Need experienced advice.

[Mantra]

I have just hit 52 and finished the main story and was looking over the gear and stuff and don't really know how pre 60 gear works. I don't want to do relic weapons if there's no point etc. I think as it stands my Ilvl is 72 ive unlocked hatal mines and longstop HM and ultima bane. I have nearly 300 tomestone I think they are called. I was looking at getting some ironwork gear if it's still worth it is there anywhere to efficiently farm them in the position I'm in? Also is it still worth it or should I just do quests and wait until 60? I have only finished ultimate weapon I haven't done any post 2.0 story or unlocked heavenswars im doing that in the next few weeks

Thanks!

[ebuu]

just do the MSQ you will get some ilvl130+ gear for free its enough for doing MSQ and the MSQ dungeons if you ask me.. dont waste your time on RELIC weapon or farming ilvl120 gear

[apfelwein]

Taking a break and gear up a little bit will always please your Partymembers, when jumping into a dungeon. But it is not necessary. You will get decent gear through the MSQ and the Dungeons you have to run. Maybe you will run into some ****** who complain about your gear - just ignore them. If u can join a Duty, your gear is enough for that.

[AskaRay]

All story mode...anything until HW will sync you back down to 50 so you don't have to wait to continue the story, just keep going.

If you want Ironworks gear, the equivalent level gear is good to about... level 54. So if you have extra tomestones go ahead and buy the Ironworks gear, but if you have the gil go ahead and buy the level 52 gear off the marketboard.
Though as I understand it, story quests now give out gear to get your ilvl where it needs to be. I'm not too sure what they hand out exactly though... but it should be good enough to start HW in.

[Luvbunny]

Here are some tips if you are fresh to level 50.

1. Finish all the MSQ to 2.55, I know a lot of them are boring fetch quests, but you want to unlock ALL of this and complete them. They give you gears up to level 110, plus good xp and some materia, food, etc. You can sell the materia, check the market board at your server and pick the most expensive one. If you don't really spend any gils other than teleport fee, you should end up with over 500k gils doing dungeons, endgame dungeons and MSQ 2.0-2.55 as well as daily roulette.

2. Unlock all the high levels dungeons. DO THIS ASAP, priority!!! Each dungeon you do will give you bonus tome. Plus you get to experience them for the first time, as well as learning many mechanics that will be reused later on. You can also get many outdated gears for glamours, gearing your retainers, as well as turning them for Grand Company seals, which you should want to do this. Later on, you can get Law tomes when you are level 60 by doing daily roulette.

3. Cheating time: you can ask your friend who has access to 3.0 vendor to buy you some accessories level 115 (you can use this gears at level 50), these are not great by any means. The reasons you want to do this ASAP when you are level 50 fresh is to bump your ilevel immediately so finishing the rest of main story and high level dungeons will be a piece of cake. These should be cheap, do not buy HQ version, you will get these at 3.0. Also these accessories + gears can be worn, and turn into materia which often pay itself back. Compare vendor price with market board, though most likely a lot of players sell them far higher than vendor price lol. Do not buy market board if you can find it cheaper at NPC in Ishgard.

Gil savings tips: just buy ONLY the accessories normal quality level 115, since you get level 90 gears on your left slots, but most people will have mix of crappy accessories if you are fresh to level 50.

4. Unlock all the primal hard mode and extreme, do that if you can as well for bonus tome, glamour gears, achievement, and mostly learning how to play at higher difficulty.

5. Unlock binding coil, gather a few friends, or your FC members, do them as a group. The gears are all outdated, and only good for glamours with the exception of level 115-135 gears. These are very good ones as starter gears for 3.0, they will last you till level 55.

6. Do your daily roulettes, easy money and tomes as well as bonus exp once a day. You should be level 52 almost to 53 if you do your MSQ and daily roulettes while finishing 2.55 which will give you a very nice headstart to 3.0. trust me you will need these freebie levels early on, to make things much smoother in 3.0 and less grind closer to 60.

7. Unlock your Hunt, ASAP. There are plenty of daily hunts, the allied seals are not worth it now but you want to be able to participate on the 3.0 Hunt for centurio seals. And you have to unlock this quest.

8. Unlock ALL beastmen tribes quest. The one that is the most useful is the Ixtali for leveling up your crafting fast. The rest you can do for exclusive mounts, and they are nice looking, so do it now a little at a time.

