Game Tips for a new player

[Darren_SCA]

I will be playing this game in a few weeks when it hits PS4 so in preparation I went out and bought the PS3 version and levelled my Archer to around level 12 and stopped. My question is what shall I do to level up and also throughout the game what shall I do to make sure I am ready for end game by buying gear and all that other good stuff when I hit 50?

[Naberrie]

Level up by doing FATEs, running dungeons again, doing quests, and your Hunting Log.

Don't worry about end game gear for a long time. In the early 40s you can start earning tomes, which you redeem for Darklight and Allaghan gear. Most of the gear you will need as you level can be found via quest rewards, and dungeon drops.

Around level 20 you'll get the option to join a Grand Company. You'll get seals from FATEs and Company Leves that you can use to get Company gear and weapons. These will be good options as you level, and even provide set bonuses. It doesn't matter which Company you choose from a practical standpoint. The gear options are equittable. Just choose one that's most convenient geographically or aesthetically.

[Darren_SCA]

Good to see how friendly this community is just makes me even more eager to play. So really I can use gill to just keep on buying gear as I play and that wont have a bad affect on m at later stages for end game? What levels do you suggest buying new gear? every 5 levels?, every 10? or just whenever

[Niwashi]

What levels do you suggest buying new gear? every 5 levels?, every 10? or just whenever

There's better gear available roughly each five levels for armour and weapons, more like 10 for jewelry. Each piece varies, though.

There's a really fantastic website called Crafting as a Service. In addition to providing materials lists for what ingredients crafters need, it also has an Equipment Calculator that's pretty useful for anyone, whether crafting or not. It lets you plug in your class and level and it will show you what equipment is good for that class/level as well as the next few levels up. So, for instance, you can just click "Archer" and put in "12" under level, and click "Get my Gear" and it will bring up a page like this showing what gear is good for archers at levels 12 through 15. Any time you're not sure whether your gear needs upgrading, check it out.

[Zidaryn]

There's better gear available roughly each five levels for armour and weapons, more like 10 for jewelry. Each piece varies, though.

There's a really fantastic website called Crafting as a Service. In addition to providing materials lists for what ingredients crafters need, it also has an Equipment Calculator that's pretty useful for anyone, whether crafting or not. (Stuff removed by quoter) .

OMG! THANK YOU. Was just browsing the forums and saw this and checked it out. It's amazing. Let's me know how much stuff I need from my Gatherer class for my Crafter class items. This is great. THANK YOU!!!

[Bixby]

So really I can use gill to just keep on buying gear as I play and that wont have a bad affect on m at later stages for end game?

Pretty much nothing you do will have a permanent negative impact on your character. The only thing I can think of that can't be reversed is throwing away truely unique quest rewards. Unique as in that's the only way to get them, not just items marked unique meaning you can only have one at a time; you can throw away Foestriker's Tabard (marked Unique) and go get another one, but you can't (AFAIK) reacquire a relic weapon if you throw it away.

There's not (currently) much need for gil at end-game unless you're min-maxing. Repairs, teleports, food and potions are all pretty easy to cover once you're level 50. There's expensive crafted gear you can buy, but it's not really necessary. You can get through everything with drops and gear bought with tokens.

[Niwashi]

Welcome to the game. I hope you have fun here. I certainly am.

For general advice, lets see...

Quest priorities:
Many features of the game are unlocked by following the main quest line (those quests with the fire ring around the quest icon). So those quests should have a high priority. Also each five levels, there's a quest from your class guildmaster and some of those can grant important class skills, so keep up with those.

Additional classes:
It can be very useful to add multiple classes on your character. In fact, by a little later in the game it will become nearly essential to add at least a couple more. If you plan on keeping Archer as your primary class, you'll want to become a Bard at level 30. That requires also getting Pugilist up to level 15. Lancer is also useful as you can use some cross-class skills from it while you're an archer or bard.

Some people like to also do other classes. For instance, if you add a healing class like Conjurer and a tank class like Gladiator or Marauder, then when people in your FC are trying to put a group together, you can fill in whichever role they need. This part is less about making you more useful as archer and more about giving you a wider range of things you can do. It's a matter of personal preference as to whether that's important to you. Some players prefer to focus on being good at one thing and others like to have lots of things they can do.

In any case, there's no downside to adding or advancing other classes. The only thing it costs you is time, as each has to be leveled up separately.

Gear (below level 50):
The best gear comes from dungeon drops, but only if you happen to get lucky enough for the piece you need to drop when you're at the right level to need it. For all the rest of your gear that didn't drop at the perfect moment, you're going to want crafted gear for the most part. Quest rewards and NPC vendors also offer gear equivalent to the normal quality results from crafting. High quality crafted gear is better than that (though not quite up to the best of the dungeon drops) and comes only from players who are pursuing crafting classes.

As to whether you should take up crafting yourself, it comes down to whether you enjoy it or not. If you don't, it's easy enough to get gear from other players who do enjoy it, either through the marketboard or you may have FC-mates who would make you stuff for free just to be helpful. I'd recommend at least trying the crafting out so you can find out whether you like it. (Keep in mind that, just as with the combat classes, it gets a lot more involved as you go up in levels and gain access to more skills.) If you do decide to take up crafting, it's useful (though a bit time-consuming) to pursue all of the crafting classes together, both because of the cross-class skills you can use and because each craft needs materials made by other craft classes.

Gear (at level 50):
Endgame follows a sequence in which you'll do one set of content in order to get gear good enough to enable you to complete another set of content which eventually provides better gear allowing you to access yet another set of content, etc. Each level of gear is important because it gives you access to getting the next tier of gear that will replace it. I wouldn't worry about any of that yet, though, as you've still got a long time before you get to it.

[Darren_SCA]

Okay thanks guys. I will just use up my gil then to buy gear as i lvl. thanks I appreciate it

[Black91CRX]

Last but not least. Don't let people bully you while you are still learning. There are quite a few elitist pricks who will likely berate you if you're not up to their standards. Ignore them the best you can but always be open to constructive criticisms. Most important thing is to have fun!

[Darren_SCA]

Thank you guys I really appreciate all the help and it makes me real happy to see that there are people in this community who are always willing to help newbies like myself. Just made a Plainsfolk Archer over on the PS3. I know they don't have the best Dex but they look cool so I went with that haha!