Non-tomestone ways to get to item level 460? Crafting?

[TaleraRistain]

I just wanna throw in here, as the person that started this thread, that I've since re-evaluated just how much I'm unwilling to tank for strangers, and I will likely just tomestone it out at some point in the future when those stones will be potentially worth more.

I do appreciate all the information as to my options. I think the only real mind boggling element to me that was SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR was that the prior story dungeon loot is literally 5 ilvls short of the minimum for the next story dungeon. They'd have an entirely self contained ecosystem of trusts and blissful absence of tank heckling if not for that odd broken bridge.

That all said, I'm not gonna try to piss into the wind because that's just not efficient. I have always been a big fan of FFXIV's currency options for gaining "good enough is good enough" gear levels for most activities. The roulette is a pretty amazing idea for keeping dungeons relevant and keeping people doing those dungeons. I just... you know how it goes. The first rule of tanking in MMOs is "don't be new on other people's time," and the way I play the game puts me in a perpetual state of newness. Tank specs fit my play style in literally every other aspect of any trinity MMO... except this.

But I'll be ok. Thank you all for the fascinating discussion on where all the options are hiding, I learned a lot in this thread! I'll see you in a few months when WoW inevitably goes stale again.

I totally feel you on tanking here. I'm a healer main so when I leveled my tanks recently for the amaro I stuck to places I wouldn't screw people up.

MSQ roulette is great for this. You get 100 allegory and 50 revelation right now. And basically you just AoE stuff, maybe use a CD or two, and keep the nasties pointed away from the others. If you're lucky, the other tank will even MT.

Also, you said you don't want to do the Ivalice raids but you can unlock Crystal Tower (level 50) and do Alliance Roulette. It's basically almost exactly the same being a tank in these, except there are three groups and not many places where you have to tank for your group. If you don't unlock anything else, you will always get CT raids. You get the same tomes as MSQ.

These are so faceroll now that you won't be wasting anyone's time. Plus they can be no-stress environments for practicing, which is something I enjoyed.

[Rilifane]

Hi, i am in the same situation. And i hate such game design that forces me to grind a meaningless meta currency like the tomestones. I have a 475ish item level and it will take weeks to upgrade it to 490 which is needed for Paghlt'an. And grinding millions of Gil that would allow to buy it from the marketboard will also take a very long time.


Seriously, that's very demotivating, imho.




Cheers

You're a WHM from what I see here and on the lodestone, so you have very fast invites. The left side looks mostly fine, the only thing bringing down your ilvl is the right side which is as easy to fix as it gets.
The cheapest HQ accessories are rings at 90k each on Shiva, less on other servers. Two rings alone would provide a huge boost for 180k which is not exactly a huge investment. That would bring you above 480, the requirement for e9-e12 normal. Doing two or three of them and rolling on all accessory/ belt tokens will give you enough to get to 490+.
Overall time investment would be roughly 1h or less with queue times included if you have already unlocked them.
If not, you'd have to go through e1-e8 first, although with your first timer bonus you'd get tons of tomes for 490 accessories and e5-e8 will also give you token for 480 gear. After unlocking it, it might not even be neccessary to to go for e9 and beyond.
If you don't want to unlock the Eden raids, doing a hunt train will probably give enough Allegory and Revelation to buy a few accessories and with the Exarchic gear, that should be enough. If a S rank train is up, it doesn't even take an hour; all you need is are the aetherytes in all the zones, being able to fly everywhere isn't even neccessary. There are always people willing to ferry. Maybe add an 80s roulette to that and you should be fine.

That's not even close to weeks or millions of gil.
It's perfectly doable in one evening.

[Infindox]

Hi, i am in the same situation. And i hate such game design that forces me to grind a meaningless meta currency like the tomestones. I have a 475ish item level and it will take weeks to upgrade it to 490 which is needed for Paghlt'an. And grinding millions of Gil that would allow to buy it from the marketboard will also take a very long time.


Seriously, that's very demotivating, imho.




Cheers

The 510 gear is not "millions of gil".

