New player, a few questions!

[naaros]

Hello all! I bought the game last week, and I'm having a pretty good time (can't wait for chocobos!!)! But I had a few questions if anyone can help. They are mostly CON/THM related, but I wasn't sure if I should put the thread in one of those forums, so I put it here! Anyways...

1) While soloing as CON or THM, would you recommend equipping and using Aegis Boon? I messed around with it, and the heals proc'ed randomly, so I'm just not sure if it's worth using (and taking up 3 points) when on mage classes.

2) I just recently did the first Conjurer-only level 20 quest, and it gave me around 2000 Conjurer Guild Marks. How do I get more of them? Are they just random awards from regional guildleves, or are there more Conjurer quests I can do? I saw I had another one at 30, but are there more before then?

3) For some reason, I'm getting less EXP/Skill points from mobs now that I'm 21. Is this normal? I was fighting some level 28-29 enemies in Coerthas (was exploring - beautiful zone), and I only got 400~xp and 240~SP. Before, when I was fighting mobs 8-9 levels higher than me, I would get 1000~XP and around 500~SP. Am I doing something wrong?

4) When my weapon says things like "30% Earth, 35% Ice, 30% Water" - what does this mean? Does that mean those spells do 30% more damage? Or you take 30% less damage from them?

5) As CON, is it worth putting the DoTs like Shock, Frost, etc on while soloing or should I just be spamming my nukes? Currently, what I do is use Profundity + Spiritbind + Blizzard to open with. Then I put on Shock, and use Thunder, then Blizzard again, etc etc. Is there a better way to fight as CON?

If I think of anything more, I'll add. I'd be very appreciative of any help! Thanks!

[REDace0]

1. Aegis boon is great in general, but I'd put it below things like Cure II, Protect, Shell, Shock Spikes, Stoneskin, and some sort of nuke if you're soloing CON. I'm thinking it just won't proc very often unless you're GLA. Note that when it procs it blocks all of the damage from the attack, so even if it only procs a couple of times over the 20-30s, it's still helpful.

2. As of 1.18, guild marks are tied to the city where the guild is, so you'll get CON guild marks on Gridanian battlecraft leves R20 and up for the time being. Naturally when your CON is R30 or R35 you'll stop getting offered CON marks on R20 leves.

3. I believe you get a substantial boost to SP below R21. The best thing to do now is to either level another class so that you'll be able to solo mobs 10 ranks higher with relative ease, or find people to grind mobs with. Finding a Linkshell if you haven't already, especially if it's a large and active one, can help with the latter.

4. On your weapon I think that determines how the damage from Spirit Dart, Elemental Shroud, and Nature's Fury is expressed, e.g. if you equip a [wood_type_here] Wand of Flames (100% Fire) your regular attacks will do extra damage to enemies that are weak to Fire.

5. They probably aren't worth it against those enemies. The DoTs can be very useful against bosses and NMs, which don't take much damage from nukes unless you've pumped INT quite a bit. I would get THM to 4 or whatever it is and get Blood Rite. Learn the elemental weakness of the mobs you fight through experimentation, and use Nuke -> Nuke II -> Nuke when you learn the tier II nukes at...26, I think. Until you get the tier II nukes, mix in a tier I of another element instead of a tier II in the middle. Use Blood Rite and Profundity when you can, and I recommend using Profundity on the tier I because the cooldown of the tier II is long enough already. My damage routine looks roughly like the following (for Fire):
Blood Rite -> Fire -> Fire II -> Fire -> Profundity -> Fire -> Fire II -> [probably need to heal, throw Elemental Shroud, etc.] -> [repeat]. Obviously it depends greatly on whether you're soloing or in a party, how much damage you're taking, etc. If your fights are lasting long enough, that you're not being slowed down by it, using Spiritbind is a great idea, especially with the increased cost of Cure spells.

Thanks for organizing your questions. It made them easier to answer. Good luck out there!

[naaros]

Thanks soooo much for answering my questions! You were very helpful *liked*! =)

1) I think I'm going to keep messing around with Aegis Boon - I must admit, it was pretty awesome seeing it proc and not take any dmg AND get a heal!

2) Oh okay. I haven't done any Level 20 regional guildleves just yet (as I just got over 20 today). Can't wait to buy some of those abilities/traits from the Conjurer guild - especially Fastcast.

