Questions from a returning player

[Justsomeguy]

Greetings folks,

Wanted to fling a few questions by ya'll since I've been trying to figure some things out for leveling.

Firstly, it has been quite a long time since I played, last I did...Alexander Savage was newish, I think the highest one on the DF was A5 or so. With that in mind...

I want to settle down in XIV, and I feel like now is a pretty solid time to start doing so, but I was wondering about all this stuff with Palace of The Dead and what not. I'm currently leveling my Scholar from 52 to cap, and then my Drk from 33~cap, but I'm concerned about gear.

I have about 30 some odd quests left in HW, and I don't really know the gear requirements I'll need to have in order to do any of that. I've heard PoTD gives out an i255 weapon? Would it be worth gimping my class knowledge as Drk to work towards it? I think most of my i180 gear from War can be borrowed over to my Drk, though it may be job exclusive.

Or, since it's Drk, would it just be faster to grind dungeons to cap anyway, and then go back and go through PoTD for the weapon and what not? I'm totally lost on the current state of tomestones/endgame gear and all of that. Hoping to get my Sch and Drk on even grounds for SB so I can pick who to trail blaze with then.

And for a more specific question. Drk's "Artifact" armor, the only way to get it now is by doing hunts for the seals to buy it, correct?

Sorry for all the questions, thanks a bunch for taking the time to respond!

[Bacent]

Palace weapons are different.

First you need 30 arms/armour each to get an i235 weapon.

When you need an additional 60 of each to upgrade that from i235 to i255, so you need 90 in both stats for one Kinna weapon.

Palace can be great though to help you get armour, though you WOULD have to lore grind to get a full set of i230 armour/accessories before you can actually go into a dungeon, or you can buy up to i255 crafted gear on the marketboard, as well as crafted i250 weapons (They will be expensive though). But if you go the dungeon route, you can get up to i245 gear from the stuff that's in the Expert roulette.

As for Drk's 'artifact armour', I think it's just some of the exclusive stuff from an earlier tomestone set, since Drk/Ast/Mch didn't have anything at level 50 for their unique look, like other jobs did back in 2.X.

[Vidu]

Palace of the Dead does give out ilvl255 weapons, but I wouldnt really advise you to go down that road - at least not without looking at the other options. PotD does require some griding to get that ilvl255 weapon and while you can combine that with leveling a different class there are some better/faster options to get weapons close-ish to that ilvl range (please note that I'm a little biased because personally I dont like PotD to much...):

First off: I dont know what weapon you're using right now, but you can get an ilvl235 from doing just a few PvP-matches. That should work as a gap-closer should you be really far behind.

Now to some real options:
1) Crafted weapons - its an obvious one. Ilvl250 can be crafted - depending on your financial situations or friends/FC-members being able to help you, this might actually be the easiest option.
2) Shire weapons - ilvl260 (can be upgraded to 270). Requires you to run A12 NM seven times and spending 1.000 scriptures (to be precises: you can do one A10S instead of seven A12NM aswell, at least in theory...) - running VA, Mhach and Dun Scaith will give you the item to upgrade
3) Primal-weapons - ilvl 230 (can be upgraded to 240). The version before Shire. Requires 4 runs of A8NM and 1.000 lore - if you do one run of VA and Mhach you can get the upgrade item
4) EX-Primal-Drops; specially Sophia - it might require you to upgrade your other gear a bit before hand and you should at least get that PvP-weapon, but she is on of the easier HW-primals and drops ilvl255 weapons. 10 runs will give you enough tokens to buy a weapon, should it not have dropped.
5) The Relic - yes, its a grind. But it has been nerfed and the first few stages arent to bad anymore, so its an option to get a half decent weapon "quick", gives you something to work on, opens a unique questline to follow, a unique weaponmodel and most likely a headstart on the SB-relic (if you want to settle for FFXIV you might want to consider that)

...there is a very, very slim chance to get a weapon from diadem, but I wouldnt bet on that - just adding for completion.
You could also just say "Screw this" at this point actually, focus on leveling classes and just get the new gear that SB will bring in a few weeks - I expect all highend gear that we've been working towards and hoarding for the past few months now to be worthless within the first 6-7 levels, so probably the first week of SB (depending on how fast you are...). So personally I wouldnt go to much out of my way to gearhunt now - not with the knowledge that in a few weeks there will be drops from teh first dungeon of the expansion being better/on the same level as the weapon you're grinding for now.
So my advice would be: Get what you need to clear the content you want to clear and leave it at that for the moment. Focus on leveling, levels stay! (In that sense: Yes, you could get the PotD-weapon if it just comes with the process)
Get the PvP-weapon or better the crafted one, if you can. If you're willing to grind, you can consider the relic - as I said... headstart in SB and a unique weapon.


