New or Returning Players Discussion 2: SoA Homeless Veterans Edition

[Guitarman]

Two quick questions, came back after 2 years and I'm hugely overwhelmed:

Is elivira unavailable as a trust right now? I didn't see shammi in Bastok S. Looking for a strong ranged trust to position my other 2 behind.

And any suggestions for how to grind sparks efficiently? I tossed my mog pell from the adventurers campaign like an idiot, so that's out.

[falseliberty]

Hey just came back a week ago, I remember someone mentioning that that there was a change to the way skillups in crafting now works?

[Rehn]

Best way to grind sparks is during gain experience challenge on: sunday 6AM CST/monday 10PM CST/wednesday 2PM CST. aoe all the things and you'll rake in sparks very nicely depending on how fast you pull

For crafting you can now cap your skill at (recipe level + 11). So if it was 1, you can cap your skill at 12 on it.

[Guitarman]

Best way to grind sparks is during gain experience challenge on: sunday 6AM CST/monday 10PM CST/wednesday 2PM CST. aoe all the things and you'll rake in sparks very nicely depending on how fast you pull

For crafting you can now cap your skill at (recipe level + 11). So if it was 1, you can cap your skill at 12 on it.

Thank you!

Would BLU cleaving be effective for this?

[Rehn]

I do. Sometimes I would go out to reisenjima on blu and just destroy packs of mobs 10-15 at a time. With escha zones respawn rate, you can cap sparks fast if you can keep up your mp. If you find your gear not being able to handle reisen, then zitah works fine too. The area where efts/bugard mingle was where I used to cleave before reisen was released. The shadow dragon/puk by #2 also is a great area. Just gotta find out how much you can handle.

[Zidya]

Hey, all. Came back recently and am completely lost when it comes to a Rudra's build for DNC. Really gearing dnc in general....any and all input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Silenka]

Two quick questions, came back after 2 years and I'm hugely overwhelmed:

Is elivira unavailable as a trust right now? I didn't see shammi in Bastok S. Looking for a strong ranged trust to position my other 2 behind.

I don't know about Elivira but Semih Lahfina and Shantotto II are both very strong trusts that fight from range. Semih is from the main storyline and Shantotto II should be available for login points right now (but not for much longer). I haven't really found another ranged dps trust I actually like outside from those 2, and I replaced Semih with Shantotto II when I got her because Semih AoEs and it's annoying >_>

[Talint]

Yo I just got a goblin chocolate from an ab key wtf.

Probably because I got an abjuration I already have?

[Isiolia]

Yo I just got a goblin chocolate from an ab key wtf.

If you already have whatever abjuration it randomed up for you, you get goblin crap instead.

[Windowpane]

Hi everyone,

Just came back as well with my brother. Been enjoying it so far, but information seems so sparse these days. I have a couple questions and I apologize if they've been answered.

1.) Does anyone have a gallery or anything of what jobs look like end game? Just a typical mid-high tier set or something. I have no idea of the best gear and just want to get an idea since this game is a big 14 year long fashion show. (mostly for whm/blm/thf/drg)
2.) Where to start with 119 gear?
3.) What's the best strategy for farming alexandrite?

Thanks.

[Silenka]

Hi everyone,

Just came back as well with my brother. Been enjoying it so far, but information seems so sparse these days. I have a couple questions and I apologize if they've been answered.

1.) Does anyone have a gallery or anything of what jobs look like end game? Just a typical mid-high tier set or something. I have no idea of the best gear and just want to get an idea since this game is a big 14 year long fashion show. (mostly for whm/blm/thf/drg)
2.) Where to start with 119 gear?

The job forums on http://www.ffxiah.com/ seem to have a lot of the relevant info about job gear now, although a lot of the OPs are outdated but a combo of looking at those + the most recent posts in those threads should give you a good idea of what to shoot for. Unfortunately, I also have not found any posts that include a detailed list of fully updated optimal endgame sets for any job, either.

As for what to start with on 119 gear, the Alluvion skirmish armor is pretty easy to get, and I believe you can get some pieces through kupons you get through Records of Eminence Tutorial (advanced) achievements. It's a good place to start. Ambuscade in Mhaura also gives different armor sets every month you can work towards, though their quality seems to vary. You can follow this guide to start off with.

[Damane]

Hi everyone,

Just came back as well with my brother. Been enjoying it so far, but information seems so sparse these days. I have a couple questions and I apologize if they've been answered.

1.) Does anyone have a gallery or anything of what jobs look like end game? Just a typical mid-high tier set or something. I have no idea of the best gear and just want to get an idea since this game is a big 14 year long fashion show. (mostly for whm/blm/thf/drg)
2.) Where to start with 119 gear?
3.) What's the best strategy for farming alexandrite?

