What to expect going into an expansion (SB) if you joined in HW, how to transition?

[bswpayton]

What I mean is as I was on another thread talking about gear lock out etc, I just remembered that I have never gone through being apart of an expansion release. And many other people haven't either so I figured Id make this thread so that maybe those whom have can tell others what to somewhat expect in the transition. Just looking at when the first guide for alex was made I see a tanks hp was like 16k :/.

So I think its fair to say anyone who came maybe a year or six months after hw release has enjoyed the luxury of never struggle busing on gear and ilvl. Those even just getting to level 50 in the game today have the option to gear every job they have in full iron works which I'm guessing wasn't a thing when fifty first came out. And the same with sixty gear is just there, never had to even know what it was like to be under powered.

So now that I,ve thought about this stuff is it actually still fun at the beginning of an expansion are do you feel very weak after feeling so strong?

Is it impossible to gear up all your jobs to the same ilvl as your main just with different gear? (I main tanks but sometimes depending on what Im doing sometimes I maybe better at healing something than I am tanking I can admit this that I cant tank everything in the game)

How did the tomes work in the beginning was it just 450 a week of lore and you just had to only gear your main job?

I know I'm missing things here but I am just really curious I have gotten into the pull everything I can mode and Im wondering how under powered you are when first entering into the endgame phase.

Im just really curious as to what should anyone expect that has never gone through the release of an expansion does your initial excitement go away when you see how weak you are in comparison to a few months prior.

I know I mention things I'm concerned about but I would like to know things for everyone that's in my boat that just came a year later into an expansion where things were already pretty good. So anyone with their own concerns please feel free to put them here as well.

[raela]

Normal content felt a lot harder in the beginning - I mained SCH, and I went from fairy healing 99% of dungeons to needing to heal together. It took me several days of queueing to get a party that could clear BisHM. Quests gave HQ gear which was nice, split across multiple NPCs - I think it was usually one with melee gear, one with caster? So I collected a set for SCH plus a set for tanks. I'd recommend on selecting one job to use to go through the MSQ / unlock everything first. I did have to buy white gear in Ayzs Lla at the end just to be able to queue into the first level 60 dungeons - min ilvl was a bit of a drag.

We only had tomestones of law at the start, with esoterics coming a few weeks later. The alex raids were also delayed a few weeks, to give people time to enjoy the new content without feeling rushed to get to cap to start farming weeklies. In later patches (3.2 and 3.4 I think?), we lose the uncapped tomestone (gear went to hunt marks), the capped tomestone became unlimited, and we got a new capped tomestone.

Pretty much just sit back and enjoy. There will be a lot of changes all at once to take in.

[bswpayton]

Normal content felt a lot harder in the beginning - I mained SCH, and I went from fairy healing 99% of dungeons to needing to heal together.

what was the ilvl for law Im guessing they deleted them , and I know about esoterics but dont know the ilvl for that either. Im pretty sure the transition into storm blood will be fine , I know like how the level roulette formula somewhat works. Im worried about the tomes and only being able to gear one job I dont mind caps and stuff like that as long as its other ways to gear up your jobs as well I switch in between almost every job I play depending on what Im doing.

[Moomba33]

Law gear was i170 upgradeable to i180.
Eso gear was i200 upgradeable to i210.
All the equipment that used to be bought with these tomes are now available for Centurio Seals from the Hunt vendor in the Forgotten Knight.

Whenever SE introduces a new capped tome set the old capped tome is uncapped and the old uncapped tome is phased out. The gear is always moved to a new source in game.

[Alynn]

I had someone recruit me and give me chocobo feathers for ironworks gear and it was a life saver. Please please please if you have no one that recruited you, look for a code. Those chocobo feathers will help immensely, especially now that you can get i230 gear. Other than that, I felt like it was pretty easy to gear up granted I only focused on one class.

[ErikMynhier]

Two weeks of crashes, whining on the forums over changes, stupid petition threads, and semi-daily emergency maintenance and/or hotfixes.

[Shougun]

Two weeks of crashes, whining on the forums over changes, stupid petition threads, and semi-daily emergency maintenance and/or hotfixes.

This game sounds amazing, why aren't they doing this all the time!?

[ErikMynhier]

This game sounds amazing, why aren't they doing this all the time!?

Don't think I dislove this game from my post. The salty tears and complaint threads alone is worth the price of entry.

I would bet gil there will be at least one impossible request thread for a new tank and/or healer on launch day. Like they would just hit the breaks and get to work lol.

[Nixxe]

How did the tomes work in the beginning was it just 450 a week of lore and you just had to only gear your main job?

There was no lore. This game uses tiered currency and removes old currency as it becomes obsolete. That's why there's still an esoterics category, even though you can't earn any. It will probably disappear when SB releases and scriptures become uncapped. But yes, the higher level currency is always capped to begin with. If I remember correctly, the original currency was justice and law, with law being the higher level one, which bought the Doman 170/180 stuff.

Mostly things were a bit more difficult out in the world and in dungeons, though none of it was terribly difficult, just slow. Gear for alt classes that do not share gear with your main job will be a bit hard to come by in the early goings because you'll mostly only be able to gear it in whatever extra stuff you can get from dungeons, but far more people will be needing the dungeon gear.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

There was no lore. This game uses tiered currency and removes old currency as it becomes obsolete. That's why there's still an esoterics category, even though you can't earn any. It will probably disappear when SB releases and scriptures become uncapped. If I remember correctly, the original currency was justice and law, with law being the higher level one, which bought the Doman 170/180 stuff.

Mostly things were a bit more difficult out in the world and in dungeons, though none of it was terribly difficult, just slow. Gear for alt classes that do not share gear with your main job will be a bit hard to come by in the early goings because you'll mostly only be able to gear it in whatever extra stuff you can get from dungeons, but far more people will be needing the dungeon gear.

It was Law and Esoterics. Law got phased out when Lore was added, and Esoterics was phased out when Scripture was added. Law purchased the Doman gear, which was i170 and upgradeable to i180, and Esoteric was 200, upgradeable to 210. Law did not have a weekly cap, and I don't believe they added esoteric tomes until 2 weeks ish later?