Some Questions From A New Player.

[Lopti]

Hello all, I am a new player I am a long time MMO player and just started Final Fantasy as I was bored of WoW & ESO. I have a few questions though if you don't mind. Apologies in advance for the somewhat long post.

1. Is crafting worth it? I love gathering and crafting in games however in majority of games I have played crafting becomes useless at end game and you level quick enough that doing it for while leveling just becomes a waste of time. So are any of the gathering/crafting professions worth going into?

2. I love playing Alts, I know in this game you can do everything on one character however for RP reasons I want to have two characters. One that is a Miqo'te who I am doing any of the melee type jobs I want to play with and another that is a Lalafell that I want to do any of the caster type of jobs I want to play with. (I think a Lalafell of that new class coming out with the big paintbrush would be awesome) Is this a thing people do in this game? or is there a reason you really should only play your one character?

3. What is the max item level? and does it increase every patch or is it every expansion or not at all etc...? I like going for best in slot items when possible but also get burnt out if they are useless after just a few months which is why I am wondering.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies and if there is anything else you feel like I should know when starting out feel free to add that in your post as well

[Enkidoh]

Welcome to Eorzea!

I'm not a crafter so I can't really answer your first question, but for the other two, firstly, this game isn't really alt-friendly, in that it's extremely difficult to send gear between different characters (they have to be on your Friend List to send items via the Moogle Delivery Service, and that's not possible with alts as a character has to be logged in to receive and accept a Friend Request), but I do know many players who do have alts for RP so it is possible! (I have alts myself but... I barely touch them sadly, I have enough on my plate playing Enki enough as it is!).

For your final question, the current highest equipment item level available is 665 I believe, and yes, this is further raised with content patches and expansion packs. Best in Slot is really something that isn't a major thing to worry about here, because the gear level is being raised frequently, what is current 'BiS' quickly becomes irrelevant, and eventually, junk useful only for glamour (and fights become less about what gear you have and more the skill of the player). And unless you're running endgame stuff like Unreal/Ultimate fights, it's not needed. As long as you're keeping up to date with gear before the level cap (currently 90), then it's not a big thing to worry about.

Anyway, welcome again!

[Senryo]

Welcome to Eorzea !

No Alt !
I am a Wow refuge myself, I found playing alt a bit painfull, you have to redo MSQ (Main Story Quest) with your alt, you can't send either gil, not equipment. I have to confirm that you can do some side quest only once per realm.

Good Craft
I find crafting very fun to play (not only because all NPCs will be astonished by your craft), note however that crafting is inventory space consuming, you'll need servant and thus a paid account.

[Bun_Vivant]

I enjoy crafting and gathering in FFXIV, and crafting does not become useless at endgame: a quick look at the prices that endgame crafted gear sells for on the marketboards will give you plenty of evidence of that.

As another response hinted at, being a crafter often means wanting more space to store material, so you may not be satisfied with the two free retainers you get and may want to buy more; they are $2/month each for up to six additional retainers, with one more available if you subscribe to the Companion App.

Alternatively, you can create up to 8 characters on the same world, have them all join the same Free Company (FC), and then trade mats between them through the FC chest. This works best if you create the FC yourself or with friends.
Either way, inventory management will be a thing. I have 9 retainers on my main characters, and it's barely enough.

Because you cannot friend (and therefor cannot send Moogle mail to or share a house with) your own alts, the game is not particularly alt friendly. What helps is to either have a friend/spouse you play with quite often, or spring for a second subscription (or do both, as I do.)

But having alts is fun and useful at times: for example, when my spouse and I melded up our latest characters to reach L90 in all their craft and gather classes, we wound up using nearly all the seafarer's couries we'd accumulated on our 10 Island Sanctuaries to do so. For another example, some time-gated activities (like Custom Deliveries) have very high profit-to-effort ratios, and having multiple alts allows you to do them more times per week.

