New to the game and I need help, please.

[Fanzeron]

This is my first Final Fantasy mmorpg, and let me tell you: I'm having the time of my life! Even though I don't know much about the FF mechanics (never played FFXI), I'm getting the grip of this game: suddenly I'm a lvl 10 gladiator, my poor weathered gladius broke and then I thought: Why waste good gil in this ol' gladius when I can make a new one!?

So I decided to become an armorer, but first I need to mine and gather the material. Everything was peachy until I screwed my mining tutorial quest: when I reached the camp and the aetheryte, I went to activate the levequest and: nothing! It said to use the gathering skill, but I never found it! To make matters worse, my connection went out, so now I have a grey tutorial quest and still I don't know how to find the gathering spots to mine.

Any help with this, about how to begin again the tutorial quest, I'd really be grateful, pals. And one more question: I really love all the storyline and how you character is part of it, so I don't mind spending many hours lvl jobs, gathering materials, making money, etc, to get the best gear and look pretty nifty in the storyline, but... I realized that many quest has certain rank (5, 11, 25, etc), and my question is: Can you miss certain storyline quest if your rank is higher (say it's a rank 5 quest but you are rank 15)?

Just one last question: I've read a lot about how stats are kind broken on the game, only VIT and MND are actually making a difference. Is this true? Because I spent a couple of points in STR on my gladiator, and I don't see any change at all.

[REDace0]

You need to be a blacksmith to make a sword, and you probably have to be a carpenter to make the grip. Seriously. So you'll need to take up mining and botany to get the raw materials. I would just buy one from another player's retainer in the Market Wards at this point. Remember to use Item Search. If you need help finding gear and recipes try ffxiv.yg.com. Another very good idea would be to shout or try the individual world forums to get into a fun LS. Players who have been playing since release often have a bunch of gil and materials and would probably easily be able to supply you with early-game gear.

The tutorial 'quest' is a guildleve. You can grab a new set of 8 regional guildleves every 36 hours. Type /clock or check the Timers tab under Attributes in the Main Menu to see how long until the next guildleve reset. When you first equip a weathered pickaxe, you should learn the ability Lay of the Land, which tells you the direction and distance of the nearest mining node. You can equip this and other abilities by either typing in, for example, /eaction 2 "Lay of the Land" to equip it in slot 2 of your action bar. You can also use the Actions & Traits menu to change abilities. Note the drop-down menu to select a class from which to select abilities. You may also want to set up macros using the /eaction and /equip [slot] [item] commands to make switching classes quick and easy. I have to use five macros to set around thirty-five abilities and traits and ten pieces of equipment when I want to switch to my R50 Conjurer.

Storyline, Grand Company, and Class quests and sidequests unlock whenever you reach the appropriate rank in the required class. You can tell when an NPC has a quest for you because they'll have a '!' above them. You can't skip quests by ranking up too fast, but you must do most quests in order. Main story quests require that you attain a minimum rank in any class, from rank 1 to rank 46. The quest lines differ by city, but merge around R20. Quests for each class unlock at the corresponding guild at R20, R30, and R36, but require that you complete some of the main scenario quests first. Grand company quests first become available when you have any discipline of war or magic at rank 22 or higher I believe, and more will be added in subsequent patches.

What you hear about stats is true, to some extent. INT definitely affects spell and magic attack damage, but not as much as the magic potency of the equipped weapon. I imagine the situation is similar with STR and attack. However, this is planned to be fixed in...1.19 I think? Hopefully we'll see it by the end of this month or shortly thereafter.

That was a lot of text, but I hope it helps!

[Ruri]

Alot of good advise from above poster. As for finding mining points outside of leves you get the ability "lay of the land" at lvl 3 or 4 I think. You can use that to search for mining points in the world. You'll know its a mining point if its a glowing light on the side of a mountain / cliff.

[REDace0]

According to YG you get Lay of the Land at rank 1, but it's been a while since I first started mining so I can't confirm. You may be referring to Prospect, which is the other main ability used to find the mining points you've described.

Prospect provides a different perspective. Rather than telling you the nearest mining point, its distance and direction (each box on the map is about 100 yalms square), it tells you how many points are in each cardinal direction and gives you a short movement speed boost if there are no points within 200 yalms. Prospect and similar abilities are also good for walking long distances more quickly even if you're not doing any mining.

[VydarrTyr]

Welcome to the game! Glad you're having fun.

This is my first Final Fantasy mmorpg, and let me tell you: I'm having the time of my life! Even though I don't know much about the FF mechanics (never played FFXI), I'm getting the grip of this game: suddenly I'm a lvl 10 gladiator, my poor weathered gladius broke and then I thought: Why waste good gil in this ol' gladius when I can make a new one!?

So I decided to become an armorer, but first I need to mine and gather the material.

Like Robert said, be sure to check Yellow Gremlin for the recipe. You can scroll through different kinds of Gladiator weapons to find the one that you want, and then figure out what level you need to be to use the weapon, what level you need to be to make it, what job makes the weapon, and what materials you'll need to make it.

And just so you know, most Gladiator swords require you to be a Blacksmith, and not Armorer. And like Robert said, most completed items require you to have several crafts leveled up. For example, a Bronze Dagger -- the level 9 Gladiator sword -- requires you to have level 16 Blacksmith, level 8 Carpenter, level 5 Alchemist, and level 4 Goldsmith.

