I'm an ELITIST and SO CAN YOU! (How to avoid ridicule at endgame)

[CatholicFan]

Hello everyone. This thread contains some useful tips on how to avoid some of the drama of the end-game scene where people often run into conflict for the first time over their skills versus their gear.

So! You're a fresh 50 and there's suddenly a lot of options for how to spend your time. The following, though, are things all fresh 50's should do before attempting any end-game content:

Pre-50 PREP
1. Finish your AF quests. There is simply no excuse for having any body piece that isn't AF. It's a rare mistake, but it bears putting it first and foremost.
2. Upgrade your accessories. Still hanging on to that level 20's ring you grabbed out of a dungeon? Time to scrap it. Every piece that isn't an AF should be swapped out for a level 49 HIGH-QUALITY accessory. These are referred to as "whites" for the background color; you should have no normal quality ("greys") accessories at all. "Whites" are the +1 versions of regular gear, also called "high-quality" or just "hq" versions by some. So, for instance, when I was in my early 50 progression, I used a level 49 Spinel Ring, and it was the high-quality version of that. Find the appropriate piece of gear for your accessory slot, then make sure you buy the high-quality version of that. There's a little symbol that I can't replicate on the forums that indicates a high-quality item. Most players will have seen this symbol enough times by level 50 to get the gist of what I'm referring to.
3. Achieve Chief Sergeant rank in you Grand Company. You'll be finishing the GC quests really soon, so if you've been slacking, it's time to get up to speed on this.
4. Get a level 40's weapon. Farm dungeons, or purchase one from you GC. You'll need it to start doing early level-50 content.

Got all that done? Great! Time for...


EARLY LEVEL 50 CONTENT
Now that that's all set, you'll want to jump into end-game content with gusto! But hold on a minute, partner. There's some order to this, and the most basic of spoilers (though you'd have to have your head in the sand to have not picked up on what I list prior to reading here). While you can certainly jump into several new things right away, you should be considerate of the other people you'll be playing with by following these steps. There are some things you should do before others. Let's go over them in order quick.

1. Finish the main story. This can be done with the basic gear outlined above. Be prepared to run into griefers who use the DF for their speed runs instead forming proper parties to farm. It's best to ignore them, but it's entirely up to you if you want to watch your cutscenes or not (it roughly doubles the run time of the zone if you do, but that shouldn't put any pressure on new players to avoid the climax of the game their first time through).

2. Unlock Wanderer's Palace and Amdapor Keep. Strictly speaking, you can run Wanderer's Palace ("WP") and Amdapor Keep ("AK") in the above mentioned gear as long as everyone else in your group is equally geared. That said, you may want to run WP or repeat the last 2 story dungeons a few times to earn more gear tokens (Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy) to buy a piece of Darklight gear or two. It will save some headaches from snobby players if they see you in a piece or two, and you will need Darklight to progress through the post-50 storyline (yes, there is one).

3. Hard Mode Ifrit. This is the first real test of your skills. I suggest using the Duty Finder ("DF") to try it a few times, and get the feel for the fight. After that, joining a party on your server to attempt it will save time waiting for the queue to pop, and you can attempt multiple runs for the Ifrit weapons.

At this point... STOP. Seriously, don't go any further than this right now in content. Go through this (brief) checklist:

1. Did I buy a piece or two of Darklight? If yes, move on. If no, go back and buy one. If you don't have enough tokens for the piece you want, run WP or the story missions again.
2. Do you have an Ifrit Weapon? If yes, then move on. If no, go farm him until it drops. This can take a long time, but an Ifrit weapon is pretty standard equipment for everything after this. If you're getting frustrated with Ifrit, though, a briefly useful piece of equipment is the Lieutenant Rank GC weapon. It can carry you through a few things, but it will have to be replaced sooner than later.

Done those things? GREAT! Now you can comfortably move on to more challenging (or tedious) content.

FARMING CONTENT

The following can be done in any order (yay, freedom of choice!).

