Just stepped into the new SB areas...questions! (self.ffxiv)

[Felissa]

After 2 weeks after purchasing SB and completing all the content till this point...I finally am in Gyr Abania!

Questions :

1. I see Aether Currents have made their reappearance in SB. Is this like HW in which the final currents are locked to zone completion? Also, are any of them hidden in weird or inaccessible
areas? I remember in HW spending hours trying to get to areas that just weren't possible to access at that time...

So should I just focus on MSQ completion before currents?

2. Should I be picking the materia or the gear rewards from the MSQ rewards? In HW I used Ironworks gear all the way to 60 for most jobs (with a few MB upgrades from time to time) Is it
the same deal this time?

3. I see lots of Hunt shouts as usual...would it be bad form to jump into them before I am 70? (65 now) I actually just want the Seals to use for mount speed increases. Also since I am
not yet attuned to the area's Aether, it would be kind of hard for me to get to certain Hunts...

[Zephera]

You can't get the aether currents in 3 of the areas the first time you go to them, that said they're a lot easier to find this time in my opinion so I'd suggest grabbing as many as you can when you first visit a location.

I'd take the HQ gear myself, specially around the 3rd dungeon, mobs hit harder and despite the small ilvl increase, the defense increase is pretty large.

And I wouldn't bother with hunts till you can fly unless you find them yourself. Hunts will be dead before you can make it to them on foot most of the time.

[Frizze]

1. Dont worry too much about aether currents early on. Half of the zones for the expack the story takes two seperate visits to cover, so you wont be able to get the spots from the second half(or quest related currents from the second half) until you return. You can get all the currents from

Ruby Sea, Azim Steppe and The Lochs

on the first trip though, if you want(you probly do). With that said, it never hurts to ping the aether compass a few times while moving from point a to point b - you can get a few of them out of the way while doing other tasks.

2. Depends a little on what you have. I had mostly upgraded shire gear, and was taking the on-class rewards by level 64. They werent all better then what i had, but i started giving the extras to my retainer to get her gear level up. But i also only play one class, so the quests that didnt have a reward i could actually use i tried a mix of materia and gear to try and sell on the board. Some of those made me good money, some of them were utterly worthless because everyone else did the same. With that said, the defensive values in particular are taking a giant step upwards over these 10 levels, so you definitely dont want to try to stretch level 60 gear the whole way. Bonus though, the leveling dungeons from the expack drop(straight to inventory) one guaranteed piece of gear for the class you came in as, so each clear you get at least 1 new piece(and it wont drop something you already have, so potentially several new pieces - one exception is you cant force weapon drops this way).

3. Dont worry about nearby hunts. You need a TON of allied seals to buy speed upgrades, but there are only(currently) 6 speed upgrades to be purchased with centurio seals. SB hunts give centurio seals(and tomes presumably if your level is high enough), but they dont reward any allied seals. And even if youre getting your hands on tomes early, the vendor to spend them at doesnt appear until you complete a certain quest toward the end of the storyline. Having some to spend as soon as you can is nice, but the verities dont take all that long to farm up(creations are a different matter because of their capped status).

[Mholito]

1. Dont worry too much about aether currents early on. Half of the zones for the expack the story takes two seperate visits to cover, so you wont be able to get the spots from the second half(or quest related currents from the second half) until you return. You can get all the currents from

Ruby Sea, Azim Steppe and The Lochs

on the first trip though, if you want(you probly do). With that said, it never hurts to ping the aether compass a few times while moving from point a to point b - you can get a few of them out of the way while doing other tasks.

You can also get all the currents in

Yanxia

on the first visit

[Frizze]

Yeah, ok youre right on that one.

I forgot that when the story had you leave and come back with Hien, you already had flying. Not sure if you can leave the House of the Fierce and explore the northern part of the map at that point, but the currents are all on the other side of the wall.

So you can do most of the zones flying in one visit, but not all of them.

[Lyrai_Celestine]

You can also get all the currents in

Yanxia

on the first visit

You mean the first and second visit of that area.

[Krotoan]

seems everyone has covered the AC aspects. I will tell you I had no problems with staying in 270 upgraded shire gear on all 3 jobs I've taken through to 70 up till about level 66/67. 2DPS 1 tank. Dungeons were no problem, though I didn't try doing large pulls with my Tank... AND I had a chocobo companion out for almost all overworld fights.
I'd recommend grabbing the 66+ gear for your first job to 70, but keep in mind that once you hit 70 you're going to get a free set of 290 for completing your main job quest.