My first night on FFXIV

[Absentia]

It started out decent enough. I picked Blacksmith to begin my journey, and partied with my girlfriend as she killed stuff as a Pugilist. We were running around the surrounding areas of Gridania, enjoying the scenery while trying to gather some shards for my first Blacksmithing recipe.

Now, I don't know if I was doing something wrong, but for my recipe I needed 4 earth shards and 4 wind shards. Earth was easy enough to get from the marmots, but it took me 2 1/2 hours to find 2 Bee Swarms to get enough Wind shards... 2 1/2 hours..

What do? D:

[Malacite]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

Level Miner & Botanist

Also do crafting (Local) leves.

[DakAttack]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

Yea, as Mal set, local levequests will provide you with pretty much free materials for free synths.

As far as I know, wind crystals and shards drop from Dodos around Ul'dah. You may also find them on Glowflies and fireflies around Gridania.

[Malacite]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

He said shards not crystals.

I racked up a crapload of them yesterday farming sheepies in souther La Noscea. Also got a lot of other nice things and 2 ranks of Lancer :3

[Etra]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

He said shards not crystals.

As far as I know, wind crystals and shards drop...

Mhm... Can also easily turn crystals into shards.

[Aeni]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

First of all, do the (local) crafting leves. Do them all if you can (might not be able to do a few that asks you to go to very, very far away camps) ... here's why.

1. Materials are provided for you.

2. While you require a minimum amount of shards, they do not get consumed, thus saving yourself shards for your own crafting needs.

3. The amount of skill gains and gains towards physical level is monstrous and ranges from 1,100 to 1,800 experience (< 10 optimal rank) on physical level and 200 to 400 skill on crafting level.

Many players do not know this yet and are constantly burning money where they should be saving it for crafting where it counts. Also, note that a lot of the good bazaar deals come out of non-JP bazaars. Keep this in mind. JP players are often so fixated at trying to come out even that they are oblivious to the wholesale undercutting going on around them. Since there is no AH we don't see this as an issue just yet. As a seller, I could care less, as spending less money is better than spending more money.

Side Note: What is the advantage of wholesale undercutting? This phenomenon was made popular in WoW and the reasoning is that the player who has the necessary skill set to craft higher level gear was well positioned to dictate the price for sought after items. The faster you are positioned, the better established you can become and the more money you can make. The lower level markets are just collateral damage and the quicker you are able to "cut losses" and move on the better off you will be. Most players are not well capitalized to do this and this is usually the work of a well organized guild/LS. Remember, MMORPGs reward (quite handsomely) organized groups more than individual players. Keep this in mind if you are trying to become a "hardcore" crafter without the backing of a guild/LS.

[Malacite]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

Hmm how did that slip my eye... bah.

And yeah if you level your alchemy high enough (15 I believe) you can break crystals down with fine sand into about 16 shards IIRC (go go HQ giving 32+?)

---------- Post added at 12:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 PM ----------

3. The amount of skill gains and gains towards physical level is monstrous and ranges from 1,100 to 1,800 experience (< 10 optimal rank) on physical level and 200 to 400 skill on crafting level.

Many players do not know this yet and are constantly burning money where they should be saving it for crafting where it counts. Also, note that a lot of the good bazaar deals come out of non-JP bazaars. Keep this in mind. JP players are often so fixated at trying to come out even that they are oblivious to the wholesale undercutting going on around them. Since there is no AH we don't see this as an issue just yet. As a seller, I could care less, as spending less money is better than spending more money.

This is precisely why I'm neglecting my combat classes on purpose; I'm really fearing a nerf to money/skill with regards to crafting & gathering, especially against leves as right now the pay off is tremendous.

[DakAttack]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

This is precisely why I'm neglecting my combat classes on purpose; I'm really fearing a nerf to money/skill with regards to crafting & gathering, especially against leves as right now the pay off is tremendous.

