Vocabulary o wo

[OUTIILAW]

Hii all,

Was wondering if someone could help me with some vocabulary I see quite often on the forums and such. When going into a new game with its own lingo and vocab I like to be as knowledgeable as possible. Haha. So if i could get these answered that'll be great!

1. T1-11 (I'm assuming these are some type of dungeons)
2. SATA (I'm starting off as a Rogue to Ninja and I see this a lot. I'm assuming it means Sneak Attack/ Trick Attack)
3. Parses (I see this a lot when looking up rotations)
4. GCD (Global Cooldown? What abilities does this refer to)
5. CD (Cooldown? What abilities does this refer to)
6. ilvl (Has something to do with armor and weapons? How do I get them what's the cap?)

Thanks in advance!

[Camalott]

1: You are correct. It refers to different stages for the Coil of Bahaumut, an endgame raid.

2: Again, correct. The SATA moniker is grandfathered from FFXI where THF had that combo.

3: Parsing is not authorized as far as I know, but it is a third party program installed on a PC that allows you to actively monitor target output. In most cases, damage. People use parsers to test rotations to see which is most effective.

4: It does mean Global Cooldown as you said. In a nutshell, there are two kinds of abilities. GCD and Off GCD. If you click an ability and a bunch of others become temporarily greyed out for about 2.5 seconds - it's a GCD move. Its a unified cooldown shared globally with several other abilities. Off GCD are moves that have their own cooldown and are usually much longer than 2.5 seconds or so.

5: Correct. These are usually in reference to your Off GCD (oGCD) abilities. These are important because people tend to weave these in between GCD abilities.

Example: As a MNK, Bootshine and Twin Snakes are GCD. I do one, wait 2 someodd seconds, then do the other. I have a 2 second dead period there. I have Internal Release as one of my CD's. I can use it even if my GCD is occupied. I can use it in that 2 second period.

6: Correct again. Once you hit 50, the logical way we level is with better gear, which is where iLvl comes into play. All equipment has a physical level (what level is required to equip it) and an iLvl which is sometimes higher than the required level. Your iLvl is an average of all of your gear currently equipped.

When you hit endgame you will start to get Tomes of Soldierly which can be used to purchase iLvl100 gear up in Revenant's Toll. You will also get higher iLvl gear drops in endgame dungeons. Where to go and what to do really depends on your class/job. I actually don't know what happened to the AF2 stuff that you used to buy with Tomes of Mythology. Assuming they are now dungeon drops too and went the way of Darklight (iLvl 70) gear.

I believe iLvl 135 is the new cap with 2.4. Also, you can start your relic weapon quests one you hit the endgame which are tons of (sarcastic) fun. You don't generally buy weapons once you hit the endgame. You earn them or you find them as loot.

[Woggers]

Myth gear is now dungeon drops. Accessories drop from coffers and there are gear placeholders that drop from expert dungeons that you can trade them in for myth gear from a NPC vender in Mor Dhona.

[OUTIILAW]

Info

Awesome! Wow thanks this helped a lot! You also brought up a couple other questions I forgot about too. Haha.

1. Tomes (Is there a I guess an efficient way of spending these? I don't want to waste them once I start earning them)
2. Seals vs Tomes (I know you can buy armor with either, but again is there an efficient way of spending these and when?)
3. Darklight/ Whitelight armor (Something I remember seeing in video and when you just mentioned it.)
4. Weapons/Armor (I guess to sum this reply up. Haha. Do I have to buy armor and weapons at all, or do I just wait till 50 to get them from seals, tomes, and drops? Again most efficient way to prepare for end game when to buy, where to buy, etc.

Thanks for the help again!

[OUTIILAW]

Myth gear is now dungeon drops. Accessories drop from coffers and there are gear placeholders that drop from expert dungeons that you can trade them in for myth gear from a NPC vender in Mor Dhona.

Place holders is gear that you use till you get your desired gear im guessing?

[Camalott]

1) Honestly, just buy what you want. The gear is tailored to your class. I think CNJ/WHM may share gear with SCH. Don't quote me. You'll know it when you see it. Different pieces cost different amounts. People usually buy the cheapest parts first so they can gain immediate access to the enhanced stats. Body and Legs are most expensive. Belts and accessories are the cheapest.

Gear bought with Tomes of Soldiery is in it's "weathered' iLvl100 form. It can be further upgraded into its iLvl110 form. I know there are drops (like Sands of Time) in some endgame dungeons that will allow you to do this. I think you can do this with Seals from hunts as well. I'm not a hunter in any capacity so someone else would have to answer that one. Tomes of Poetics, I haven't even looked at that gear yet but I know it's probably way up there in stats. iLvl110 and above at least.


2) Again, I'm not a seal guy so I couldn't answer definitively. From what I remember, seal gear is mostly for looks, not for function. Seals can get Blood Splattered Logs, which can be used to upgrade existing gear and whatnot.