1. Amdapor Keep. You'll be seeing a lot of AK over the next few weeks (or months). AK will drop some item-level 60 gear ("ilvl" 60) that will quickly replace your AF. As fun as the AF armor looks and feels, it's usefulness is sadly short. AK is also where you'll begin farming Allagan Tomestones of Mythology (as opposed to Philosophy in every other level 50 dungeon). The Myth Tomes will be used down the road to acquire a +1 version of your relic, but as there's a cap on acquiring 300 Myth Tomes a week, you'll want to start doing this as soon as you're capably geared for AK.

2. Farm for Tomestones of Philosophy. At this point in the game, the nominally tedious task of farming Philosophy Tomes kicks into high gear. Darklight gear is essential for high-end endgame content, and it requires a LOT of Tomes. You'll eventually want to replace every gear slot with something Darklight (though, there are a few very minor exceptions not worth discussing here). One alternative to DL is some high-level crafted gear (ilvl 70), but it either requires a level 50 crafting skill or a lot of gil to acquire. This will be an option for a relatively few people, as most will opt for Darklight.

3. Garuda HM. Once you have replaced a good chunk of your former gear with Darklight and AK drops, and have a decent 50's weapon (Ifrit or GC), then you can attempt Garuda HM. Attempting this without meeting some basic requirements of gear will waste the time of everyone involved. The fight isn't overly difficult if you understand the phases, but there is a minor DPS check, a minor healing check, and it will test the positioning skills of tank players (and the rest to a lesser degree). Assuming you have followed the steps outlined above, you have met your basic gear requirements for attempting this fight. Skilled players with a static group can probably accomplish it with less, but it's likely not doable in the DF with subpar gear. You will be a burden to your group if you choose to do so earlier than this stage.

4. Level subjobs. This is pretty essential. Each job has two others it can pull Actions from, and players will need access to these skills to progress beyond the farming stage. How high these need to be leveled is job dependent, but research your job and level the relevant subs. You will find further content difficult without all the required skills at your disposal.

5. Begin your relic quest. At this point, you can easily undertake the first several stages of the relic quest. It's quite a long chain, but it has some interesting challenges. It is also the first endgame dungeon that must be done with people solely from your own server. There are two battles not accessible through the Duty Finder.

HIGH-LEVEL ENDGAME

Titan HM. Titan is required both to progress through the story and to complete your relic weapon. This fight should not be seriously attempted without full Darklight gear and an Ifrit/Garuda weapon. You can certainly give it a go in the Duty Finder to learn the ropes, but be prepared for multiple wipes and a lot of frustration (but hey, you might get lucky). Either way, this is the last hurdle before beginning raid content, and many players will spend a lot of time prepping for this fight.

Relic +1. If you've been doing your regular AK runs for three weeks, you can now upgrade your relic to a +1 version. This is an ilvl 90 weapon, and having this will make you prepared for the final stage of (current) endgame.

The Binding Coil of Bahamut. Congratulations! You've made it to the raid content, where you'll need a group of people from your server (and preferably a Free Company) in order to attempt. This is run in "Turns", which are different sections of the raid, numbered 1-5, which may be complete once per week. Here, you will find ilvl 90 gear and the further continuation of the story.

That's it! You are now an elitist. Should you make it this far, or have any expectation of other players to gear and perform similarly along the way, expect to hear that word come your direction (a lot). Best of luck in your gaming endeavors, and I hope my brief overview will help you to prepare for all the fun you can find at level 50.

Cheers!