9. Should you do Relic Weapon? Sure, why not, they are nice for glamours, plus you want the achievement and experiencing the game. You can do up to level 90 one if you just want glamour gears. Or take it to 135 if you are dedicated for achievement - and weapon that is only good to level 55.

10. Is poetic gears worthless? Not really - these level 120 gears are very good for starting gears, and you will start to replace them by the time you hit dungeon level 55, so these poetic gears are not completely worthless for any of your other jobs beside your main job.

In closing, do not cheat yourself over the amount of content in 2.1-2.55, yes they are considered "outdated" but the contents are still valid, you should experience them at least once. Also learning to play at endgame is a very good skills to have. Even Coils are still good to do for learning mechanics, practicing your respond time and your job role, as well as playing in a group that requires co-ordination. Primal Extreme is good as well to practice. You already paid for this game, why skip everything, enjoy your time at the theme park

[Siwy]

I would suggest, if you haven't done it already, is to get your cross-class abilities. For BLM, that's Arcanist and Archer. These will help a good amount in dungeons to come. As for gear, I'd say pick up the occasional Poetics piece as you go along so you can meet ilevel requirements (the last trial before HW is i90), then once you get through to Ishgard, MSQ will give you HQ versions of what's on sale, but you can always buy the regular quality stuff to fill in the gaps. I'm going to be doing this to supplement my AST gear as I level it as my sub job.

[Eidolon]

agreed on focusing on the quests - they give a lot of HQ White armor / weapon rewards, which is going to be more than enough for you to to survive the content offered in 3.0!

You can find a vendor in every major vendor, who will sell level-appropriate gear. You can buy this NQ White gear if you have multiple jobs going 50+ that you want to ugprade the ilevel on for instnat gratification, or you can check the MB to see if it's available there for cheaper.

[Madsamurai]

The game is pretty straight forward. Not as complex as you think. Just like what everyone else said, do the main story quest and get it's armor reward. Do dungeons as they unlock for more armor upgrades that drops in there. Reach level cap, profit.

[KaedrianLiang]

Continue following the MSQ into HW, you will be awarded very generously with HQ gear starting at ilevel 115. Or you can jump the gun and buy a full set of i115 for very cheap off the MB as players are offloading much of their MSQ spoils onto the MB.

Also don't dwell on spamming the new HW dungeons for loot, as it gets outdated very fast from just MSQ rewards alone.

[SuddenStorm8]

^ these guys here have pretty much hit the nail on the head, But Luvbunny had the best suggestion.
Get an in game friend or FC member to buy you lvl52 gear from the vendors in the HW areas to use, the NQ stuff will carry you through all the ARR content very easily and the lvl 52 gear is ilvl133 or something I believe so it will meet any ilvl reqs for all the old ARR content and being from vendors it will be much cheaper than on the MB.

The Tomestones of Poetics can be traded into an NPC in Revenants Toll for ilvl 120 Blue gear which is usually actually better than some whites that are a higher ilvl.

Its also good that you're doing all the old endgame dungeons as the High Level Roulette requires that you unlock all of them and is a decent way of getting exp from 50 to 60 and is an excellent way of getting Tomestones of Law at lvl 60 ( the current most valuable end game currency but they will be adding a higher one called Tomestones of Esoterics in a week)

Unlock the optional Hard Mode trials too (Garuda, Ifrit and Titan Hard Modes) I believe these are required for the trial roulette (they were before 3.0) and may be useful later on, I think you need to speak to Uriange in the waking sands to get the unlock quests.

There's a series of 24 man raids called the Crystal tower, There are 3 of them called "Labyrinth of the Ancients" (or LotA for short), "Syrcus Tower" (ST) and "World of Darkness" (WoD) and a additional repeatable quest linked to them that gives you an item needed to get an ilvl 120 Blue weapon and WoD gives ilvl 120 blue gear, also the Raid drops are good for glamors (well not ST tbh) but the raids have lost popularity for the moment so expect long ques (Pick up the quest for the raids in Mor Dhona at the Sons of Saint Coinach).

Beyond that keep doing what your doing and dont be in a huge hurry to unlock Heavensward, take some time to enjoy the old ARR endgame, HW will still be there.