2 lvl 50's I still feel so noob >_<

[Tizerak]

I came from years of WoW before this MMO; I even tried FFXI right before I got into WoW, but quit when I could no longer solo at lvl 10 >_>.
Right now I got lvl 50 WAR/SCH/SMN, SCH is best geared atm with ilvl 73.
I still feel kind of... lost playing this game though in as far as direction and money and a few other things:

1. GIL! How do people make it? I started leveling a miner, but then some people in parties said a craft is better; maybe Goldsmith?

2. Materia - How do people get multiple materia put in an item beyond what it's capable of?

3. 2ndary stats - How do you know what to materia for / gear to look for in classes as far as speed/det/crit/etc.? Or for DPS classes is it better to materia for STR/DEX/INT?

4. Philo tomes - I do the 4 roulettes everyday, and CT till I get the piece I want for the week; which dungeon is best for get Philo tomes or just queue the roulette?

[Tizerak]

5. Beast tribe dailies / reputation - is there a point to these besides exp for lvl 42+ and the mounts?

6. Coil - what ilvl can you start coil? Is coil like CT where you only get 1 piece a week?

7. Changing GC's - is there a reason to change GC's? Do some have different/better gear then others/is there a point? I'm in Maelstrom atm.

8. Mission mortar/magitek armor macro - is there a way to macro the abilities of those 2 mission specific vehicles? I hide my pet bar because I like my personal one better then it.

Uhh that's all I can think of atm; thanks in advance for any kind info!

[Orophin]

1. You just have to research the market and see what's selling, what's not, and where you can maybe make yourself a niche. This varies greatly per server.

2. There is a quest around level 20 or 25 (crafter only) that you can do that will allow you the ability to overmeld items. Overmelding is percentage based so expect some failures.

3. Each class has certain stats it favors more, so you'll have to do some research and figure out what those are. Example: BLMs can feasibly build for either spell speed or crit and be pretty comparable. DRGs are heavily crit based, MNKs rely on skill speed, etc. As far as choosing materia, there's a couple factors involved: the maximum amount of a stat a piece of gear will let you meld, and whether or not your gear is HQ. (HQ gear cannot have its existing stats melded any further) For your example of the primary stats (STR/DEX/VIT) if you're using HQ gear you won't be able to meld any materia with those stats on it and will have to go for the secondary stats like skill speed/crit/determination, based on whatever is best for your job.

4. From a time efficiency standpoint, I think WP speedruns offer the best philo/hr. It was recently revealed in a translated Japanese article that Philosophy is going away in the upcoming patch, so get what you want while you can before it's redistributed to the new HM dungeons.

5. Not really. You get some insight about what's going on within the rival beastmen factions. (story stuff)

6. People started Coil as early as ilvl70, but unless you can find other newer players or those who are willing to take lower geared players, most people set rather high ilvl requirements in the Party Finder. They will be putting Coil 1-5 in the DF come 2.2 though. You're not restricted in how much loot you can get per week, but you can only run each turn of Coil (until 2.2) once per week, so essentially you can only loot twice (two items drop in each turn) per turn.

7. There are some minor differences in the items offered, but currently I don't feel there's any real benefits of changing unless you want to get each GC's cosmetic pet. There's currently no difference story wise between the three.

8. I'm not sure if it will work for those, but if you know the exact names of the attack you can try /pac (pet action)

By the way you can edit your original post to bypass the character limit.

[Welsper59]

1. The same way you would in any other MMORPG. In other words, nearly anything can be profitable, it's just a variation of speed. You won't find any truly "get-rich-quick" type of thing. It's all RNG and market dependent. I accumulated ~5mil over a month or two and some luck with my crafts (some help from drops and gathering). I don't really play much, especially these days, but I still try to sell things from time to time. You just gotta look at how your servers economy is. Look for things that you can make/gather/farm and that sell frequently. E.G. 2 star equips, PROPERLY melded equips, ores, materia, etc.