3) Darklight is an older set. I believe it used to be purchased with the long-since defunct Tomes of Philosophy and was iLvl70. Now they exist as drops in dungeons. I've found darklight drops in many Hard Mode dungeons.

4) You want to keep your armor updated at all times as best you can. Honestly though, you can slack up to the endgame and nobody will probably notice a cut corner here or there unless you are a tank. Just by keeping up with your storyline and your job/class missions, you're going to get free gear appropriate for your level as a reward. May have to buy an item here or there. Mostly jewelry. I actually took MNK from a brand new character up to end-game and never bought a single (non accessory) item or weapon.

Truth be told, the first weapon I bought my MNK was the Cesti for his Relic quest.

[Niwashi]

6: Correct again. Once you hit 50, the logical way we level is with better gear, which is where iLvl comes into play. All equipment has a physical level (what level is required to equip it) and an iLvl which is sometimes higher than the required level. Your iLvl is an average of all of your gear currently equipped.

Just wanted to add that, although Camalott is right that 50 is where Item Level (iLvl) plays its most important role, it's not where it first comes into play. All equipment has an Item Level, and even some of the low-level stuff has item levels higher than their (equippable) level. For instance, there are some bonus helms that are Level 1 and Item Level 11, and the first trio of dungeons drop gear that's Level 15 and Item Level 17. While leveling, any piece whose iLvl is higher than its level is clearly a good piece.

Item Level doesn't, however, mark all reasons for a piece to be better or worse than another one, though. For instance, with crafted gear, a High Quality piece is better (usually significantly better) than its Normal Quality equivalent, but they'll share the same Item Level. Also, when materia is added to gear, it can make the gear significantly better, but that's not indicated by the Item Level, which will remain the same. So when it comes down to deciding which piece is better than another, Item Level gives you a quick indicator of whether it's likely to be, but check all the actual stats if you want to be sure.

2. Seals vs Tomes (I know you can buy armor with either, but again is there an efficient way of spending these and when?)

One big difference is that you'll start accumulating GC Seals at around level 20, whereas the major sources of tomes come into play at level 50 (and maybe some hunts in your late 40's). Getting your chocobo mount and then ranking up in your GC are generally the first two priorities for spending GC seals, but once you've done that, there are several levels of gear available that make good alternatives to dungeon drops either for players who like to solo and don't run enough dungeons to get drops, or simply if your luck with drops hasn't given you an update for a particular gear slot for a while.

Once you get to endgame, GC Seal gear provides some nice starting pieces that you can wear while earning the tomes that will provide upgrades to it. (Edit: I should say, GC gear provides starter weapon and jewelry. You'll get your first set of endgame armour from your level 45 & 50 job quests.)

4. Weapons/Armor (I guess to sum this reply up. Haha. Do I have to buy armor and weapons at all, or do I just wait till 50 to get them from seals, tomes, and drops? Again most efficient way to prepare for end game when to buy, where to buy, etc.

Dungeon drops are nice when you get them, but you may not get every piece at the time it would be most useful. Any slots you haven't gotten a drop for in several levels you'll want to upgrade some other way. Whether you craft those upgrades, buy them with gil from players who do, or buy them with seals from your Grand Company comes down to how much time, gil, and seals you have to spend. Early on, I either crafted gear myself or bought crafted gear from the Market Boards. (The high-quality crafted stuff is quite good.) That's largely because I was saving my GC seals for ranking up in the GC. As I neared endgame and reached max rank, then I started accumulating more seals than I needed, so bought some gear through the Grand Company instead.

[Bixby]

Place holders is gear that you use till you get your desired gear im guessing?

That's one common way that term is used, but what Woggers is talking about in this specific case are items like the Antique Helm, which aren't actually gear in their own right at all. They're tokens you can trade in for iLvl 90 pieces (that used to be bought with Mythology Tomestones).

For Seals, there are GC Seals, which come from FATEs, Leves, etc., which you spend at your GC for lots of different things (gear, minions, furnishing, crafting materials, etc.). There are also Allied Seals, which you get from Hunts, and have a similarly diverse list of purchasable items.

[Sagittarian]

Place holders is gear that you use till you get your desired gear im guessing?

In this case, no. The new dungeons actually drop things like "Antique Tassels". Those can then be exchanged for any ilvl 90 belt. I forget the name of the other antique pieces but there is one for each armor slot.

[Camalott]

Just wanted to add that, although Camalott is right that 50 is where Item Level (iLvl) plays its most important role, it's not where it first comes into play........

.......So when it comes down to deciding which piece is better than another, Item Level gives you a quick indicator of whether it's likely to be, but check all the actual stats if you want to be sure.

Sorry, I should have clarified that part. Thank you for bringing it up in my stead. Sometimes I don't see the forest for the trees.