How To Improve Item Level

Surprise! Surprise!

I go to complete the quest "Rock the Castrum" and cannot enter it because my item level is only 36 and 42 is required in order to proceed.

The problem is my neck, wrists, and rings, which currently have a respective item level of 5,18, 15, and 15.

The only ones I have found in shops are also junk.

How do I go about improving these items?

Quests?

Is there a marketplace somewhere where they can be purchased? I have close to 200k gil.

Thank you for your help!

Qaija

Dude you get free items from doing the msq. What are you doing with that gear?

Thank you for your helpful suggestions!

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Originally Posted by qaija

How do I go about improving these items?

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Welcome to FFXIV, hope you are having fun!

Two ways to improve the right side of your gear are side quests, or a crafter friend/fc mate.

The side quests you have likely been skipping, as you likely are levelling way to fast for the MSQ quests, but they are what rewards the right side stuff. I was 56 by the time I got to Castrum on my last pass.

Try to find someone in your FC, or the Novice Network who can help you with rings and so on. Or head into Cruleum Processing Plant and go the gold side quests to get better right side gear. If you don' get good enough there, you might need to step back a zone and complete those side quests.

One last way, will be to run one of the highest level dungeons you did complete, a number of times, and gear up that way.

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Originally Posted by Shibi

Welcome to FFXIV, hope you are having fun!

Two ways to improve the right side of your gear are side quests, or a crafter friend/fc mate.

The side quests you have likely been skipping, as you likely are levelling way to fast for the MSQ quests, but they are what rewards the right side stuff. I was 56 by the time I got to Castrum on my last pass.

Try to find someone in your FC, or the Novice Network who can help you with rings and so on. Or head into Camp Bluefog and go the gold side quests to get better right side gear.

(and generally ignore the trolls :) )

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Dude that's a terrible way to teach a sprout how to play this game. Now they're going to rely on people just giving them stuff instead of learning how to actually progress gear properly.

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Originally Posted by MPK

Dude that's a terrible way to teach a sprout how to play this game. Now they're going to rely on people just giving them stuff instead of learning how to actually progress gear properly.

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Better than your "what the hell have you been doing," isn't it?

You're a level 54 Lancer. Go do your class quests to pick up your Dragoon job stone, for one thing. By level 50 you should have already gotten your ilvl 90 gear for the entire left side. With that, you probably wouldn't even need to be worrying about your accessories.

But your accessories are also wildly outdated. If you've gotten absolutely no replacements from any of the dungeons leading up to that point, and have not gotten any that may have been available from quests (sometimes side quests), you've almost certainly been checking the wrong shops. Your Grand Company very likely has a few pieces that would be better. Pretty sure the shops in the main cities all have wide ranges of items. There's even the entire Marketboard you could be searching.

I get that you're here asking for help, but, this is, like, tutorial-level knowledge, leaving me to assume you're likely skipping over literally everything the game has been trying to teach you.

Well these items are also already outdatet, but there is a shop in Ul'dah wich sells cheap lvl 28~ accessorys.

Ul'dah - Steps of Thal (X:10.0 Y:12.5)

Maybe these are already good enough to push your item lvl.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

You're a level 54 Lancer. Go do your class quests to pick up your Dragoon job stone, for one thing. By level 50 you should have already gotten your ilvl 90 gear for the entire left side. With that, you probably wouldn't even need to be worrying about your accessories.

But your accessories are also wildly outdated. If you've gotten absolutely no replacements from any of the dungeons leading up to that point, and have not gotten any that may have been available from quests (sometimes side quests), you've almost certainly been checking the wrong shops. Your Grand Company very likely has a few pieces that would be better. Pretty sure the shops in the main cities all have wide ranges of items. There's even the entire Marketboard you could be searching.

I get that you're here asking for help, but, this is, like, tutorial-level knowledge, leaving me to assume you're likely skipping over literally everything the game has been trying to teach you.

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This. Im the very first to explain but this is like, "why are my hands burned after touching fire?" xD

As others said before, do you jobquests, grab some sidequests that reward gear - you can see in the preview. Also you should have gotten some at the dungeons you needed - if not do some runs of your highest dungeon for gear.
And you can look for gear at your Grand company, but i guess you rank gonna be too low...?

Also as youre 50+, you can get ironworks gear at mor dhona, from Auriana at x22:y6,7.... though i guess you wont have poetics yet?

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Originally Posted by qaija

I go to complete the quest "Rock the Castrum" and cannot enter it because my item level is only 36 and 42 is required in order to proceed.

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Always open the Character window and click the Recommended Gear button. This automatically equips the best gear in your armory chest (which is where most of your quest rewards and dungeon loot probably went).

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Originally Posted by qaija

The only ones I have found in shops are also junk.

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Every main city has a market place -including Ul'dah - Sapphire Avenue Exchange, Limsa Lominsa - Lower Decks and Old Gridania. You can speak with the Battle Armor merchants and there is gear for all levels. 1-9, 10-19 and so on. DoW since you use physical attacks.

You can get high-quality versions of this gear from the market boards too. These are where players sell the items instead, but they can be a lot more expensive.

I noticed you are a Lancer, but have Dragoon unlocked. Note that equipping your Soul Crystal turns you into a Dragoon, which unlocks a lot of new abilities. If you do all of your Dragoon quests, you get a coffer you can "use" that gives you item level 90 gear.

As you get Allagan tomestones of poetics from this content you're about to do, you can spend these with the Blue Icon NPC just outside of main city aetherytes, for item level 130 gear, which will last up to level 60 quests.

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Originally Posted by Kuroka

Also as youre 50+, you can get ironworks gear at mor dhona, from Auriana at x22:y6,7.... though i guess you wont have poetics yet?

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Quite so. They won't have good sources of Poetics yet. Castrum Meridianum and the following story instance gate access to alliance raids, 8-man trials, dungeons that drop poetics, and the related roulettes. While beast tribes are unlocked prior they yield a pittance.

OP, like others have mentioned you'll want to do your job quest and crack open the coffer given to you when you finish the level 50 quest. That'll be more than enough but you'll probably want to buy an ilvl 70+ lance off the marketboard.

Ul'dah has a shop near the Goldsmith's Guild that sells ilvl 29 accessories, other than that, ARR does not really have a place to buy accessories past that item level, and you'll want to either buy them on the marketboard or unlock Goldsmith to craft them yourself (and Miner to get the raw materials)

and as others have mentioned, catch up on your job quests and get that ilvl 90 left side.

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Originally Posted by qaija

Surprise! Surprise!

I go to complete the quest "Rock the Castrum" and cannot enter it because my item level is only 36 and 42 is required in order to proceed.

The problem is my neck, wrists, and rings, which currently have a respective item level of 5,18, 15, and 15.

The only ones I have found in shops are also junk.

How do I go about improving these items?

Quests?

Is there a marketplace somewhere where they can be purchased? I have close to 200k gil.

Thank you for your help!

Qaija

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Accessories (belt, earrings, neck, bracelet, rings) tend to be rewarded by side quests and not MSQ.

There's a bit of a gap for them on vendors in the 35-49 range, making the MB a primary source though it can be expensive. And you won't be able to buy the level 50 tomestone accessories until you complete Castrum and Praetorium.

Best way to do it - ask someone you know who has level Goldsmith to at least 50 to make the accessories you need (belts are usually Leatherworkers though sometimes Weaver or Armorer). They can tell you what materials are needed. Buying the materials from the MB is usually a lot cheaper than buying the finished item.

I know I'm replying a bit on the late side so I hope you have what you need by now.

If you come to Balmung I'll craft you some stuff for free.