A few questions regarding equipment.

[Quoc]

Ah I see, thanks for all your help!

[Ruri]

No problem enjoy the game and look forward to a ton of changes this summer!

[Quoc]

One thing I dislike though is how they limit some aspects of the gameplay. Leves among other things.

[VydarrTyr]

Yeah. It's in the middle, they have the best r30-40 leves, and most of the players are there. It's a self-perpetuating cycle. Players want to be around other players, both for the social and economic aspects. If you want to buy stuff, you want to be where the most sellers are. If you want to sell stuff, you want to be where the most buyers are. So everyone tends to congregate in one area.

[VydarrTyr]

I don't think the designers intended for leves to be the central focus of the game. I think they just wanted it to be a quick way to get SP/XP. Unfortunately, the game was released with not much content. But they're working to fix that now. And they're also changing the battle system to make party roles more distinctive, and presumably make party play more varied. So hopefully that will all be improving.

[Quoc]

So I guess I'll be grinding through the majority of the game?

[Ruri]

There is a lot of grinding if you play several hours a day. I work full time so I usually just rely on leves and I'm ok with that. But more hardcore gamers will definately have to find a grind pt or solo grind.

[VydarrTyr]

Depends on several things.

First, it depends on what your definition of "grinding" is. A good old fashioned grind party -- where you go out with a party, find a grind spot, and just chain mobs -- can certainly give really good SP. But most people spend most of their time doing leves, which tends to give the best SP/XP. If you get a party together, and link all your leves, you can get usually get into fatigue/surplus just from doing a full set of leves. So if leves are not within your definition of "grinding," then you probably won't do too much grinding.

Second, the devs are now implementing new content. There are currently side quests that give SP. And there are job quests, main storyline quests, low level NMs, high level NMs, and they're getting ready to implement dungeons that will give SP, too. And they're going to be implementing more content over the coming months.

So you don't need to *only* grind. There's other content there, and there's more coming.

[Quoc]

I see. What's a "NM"? And the problem with that is, as much as I'd love to party up. There's literally no one in Gridania. If I had some friends, maybe this wouldn't be an issue. But the few people that I have talked to, either do not speak English or just completely ignore me.

And yes, I spend most of my time completing leves and gathering.

I've had lots of suggestions to head over to Ul'Dah but I have no idea on how to get there.

[Ruri]

I see. What's a "NM"? And the problem with that is, as much as I'd love to party up. There's literally no one in Gridania. If I had some friends, maybe this wouldn't be an issue. But the few people that I have talked to, either do not speak English or just completely ignore me.

And yes, I spend most of my time completing leves and gathering.

I've had lots of suggestions to head over to Ul'Dah but I have no idea on how to get there.

A "NM" is a notorious monster. It is a randomly spawning monster who is tougher than others of its type and usually drops some nice equipment. As far as how to get to Uldah from Gridania, basically head south of camp transquil following the road. Then when you zone into the desert area, go west following the road until you reach camp black brush then go south to uldah. Just follow the yellow brick road lol >_<.

Also I highly recommend joining a linkshell when you get to uldah, usually people shout for new members. Without a linkshell the game is pretty boring imo.