Today, at LV 50, I took the leisure to look up how exactly food in FFXIV works for the first time. And I was shocked. Luckily, just as crafting will get an overhaul in one of the upcoming updates, so will, hopefully, food.

To clarify: Right now, food effects are less an attribute of the food itself, but an intricate formula taking into consideration level, physical and elemental stats, and finally the food's "base effect" itself (see here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1zK9e_wsHTMPMhQGYXA5qDkCEEXsb749VTTcMvPSEy9N6pMVT5mx3zTIIFS43&hl=en&authkey=CNDhlbAB).

Which basically means that, to get some decent effect out of your food, you have to micromanage your physical point distribution every time you eat a salad. Or, the other way round, change your diet whenever a piece of equipment gives you "lightning +5".

Luckily, physical levels will finally, finally be a thing of the past with 1.19 (?). Yet another convoluted relic of the past ripe for the garbage pile!!