Thanks.

1.) Job Tier list for HIGH-Endgame (as in Reisenjima HELMs, Reisenjima T3 and some Ruaun T3, everything else can be done with any job combo)

SSS (Those jobs are used in all content and are even sought after in exp/cp partys):
BLM SCH GEO

SS (Those jobs are used in almost all content but can/will be replaced by other jobs):
PLD RUN

S (Those jobs are fairly used in almost all content but not mandatory or arent usefull):
COR WHM BLU BST

A (Those jobs have a very niche use for High end content and PTs):
PUP BRD SMN RDM

...

Bottom of bottom tier list (those jobs are only used for CP/Exp pts and easy stuff like HM battles, ambuscade etc., ecxept if you know the person is awesome):
SAM WAR DRG NIN RNG DRK MNK THF DNC

2.) Start with Sparks gear
----> there just was another batch of sparks gear released (not sure how this goes through with this update)
----> for nukers: Alluvion Skirmish gear, if you can make a shortcut do reisenjima nukeing gear
----> for melees: Alluvion skirmish gear, if you can make a shortcut do escha zitah or escha ruaun
----> for some jobs: Ambuscade

Pls note you can only make a shortcut if people carry you.

3.) finish the Rhapsody of Vanadiel missions (to the point where you get the KI for reduced salvage entrance wiat time) ----> go spam a Salvage zone every 1 hour you want to do.

EDIT: just noticed i read your 1. question wrong

[Windowpane]

Thanks for the answers guys. It's a good start. And Damane that's good info to have anyway.

[Guitarman]

what would I search in bgwiki or otherwiki to learn about ilvl? I keep coming up empty. I left before this was implemented, and I'm not fully grasping the full effect of the system. Things like why can i not equip Ayar tabar, etc.

[Gokulo]

Do you mean Arasy Tabar? If then it has nothing to do with iLv, but rather the fact that this item has Superior Level 1, which you unlock with Job Points.
iLv is basicallt a way to show the item strength, since we stopped at 99 there had to be another way to show increase in gear power.

[CDF]

I'm trying to do the final BCNM for the SoA storyline but I can't get it out of magic immunity mode. What is the gimmick for this?

I've seen some "solo" mage videos where the magic immunity wears off eventually.

Edit: when magic immunity is activated, this is indicated by glowing earrings. Skillchains appear to remove the magic immunity (blue proc). This occurred with Dancer's Fury (Lilisette II) > Ground Strike (Distortion).

[Zumi]

FFXIV is my main game I play now but I been coming back to play FFXI some if I am capped on tomes or finished the weekly raids already in FFXIV.

How does gear progression work now?

Where I am at now is I grinded out a set of AF1 119 gear for my Paladin about a year ago then I already beat all the SoA and RoV missions mostly all solo except for the last boss of RoV. By looking at BGwiki I see they added a ton of new content, new 3 delve zones, incursion, Vagary, Sinister Reign. They also upped the cap on merits, and added job points since I played too.

Is it more important to try and cap my stats and other stuff with merits, try to get job points or better to try some of this new stuff for better gear?

I see that Empyrean 119 Gear is unlocked from Vagary but nobody does that. But the problem is nobody really does anything cause server seems empty. Is there some solo able end game stuff that I should be doing that drops better gear then 119 AF1?

[Byrthnoth]

There is a Vagary campaign starting soon.

Asura has kinda become the de facto NA server, so if you actually want pickup groups for anything it's probably best to spend $5 (or whatever) and transfer there. If you don't like it, I'm pretty sure they removed the time limitation on server transfers when they made them cheaper.

[dasva]

You can also super low man (I think tribox is lowest I've heard of for all bosses) vagary so might not be too hard to get a couple of people to take you along who are low manning for profits during the campaign.

As far as more important... well you will be getting job points while getting merits anywhere decent.

As far as gear it really depends on the job and such. Depending on jobs and what you want to do with it you can find relevant pieces in all the content you listed all reforged sets alluvion skirmish ambuscade and escha gear. Some of those being a lot easier to get a pickup/solo. Speaking of ambuscade if you had come in sooner would definitely recommended that some decentish pieces but points reset literally tonight so you probably wont be able to get enough before new sets roll out. Probably can get the old sulevia set again next time though which is an upgrade to some of your reforged af and everyone is going to be doing it

[StanDarsh]

Left the game back in 2013 when abyssea and voidwatch were still pretty poppin'. Can anyone explain where I need to start at fresh? Are abyssea fell cleaves parties still the way to level from 30-99 quickly?