New Player: How do I gear for BLM and RDM?

[AphraelAmarantha]

Hello, meow :3. I just started playing about two weeks ago and am now a level 44 Black Mage and was wondering how do I actually get good gear in this game or how do I progress my gear? My average item level right now is 34 but I see all sorts of things showing item levels at over 200 and 300. O.o

I have been progressing through the story mode in 2.0 (which I have been thoroughly enjoying btw :3 ) and my natural progression of classes that I want to play is THM, BLM, then RDM as my end game class. However, I am not for certain how to gear for how I am progressing my classes. I just want to make sure I'm not a hindrance for DPS when I do higher level instances when I get to that point.

BONUS :3 - Also how does the glamour system work exactly? I know it unlocks at 50 but that is all I know about it. Thanks to anyone taking the time to answer my questions :3

NOTE O: - I am not interested in pvp just so that is out in the open now.

[LunaFaye]

Well you can level to 45 and then pick up your job gear, that gear is in most cases better than the upcoming dungeon gear, you can check the market board on your server for the level 44 chest piece, that you normally get from Dzemael Darkhold, or even farm that dungeon to get that piece if it's to expensive on your server.

You wouldn't have to worry till level 50, and at level 50 you will get another set of Job gear ilvl 90, that will get you through the end of the ARR MSQ. However during that time you will accumulate tomestones of poetic and can then exchange these for ilvl 120 gear, and the update material to upgrade that gear to ilvl 130.

Which will last you till level 55, and then farm the aery as a dungeon, this gives great gear as well. On top of that the MSQ from HW gives out HQ gear, so you wouldn't have to worry about that either. After that you can upgrade some pieces from the vault (lvl 57 dungeon) but don't bother farming it, another upgrade would be from the library at level 59.

Again by that time you have accumulated even more tomestones and at level 60 you can pick up a set of shire armor (ilvl 260 and upgrade material for ilvl 270). The SB MSQ gives out HQ gear as well. For right now don't worry you will be fine on the way to 50, don't waste your gil on something you replace within couple of days. Hope it helps.

Glamour is unlocked at level 50 as you already know, it's a little side quest you need to do, after that you can craft or buy prisms (clothcraft, leathercraft, armorcraft, goldsmithing etc) after you obtained the correct prism, just right click your gear, select cast glamour and pick the piece. You're done. It isn't that difficult but it will be explained once you reached level 50.

[AphraelAmarantha]

Ok, thanks. Uhm what are tomestones of poetic and where do you get them? O.o

[LunaFaye]

You get them automatically the moment you hit level 50 from the daily roulette's, or the higher dungeons, that you will have to run anyways to unlock the roulette's. Some of the daily beast tribes give out tome stones as well, starting at level 43? already I think, and then continue all the way till end game, that's another method if you chose to do that. However roulette's and the higher dungeons give the most tomes in comparison to other things.

Another good method would be palace of the dead at level 50+, since after successfully finishing the 10 floors, you'll be given tome stones and gil as well as exp at the end. The higher floors give more rewards but still it's a easy route, since you don't need actual gear in there, and it's based on your aether armor/weapon. You can unlock that dungeon at level 17.

[ManuelBravo]

RDM you start of with a chest just use it inside of a major city, yet it can use BLM gear. Or crafting. Otherwise tomes.

[AphraelAmarantha]

Oh I see. Yeah I know nothing about daily beast tribe quests or daily roulette stuff or how any of that work. I've just only been focusing on the MSQs for 2.0 and I've done PotD up to floor 30. But that's about it. I haven't really found any guides for any of this, or up to date guides anyway since 4.0 changed quite a few things.

[Chrallmal]

Just do the main story quests. It's going to give you all the equipment you'll ever need until you hit the end of Stormblood.

SE is super generous about dumping equipment on leveling players so they can catch up.

[AphraelAmarantha]

Ah ok, thanks everyone. :3

[Frizze]

Yeah, youll be swimming in tomestones soon enough. Every level 50 dungeon raid and trial gives you some, the first time you do most of said dungeons trials and raids you get a bonus of a bunch extra, most of the roulettes give you more, then once you get to 60 the dungeons raids and trials will give more, the first time bonuses will be even more, and thats on top of other methods you could acquire them. As was mentioned, most beast tribes offer a small few of them for doing their daily quests, you can find them inside some chests if you get a map and go treasure hunting, and a couple other methods too.

To the original questions, dont worry too much about gear yet. The way the game is set up, gear levels slowly increase as you level up. Then when you get to a cap level(50, 60, 70 for ARR, HW, and SB respectively) they shoot up by a great deal(at the end of the HW story you likely have an ilvl approaching 150, by the beginning of the stormblood story its jumped all the way close to 260 - then going through the stormblood story gets you to roughly 290... we'll see how high we get before they get to 5.0). Safest course of action is to do your quests, and buy upgrades with tomes as you can afford them at the cap levels(tome gear will be basically the best at cap levels), and keep an eye on dungeon drops to see if its better or worse then what you already have. And if you feel like your gear is sub-par, the most important piece to upgrade is your weapon. It makes the biggest difference in your performance.

As for glamours, do the level 50 quest in Revenants Toll to unlock the system. Crafters can make glamour prisms at level 30(though you need to level one up to 50 to get the recipes), but you can also buy them from people off the market board. Either use the cast glamour ability from the menu, or right click the item you want to change and cast glamour. Itll show you the options you have on hand(it doesnt check retainer inventory), and what kind of prism is needed(for instance to make a robe appear to be a leather armor you probly need a leather prism). You can only apply glamours that can be equipped by the class on the gear(so no making your BLM robe look like a dragoon only set of mail), and you cant make something appear to be higher level then it is(no putting a level 300 glamour on a level 50 armor - the game has several sets of glamour only gear and all are level 1 and so can be applied to anything). Also, you can only use originals to make glamours(in other words, keep the good looking items stashed somewhere if you think you might want to use them again, a duplicate will not suffice). Once the glamour is cast, for all intents and purposes that is the new appearance of that gear, and every time you put it on it will appear as such. You can use a glamour dispeller to remove a glamour from an item, which is required if you decide you want to do a new glamour instead. So real world example. You find a robe you like the look of. You get an upgrade you dont like, and glamour the old robe on top of it. Now you have new stats with the old appearance. Later on you get another ugly upgrade, you can glamour the new one to look like the original too. Later you find a new look you like but with either bad or no stats, you can either replace the glamour on what youre already wearing(via a dispell and a new cast) or wait for your next upgrade to come along and put the new look on the new gear.

[KilimYolo]

Thanks. Cause i bought lvl 60 BLM and, while it have ok default gear that comes with it, my RDM is not impressed with child level trinkets and that ugly dress that comes with new RDM.
I havnt yet went into first expansion territory (doing main story quests).
My RDM, while doing story and some other things, managed to level to 54. And in lvl 54 RDM quest i for first time fealt super weak. Killing those 2 mages was not easy. I mean they was eating my health up fast and i was somewhat slow at killing them.
If my gear doesnt change, i take it i will rage at lvl 56 RDM quest, right?