3) Gotcha. Right now, I am 21 CON, 16 THM, and the rest are crafting classes (less than 10 atm). And if I remember, I'm Physical Level 17. I think I might mess around with a melee class to try to get my physical level up if that will make leveling my CON easier. =) And yeah, I definitely need to find a linkshell still.

4) Ohhh, I understand. Hrm. Do you know of any good websites that show elemental weaknesses for enemy types? I looked around, and the FFXIV wiki only seemed to list weaknesses for SOME monsters, and not others. Although, I suppose I can just test that myself and write it down, lol.

5) This has been very helpful - I'll adjust my "rotation" now and drop the DoTs and just focus on using my cooldowns and spells properly. And yeah, right now, my fights typically last over 30 seconds, so Spiritbind has worked very well for me - especially if I'm having to heal myself. Those healing spells cost quite a bit of MP XD.

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New question now that I just thought of it...

Regarding my stat allocation when I gain new physical levels, what do you recommend doing while leveling? Right now, I'm pumping a lot into VIT, INT, and MND (generally on a ratio of 4:2:2). I think I need to put more points in PIE, though. When I'm fighting higher level enemies, my spells resist quite often. =( Oh and will my melee classes be super gimped as a result?

Thanks again! You've been so helpful. =)

[VydarrTyr]

As usual, Robert is exactly right. The only thing I'd add is this:

3) For some reason, I'm getting less EXP/Skill points from mobs now that I'm 21. Is this normal? I was fighting some level 28-29 enemies in Coerthas (was exploring - beautiful zone), and I only got 400~xp and 240~SP. Before, when I was fighting mobs 8-9 levels higher than me, I would get 1000~XP and around 500~SP. Am I doing something wrong?

Robert's correct that you get a bonus to XP/SP at lower levels. At level 1, they take whatever XP/SP you'd normally get, and multiply that number by 4. That multiple decreases until you hit level 24, at which point you get the normal XP/SP for the mob.

Something else to consider is that different mobs give different base XP/SP. So, for example, if you kill a puk/djigga/coblyn that's the same level as you, you'll get 63 SP. If you kill a raptor/basiliks/ahriman/salamander that's the same level as you, you'll get 150 SP.

If you want to get the maximum XP/SP per mob, you should fight mobs that are 10 levels above you. You get more XP/SP for fighting mobs above your level. But that maxes out at 10 levels above you. So if you kill a raptor that's 10 levels above you, you'll get more XP/SP than if you killed a raptor that's 2 levels above you. But if you kill a raptor that's 20 levels above you, you'll get the same XP/SP as if you killed a raptor that's 10 levels above you.

Finally, you get slightly less XP/SP if you're in a party of 3 or more people. But you kill things so much faster that you end up getting more XP/SP per hour.

5) As CON, is it worth putting the DoTs like Shock, Frost, etc on while soloing or should I just be spamming my nukes? Currently, what I do is use Profundity + Spiritbind + Blizzard to open with. Then I put on Shock, and use Thunder, then Blizzard again, etc etc. Is there a better way to fight as CON?

Like Robert said, DoTs are great against NMs and high level mobs with high defense. That's because DoTs cause a specific amount of damage per tick regardless of what level the mob is, or what the mob's defense is. So if you have Piety at around 75 and cast Poison II, it's going to do (about) 63 damage per tick to a level 1 mob, and it's going to do 63 damage per tick to an open world NM that's above level 70. That's substantial because every other attack in the game does less damage to higher level mobs. And when you get to open world NMs, a fully buffed melee weapon skill will sometimes do about the same damage as a DoT does every tick.

In my opinion, when you're fighting mobs around your level, nukes seem to do more damage per cast. But when you get to high level NMs and boss fights, DoTs are huuuuuge.

Glad to hear you're having fun. And welcome to the game.

[naaros]

Oh a big thanks goes to you as well, Vydarr! =) I love the communities of both FFXI and FFXIV - much more than any other MMO out there. So helpful!

That's really interesting that different mobs of the same level give different EXP/SP. I'll keep that in mind as I level. Now time to find some mobs that are 9-10 levels more than me!

Oh I didn't know that about the DoTs - that they do the same damage regardless of mob level. I can see how that would be really great for higher level NMs and bosses. Knowing that, I'll definitely drop them from my 'rotation' on regular enemies and stick to nukes! =)

Thanks again!

