Multiple Quesions from a Newb

[Peachy]

1. I dont think skipping side quests is good or bad advice but I personally would do them until you dont need anymore. Saying a few measly sidequests will help you lvl a second class faster is not very accurate considering youd have to go back to those regions and they barely give 5% of a lvl. You can do guildhest for xp bonus on each class you lvl, along with hunt logs, dungeons, fates, and guildleves for the challenge log, lvling a second class is not as hard as some want to act like.

2. No, there is no mid level roulette. But as said before you get a pretty large chunk of xp by just doing the daily one time for the bonus, then selecting the dungeon you want to queue for so you dont get stuck in sashtasha all day.

3. Yes, you got something you probably did not notice. Equipping a job stone at lvl 30 will boost your primary stats for that job, think of it like a free mind ring for whm lol.

4. Player preference. No it will not ruin your game by not lvling them, you are not missing out by waiting til later. But lvling crafts lets you repair your own gear in the field and dungeons, and when repairing your own gear it goes above 100% durability.

5. Im good, thanks for asking.

6. Player preference again. It doesnt matter if you rush to the end or lvl them all to 40 before moving on. Do whatever you are having fun with.

[Nyaria]

Oh, I see, now that you mention it, my mind stat does seem extremely high in comparison to what it was before, I didn't honestly look until you mentioned it.

I do have to say I'm looking forward to the White Mage outfit, it's literally the entire reason I wanted to play 14 to begin with xP

Also, I didn't realize that I got my White Mage abilities every 5 levels, that's also pretty good to know.

[Nyaria]

I also now have another question! If you guys could indulge me again.

It's about my armor and gear.

I've found myself constantly finding white-quality gear that has better stats then some of my Green and Pink quality gear from dungeons, and, well, it's kinda strange, but I feel really weird wearing white gear (Most of my MMO experience is WoW-based) and I'm not really sure when it is considered "Okay" to replace gear.

Like, how do the stats scale, and how do stuff like spell damage scale?

[LordPhantomhive]

If you haven't already, flag the 'challenge log' in Limsa Lominsa. It gives a ton of bonus xp through various tasks listed. It also resets every week. As 30 cnj don't forget to get your unicorn mount too !

[Conradus]

I also now have another question! If you guys could indulge me again.

It's about my armor and gear.

I've found myself constantly finding white-quality gear that has better stats then some of my Green and Pink quality gear from dungeons, and, well, it's kinda strange, but I feel really weird wearing white gear (Most of my MMO experience is WoW-based) and I'm not really sure when it is considered "Okay" to replace gear.

Like, how do the stats scale, and how do stuff like spell damage scale?

Before you reach 50, white gear is generally not awful. Pink (Aetherial) gear is equivalent to HQ white gear with a random materia melded to it. Green will be better (check out what your Grand Company quartermaster can sell you), but still, HQ gear with materia outscales it in a few levels. Before 50, you don't need to be pushing your gear all that hard anyways. NQ white gear with no materia that's kept current to your level is sufficient to clear the challenges you'll be presented with, although it can't be denied that it's often nice to have more (BTW, don't forget to eat--food gives some nice buffs). How well you play is more important--no gear will save you if you don't kill Ifrit's Infernal Nail in time, or if you let Titan's landside push you off the edge of the battle area, or if you're not hiding behind one of the pillars when Garuda goes off.

[Woggers]

A couple things to add, like an above poster stated, low level roulette is still a great option for leveling, because of the XP bonus for completing it, not only just for post 50s.

Yes I would recommend to level your gathering and crafting classes together. Botanist goes well with Culinary/Weaver/Alchemist/Carpentry. Miner with Blacksmith/Armorer/Goldsmith. Leatherworking can be leveled with any DoW/DoM.

[Caraway]

Don't worry so much about the white gear while you're leveling. The important bit is just making sure it's relevant. I personally upgrade mine roughly every 5-10 levels (though you may want to go a little sooner if you don't have access to melded High Quality crafted gear!).

