New player got a few questions

[Zilon]

Hi all, I am new to A realm reborn and I got a few questions.

1- At level 19, is it normal to still have a lot of white gear? I find it hard to find great gears. Only place that I found great gears are at the auction house or in dungeons. I still have the same sword since the last 8-9 last levels!

I have not played wow a lot, but i rememver that i could have great gears from auction house at level 10.

2- Is there a way to find guilds? i would like to join a group from my state.

Thanks a lot

[Legretta]

1- Yes, most of your gear while lvling will be white or HQ white. The dungon gear is ether pink or green and usallly untradable/unsaleable.

2- Guild/Free company's will often advertize in the citys in game or on the forums here under the community section then your server name.
Link for FCs advertisements on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/FFXIVRECRUITMENT/

[Eye_Gore]

The main story quests will also provide level appropriate gear. Various merchants will also sell gear sometimes a lot cheaper than the market board. Wouldn't really worry too much until you get to atleast level 30. Then you can work towards your job class if you like. Paladin for gladiator, though you need to level conjurer to atleast 15 to unlock the Paladin job quests. I think general rule of thumb, as long as your iLvl is within 5 of your character level, you'll be ok.

Sometimes of you give a shout around the city centers, you'll get a kind hearted crafter who will make some cheap gear for you. I have done that for some new players, some pro-bono work to satisfy my charity requirements.

[Urthdigger]

Just a side note: Gear color is not the end-all determinator of how good something is. This isn't like Diablo and such where even a lower level green is always better than a white. Here, item level is 99% of the time the main indicator of quality, with color often meaning an item has an item level higher than its equip level. For example, being able to equip an item level 17 weapon at level 15 because it's green.

[Niwashi]

Based on your Lodestone profile, most of your gear looks pretty good for level 19. At least it looks like you can recognize the difference between tank (GLA MRD PLD WAR) gear and regular DPS gear, and you've got a few good dungeon drop pieces included. The sword you could upgrade if you want, either to a Brass Viking Sword now, or wait a level and get a Carnage Sword at 20. I think your level 20 class quest will give you a normal quality Carnage Sword as a quest reward. Or you could check the Market Board for a HQ (High Quality) version of it.

But yeah, while leveling, you'll typically have a mix of several white/pink pieces of gear and a few green pieces, depending on how lucky you've gotten with drops in the latest dungeons. (Pink aetherial gear is essentially just a dungeon dropped equivalent of High Quality crafted white gear.)

[Estellios]

I just wanted to let you know, Zilon, make it your first priority to try and keep your weapon up-to-date. Your weapon's damage rating is the largest factor in how much damage you do which influences how much enmity you get from skills including ones like Flash which is incredibly important for making dungeon runs go smoothly. Within 5 levels of your character level is a good rule of thumb as mentioned.

[Zilon]

Thanks a lot for the help. I really appreciate the time you all took to answer me.

I have a new question. Since this is my first MMo (playerd a bit of WOW, but not that much and it was a long time ago), I need advice to be a good thank.

Yesterday, I did 3 dungeons. I did receive a lot of hate from a player in my 3rd one. Maybe I did something wrong, but I cant say because the guy only gave me hate and didnt take the time to explain what my mystakes were...

If I understand it well, my job as a tank is to take damage, built aggro so ennemies target me and not the other players. Am I right?

The way to do this if my gaining and keeping the attention of all the monsters. So, what I did is go first, attack, and use flash every 20 secondes. I did vary my attacks to do combo. When I did lost the aggro of a monster, I attacked him and use flash to gain again his attention.

I understand that it could be the wrong way to play, could someone give me advice?

[Bixby]

You are right about your responsibilities as a tank. Get & keep aggro, stay alive, keep monsters in positions that aren't problems for the rest of the party (e.g., if a mob has an AOE move, make sure it's positioned so that won't hit the healer).

Flash every 20 seconds is either not often enough or too often, depending on the situation. You need to adapt to the situation at hand. If you've got enough enmity on everything to hold it off, Flash is basically a waste, since it doesn't do any damage. If you're about to lose enmity on something, sticking to a stringent timing of Flash just makes you lose it.

What I generally do is hit something with Shield Lob, then start Flashing once the enemies are gathered close enough. Usually Flash three or more times before I start using my enmity rotations. After that first bit of Flashing, the Fast Blade > Savage Blade ( > Rage of Halone once you get it) on the main target. Then start spreading that combo among all the targets (e.g. FB #1 > SB # 2 > FB #3 etc.). Throw in more Flashes as appropriate.