[VydarrTyr]

3) Gotcha. Right now, I am 21 CON, 16 THM, and the rest are crafting classes (less than 10 atm). And if I remember, I'm Physical Level 17. I think I might mess around with a melee class to try to get my physical level up if that will make leveling my CON easier. =) And yeah, I definitely need to find a linkshell still.

Physical levels will be going away soon. But for now, having a physical level higher than your job level makes fights sooo much easier. If your physical level is below your job level, you're physically a little bit weaker than the mobs you're fighting at your level. So it's much, much easier to level jobs below your physical level.

4) Ohhh, I understand. Hrm. Do you know of any good websites that show elemental weaknesses for enemy types? I looked around, and the FFXIV wiki only seemed to list weaknesses for SOME monsters, and not others. Although, I suppose I can just test that myself and write it down, lol.

Eorzeapedia has some, but not all. There's another way to figure it out based on the crystals a mob drops. But the easiest way is probably just to try different elemental spells out and see what hits the hardest.

Regarding my stat allocation when I gain new physical levels, what do you recommend doing while leveling? Right now, I'm pumping a lot into VIT, INT, and MND (generally on a ratio of 4:2:2). I think I need to put more points in PIE, though. When I'm fighting higher level enemies, my spells resist quite often. =( Oh and will my melee classes be super gimped as a result?

I'll probably leave this one to Robert. For mages, the 4 most important are Vit (gives HP), Mind (gives MP and increases potency of heals), Piety (reduces chances of magic attacks being resisted, increases chances that you'll resist magic attacks, and increases damage from DoTs), and Intelligence (increases damage from magic attacks).

I generally try to keep everything relatively balanced because I try to play several classes. I'm a little slanted toward physical attributes because I'm leveling my melee classes. Regardless, you'll probably want to focus on Vit for HP and Mind for MP.

Some people think the attributes are kind of broken. For example, some people think Dex doesn't do much, if anything. And the attributes going to be adjusted pretty severely in the next patch. So we'll see how that turns out.

[naaros]

Thanks for the link and other information, Vydarr. =)

I'm sorry for asking so many questions, but I have a couple more! XD

1) When I need to have gear repaired, do crafters prefer you do the "Offer (item)" thing and just offer the Dark Matter needed, or would they rather have gil as the payment for repairs? Obviously, this might be dependent on the person, but just curious as to what most people normally do.

2) Is it better to spread my elemental attribute points evenly or focus on one or two? For example, I am currently putting most of my elemental allotment points into Ice and Lightning as I loved those spells (Blizzard/Thunder) in FFXI. But I realize each mob has its own elemental weakness, so... that might not be best. I do use Blizzard/Thunder more than any of the other nukes, though - for now, anyways.

Thanks again! =)

[REDace0]

1. I'll do the repair either way, so long as the repair fee exceeds the cost of dark matter at the NPC vendor. I think many would prefer gil, simply because dark matter does drop from gathering and dungeon chests. Some players have a steady source of grades of dark matter from sources other than the NPC vendors, so offering more dark matter doesn't help them as much as gil.

2. Someone may have evidence to the contrary, but I don't think it makes a large difference at the moment. I believe it affects crystal drops from gathering, so you may want to skew it if you need significantly more of a particular element. I keep them all even for now, but balance changes may cause me to adjust them later.

[Archadius]

2. I highly recommend using a food guide http://www.ffxivpro.com/forum/topic/...est-d/#1347139 and using your elemental attribute points to acquire a "delicious" bonus to food and help out your stats or MP pool, etc. I suggest this because currently the points have little effect on the strength of elemental spells.

[naaros]

Thanks to both of you! =) I have been offering gil to have my items repair, and it has worked pretty quickly so far. But it's good to know I can do either.

@Archaedius - thanks for that link - will be very helpful. I'm not currently using food, but I definitely will start! It sounds rather complicated. XD At least compared to food in most games where you just use it and get a buff, lol. Thankfully, since I've been putting points in INT and Ice already, I will be able to use most sweets according to that chart which will give me more Magic Potency! Having more MP would also be nice, though. Hrm.

Thanks again!

EDIT: And do the stats on gear actually do anything? I mean... When I equipped a +5 MND ring, I expected my MP to go up (as that's something MND does), but it didn't change at all? *confused* =(