Kinda new player!

[yoco007]

When you break down gear for materia, the gear on your saved classes, does it show as well? I don't want to accidentally destroy it.
Is it possible doing main story and current class missions only get to max lvl?

[MistakeNot]

When you break down gear for materia, the gear on your saved classes, does it show as well? I don't want to accidentally destroy it.
Is it possible doing main story and current class missions only get to max lvl?

When converting to materia, you first select a piece of gear and then convert it. When looking at the pieces in the armory, all pieces currently part of a gear set will have a small icon on it.

Just doing MSQ and class quests is nowhere near enough to reach max level. You will have to earn XP from other sources as well.

[Teiren]

The gear list preview on your saved class list window only records the gear from the last time you selected that entry. It'll update with a warning that something's not right the next time you select that entry.
Btw, materia really isn't a big deal, so don't expend too much time or money on it. And spiritbond level rises from fighting in that gear, so think of it like EXP for your gear.

Nowadays you likely can reach Level 50 through just Main Scenario Quest and all sidequests because doing all sidequests also means completing each dungeon once. If you feel like you're falling behind, that's what FATEs are for.

About which Summon to use: I recommend you just continue to use Ifrit-Egi from now on until you get more comfortable with the game. The decision between Ifrit-Egi and Garuda-Egi really is personal preference. You can leave Ifrit-Egi on Sic behavior and do totally fine. Garuda-Egi MUST be used with Obey behavior because one of her skills is completely useless if you leave her on Sic, and Obey means she only uses skills when you tell her to by putting her skills on your hotbar.

[SeriousxSarcasm]

Garuda-Egi is considered better most of the time, but Ifrit-Egi is slightly better for quick fights without a lot of movement. (At least that seemed to be the consensus the last time I was reading up on that particular debate.) Plus some players like Ifrit-Egi better as easier to position.

Actually, Ifrit-egi is the superior pet 80% of the time (he's a Job specific pet for a reason, ;3 ). He has significantly higher DPS compared to Garuda-egi, who must basically be put on Obey-auto-attack mode, because of all the useless abilities you don't want her to use without your permission. SMNs who just default to Garuda-egi are usually just lazy (they want the Contagion ability so they don't have to apply DoTs as often lol), or they didn't do their pet research. Garuda-egi for sure has her advantages, but it's usually in very specific fights (Keeper of the Lake end boss comes to mind, lmao. So much time spent dodging, you really do need the extra DoT time thrown up there - tho I usually swiftcast Ifrit into the fight during add phase. I also use her in Titan trials, because she hovers above the quake stuff).

Of course, you'll always hear someone argue otherwise, but I have yet to see a similarly geared SMN out DPS me with Garuda-egi.

[Taika]

Actually, Ifrit-egi is the superior pet 80% of the time (he's a Job specific pet for a reason, ;3 ).

What level are we talking about here? Since at least from checking FF logs, the best SMNs all seem to use Garuda.

[SeriousxSarcasm]

What level are we talking about here? Since at least from checking FF logs, the best SMNs all seem to use Garuda.

lol, not end game (for some reason everyone on the forums seem to jump immediately to that. :P ). I'm referring to in dungeons and trials throughout the game. If it were possible, Ifrit-egi would still be an increase in pure numbers, but it's just not possible in raids to keep track of your DoTs (which have to be refreshed too often), where your pet is (with him being in Melee range, he will likely die more often, depending on the fight), plus keep your own rotation/opener in peak condition. I'm still testing, but so far it just gets too damn chaotic to be worth it lol.

But in basic content, Ifrit-egi is usually the better choice.

Edit: And I'm sure if someone out there was able to grow a 3rd eye, plus extra fingers, they could probably make him more viable... but such is life. XD

[yoco007]

Quick question. This game does't support "action" camera, right? It's always TAB targeting? Need advice as tank, my second class, how to best wanted target. I really dislike tab targeting, it rarely chooses target I want!

[Rinari]

It's always TAB targeting? Need advice as tank, my second class, how to best wanted target.

Still new myself, but what I do is mainly use the enmity/monster list for targeting after a fight begins. It's very handy with the enmity icons and health bars, allowing me to find targets that are about to lose enmity or that DPS is targeting out of order (ie, taking damage fast). That list only shows monsters when you're on their enmity list though! Fresh adds to a fight often won't show, so be careful using it. Manual targeting seems to be best done by clicking on a monster name, not the monster itself. TAB targeting works nearest to farthest, but takes camera into consideration in some weird ways. You have to get a feel for it to use it well, and it doesn't always work out. I use all three methods depending on the situation. I play on PC, and I doubt much of that applies to gamepad.

[Taika]

Still new myself, but what I do is mainly use the enmity/monster list for targeting after a fight begins. It's very handy with the enmity icons and health bars, allowing me to find targets that are about to lose enmity or that DPS is targeting out of order (ie, taking damage fast).

I also recommend clicking the enmity list to target as a tank. But as Rinari already also said, if you have many monsters on you, they may not show on the list, so you'll also have to pay attention to your surroundings.

[Niwashi]

I use all three methods depending on the situation. I play on PC, and I doubt much of that applies to gamepad.

The enmity list (or party list for healers) is just as useful on gamepad. (It uses Up/Down buttons to cycle through the party list, or L1+Up/Down to cycle through the enmity list.) If what you want to target is listed there, it's often the best way to target it. It does, however have the same limitations as it has for keyboard/mouse players: enemies who haven't noticed you yet aren't listed in the enemy list and NPCs or players not in your party aren't listed in the party list.

The right/left buttons on a gamepad work pretty much like tab targeting, but can at least be filtered so that, for instance, you can set it to enemy only mode and it will only cycle through mobs without including players, NPCs, minions, etc in its list, or set it to friends only mode to cycle just through players and friendly NPCs skipping over mobs. There are a bunch of different filter options for what to include or not. (I'm not sure why keyboard tab doesn't seem to have the same filtering options. It would make just as much sense there. But I've never heard of it except in relation to gamepads, so I think it's a gamepad only feature.)

Gamepad lacks the ability to click on a mob (or its name), but does have an option to select one with the X button. If you start with nothing targeted (so generally prefix this with pressing circle a time or two to un-target whatever you were attacking last) and then press X, it will target the nearest mob/item/NPC/player in front of you. This works much more predictably than tabbing to the next one since the targeting system so often has a weirdly non-intuitive notion of what's "next". So particularly for melee fighters, this "nearest one" selection is often useful when you feel like yelling at the game "No, not those ones clear over in the far corner. I want to hit this one right here that I'm standing toe to toe with."