you only get the EXP.)

Money earned from selling gathered items can then be spent on better gear which lets you gather higher-level items (= more EXP) or the same level more efficiently.

Also invest in "survival manuals" from either your GC or (higher bonus) from the scrip exchange. You'll also get some from completing class quests. They'll boost your EXP gain while gathering.

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Originally Posted by Kaiserdrache

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Gathering is optional content, if it annoys you don't do it.

I like gathering. I don't much use levequests, which ARE quests BTW, because I would rather gather for EXPs.

I do not mind the crafting and gathering grinds, I do mind the raiding grind so I don't raid. That's how you do it.

Oddly enough I did the Yo-Kai watch grind (twice) and I am liking the Eureka grind. Never did a relic before, didn't even like the look of the grinds.

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Originally Posted by Kaiserdrache

What this game needs are also Quests for Crafters and Collectors, when you get exp for something, that doesn't actually require of you to collect or craft a specific thing.
Combat Classes have thousands of quests that help them to level up, but crafters and collectors have absolutely none at all....

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Pretty sure leves, ixal, moogle, and namazu dailies already exist.

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Originally Posted by Eric_Riot

So there are only two options, pay million's for "Starter end game gear" or grind for weeks for "Starter end game gear".. *shrugs*.. if that's the only two options, it's not like I have much choice.

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No one said that. The high end stuff will always be expensive and/or a grind, but the starter stuff isn't. You can buy NQ level 70 i290 tools and left side gear from vendors in Kugane, and one week worth of custom delivery turn ins will get you enough yellow scripts to buy most, if not all of the blue i350 accessories. That's more than enough to get started while you grind of save for the better gear.

Upgrading gear is a basic in any MMO. You get the added bonus in this one with the job quests often giving you level appropriate gear.
If you choose only 1 gathering job, you are limited to 1 "free piece every 5 levels, but if you level all 3, thats 3/5 main pieces free, and Main and offhand tools free.

Getting accessories isn't hard either, and you don't Have to go with the Best if you are just leveling. You can grind in items you have decent rates on and sell them either on the AH or Stores, or craft if available.

Ignore the guides. Just find points your level and harvest. Do levequests if you can, they are Great for leveling, and occasionally will reward you with gear or useful items.

Use your abilities (if that wasn't already obvious) to improve your gathering rates into an acceptable level if needed.

I think in general, you are over complicating one of the simpler elements of this game.

Do all roulettes you can as the class in need level 70 for 2-3 days and you have all the gil you need to get your gathering stat up. Ofc you will need more gil if you want good perception and GP but gathering stat will get you started.

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Originally Posted by kamikrazy

I can't even finish my class quests...because my gear is bad? So I try to find how to get better gear...but that requires gil that I don't have, so the only way to get the gil is to farm items to sell, which requires gear...so do I just have to go grind dungeons for several weeks until I have the millions needed to buy a crafted 290 set? I can't even get the collectibles to the minimum range needed to turn in for the 220 gear?

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I pretty much had to buy gear that was equal or better than what the class quests offered as rewards, just to complete the quests.
They really need to be tuned down. Instead of X HQ items, make it a larger number of normal quality ones, or an assortment. Give bonus XP if you manage to proc any HQ items while collecting the quest items.

Remember you can now remove grade IV materia (and lower) from your gear with 100% success. For mining and botany I melded an even mix of gathering and perception, for fishing just enough gathering to keep the 'fish gets away' message to the minimum and the rest on perception. I bought the material with red scrips and just kept reusing it all the way from to 70. Melding everything gives a nice boost to stats.

I also found a couple of bargains on the MB where sellers appeared to be having an undercut war, so while I wouldn't normally advise buying gathering gear for levelling, it can be worth checking the MB from time to time. I got a level 70 BiS crafted chest for less than the material cost, which was a really lucky find.

For anyone still in HW, some leves now reward HQ gear, these items are usually very cheap on the MB if you don't want to use your leve allowance on low-level leves.