Returning player

[Mythrella]

I’m a returning player as of last weekend.

I checked my lodestone activity and the last time I spent doing much in game was Oct. 2013, around 2.1 release when life called. As you can imagine I’m very behind on things and just a bit lost…

I’m wondering about a few things as I relearn what I’m doing, since the expansion is on the horizon.

1. My gear is obsolete. I don’t expect my gear to catch up before Heavensward, and probably won’t have time to try to fully regear anyway. However, I’m interested in upgrading my relic weapon to the latest and greatest. How do I get started? Do we know if they will be useful in Heavensward? Will it even be possible in the crappy gear I have now (I’ve gotten one random upg this week, i80 robes replaced my i70) as I go through the requirements?

2. Someone said go to Revenant’s Toll and grab all the quests and start working on those, which I’m doing. Anyone know if there’s others I need to start elsewhere in the world?

3. Given how far behind I am would it be best to just work on leveling different jobs or crafting for now and start “fresh” when Heavensward arrives?

4. I *need* glamours! And a house. I’m pretty broke though. Money tips are especially welcome! But I’m sure that’s something I will figure out over the next few weeks.

5. Gil spam is out of control. From non-stop tells to friend invites. I’m guessing there are no addons for this game to keep them from spamming me, is there another way? I don’t see a report system for them, only blacklist?

If there are guides for these kind of things already out there in the internet that you know of I’m happy to take a look. I didn’t find a lot on my initial search.

Any input or advise based on your experience is much appreciated ♥

[ExiaQuanta]

1. Depending on your definition of "Getting Caught up in gear", it is actually pretty easy to catch up to everyone. if you started catching up this week, you probably can get alot of i130 gear before heavensward. You will just have to run your weekly Crystal Tower quest for a Carbontwine/Carboncoat or if you so wish, a Tomestone. If anything you may be able to get your whole left side to i130 with Poetic Gear. Course you could also spam Crystal Tower: World of Darkness for i120 gear. I believe it was stated earlier this week that i130 gear is relevant until lv55 in Heavensward. A Relic starting from i80 to zeta can take about a month depending on your dedication. Maybe at the earliest, if you went hardcore for relic, you can probably get it done within 2-3 weeks. It can get VERY expensive or pretty decent price. Nothing has been said about the current relic for heavensward, all that has been said so far is that there is something in store for those who did it.

3. Regardless if u restart your character to another class or not, you will need a lv50 DoW/DoM to continue into ishgard and get the 3 newer jobs. Also you would have to spend time again to gear the said class your gonna restart on. so eh.

4. Sell high demand craft materials, Desynth, spiritbond for materia and sell.

GL sir

[Flett117]

You can get Soildery tombstones pretty easily and buy the i100 gear and doing hunt quest to get that i100 gear through your Free Company. I just hit 50 a little more than a week and I only need one more i100 piece of gear and accessories. As of right now I'm i78, and I'm sure I can be i90 by Sunday. That's playing 1-3 hours a day or not at all.

[Mythrella]

Thanks for the feedback. It doesn't sound like catching up is as bad as I was afraid it might be.

[Niwashi]

As the only one of your points nobody has touched on yet

5. Gil spam is out of control. From non-stop tells to friend invites. I’m guessing there are no addons for this game to keep them from spamming me, is there another way? I don’t see a report system for them, only blacklist?

There is a report system. It's just a ridiculously cumbersome one. But if you want to try and help the issue (at least to some extent), you can report gil spammers through:
[System Menu] -> [Support Desk] -> [Contact Us] -> [Report Cheating]
Then fill out the form explaining what sort of problem you're reporting and from whom.
(And yes, we've been asking for all that to be automated into a simple right-click "Report RMT" option ever since the game launched. No luck getting it yet.)

[JimboTCB]

Keep slogging through the main scenario quests, you need to finish everything up to and including 2.55 to access Heavensward when it comes out. Also, start working on the Hildibrand Manderville quests at the same time. Between the two quest chains that should complete all the dungeons you need to unlock Expert and Trials Roulette. Do every single dungeon once for the first-time bonus and to unlock High Level Roulette.

Gear-wise, I'm not sure if you unlocked Crystal Tower (CT) yet - it starts from one of the quests you pick up in Revenant's Toll - but once you complete all three CT raids (Labyrinth of the Ancients, Syrcus Tower and World of Darkness) it unlocks a weekly quests which rewards the Poetics item upgrades and the item for buying the weapon. Three weeks of hitting your poetics cap, pick the tomestone one week and the carbontwine another from the weekly, and you can get your hands on a 130 ilvl weapon, which is better than anything else you're likely to get short of upgrading your relic all the way to its final stage (which would probably take a couple of months at least).

Basically your progression should probably be getting whatever left-side drops you can get from the three CT raids, moving up to the next as soon as you hit the necessary ilvl requirement. Save your soldiery for a weapon first (1300 solidery + a tomestone dropped in ST for 100 ilvl, upgrade to 110 using Sands of Time also from ST) and then accessories, and keep saving your poetics towards the 130 weapon. There's no loot lockout on any of the CT raids, so you can do them as many times as you care to, and if you have good luck with RNG you can get really geared really fast.