[Larirawiel]

Hi, i must admit it was not so hard to get the > 490 itemlevel. But it was also relative expensive. I have replaced the weak slots in my gear and it cost me > 600k Gil. I can imagine that a beginner in this game will hit a wall here.


Cheers and thanks.

[kaynide]

Hi, i must admit it was not so hard to get the > 490 itemlevel. But it was also relative expensive. I have replaced the weak slots in my gear and it cost me > 600k Gil. I can imagine that a beginner in this game will hit a wall here.


Cheers and thanks.

To be fair a single week of doing the 4 different Eden’s Promise plain-mode series can get you 4 pieces of jewelry. Like 30 minutes of work for the 4 bangles for 510 gear. Admittedly, now I believe there is no more loot limit to eden, so it could be you get even more or less. If you don’t have the 485 to do Eden, spam Nier (2nd tier drops 490 gear).

Doing that enough you will get the tomes to get an easy 485 weapon at bozja.

[Iscah]

I can imagine that a beginner in this game will hit a wall here.

Only if they also insist on avoiding the side content that also forms part of the game story (to varying degrees, but Eden certainly does) and provides a quick way to catch up.

Plus all your regular daily roulettes are now giving both allegory and revelation tomes, and there's a bonus for every new level 80 duty you complete.

Endgame is designed that you engage with the various content to earn gear, or you pay gil to skip it. If you refuse to do one of those routes, you have to take the other, and the "brick wall" is nowhere near as high if you do the optional content that gives you a ladder.

If you get to endgame early in the cycle it's all you've got to play with for the next few months, but you can still work through the same sequence of doing the content within your current ilevel to get items that boost it higher, and it doesn't take all that long – a few hours, not weeks.

And if you're in the game for the story, it doubly doesn't make sense to avoid side content because the writers have shown that they're not afraid to rely on those stories to flesh out critical plot points from the MSQ. Shadowbringers drew on three different optional raid quest lines and the lead writer for Endwalker stated at Fan Fest that prettymuch every single side story in the game will add to your appreciation of Endwalker, but particularly the Binding Coil and Omega.

[Rilifane]

Hi, i must admit it was not so hard to get the > 490 itemlevel. But it was also relative expensive. I have replaced the weak slots in my gear and it cost me > 600k Gil. I can imagine that a beginner in this game will hit a wall here.


Cheers and thanks.

You had chosen to ignore most of the options you had so the only one left was spending ingame money. The more options you ignore, the harder you're making it for yourself but that's nothing new.
It's like ignoring every sidequest in a single player and then noticing that you're grossly underleveled, undergeared and get steamrolled by a boss. The only reason why single player games don't place hard requirements is because you're the only one affected and might enjoy the challenge.
If you insist on only doing MSQ, then yes, you may have the situation when you return after some time off and have to spend some time catching up through less than efficient means.
Roulettes, hunts, normal raids, alliance raids, crafting, Bozja - it's all there for a reason. And of course SE wants you to also take a peek at optional content. Every game wants you to explore a bit beyond the absolute bare minimum, that's not new.
The min ilvl requirements are not beginner-unfriendly brick walls, they are fairly lenient unless you refused to do pretty much everything you could to pass them. Then you'll have to pay ingame money to skip it.

[Imora]

Well, I'm at 465 or something now and need even more for the next dungeon.

Is there a repeatable grind for tomes that isn't hunts? I'd hoped to finish this msq before Tuesday but that is not going to happen.

[Rilifane]

Unlocking Bozja and clicking through a few dialogues gives you a 485 weapon. e5-e8 drop token for 480 gear, upgrading belt and ring together with the first step of the relic should let you queue for e9-e12 aswell. You can run them as many times as you want, weekly lockout has already been lifted weeks ago.
Daily roulettes give tomes for upgrading head/ feet. If you still have a first timer bonus for some of the normal raids, it's even faster.
Finishing it before Tuesday shouldn't be difficult at all, upgrading your gear doesn't take longer than 2 evenings max and only if both tomes are close to 0 right now. I'd keep checking prices on the Light DC servers to see if you can grab another cheap 510 piece.

[Imora]

Unlocking Bozja is about two days work for me. I gotta sit through the Ivalice raids, and alliance raids give me migraines.