New Character // New to the Game

[TenraiNagi]

Hey Bladewall, hope you're enjoying your time ^^

About shopshae (not sure if I spelled it right), it's just a cave with 3 NMs (notorious monsters) it's level 15 to 20-ish, so if u found some people you could check it out! If you're lucky you might find decent gear in there (have to be REALLY lucky )

And about leveling up, leves are a great way and fast, but I find grinding parties faster if you could make one. Or you could join other people in their grinding parties (usually people shout in Uldah so don't bother with limsa or gridania)

Not sure what do you mean about the tradeskill

Another thing to keep in mind is to get your retainer (from the adventurers guild) and put him in Uldah's market as soon as you get the chance, because everyone buys from there.. If the wards weren't already full of course ^^

[Taika]

Hello Bladewall!

Also, more newb questions but, how useful are the tradeskills? Is it something I should immediately focus on or is it something that's fine to wait- continue adventuring and then turn to that down the road?

//EDIT: Oh right, sorry, completely misunderstood your question.
I think you mean the skills you can use from other classes?

There are some skills that are very useful no matter which class you are leveling. I would recommend getting at least Second Wind (instantly restores HP) from Pugilist (level 6) and Cure (level 2) and Protect (level 6) from Conjurer. Other than that, you can focus mainly on skills that Warrior can use (Gladiator and Pugilist skills).

For linkshell, I suggest you check out the Balmung LS list if you haven't done it yet.

[Matsume]

This site is helpful: http://mozk-tabetai.com/

[RicoJalapeno]

I love Pug, but I think I am going to be a Bard. Only thing is I don't want to level conjurer lol.

[Orophen]

By tradeskills, he means crafting. Basically, if you care about being able to fix and augment your own gear, then you should be crafting right now. You're probably going to want to be able to meld your own gear. That means attaching materia to gear to make it stronger. You'll need to be close to 40 in a particular craft to be able to meld the highest level stuff in the game right now. Tbh I'm already at 50 but my crafting is underleveled. So I'm already knocking myself for not focusing on crafting first since I don't have the time or money to sit there and shout for melds right now. You could still shout and hope that a crafter takes you up on your offer to meld your gear for you. There are also systems in the game that will allow you to just put your gear up on your character and let others single meld/repair it. NPCs can also take care of repairing, but at level 50, you're looking at a 5K npc repair bill for each piece of damaged equipment. Including accessories.

But like I said, if you want to be able to do it yourself, might as well start now. Gathering classes can help and can also net you additional monies.

[Estellios]

Crafting or Gathering are nice ways to make money. The former you may want to take advantage of guildleves as they give you materials to use along with free materials upon completion that you can use to make items to sell. Crafting XP and speed got revamped a lot this last patch so it's a lot quicker to get a crafting class up to speed and keep it within a reasonable range of your main battle class.

Gathering XP is erratic, you will gain a TON of experience when you first get to the next tier of camp but it gradually slows to a crawl until you reach the next tier and you are gaining ridiculous XP again. Even so, you get a lot of useful free materials out of it that will help you make money with crafting or you can just sell them as-is.

Neither are necessary if you end up not liking them, as you can get money through guildleve grinds and just from farming and selling more valuable items. If you need info on how to craft or gather, you can take a look at Synthesis here and Gathering here.

For Marauder you may want to consider working on Armorsmithing and Mining. Most of your high level repairs will be your Armor and it will save you a lot of money if you can do it yourself.

[RicoJalapeno]

Items Question to you veterans:

Is there a website that list's items, and what they are worth on the wards? I know FF11 had an AH database. I am having trouble going though my stuff and deciding what's worth selling on my retainer, and what's better to sell to an NPC.

[Taika]

Is there a website that list's items, and what they are worth on the wards? I know FF11 had an AH database. I am having trouble going though my stuff and deciding what's worth selling on my retainer, and what's better to sell to an NPC.

Not really, your best bet is to use the Item search function at the Market Wards in game and compare the prices to the NPC prices you see on Moogle Box.

[Mikita]

Hi and welcome to FFXIV! I just thought I'd add my 2 cents to the thread. ^^

Shposhae
Definitely worth doing for the experience. It's a fun low level dungeon to run around in and fight things, and the NM fights are fun as well. But you will probably quickly outgrow any equipment you get here, so it may not be worth doing repeatedly for the drops.

On a side note, an R50 player can practically one shot the NMs in Shposhae, so if you value experiencing the dungeon I'd recommend going with a few people while you're all in the R20 to 25 range if at all possible.

Crafting and Gathering
Some people love these activities, and some people hate them. But they are an integral part of the game and you will eventually need to work on these if you want to be somewhat self reliant, so it would be good to get started now because it can take a while if you only work on them between adventuring activities. Or you can befriend people who have put in the time to level these and who can help you out.

Doing it for profit...
Crafting by itself may not be a money making activity... in fact, it can sometimes cost quite a bit to get the materials you need if you need to buy them in the markets. Gathering brings new raw materials into the economy and therefore has greater potential for earnings if you can collect items that are in demand. Of course, the best combination is finding complementary activities and leveling them up together. ^^

Starting Class
One of the great things about FFXIV is that you can freely change classes and find the ones you like to play. I started as a Lancer, then switched to Pugilist main before finally finding my heart was in Conjury and being a White Mage.

Being able to use abilities from other classes is also integral to the game, and jobs have sub-class requirements as well. So even if you start as one class you have the freedom to try other classes, then mix some of the abilities you've learned from each. ^^

[Bladewall]

You all are AWESOME, thanks so much for all the awesome pointers. Wow. I've set aside a couple hours tonight to work on crafting/gathering, armorsmithing and mining as Estellios suggested-- and I will also, hopefully, push through more of the Skull Valley camp.

Mikita after reading your great post I'll try to curb my enthusiasm about profits-- at least, heh, to start out with. So long as I can sustain my gear to some degree and help keep myself up to snuff... That'll be enough for now. Even if it becomes something of a gil-dump.

I've been working on Marauder/Gladiator almost exclusively but I'll shoot for spending some time with Pugilist and Conjurer to kind of round out my abilities because of your post Taika. If I hadn't read it, I would have, probably foolishly, just plowed ahead as just a Marauder/Gladiator until I unlocked warrior- so thank you for that input.

Heh, I feel like I'm just barraging you all with questions (thanks for your patience!) but I have a few more...

Outside of Shposhae I haven't really seen many other dungeons- is that something that is in the works for 2.0? Are there many other dungeons to explore as a team? Or is it mainly named monster hunting for the time being?

Had a friendly player direct me to the camp where I could pick up a Goobbue when I hit level 30- - I also unlocked Battlecraft achievements. I understand that as I gain achievement points I can exchange those for items, is that true? When I get to higher levels is it worth it to focus on gaining those achievement points?

Finally, as far as starting areas go, I hear alot of people saying to head to Ul'dah for groups and linkshells. I'm really liking Limsa Lominsa's style right now-- if I wanted to kind of stay put where I'm at for a little while, when would it be a good idea to kinda change my base of operations to Ul'dah? Does the main story quest chain that begins in Limsa Lominsa eventually head there?

Thank you all!!