Gathering and crafting can be leveled entirely separate from your adventuring classes and they don't really mingle. Your best methods for leveling them will be with Levequests as the per gather experience is pretty piddly to be honest. Gathering doesn't have much of an investment required, even when you get towards the endgame gathering but crafting... If you are serious about crafting it is going to take a lot of work and it is expensive.

At the moment endgame crafting (item level 55+) requires you to have leveled up the other crafting classes for their cross-class abilities. Getting further than the first set of level 50 recipies requires having high costing melded gear to be able to progress. Even if you're only interested in say, making cloth gear for your White Mage, you'll still need to become a master chef, woodworker, armoursmith, etc. It is as involved as the adventuring classes and significantly more expensive (though this sounds like it might be changing a little with the expansion and becoming a bit more accessible).

[Garlyle]

The chief measure of gear strength is Item Level, generally. Color tends to just relate to where it came from.

That said, pre-50, different 'colors' of gear do have an impact. From lowest to highest: White (Normal) -> Pink (Aetherial, dungeon drops) -> White HQ (Has to be crafted) / Green (Unique dungeon drops). However, even upgraded gear only has a slight advantage over lower level gear; a piece of green gear will last you about five levels, but after that you can expect the next white upgrade to be on par or better.

When you're level 50, this rule changes a bit, and it's almost entirely on the 'item level' of the gear. A piece of gear that is of a higher item level, and is of the appropriate stat type for your class, is (almost) always better than a lower item level piece of gear. There's times where there's exceptions, but that's the easiest way to tell.

As for the stats of value:

1. Weapon Damage on your main weapon is the most important. It's the biggest determinant of your attack power, magic power, healing output, etc. ; it's super unlikely that a weapon with a lower weapon damage is better for you.
2. Your class' main stat. Melee classes (except Ninja) want Strength; Ninja and Bard want Dexterity; Arcanist, Summoner, and Black Mage want Intelligence; White Mages and Scholars want Mind. Eqiup pieces with the correct stat types for your class; especially later on these are going to make up a lot of your damage.
3. Vitality. All weapons/left side gear have Vitality, which determines your health; some right-side gear has Vitality as well. Tanks especially want to ensure they have a lot of this (and are using specifically tank-oriented gear), while non-tanks can generally safely use accessories that don't give Vitality. Higher item level gear naturally has more Vit.

As for the off-stats you can see; they are relatively 'minor' in the grand scheme of things, but if you have the choice between two similar pieces of gear...
1. Determination increases the effectiveness of all damage (or healing) slightly. It's good on pretty much every class.
2. Critical Hit Rate is exactly what it sounds like. Critical damage is swingy, but powerful. This is more emphasized on certain classes for certain reasons (Bard and Scholar have specific unique benefits when they crit, for instance)
3. Skill/Spell Speed reduces the global cooldown of your skills. It's honestly pretty useless at low levels because you can only get teeny amounts of it; at higher levels though, it can amplify some damage significantly. The more DoTs your class uses, the less useful it currently is. Black Mages love this.
4. Accuracy is what it says on the tin. If you're attacking from behind your target you need less accuracy; whereas from the side is more and the front (tanking) is even more. It's good to have a tiny bit of accuracy on your gear early, but you don't need to stack it unless for some reason you're fighting a lot of things several levels above yourself. Post-50, the amount of accuracy needed to achieve 100% hit rate keeps rising in harder and harder content, but gear can give plenty.
5. Piety boosts your maximum MP, and is mostly valueable on WHMs (and to a lesser extent other magic classes). Higher max MP also means higher passive MP regeneration (it's % based).

[Niwashi]

I've found myself constantly finding white-quality gear that has better stats then some of my Green and Pink quality gear from dungeons

That can happen while leveling if you're comparing one level's white gear to an earlier level's pink or green gear. The higher quality items do last a bit longer before getting out-leveled, but it still happens eventually.

When running lower level dungeons, you'll occasionally get a drop that leaves you thinking, "sheesh, this would have been so great if only I'd gotten it 15 levels ago, too bad it's useless now." You should hold onto the green or better gear if you have other classes you'll be leveling through that gear's level range later, but you won't always be able to (usefully) use it with your top class.