*note* Materia is a great option, but if it wasn't for the frequency of sales, I'd say it's just as cutthroat as 2-star equips.

2. Crafters of proper level (and that have completed the low level crafting quests in Thanalan) can overmeld equipment that have at least 1 materia slot in it already. The problem is that for each overmeld you do, and the tier of materia, your chances of attaching them drop significantly. This can potentially cost you hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of gil depending on what materia is being overmeld.

3. Trial and error, or take the faster approach and just check for any guides on the class/job. In most cases, people don't bother with crafted gear (the only gear that have materia slots), so your diversity is rather limited and streamlined. Most classes won't really need to worry about base stat materia like STR/DEX/INT, as the caps are usually already done by the default stats on the gear, assuming it's an HQ equip. Some exceptions, like tanks using Gryphonskin equips, would need to meld some VIT, or if they're using Rosegold, they may want to meld STR.

4. Can't really help you there. As far as I know, the roulette is usually your best/fastest option, unless you dungeon spam with a pre-made group.

5. Nope, besides a mediocre story I guess...

6. Depends on the raid groups requirements, but you're generally intended to have full DL gear (or equivalent) and meet certain caps, like accuracy... which you shouldn't have a problem with if you're in full DL.

7. Negligibly different GC story progression and different coloring/aesthetics to vanity goods. The gear bonuses are slightly different to cater to certain roles, but it's not important in the least.

8. Can't help you there.

[Gamemako]

I still feel kind of... lost playing this game though in as far as direction and money and a few other things:

A few additional notes:

1. Wouldn't even bother, but go ahead and take gil out of your dailies (roulettes, beastman dailies). Spending the time to level crafters isn't worth it right now. Gathering is a HUGE chore. I have a nice chunk of gil myself, but I never use it for anything.

3. Depends on job; best to consult a guide. In general, everything but parry and piety are useful for every job (parry is only useful for tanks and piety is only for mages). Skill Speed is hated by most players because BRDs never use Paeon and skill speed doesn't affect autoattacks (only WAR will deliberately stack it), but everything else is generally useful. For SCH, critical hit rate is best (your adloquium crits get double shield, so if it displays 1000 healed, the shield is 2000), then determination. For WAR, you want accuracy depending on the content you're doing (need 480 or so for 100% accuracy in Binding Coil of Bahamut T4 and T5), then parry and skill speed (especially if you can get >430 skill speed). As other poster mentioned, primary stats are generally capped, and it's very rare to meld any primary stat except VIT, which goes on accessories for tanking or accessories to help survive certain mechanics.

4. Just do roulettes and CT.

5. Reputation is just more vanity stuff (mounts, etc). Also yields tomes and gil. Mainly useful for crafters due to shards.

6. You find many PUG groups below i70 anymore, but T1 and T2 are easily doable at i65 or so. If you see a group requesting i80, I recommend blacklisting the leader because they're bad, abusive, or both. T3 has no drops, and T4 requires high level of execution to manage at ~i70, and since it's a DPS check, most people just require upper seventies up to 80 (though it really, really doesn't need i80). T5 more or less requires an average of i80 to win, and you aren't likely to attempt it with a PUG at all, let alone below i85 or so.

7. Achievements. Vanity. Yes, a few items have different stats, but they are totally meaningless because the gear is ilvl55 or lower.

[Tizerak]

Thanks for the responses so far. I was wondering with materia how come when I get someone to meld something for me like a vit materia on a caster wrist it gets 0 benefit from the materia? Also, as far as guides/websites go; what are some of the "go to's?" right now I've been using: http://xivdb.com/ , http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/FF14_Wiki , http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/ , and http://www.ffxivguild.com/

I didn't know you could go back in and edit to bypass the character count (seems silly) but thanks :P

[Tizerak]

Also some 2.2 questions as well:
1. Is there going to be... ilvl 100 stuff now? I don't see what else the new tome set would offer.
1. what's the conversion rate going to be for philo -> myst tomes? 1:1?