Gear and Story questions

[Fortified]

I have been playing since early January and I'm at lvl46 at the moment. I plan on getting to 50 by the end of the week. All those endgame guides seem to indicate I have a lot of grind and story to go through before I'm done with the ARR story. At this rate, am I going to be able to finish by the time Heavensward early access opens?

Also, I'm confused on how to get new accessories. I previously just equipped the ones with the highest ilevel but someone in a dungeon told me to equip the ones that increase strength and vitality. However, these ones all all pretty low level and none of the npcs sell accessories.

[monochromicorn]

Since you roll as a tank, using accessories that give anything but strength or vitality is a wasted slot. even a lv 10 vit piece is better than a 70 intelligence piece, since your class can do nothing with that stat.

It is a long grind , if you get absolutely everything done, the story itself is not entirely long, just tedious.

[Alex_W]

I think you have plenty of time. There is not too much story after the 2.0 story dungeons. Most of it is a few fetch quests and busy work.

Accessories are another issue. You want to aim for what benefits your class, not just wait has the highest ilvl. Once you get through the 2.0 story, you can start collecting tomestones that you can use on upgrading your gear. This also preps you for the i90 ilvl requirement for the 2.55 dungeons and trials.

Enjoy the story and I hope all goes well for you!!

[Fortified]

I swapped the accessories a while ago. I was wondering if there is somewhere I can get higher level versions of those accessories.

[monochromicorn]

You can level goldsmith and make them yourself, or you can buy from market board, or hope for the terrible rng drops from dungeons.

[JimboTCB]

I completed pretty much all the post 50 main scenario over the course of three or four days of solid play, so you've got plenty of time.

One of your main endgame priorities should be doing all the dungeons once each to unlock high level roulette. You'll get a ton of soldiery tomes while you do so, more than enough to buy a full set of 100 ilvl accessories from the vendors in Mor Dhona. Endgame gear will primarily come from soldiery and poetics gear, and drops from various raids and EX primals.

[Flett117]

I just hit 50 and don't spend any money on accessories till 50. You will end up needing Ilvl52 to get your relic weapon. When you get to lvl 50 make sure to get the cheap items to get to ilvl50 and then if you don't feel like grinding lvl50 dungeons, buy an expensive accessory to get you to Ilvl52 to start your way. Don't buy a weapon or armor because your doing the relic quest for a start to a decent weapon and I'm guessing your not filthy rich to get all the Ilvl 70 to 90 to 110 armor that can be obtain from a non gil spending way.

[Urthdigger]

I just hit 50 and don't spend any money on accessories till 50. You will end up needing Ilvl52 to get your relic weapon. When you get to lvl 50 make sure to get the cheap items to get to ilvl50 and then if you don't feel like grinding lvl50 dungeons, buy an expensive accessory to get you to Ilvl52 to start your way. Don't buy a weapon or armor because your doing the relic quest for a start to a decent weapon and I'm guessing your not filthy rich to get all the Ilvl 70 to 90 to 110 armor that can be obtain from a non gil spending way.

I'd actually reccomend getting a set of ilvl 55 HQ crafted armor, then 45-55 accessories for your class (you'll have some level 55 accessories, but not a full set of level 55. Just grab the ones near 50 that use rubellite, spinel, amber, zircon, or tourmaline depending on class.) As for weapon, the level 55 ones are expensive due to requiring drops from a dungeon where people skip all the chests, if they run it at all. Get a level 55 weapon from your grand company, or even better, a level 70 giantsgall (except for the books, they have a seperate name I forget) weapon. Giantsgall weapons are cheap due to the mats being common from field ventures.

Of note, there will be level 55 "wolf" gear you can purchase a full set of, but I don't reccomend that. That gear cannot be spiritbound, and turning gear into materia is a great way to recoup costs.

[AxlTheHunter]

Continuing on what everyone else has said it is indeed more important in most cases to equip only what will benefit you stat wise not based off of Item level. I am leveling a new Alt and I've noticed multiple instances on the road to 50 that there was no reason to upgrade as the HQ version of the gear I already had would be higher than the normal version of the next lvl's gear when no HQ was available at the time. Furthermore, there are some peices of gear that you may get from a dungeon or quest drop that will outclass normal gear over the next several levels. Always keep an eye out. When you do get into end game, if you find that you're like 1 lvl or so under an Ilvl requirement, you CAN switch to something less beneficial with a higher level to make it in and switch back, but just make sure you don't throw yourself into something you can't handle.