Edit: Yes, the Chaos-Armor (DRK artifact) is now only bought with hunting seals.

And I'd like to repeat my general advice: Dont stress to much about getting your jobs to max-ilvl now. At least I would feel as if I'd wasted my time when SB hits and all of that work becomes invalid within the first 5 levels. Grab as much gear as you can from running Dun Scaith, A9-12NM, tomes... but dont stress it to much - once SB hits there will be even more and better options to gear up.

[Justsomeguy]

Oh, if that's the case I may just go the dungeon route.

I don't have the funds for crafted gear, and I can always work for the better weapon after I'm running around in i245 stuff on both of them.

And aw, that's disappointing, woulda loved to glam my Drk in that for a while and what not. Thanks for the response 'v'/



Oop, adding this in since I just saw Vidu's post.

Wow, thanks for all that info, I really appreciate it. Well, I suppose I could get down in some PvP for a quick upgrade then (I do love me some PvP, which helps), and then run Sophia after I catch the rest of my armor on Sch/Drk up for their weapons. I do plan to just stick to what I need for finishing up HW, and then hunt for glamour options and finish some other things I've been meaning to do.

I'm totally unfamiliar with Relic stuff for the new jobs, I have some progress on my book for Sch, may as well use the free time in the coming weeks to get what I need for Sch/Drk. Unique stuff is nice, after all.

[Vidu]

No problem!

Regarding your Chaos-armor: just do your daily and weekly hunts to get the needed seals! You dont have to do "real" hunting for A and S ranks, but you can go for B-ranks and normal mobs instead (normal mobs will also give exp!)

The Relic-quets in HW is seperate from teh ARR one - you can get a headstart by skipping the first step (its a FATE-grind...) by turning in your finished Zeta-weapon, but after that its just a straight questline. You can always give it a try!

[Justsomeguy]

Sweet, thanks for letting me know!

Glad to know I'll be kept busy until SB is out!

[Vaer]

I would go to Void Ark(i175)/Weeping City/Dun Scaith, make your way up and start rolling on the gear to gear up while collecting the upgrade tokens. (a set of 3, one clear from each area needed for one upgrade item to upgrade from 260->270) Grab the 270 accessory quest for Dun Scaith when available. Should be easy as a tank since there is no competition. Void Ark at least has a very high completion rate, it is pretty much faceroll at this point. The other two can be a bit tough.

Supplement with the daily roulettes and buy some lore/scrip gear if Weeping City/Dun Scaith ends up too annoying. I would start with the right side to get ilvl up quicker.

Finish all the alexander normals up to the last one once you get enough gear doing dungeons/roulettes and the above, get gears to get a micro-tomestone, spend the 1000 scrip to get the weapon tokens to get the weapon (260) then one set of the upgrade items mentioned above to boost it to 270. Should be set for the weapon then. Since the scrip cap is 900, you don't have to buy this first.

If you need a weapon to tide you over you can get the old weapons that are on the hunt vendor or do the first couple steps of the relic.

Alternatively you can go do PvP and get the event set which is adequate for most stuff. (It's around i235 which would be a big boost) PvP syncs you to a very low ilvl so no problem there.

[Ayerinn]

Alternatively you can go do PvP and get the event set which is adequate for most stuff. (It's around i235 which would be a big boost) PvP syncs you to a very low ilvl so no problem there.

Easiest/fastest/cheapest way to get a decent weapon for most players with the expansion only a few weeks away... this is what I am doing after a year long haitus. I do not recommend the crafted weapons (or gear, for that matter) unless you can A)make it yourself (doubtful as 4* req are high if you are just returning) or B) know someone willing to craft for the cost of the mats...anything less than 270/relic will most likely be replaced well before 65 so don't waste any more time or money than you want to spare for very short term gear.