Through it all, keep an eye on enmity levels. On the party list, there are white meters under every party member that indicate his or her aggro on your current target. Switch targets around while you're waiting on the GCD so you can keep an eye on them and see which one will need attention next. (Note that if you're playing with a gamepad, you have to fully switch/select targets; subtargeting with the little circle doesn't bring up the subtarget's enmity in the party list.)

Also, read this. Every ability has an enmity modifier. The damage done x that modifier determines the enmity. Knowing which moves give the most enmity will help you know what order to spread your hits out in.

Also also, mark at least your first target as #1. DPS won't always follow that, but when they do, it makes things much, much easier. A few flashes should be enough to hold off healer aggro, and your single-target skills on one mob should be enough to hold off DPS. If the DPS aren't focusing on one mob, you can't either, and it just makes it that much harder to hold them.

[synesthetic]

I just wanted to let you know, Zilon, make it your first priority to try and keep your weapon up-to-date.

Absolutely this.
For any class you play, your weapon has the biggest impact on your performance (player skill aside). Your enmity as a tank, the amount you heal for as a healer, and the base amount of damage you do is impacted by your weapon's Weapon Damage (or Magic Damage for mages).

Your primary damage stat (STR in your case) and various secondary stats (e.g. determination, crit, skill speed, etc.) matter as well, but nowhere close to as much as just the difference you'll see in upgrading your weapon.
I mean, a PLD with an iLv.44 weapon can hold aggro off of better-geared Lv.50's, but they'd require a few seconds of startup time to establish that solid aggro first. And most parties you find won't be able/willing to give you the time for that. You've probably already seen that the moment you aggro something, DPS start going all out.

If I understand it well, my job as a tank is to take damage, built aggro so ennemies target me and not the other players. Am I right?

The way to do this if my gaining and keeping the attention of all the monsters. So, what I did is go first, attack, and use flash every 20 secondes. I did vary my attacks to do combo. When I did lost the aggro of a monster, I attacked him and use flash to gain again his attention.

I understand that it could be the wrong way to play, could someone give me advice?

It doesn't sound like what you did was particularly bad. But it's hard to say why that one guy yelled at you off of just this.


I would note that initial aggro is pretty important here, and understanding how enmity and claim works is really helpful.

If a monster's name is white/yellow, it's not claimed and it's not trying to kill anyone.
If a monster's name is orange, it's not claimed but it is trying to kill someone.
If a monster's name is red or purple, then it's claimed and trying to kill someone.
If you're the first person to do something to that monster, being the first person to make its name red, then you get bonus enmity from having claimed it. <-- This is why people should wait for the tank to do something first, making a whole mob red before anyone else does anything.

Now let's say you walked into a mob, started up a combo on one target, Fast Blade > Savage Blade, then Flashed.
Only that target you attacked is red. The others are in orange.
Your healer and other DPS, if prudent, can't do anything to you or the orange-named mobs for a few seconds until you flashed. Because if they did, they'd be the one to get claim on those mobs, and they'd be the ones with that bonus enmity, which actually makes your job harder to pull stuff back off of them.
If you're in a position to just walk into a mob like that, you may as well just get into position such that you can flash all of them at once.

If you have to do a ranged pull, use Lob like Bixby said, then Flash once the others are in range. Most experienced players will understand to not touch you or the mob until you have the mob in position.
There are situations where Lob doesn't have enough range. In that case, you can use Provoke to pull, but always remember that Provoke doesn't generate enmity--it just barely puts you at the top of the aggro list, and you should use a real enmity skill immediately after to solidify your aggro. If you don't have to pull with Provoke, don't; it's your ohsht skill to get aggro back on one target, and it's crucial for "tank swaps" in endgame fights.

If your party does a lot of AoE damage and/or you have multi-DoT'ers, be ready to spam Flash. For really AoE-heavy parties, it's pretty normal for the PLD to be tapped on MP after a big mob, but if you can manage it without losing aggro on anything, and without sponging up more damage than the healer can handle, then it's great for getting through dungeons quickly.
Mostly, you want to watch out for casters (THM/BLM, ARN/SMN, healers). Physical DPS classes can still put out a lot of AoE damage, but most just don't seem to want to. With that in mind, if both of your DPS are physical, your party will probably be okay with just doing small, single-mob pulls, and you won't have to worry about flashing too much--just enough to make sure your healer doesn't pull aggro from simply healing you. If you get a BRD + caster, or two casters, and they're on top of multi-DoT'ing or AoE'ing, then expect to flash a lot more, and cycle your combo through targets like Bixby described.


In any case, if you're new to a dungeon, don't be afraid to say it. There are plenty of people who are willing to take the time to explain fights, or even give pointers on your class if you seem open to advice.

[Zilon]

This is very useful to know. Again, thank you very much for all the information. I will try it this week and let you know if I have more questions.