Many Questions: New Adventurer, Squadron, Triple Triad & More

[kwsapphire]

Hello! I have lots of questions, & appreciate your help!

1. What is the current requirement for the New Adventurer symbol to go away? I know it used to be 168 hours of play-time & completing The Far Edge of Fate, but I am well past both requirements. So what's the current requirement?

2. What is the New Adventurer sprout symbol that has the little yellow circle underneath it?

3. Is there a sub-forum (here) or a chat channel (in-game) that people usually use for trade? (Looking to trade, looking to buy, looking to sell, etc.)

4. Now that I have 8 squad members, is there a reason to boot them for new recruits? The new ones are always lower level & stats, why would I do this?

5. Same question about the "change squad member's class" - I did this once because I kept not getting any tank recruits, so I swapped a DPS to a tank. I haven't used this item since then. Is there a reason I should?

6. Can I / Should I upgrade my squad's classes to the post-30 versions? i.e. can the conjurer become a white mage? Does she have to? Is there a reason to go one way or the other?

7. Is the White Whittret the only ferret-shaped minion in the game? How many times you have to run Hell's Lid to get it? Is it like a 1% drop rate, or a 0.000001% drop rate?

8. Any advice on how to become a better Triple Triad player is appreciated. Even when I can see all my opponent's cards, I still accidentally set them up to take my whole board (via Plus or Same or whatever). I just cant parse the right moves. Any sites/links with strategies?

9. If a Triple Triad match has a chance to reward you a card you don't already own, do you just have to WIN to get a chance of getting the card, or do you have to win BY A CERTAIN AMOUNT (number of cards) to get the chance?

10. What is the best method of playing with a friend when you don't have a class that is around the same level as them? If I am much higher level than my friend, they won't get XP when they kill stuff. I recently recruited a friend who is very new to MMOs, and I have just been following him around (not on a team) and spot-healing him when he gets into trouble. Is there some kind of sidekick/exemplar/level-scaling solution for this? Or do I just need to get a class to about his same level and just leave it there to partner with him?

11. Can the two-seater chocobos (from bonding ceremony and/or recruit a friend) fly?

12. Given how many mounts say "Terrestrial" but can also fly, how can you tell if a mount can fly or not? Do I just have to look it up on google every time?

13. Can you do anything fun with the black chocobo from Ishgard, or is your company-issued chocobo the only one you can do stuff with (Companion)?

[kwsapphire]

Another question: Why do Fishers get the short end of the stick compared to the other two gathering classes?

- Fewer Actions
Actions at level 30/50/80 | Miner & Botanist 15/21/36 | Fisher 8/10/32

- Harvesting Log
Miners & Botanists can look up the exact location of the item they want, go to that location, and harvest exactly what they want. Fisher's log has no search feature, you just have to scroll through it manually. Then you go to a fishing hole that has the fish you want, cast your line, and cross your fingers.

- Timer
Miners & Botanists can keep running between nodes in the same area for as long as they want. Fishers can fish the same hole for a max of 30 minutes before having to move on.

- Secondary Tools
Miners & Botanists get secondary tools to boost their stats. Fishers do not.

- Mini Map
Botanists & Miners get harvesting node icons on their mini-map. If this exists for Fishers it must be after level 50.

- Directional Action
Botanists & Miners get an Action at level 3 that lets them determine the direction of the nearest harvesting node. Fishers get this action at level 61.

- Inventory
Botanists & Miners need only worry about their gear & what they harvest taking up room in their inventory. Fishers also need to carry around dozens of types of tackle. A tackle-box would be nice.

- Retainers
Botanist & Miner retainers can gather everything (or nearly so) that a player can. Fisher retainers have access to a TINY fraction of what you can fish up. Only a few of them are actually useful in recipes.

Clearly, Fishers got shafted. Was this a conscious decision, or an oversight? Is there any hope that Fishers might be brought more in-line with Botanist & Miner sometime in the future?

[Stepjam]

I'll answer some questions.
8. Your first goal should be to get a five star card and then to get enough cards that you can field 3 stars for the rest. You aren't seriously competitive until you can do that unfortunately.

11. You can just not party with him but heal him as he's doing overworld stuff. That way he gets exp (incidentally, thats the best way to lvl blu)

12. All mounts fly now.

13. Only your personal chocobo is customizeable. You can turn it black, but it takes some rng to do so. Look up chocobo color change and there should be a site that tells you what to feed and what order. But once again, some rng is involved.

Fisher plays completely different than miner/botanist. It tends to only be relevant in a few culinarian and alchemist recipes, otherwise you just fish for the enjoyment of it/certain minionstdisplaying fish in your house. This is deliberate

[Stepjam]

Also a lot of people use their chocobo bag as their tackle box

[Urthdigger]

3: There is basically no point in having a chat channel or forum for that, stuff is either sold on the marketboard, or not regularly purchaseable.
4: No
5: Once you have a squad you like there's no point in them. A decent setup is two people for each stat (plus two all-around), and make sure to have at least one tank, one healer, or one DPS for doing command missions
6: You cannot
9: Just win
10: Do instances with them. Really, you shouldn't be just fighting open world mobs for xp anyway outside of the hunting log (which doesn't get reduced by extra party members).
11 & 12: All of them can fly these days.
13: Your company chocobo is the only companion. There were plans to add more, but so far they have not.

[Stepjam]

I'll answer some questions.
8. Your first goal should be to get a five star card and then to get enough cards that you can field 3 stars for the rest. You aren't seriously competitive until you can do that unfortunately.

11. You can just not party with him but heal him as he's doing overworld stuff. That way he gets exp (incidentally, thats the best way to lvl blu)

12. All mounts fly now.

13. Only your personal chocobo is customizeable. You can turn it black, but it takes some rng to do so. Look up chocobo color change and there should be a site that tells you what to feed and what order. But once again, some rng is involved.

Fisher plays completely different than miner/botanist. It tends to only be relevant in a few culinarian and alchemist recipes, otherwise you just fish for the enjoyment of it/certain minionstdisplaying fish in your house. This is deliberate

[Stepjam]

Oh what, it posted again. Ignore that

[Enkidoh]

#1 from what I understand now requires you to be up to the latest expansion (Shadowbringers), although I do not know if the amount of hours logged requirement has changed.
#2 is simply identifying a New Adventurer who is currently in the Novice Network.
#7 minion drops in dungeons are usually quite random, although they can be frequent, so just keep running it and you should eventually get it. There is now also a meerkat minion added to the game with ShB, although I am unsure where that is gained (and yes, I know a meerkat is a different animal to a ferret, but they look similar at least ).

[kwsapphire]

Awesome, thank you all so very much! Great info!

Another question: Does Head Shot actually interrupt anything? I have tried using it against regular mobs and bosses while they are casting something, and it doesn't seem to interrupt their cast bar or stop them from casting a Big Nasty. Do I have to use it during the first half of the cast, or something?

[Urthdigger]

Interrupt tends to work more for spell-like abilities than physical ones. You can tell if a spell can be interrupted because the monster's cast bar will be flashing. Of note, if a monster can be stunned you can interrupt ANY move by using stun (on melee and tanks, the classes that have it)