New player question - Does this sound right?

[Dmoloth]

If you check the Levequest before you accept it, you can see what sort of gear it's going to give you. The reward is based on the Levequest level and not your level so it may not always be a good pick up. It's basically free though so if it's something you want either for an upgrade or just for glamour, go right ahead.

Another great way to gear up as you go in the beginning is to use your Grand Company seals and buy the gear from them. It sort of jumps around a bit in required level (you might see a pair of pants for your class at level 25 but then nothing until level 32 or something) but it's often good enough to stick with until you get the next tier that they offer even if it seems like you're sitting on a "weaker" piece for a long time. The only major caveat to this is the highest level weapon they sell for level 50 which costs WAY too many seals for what is actually a relatively weak weapon.

Gear at lower levels is kind of funny in FF14 and doesn't really settle in until you hit level 50 where you get your full set of job gear and can use that as a baseline and improve from there. Just make note that at the big level breakpoints (50, 60, 70 and 80) you'll see various item power tiers all at the same required experience level. If you're looking at these on the player market you may not want to buy, for example, the first level 50 piece of gear you see because there are going to be multiple versions of level 50 gear and you may be able to get a better tier one for a relatively better price.

I joined the Grand Company at level 30, so when I got my first currency it looked to be giving out level 20-ish gear, which was not much better than I had. I took a couple of quests from NPCs in the vicinity of of the GC, but they just moved me to PvP stuff (which I am definitely not ready for at this point). At this point, I’m not sure where to even get quests from them to get more currency... and I am a bit worried that it will just lead me towards the same trap, where my level runs way too high for the gear I would earn.

If things slow down at 50, that might help help me get back on track though.

Thanks very much for the information.