So it may not be as fun, but it's certainly easier to just buy one. Like Robert said, the best option is to join a linkshell. That way, your linkshell mates can help you out, either by making you a sword, or helping you make one. Or you can just buy one. If you're going to buy one, check the Market Wards in Uldah. That tends to be the Market Ward that's most full. If nobody's selling one, an NPC in the middle of the Battlecraft Wards sells swords up to level 20 (but fair warning -- they're more expensive than buying swords from players).

If you're interested in leveling up your crafting skills to make weapons, gear, tools, etc., you should consider doing some local leves. At the place you pick up regional leves, there are two people. One person offers regional leves, that include stuff like mining and battle leves. Right next to that person is someone offering local leves. These are crafting leves. You can do 8 every 36 hours. And you don't have to pay for materials or crystals or anything. Free SP!

Everything was peachy until I screwed my mining tutorial quest: when I reached the camp and the aetheryte, I went to activate the levequest and: nothing! It said to use the gathering skill, but I never found it! To make matters worse, my connection went out, so now I have a grey tutorial quest and still I don't know how to find the gathering spots to mine.

Step 1 is to equip a mining tool. Then you can equip any mining abilities on your action bar, including stuff like Lay of the Land.

On leves, the easiest way to find gathering nodes is to just start up the leve, and then open your map (by pressing the "M" key, or opening your main menu and selecting "Map"). There will be a highlighted circle on your map. The node you're looking for will be right in the center of that highlighted circle.

Then all you do is run up to the glowing point in the middle of the circle, open your main menu, and select "Mine." Select a depth that you want to mine at, and then you play a "hot or cold" game. Strike, and it will tell you that you missed. Strike again, and it will tell you you're getting closer or farther. Strike, and the node will light up, indicating that you're right on the correct location. Strike again, and collect your reward.

Any help with this, about how to begin again the tutorial quest, I'd really be grateful, pals. And one more question: I really love all the storyline and how you character is part of it, so I don't mind spending many hours lvl jobs, gathering materials, making money, etc, to get the best gear and look pretty nifty in the storyline, but... I realized that many quest has certain rank (5, 11, 25, etc), and my question is: Can you miss certain storyline quest if your rank is higher (say it's a rank 5 quest but you are rank 15)?

You can't miss storyline quests. You can be over the required rank to do the quests, and you generally can't do a main storyline quest until you've done the one before it.

Just one last question: I've read a lot about how stats are kind broken on the game, only VIT and MND are actually making a difference. Is this true? Because I spent a couple of points in STR on my gladiator, and I don't see any change at all.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how stats work. It seems to be a pretty complicated formula underlying everything. Vitality and Mind are easy to figure out, because increasing Vitality increases your HP, and increasing Mind increases your MP. But other than that, there's a lot of debate about how increasing certain stats effects your abilities in the game. The effect of Str, Dex, etc., all seems to work behind the scenes. And increasing those stats a little bit seems to have little effect. Of course, we're talking about a stat that -- when you get to level 50 -- can be as high as 174. So increasing it from 15 to 20 isn't a huge jump.

They're planning to adjust the effects of attributes soon. They're going to make things simpler to understand, so people will be able to figure out and see exactly how your Str, Dex, etc., effect your abilities in game. But I wouldn't suggest ignoring those stats in the meantime. As a Gladiator, you'll probably want to concentrate on Vitality, but be sure to put points into Strength next, and then other attributes.

Good luck!

[Fanzeron]

Wow! Thank you so much, pals! All this info really cleared all of my doubts. Man! I was really confused! Guess I still have some "old" habits from past mmorpgs. Btw, I don't mind reading lots and lots of text, after all, in any good rpg: the more text the better!

I just went to the Yellow Gremlin and... it totally blew my mind! I kinda knew that FF XIV was a cool and big game but... I never thought it was THAT IMMENSE!!!: so many skills, so many items and armor...aargh! Too many decisions!!

Seriously, I'm really glad that I decided to pick up this game, just right after the latest patch: all the glitches and negative comments about how "unplayable" FFXIV was, seems like past rumors. Sure, it had quite a rough reception last year (that was the main reason I kept my distance from the game), but I've been following very close all the development of this game: every patch, every little improvement, etc., so now that I finally took the plunge into FFXIV, honestly my friends, it's been such a wonderful experience that I can't really explain in words.

Thanks again for all your kind help, pals! and I hope to meet you in the near future, after all, I still got 2 free slots and I will certainly visit others servers with a different character!

[VydarrTyr]

Really glad to hear you're having fun. I totally agree that the depth of FFXIV is one of the things that makes the game so enjoyable.

Also, I had a big, long description on how to do mining. As usual, the folks around here who are smarter than me have done it better. I don't know if you've seen it, but here's a link to a "Let's Play" series by Seraphis Thrallwyn. The latest entry has a YouTube video on mining. It's probably easier to see someone do it than to read about my text wall on how to do it.

[Fanzeron]

Thank you so much for all the videos, Vydarr! Sorry for the late response but I've been busy gathering as much info as I can about this game. Thanks again!