new player general thoughts/questions

[Yuri-G]

four things:

1) Aetherial gear. why do I have so much of it and what use is there for it? can't AH it... can't even equip most of it; I keep getting drops for Disciples of War lol.

2) oh my god is XPing on SCH so much easier. I still like SMN for burning things/some quests, but SCH is freaking easy-mode. summon Eos -> do whatever I want while she keeps me alive -> win.

3) speaking of XPing on SCH: duty finder -> 2-minute wait -> dungeon is SO. NICE. I'm never DPSing dungeons again, unless it's just for fun. often the duty roulette commences a duty as soon as I select "join." I love this!

4) speaking of dungeons: some asshat got mad at me for needing a Doctore's hat because "you're level 30, you don't really need it." true, but bitch I do need the 50k gil. I didn't even respond; I feel like money drops like that are fair game.

[Kirbyprime]

1) Toss them to the GC for seals.
2) Welcome to EZmode, 5% chance of running into pugs that will kick you if you dare DPS because they're at 98% HP instead of full
3) Healer queues are nice, needed for everything so never all that long
4) People get mad over anything / everything. He'd probably yell at you even if you did need it because of some other retarded reason.

Also, that's 4 things.

[Yuri-G]

I changed it! lol.

I haven't run into any of 2) yet but I'm waiting for it. I dps like crazy on my SCH but always make healing a priority - if we're in a dungeon and the tank pulls four mobs, for example, I don't even look at my DoTs until I'm certain things are under control. Eos is good but she's not that good.

I have too many seals already... what's the best use for them?

[octopus]

Are you doing the relic quest? Then exchange for those bombard cores for 20k seals each (and you'll need 4).

I also use them to level gathering/crafting by getting those engineering scrolls.

[Yuri-G]

I'm only 34 right now but the way this game is going I'll be doing relic eventually, yeah. first MMO I'll ever hit max level in due to duty roulette/challenge log.

I'll do some research on that, thanks.

[Kirbyprime]

You could buy ventures and toss them onto retainer quick ventures as well for some random loot. Quicks sometimes gives pretty decent stuff especially if you're still leveling.

[Yuri-G]

I will look into that. haven't done any retainer ventures yet; I only use mine for the AH

[ArchDizzle]

You can also SB the aetherial gear into lower tier materias

[Corrderio]

-Snip-

1) Aetherial gear is just equipment but with slightly higher stats and drop like candy from leves/lowbie dungeons. Can come in pretty handy for leveling if it's something you can use. However if you can't/don't want to use it, do what Kirby said and trade them in for seals. For seals the best items IMO to spend them on are:

-Crafting/Gathering manuals for an EXP boost (If you decide to do a DOH/DOL)
-Ventures for your retainer
-Level 50 GC weapon just for something to use til you get your relic or something better. Though you might be able to get something off the MBs now that's better.
-Bombard Cores for when you get to the Nexus => Zodiac phase of your relic weapon

2) I don't know squat about SCH (Though I had some interest, but kinda think I'd fail hard at it), so can't comment.

3) Honestly, the only place I think DPS have an edge for queue times is WoD.

4) It's going to be like that at 50 anyway. People will need/greed everything for money GCS so don't sweat it.

[Yuri-G]

it's hard to fail at SCH. at least in early levels... later on I hear it gets much more difficult due to lack of AoE and burst healing. seriously though, low-level duty roulette? summon Selene (or Eos, but Selene is more useful) and just do whatever you want 95% of the time. exception for really nasty boss attacks or larger-than-normal pulls.

more thoughts:
- fuck you story quests. stop getting in the way of my character progression. level 37 SMN and I can't even run Titan yet. grr
- low-level duty roulette is XP Jesus. holy shit.

[Yuri-G]

sorry to keep bumping but I don't see a random question thread in here so!

today's question:

is it better to focus on story quests, grind levels, or bit of both? obviously you have to grind levels to unlock story quests, but I'm at 37 right now and my story quests are on level 30. at the same time, I only have so much time to play and don't like wasting the duty roulettes and challenge logs entries. I can't really get all of those done AND do story quests all in one week; it's just more time than I want to commit. I think I might dump the FATE challenge log entries for now, but stick with the levequests (to burn plates) and the dungeon quests (because I'm duty rouletting errday anyway) as well as the player commendation one (same reason).

if it helps I'm ACN/SCH/SMN and thus story quests are highly relevant to my interests (i.e. getting Titan and Garuda).

any thoughts?

[Kirbyprime]

You'd need the story quests done to do most of the progression post 50 so they'll need to be done regardless. You could skip out on any other quests if time is an issue. I would say do roulettes daily for leveling and leave the story quest stuff until the weekends or whenever you have more free time. For the most part they're easy but stupid since they're 90% fetch quests with some random overworld mob encounters. Can just skip past all the story cutscenes because SE didn't exactly do all that great a job with the story in 2.0 in my opinion.

[Raldo]

Story is definitely important, there are so so many things that are cockblocked by story progression. That said, it's not going to hurt you greatly to be somewhat behind, until you're level 50.

Out of all of those things you listed in your challenge log, I'd dump the levequests. They're generally slower than FATEs for less exp.

[Yuri-G]

ok. I'm definitely sticking with the daily duty because the XP/time ratio is insane, and running dungeons is my favorite part of the game anyway. I'll have to rebalance my weekend playtime and fit more story progression in. I just hate the quests because - as you said - it's 90% fetch this, talk to that guy, etc.

[Arthars]

dont forget the "retrieve corpse" part

[Kirbyprime]

Look, you're a warrior of light. Of course you can fit corpses into your pocket.

[Yuri-G]

ha. I just did that quest a little bit ago.

[Corrderio]

Yeah, have fun with the fetching. Most of the main story is pretty much fetch/filler instead of story progression.

[Popiyopi]

You have a magic pocket!

[Yuri-G]

On the one hand: bitch please you can't walk halfway across the courtyard to tell someone something yourself? Goddamn lazy NPCs.

On the other hand: 7k xp for less than sixty seconds of work... ok, fair enough.

Hit 42 this weekend. anticipating 50 by the weekend after... MAYBE this coming weekend, but we'll see. I don't XP outside of duty roulettes and challenge log because I like to keep my time spent/xp earned ratio high.

Also, as I alluded to in a couple of other threads: Titan get! pickup group, we wiped maybe four or five times. Titan is definitely a step up from everything else so far. Landslide is really hard to dodge on my connection... it's the first element of the game so far that has made me consider moving from DSL to ethernet. I ended up just moving up close so when it did hit me (which was often, I'm sorry to say) I could just heal out of it instead of being pushed off the edge. glad I came as SCH though; the extra DPS pushed us through Titan's Heart on the final win. which, by the way, we did with one person left at 300ish HP because I messed up and got pushed off the edge right at the end of the fight. whatever, a win's a win!

also, Landslide is really confusing as a healer because I kept trying to find bodies to raise before I realized they had been pushed off the edge. just saying.

in regards to XP the only thing I've had to cut back on is the levequests - getting five different plates is a no-brainer and easy XP, but doing 20 of them is just plain unnecessary unless you have time (and plates) to burn.

also, I have no freaking clue what's going on in the story because I stopped caring and embraced the ESC button. I'm ok with this. except when Y'shtola is talking, because she's awesome.