And yet people are charging an ass and a leg for a single piece of gear. We need all the money we can get if a pair of boots is going to cost 40k gil.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

Seriously, I've been crafting and go through crystals like nuts. Well I went to look for more and at 500+ a gd shard, screw that! Trying to save for a body piece since I really need to get out of this friggin nub gear.

[DakAttack]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

If you're looking for DoW gear, I've got a connection that might be able to help you. He's got a retainer in Ul'dah, but it hasn't been there due to the servers going down. I talk to him about once a day about his progress; he's pretty dedicated.

I've been messing around with my own retainer and I've made more money than I have simply using a bazaar. My prices are relatively low, but I think I'm finding some of the "market" prices for the ores I sell. I set her up in the first Syntgoht ward, and then advertise for her in Ul'dah before logging off. When I logged back in she wasn't there, but she didn't have some shinies for me.

[Paradigm777]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

At the moment, the only way to get gear is crafting it or paying a lot of gil. I mean, what do you expect? The game just came out. Give it some time and prices will go down once everyone has gone through their crafting levels and more items appear in the market. Everything is going to be inflated right now because everyone is working with the same items.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

And what do you suggest in the mean time since we'll be waiting till the prices go down? Not level our characters various jobs at all? Yes, I'm well aware the game is new and yes I know that prices will be inflated because of it but that doesn't mean its any less frustrating when you are trying to achieve multiple accomplishments.

[Paradigm777]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

And what do you suggest in the mean time since we'll be waiting till the prices go down? Not level our characters various jobs at all? Yes, I'm well aware the game is new and yes I know that prices will be inflated because of it but that doesn't mean its any less frustrating when you are trying to achieve multiple accomplishments.

You have a point but I guess it's really not my playstyle. I'm a fighter. I hit things in the face til it gives me what I want. Other people enjoy crafting. I prefer to farm mobs and give the materials to a crafter or sell them to buy from crafters. The problem is there's nothing to buy at the moment. So I keep grinding. I will level off of dodos until they don't give xp anymore then I'll find something else to kill. It's a time consuming process, but then again, so is crafting. At least when I do it my way I don't have to play that ridiculous synthesis minigame.

If you're looking to do anything in a hurry, you're playing the wrong game. Square Enix wants our money and making things doable in any kind of timely fashion is out of the question.

Trying to save for a body piece since I really need to get out of this friggin nub gear.

I guess I don't have this problem. I leveled from 1-60 in WoW without buying. Granted, it was A LOT easier to level in WoW but as long as I'm soloing I don't think I'm hurting anyone too much like I would have in FFXI (a more group based leveling system) using bad gear.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: My first night on FFXIV

You have a point but I guess it's really not my playstyle. I'm a fighter. I hit things in the face til it gives me what I want. Other people enjoy crafting. I prefer to farm mobs and give the materials to a crafter or sell them to buy from crafters. The problem is there's nothing to buy at the moment. So I keep grinding. I will level off of dodos until they don't give xp anymore then I'll find something else to kill. It's a time consuming process, but then again, so is crafting. At least when I do it my way I don't have to play that ridiculous synthesis minigame.

If you're looking to do anything in a hurry, you're playing the wrong game. Square Enix wants our money and making things doable in any kind of timely fashion is out of the question.




I guess I don't have this problem. I leveled from 1-60 in WoW without buying. Granted, it was A LOT easier to level in WoW but as long as I'm soloing I don't think I'm hurting anyone too much like I would have in FFXI (a more group based leveling system) using bad gear.

1) Me hurry? lol I'm a grandma, I don't do anything quickly any more. Besides I played FFXI for 6 or 7 years so I know the drill. It took me a couple years to hit 75.

2). Right now no one is looking at equips but that could change. It may be only for people who party to do guildleves but people will start looking at equips because they don't want their leve to fail. Add in NM leves, and you bet people will look down their nose at you if you come with nub gear. Also, I'm a Mage, I need any additional vit I can get from gear. My backside gets sore from laying on the ground! lol