FFXIV Random Speculation/Question Thread XI: "How you liking that Beta Phase 5?"

[izembo]

just for missions

[goodr]

Gathering, Crystals/Shards

I know the highest elemental affinity on your character determines what shards you largely get. So far at rank 14 and ~50 wind affinity, I still get between 0-3 shards. What factor gets me more shards and eventually crystals?
- Higher affinity? (I kept my affinity low to more easily control which one was highest and would give me the shards I needed)
- Higher Fisherman rank? / Gathering stat / Output stat
- Higher grade waters? (I'm currently just farming shards in LL)

Thanks for the insight

[miokomioko]

The largest factor of crystal element gathering I've seen is the location's natural elemental output. (e.g. Fishing in the Black Shroud = wind/earth, Fishing in La Noscea = wind/fire, etc.)

You can overcome the natural elemental output of the zone/region/location with affinity. I normally re-assign my points very often to meet the needs of my recent recipes for my crafting classes as I begin to run out of something. It's like the gathering location/zone/region has it's own elemental affinity points that represents your % chance of getting each element crystals that your own elemental affinities get added to. So, it can take a lot of points in something like lightning to get it high enough to compete with the natural output.

I imagine it's something like~ (theory!)

La Noscea fishing affinities:

fire = 100 (50%)
water = 0
ice = 0
wind = 100 (50%)
earth = 0
lightning = 0


Your affinities:

fire: 50
water: 15
ice: 15
wind: 15
earth: 100
lightning: 50


Which results in:

fire: 150 (~37%)
water: 15 (~3%)
ice: 15 (~3%)
wind: 115 (~28%)
earth: 100 (~24%)
lightning: 50 (~12%)

If it were like this theory, I imagine it would possibly ignore or round-down elements under a certain %. Whether or not any of the elements conflict via the elemental "wheels," I'm not sure. I felt like I had to push lightning far more than any other element to get lightning shards...

I have a feeling that rank has a large effect as well... I'm skeptical about stats or even location grades affecting it as my stats have hardly changed since I started, yet I'm Rank-23 and often getting 2~3 shards from almost every catch, regardless of grade.

[Carraway]

To claarify: if a leve offers me LNC marks, I need to accept the leve on LNC to receive them. If a leve offers me goldsmithing marks, it doesn't matter what job I'm on when I accept the leve?

Sorry, I might have misspoken. For LNC marks, you can pick up the leve at the counter on any class. You can start the leve at the aetheryte as any class. You must complete the leve objectives in their entirety while on LNC to receive the full LNC marks. It works on some sort of proportion system, so if you complete 3/4 objectives on a different class, then switch to LNC and finish the last objective, you will receive far less marks than was listed as the reward. I tested this with PUG marks personally, doing an R20 leve as PUG, having accepted the leve originally and started it at the aetheryte as LNC.

I guess then that regional and local leves are the same, because you can pick up a local leve for, say, ARM, while on LNC. To actually complete the leve, you must of course be an ARM. And then you can pick up the reward as any class. I haven't tested the analogous situation on regional leves -- completing the objectives on the class appropriate to the marks rewarded then switching classes before accepting -- but I imagine credit toward the reward is recorded as the objective is completed, so you could conceivably do the same thing.

[goodr]

Doh.. so my primary concern/question right now is whether I'll ever be able to get Crystals (as opposed to the 0-3 shards) and it doesn't sound hopeful at rank 23.

I just bumped up my wind affinity from ~40-50 range to ~110-120 range and in a couple dozen catches, I see the same results (0-3 shards) in the same LL water. If anyone else has insight on upgrading the shard/crystal output, please share Meanwhile, I'll just keep fishing as it feels like an efficient way for me to get shards that aren't earth/fire. Eventually getting crystals and clusters to support my crafting will be super duper.

[miokomioko]

During the closed beta, I was pumping all my affinity into water while I was fishing (sounded appropriate). I was playing a little bit of Archer, but I was not ever killing anything high enough level to drop crystals, let alone of water element. I found that I had a few water crystals in my inventory. Since then, either they removed the ability to gather crystals, they pushed it to far higher ranks/affinities, or I was just hallucinating.

