AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

[Oshmay]

Did some research on the starting AH's for all three factions on several servers, including Asura and Phoenix, and I'm beginning to feel like low-mid level gear will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find. In some cases there are transactions dating back a year of more for simple low level items like Scale, Bone, and Lizard armor sets.

I'm willing to put forth the effort required to travel internationally to aquire gear from vendors as it becomes available through ownership of different regions, but there are certain sets which can only be crafted.

Any advice on gear acquisition for a returning player and his similarly returning duo partner?

Currently located on the Valefor server.

Thanks in advance.

[Durahansolo]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

I'm willing to put forth the effort required to travel internationally to aquire gear from vendors as it becomes available through ownership of different regions, but there are certain sets which can only be crafted.

What about Jeuno's AH? I'm sure that is a long run to go just for a few armor pieces but it will still be cheaper than going to certain NPC vendors.

[Feba]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

shouldn't need to travel much for gear prior to level 20, and after that you should be basing yourself out of Jeuno, so the starter city AHs aren't an issue. Soloing up to 20 or so isn't uncommon now, so you don't need to worry about having the best gear you can find. If finding decent equipment on your server is really that much of an issue, don't worry about it, your party members would be in the same boat after all.

[Satori]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

most of the lower level gear is from Npc's.
The scale set is available in bastok markets.
Many of them pop out of treasure caskets also.

[Elwynn]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

The simple fact is that FFXI is now top-heavy. Most people have access to at least Jeuno.

Did you stop to think that maybe the reason nobody sells stuff in the nation cities is because nobody buys stuff there? Why should I keep one or more of my seven AH slots used up on the chance that someone might want a low level item? And even when I use a city mule, they still don't sell. The truth is that very little gear, especially gear that can be worn by very few jobs, has any kind of demand. Cobra Tunicas will usually sell, but that's because +8 MP for any job at level 1 is so big. Some crafting materials will sell well (like clothcraft materials needed for woodworking), and some meds (everyone can use Yagudo Drink), but not something that's only usable by one of the initial six jobs.

And by doing enough FoV, I can now home point my mules in Jeuno yet still keep them in the nation cities. 50 tabs a trip isn't cheap, but it's not too out of range if you don't do it very often. A chocobo from Jeuno to one of the three nearest OPs (or even walking across Qufim if you can deal with the bats) can also get you to your home nation pretty quick.

[Aksannyi]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

Really up until about level 10 you can probably wear the same cloth armor you start with in the game. Worry about your spells (if applicable, of course) and your weapon above all. Yeah, it's kind of a bitch but that equipment really doesn't provide much in the way of stat boosts, really just your defense, which is really not that important in the grand scheme of the game.

If you don't want to spend time/tabs running back and forth to Jeuno, create a mule and run it there (good practice avoiding aggro while you're at it!), send it some gil, and have it buy what you need and send it to you through the delivery box. That way, you can spend your time at home working on your character's progress and not spend hours of your life running back and forth to a city just to buy gear.

---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 PM ----------

Also, depending where you start, there are some quests that will reward you with gear. One in Sandy that I can recall gives out a Robe, one in Bastok gives a Bronze Subligar, so look into questing some of that stuff because you might be able to get some free crap just from running around town doing shit for NPCs.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

Stat boosts tend to be meager at best until players start getting into their 40s and 50s. There are a few exceptions, but I wouldn't consider them critical exceptions, just icing on the cake.

As others have said, worry about upgrading weapons and spells first, then armor if you can afterward. Stat boosts remain a lowe priority for the early portion of the game, its once you hit the late 40s and early 50s you'll notice mobs are becoming more evasive, resistant to magic and have higher defense. For now, the stat curve on enemes is pretty tame.

[Mhurron]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

This worry about gear after is all fine and good except that your looking at a situation (on Kujata and I doubt that it's much different on many other servers) where normal, expected gear is nonexistent in Jeuno or the starting cities. I'm talking about things like scale mail, Lizard, Bone, Beetle, the Chainmail set.

Honestly it isn't until around level 30 gear that you are able to find even the most basic of gear without camping the AH or knowing a crafter. I don't even want to think about what it might be like for someone who doesn't have Jeuno easily accessible.

[Alkisti]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

Well I have just come back to the game and i am currently a level 18WAR/18THF. I managed to get hold of an Inferno Axe & i am using the conquest points armor. It really isn't that bad. I can get groups for Valkurm Dunes and i can solo pretty much everything in La Theine Plateau. The only thing i think i could really use that is never on the AH is some capes...but other than that, it really isn't that hard to get by.

[Solymir]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

Don't worry too much about getting the best gear, especially on your first job before you have access to Jeuno. It gets a lot easier after you make your way there.

On a side note, I recently started leveling Drg, picking it up from level 16. I noticed there are some nice pieces of gear for low level players these days.

[Lunaryn]

Re: AH's empty in starter cities, enthusiasm dampened.

The starting cities' AHs have been basically dead ever since deflation sucked the volume out of the crafting market. I still watch the Bastok AH at times since it still has some niche use for mining and such, but even that has dwindled quite a bit. As for low-level crafted gear, part of the issue there is that, at least historically, such things tend to cost a fair bit more to make than they can be realistically sold for. The high price of HQs pushed high-level crafters to make them anyway, but with low demand even HQ prices have dropped substantially, and it's increasingly difficult to sell off synthesized gear once made. Where that's not the case there's often tricky cross-craft requirements.