Summary of Terms
AF: Artifact Armor. This refers to the armor received during your job quests levels 40-50. There are 5 pieces (head, body, hands, legs, feet).
ilvl: Item Level. This is not to be confused with the level at which it is equippable. At level 50, equipment levels will continue to rise, even though player levels are capped at 50. This allows for players to continue increasing in statistics while remaining at the cap.
DL: Darklight gear. This is ilvl 70 gear that is purchasable with Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy. It is considered entry-level raid gear.
CM: Castrum Meridianum. The first of the last two dungeons in the main story. Repeatable for 100 Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy.
Prae: The Praetorium. The second of the last two dungeons in the main story. Repeatable for 100 Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy.
WP: The Wanderer's Palace. The first endgame dungeon players will likely encounter. Gives 50 Allagain Tomestones of Philosophy, and endboss drops a Darklight weapon (ilvl 55).
AK: Amdapor Keep. The second endgame dungeon players will encounter. Gives 80 Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy and 40 Tomestones of Mythology.
BC/Coil: The Binding Coil of Bahamut. This is currently the only raid in the game. Players are only allowed to run it once per week.

[aswedishtiger]

you just won the internet

[Odd]

Excellent post, very we'll written. However I feel the need to dispel the myth that the GC weapon is the best choice for a fresh 50. The nq ilvl 55 crafted weapons are better when melded, and hq versions are better even without materia.
The only time I would recommend spending seals on a level 50 GC weapon is when you don't have enough gil to buy one. But even then I'd say wait till you have enough, they're not very expensive.

I used an HQ Longarm Composite Bow until I got Garudas. Yep, LCB with materia is still better than ifrits bow.

[Simaril]

Very helpful in setting expectations for end game - THANKS!

[LahaGheist]

Reading this and http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...82/blog/83637/ has really helped give me a plan of attack. I really wonder how bad players would complain though if SE actually added a gear requirement to dungeons. From what I'm hearing it's pretty common place for people to assume they can jump into the middle of endgame without working the gear. I thought it was just common sense but apparently I'm wrong /sigh.

Thanks for the well thought out post, and not being a troll about it :].

[Naberrie]

Excuse my ignorance. I'm only 45. What are whites and how does one go about getting them? I just checked Libra Eorzea and there's not a single white accessory there. Does it turn white after you meld materia? Does it have to be HQ crafted? Because I haven't done that yet. In fact, I'm on a new server. I'm not sure if anyone's even capable of making HQ accessories for that level. Everyone's too busy grindig to 50 to craft. The Guilds are empty.

You may want to add more details on whites to your post so that people like me understand what it is we need to do. Because right now I don't even know what that is.

[CatholicFan]

The nq ilvl 55 crafted weapons are better when melded, and hq versions are better even without materia.
The only time I would recommend spending seals on a level 50 GC weapon is when you don't have enough gil to buy one. [...]

I used an HQ Longarm Composite Bow until I got Garudas. Yep, LCB with materia is still better than ifrits bow.

Indeed, it is not the only way. I also did not mention that you can get an ilvl 55 Darklight weapon out of WP, which is what I personally did used for farming Ifrit. However, most people will not want to farm WP just for that weapon as I did. Also, I think players that would find the early parts of this guide useful may shy away from materia melding. In addition to the potential costs, it's slightly more complicated than "go here, kill, repeat til you get this". I'm glad you mentioned it, though, as it is certainly worth pointing out. Thank you for bringing it up!

[Dark_Legacy]

you just won the internet

I agree, excellent post CatholicFan. Thank you!

[CatholicFan]

Excuse my ignorance. I'm only 45. What are whites and how does one go about getting them? I just checked Libra Eorzea and there's not a single white accessory there. Does it turn white after you meld materia? Because I haven't done that yet.

You may want to add more details on whites to your post so that people like me understand what it is we need to do. Because right now I don't even know what that is.

Excellent question. "Whites" are the +1 versions of regular gear, also called "high-quality" or just "hq" versions by some. So, for instance, when I was in my early 50 progression, I used a level 49 Spinel Ring, and it was the high-quality version of that. Find the appropriate piece of gear for your accessory slot, then make sure you buy the high-quality version of that. There's a little symbol that I can't replicate on the forums that indicates a high-quality item. Most players will have seen this symbol enough times by level 50 to get the gist of what I'm referring to.

Whites can be crafted or bought off the Market Boards.

[Naberrie]

Probably not my market board. Will probably have to level a craft to make my own. There's not much in the way of 40+ level gear for sale.