[mdkuser]

I have several Mithril ores for sale, but I didn't see anyone else selling them. Im guessing its for 30+ goldsmithing recipes? How much would people buy them for.

[Sephiroth]

During the closed beta, I was pumping all my affinity into water while I was fishing (sounded appropriate). I was playing a little bit of Archer, but I was not ever killing anything high enough level to drop crystals, let alone of water element. I found that I had a few water crystals in my inventory. Since then, either they removed the ability to gather crystals, they pushed it to far higher ranks/affinities, or I was just hallucinating.

Some mobs dropped crystals in beta, they were just a lot rarer than now. I had about a dozen fire crystals from levelling on moles around Drybone.

[Crizto]

Does pumping certain elements boost crystal drop rate or amount while fighting as well?

[plue]

I have a quick question. At what level are you able to buy the 8k guild mark abilities?

[miokomioko]

Some mobs dropped crystals in beta, they were just a lot rarer than now. I had about a dozen fire crystals from levelling on moles around Drybone.

Thing was, I never got past Archer 10, and I only killed local Warf Rats, Fireflies, and Bumble Beetles. I didn't think any of those could drop crystals, let alone, water.

I have a quick question. At what level are you able to buy the 8k guild mark abilities?

Completing the first class quest should give you access to purchase most, if not all, of the 8,000-mark abilities. At least, that's what happened for Fisher. From what I hear, Rank-20 Quests unlock the 8k abilities, Rank-30 Quests unlock the 10k abilities, and Rank-40 Quests will unlock the 12k abilities.

[Drakath]

I received a status effect today that I cannot get rid of, "Recently equipped gear is causing discomfort, diminishing its properties." I googled it and saw it twice mentioned that you need to change gear during battle. I've tried to do this to no avail... Does it mean changing gear while in active mode? It won't let me do that at all. :S

[goodr]

"Recently equipped gear is causing discomfort, diminishing its properties."

I'm not quite sure what that means as I've only briefly seen it before and it didn't register why. I don't remember having to do any tricks or anything awkward. I'm guessing I just had to put the gear to use?

[miokomioko]

"Recently equipped gear is causing discomfort, diminishing its properties."

This appears to be XIV's answer to the gear-swapping macros that plagued XI. I think you'll only come across the effect if you're using a bunch of macros in short succession. It will reduce the stats of your recently-equipped gear if you're changing it too often, probably in a manner similar to "Heavy Gear Damage." I've only come across it when using a bunch of class-switch macros, one after another, when getting my crap repaired by an NPC.

P.S. You cannot change equipment while in active mode, which is another anti-gear-swap-macro implementation in XIV. The whole gear-discomfort is just a way to keep people (primarily mages) from swapping their gear often.

[Drakath]

However I got it, it wasn't with macros. I believe I changed my leggings at won't point 3 or 4 times to compare stats with my old pair. I've had it for hours now and it isn't going away >_<

[miokomioko]

Macro or not, it's about changing your gear too many times within a short period of time. I don't know how do get it to go away outside of repair NPCs. You may have swapped it so much that you pushed the effect into lasting a long-ass time (similar to "burden" for XI automatons/maneuvers). It's still a little cloudy.

[goodr]

Of course, I did have an ls mate who had a bug with their cooldowns extending into 30-40 minute ranges (instead of 3 seconds). I'm going to guess "hours" is a bug. However, have you tried doing stuff like fighting since the debuff started showing?

[Carraway]

Does pumping certain elements boost crystal drop rate or amount while fighting as well?

Nope.

[Datonare]

Is there always a treasure chest somewhere in every regional leve? The only ones I come across are the ones usually placed in my way, I never really search them out.

[miokomioko]

Is there always a treasure chest somewhere in every regional leve? The only ones I come across are the ones usually placed in my way, I never really search them out.

I have come to the conclusion that they are most definitely not guaranteed, but tend to appear in the same place for a single leve, either on your general path to your target, or right near your target.