And of course, more alts means more opportunities to role-play and to play dress-up with the glamour system: what looks good on a tall sexy fem-Viera or statuesque buff fem-Roe doesn't necessarily look as good on a petite cute fem-Auri (much less on a potato) and having alts of all types lets you discover that.

Others have answered your question on item levels.
Note that top-level crafted gear is currently 640, and can be upgraded to 650, which is only slightly less awesome than the highest-level 665 gear you can get by raiding. You'll only really notice the difference if you're doing the toughest content in the game.

Gotta go, servers are back up.

[Frizze]

Welcome! Lets take a shot at these.

1. Yes, crafting is worth it though by no means required. Crafting is a good source of gil, a convenient way to gear alt classes while leveling, and a way to get up to speed with endgame gearing. If you have the right crafting classes leveled you can repair your own gear(the benefits are not having to go back to town/in dungeon repair and being able to repair gear to above 100% durability), or the gear of others if they ask. Additionally, every crafting class has its own set of class quests to go through - several of which have nice stories(and crafting itself is its own minigame that you may or may not enjoy). With that said, all the things you can craft are tradeable/sellable so if you dont enjoy it you can still get any item you might want if you dont mind paying. Side note: gathering classes also work as a source of gil, they have their own version of a minigame(mining/botanist share, fishing is its own thing), and they ALSO have their own stories to enjoy.

2. The game isnt considered alt friendly. There isnt a convenient way to transfer items between characters. More importantly, unlocks in this game are per character and most are tied to MSQ progress. So you ultimately need to play the whole story and unlock all the things you care about for each character(or pay for skips which is its own issue). There are people who do it, but it isnt convenient.

3. Currently max ilvl is 660/665. This increases 3 times per expansion(on the even patches so .0 .2 and .4 - the patches that the raids come out). When it goes up they add a new tier of crafted gear, new currency gear(you get currency for doing basically any content at max level), and new raid gear - all of which will be at a higher level then the previous raid gear. So BiS changes a little more then once per year. Whether this is too often or not is for you/each player to decide for yourself.

[Lopti]

Cool, thx for all the responses.

[Jeeqbit]

Many people play crafters and gatherers and they are popular due to having rotations and intricacies, or being relaxing like fishing and gathering. But it’s not for everyone.

RPers and glamour enthusiasts do make alts, but the game has barely any support for it so your progress isn’t shared between characters.

The max item level is 660. It increases by 30 every 2 patches which is 8 months or so, except expansion launches which is a bit different. If that isn’t your thing you can just buy crafted gear from the marketboard and you’re done until the next update even-numbered patch.

[Yuella]

Crafters get their pay day whenever a major raid tier is released. New crafted gears are released at the same time as the raid tier and they are in demand because you can meld 5 materias on them. Raiders also need potions and food during raid progs.

[Brightamethyst]

1 - "Is crafting worth it" is completely subjective. If you enjoy crafting and gathering, go for it. But if you don't, you're not missing out an anything super vital either. You can always pick it up later if you change your mind.

2 - You can play alts if you want, but you'll effectively be playing the entire game twice because absolutely NOTHING is account wide (other than account level things like collector edition and pre-order bonus items, and such.) Every quest, every story mission, every dungeon, trial, raid, feature unlock, mount, minion, Triple Triad card...EVERYTHING will have to be done and/or collected again on your second character. That's the main reason people don't play alts in this game. It's just too big a hassle when you have to redo EVERYTHING, every single time.

3 - Max item level is currently 660, though were likely to see that increase to 720 (if the pattern holds) in July when the expansion releases. Historically, item levels increase three times per expansion. Once at launch, alongside the new level cap and the new raid. Again in the x.2 patch with the second raid tier, and lastly in the x.4 patch, with the third and final raid tier of the expansion. Those events tend to be 8ish months apart, so you have to time to get and use BIS for a while before it becomes obsolete.

4 - For other starting advice, if you haven't already, make sure you unlock the Challenge Log ASAP. It's free exp and gil for doing things you're already doing anyway.