Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

[Kitalrez]

So, my little Marauder is about to ding 10 and I've been playing around with getting him some upgrades to weapons and armor. The problem I'm finding is that the lack of an AH makes even figuring out what I need difficult.

Having realized that I need a Bronze War Axe or Bronze Labrys, I spent the last few days trying to figure out how to acquire one... hilarity ensued.

1. Having already looked up both these items, I knew that I had more than enough blacksmithing skill to simply make one if I could find the parts. Since I have no idea what anything in this game is actually worth yet, this seemed like the safest way to not get gouged.

2. Knowledge in hand, I entered a market ward. I think this is the point my brain exploded this morning. This is not a task to do while hung over. There doesn't appear to be any way to search a market ward, and for every retainer who has items that make sense for that ward, there's a few dozen with random drops on them. There are dozens of retainers in the ward, and not all of them load at one time... searching can take hours.

3. It's next to impossible in Ul'Dah to acquire a buffalo leather strap in either black or ochre for some reason. I think this might be why I can't even find a retainer who sells the 5 or 10 marauder arms.

Anyone actually leveled past 10 successfully and geared up? My plan was to level every job to 10 before I committed to any one of them, but I wasn't quite expecting to be stuck on that plan by game mechanics.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

I don't know what server you are on but I was browsing bazaars on Palamecia today and ran into both of those axes in a few different bazaars in Ul'dah. Do you use Yellow Gremlin? While its not perfect, it has helped me IMMENSELY at times.

Final Fantasy XIV Database - Yellow Gremlin - ffxiv.yg.com

[Kitalrez]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

Rabanastre.

Yeah, I've used YG, that's how I found the recipes and realized I could make it. Problem is finding the parts/completed items. On Rabanastre, we've got the spiked bronze labrys, and the lvl 18 axe, just nothing in my level range.

[Aeni]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

I bought the axe from the NPC for 42,500 gils. At the time, everyone else was selling it for 75,000 gils and I really needed an axe. I think you can get it for around 25,000 now, if not lower. Blacksmithing at 15 and I can tell you that it's next to impossible to find mats. I wish I could be on when everyone else is on the LS so we can setup a way to get mats to people and figure out who is crafting what.

[Freelancer]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

For me I made everything I own other than jewelry, belt and my Brass Gladius. (GLD16)

Brass Gladius (bought it from a guy after having it repaired for half NPC price)
Bronze Hoplon (Made it)
Bronze Barbut +1 (Made it)
Bronze Chainmail (Brown) (made it too)
Cotton Breeches (Red) (Leve)
Sheepskin Leggings (Made it)
Bronze something gloves R9 (Made it)
Green Leather tool belt (bought it for armorer)

And so on.

Basicly with materials you'll almost never find direct mats like lets say Bronze chain sleeves or vest.
But you'll find plenty of chains and rings to make then vest/sleeve to use in the final product.


So unless you plan on leveling a craft that goes well with your main class. (Like me lvling Armorer to gear my GLD) you're better of buying the materials of materials and having crafters make em which is tedious and most will try to rip you off unless they're friends or just nice people or just shout for the finished product and haggle the few ppl that respond saying that the other dude offered it cheaper til you get an ok price.

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Though really, crafters are turning into assholes lately like charging 40k to create a Bronze chainmail with your mats and shards and asking that you pay in advance and get no fund of failure since "your paying for their time not the synth".

Or refusing to repair anything unless the pay is rediclous, like 25k to repair a Scutum (really big shield) ehich only takes 1 lousy bronze square to fix.

Ridiculous, and I outright offer to make the item for free/only charge mat used. if I see that kind of attitude happening near me, and then more than one person would bitch and moan that I'm "ruining the market" by not joining in on their mafia play.

Which is ironic since not trying to rip people off got me enough business to make millions since I got R15 and started making usable junk.

/end rant
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[TheGrandMom]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

I bought the axe from the NPC for 42,500 gils. At the time, everyone else was selling it for 75,000 gils and I really needed an axe. I think you can get it for around 25,000 now, if not lower. Blacksmithing at 15 and I can tell you that it's next to impossible to find mats. I wish I could be on when everyone else is on the LS so we can setup a way to get mats to people and figure out who is crafting what.

Ya me and Edge are slow crafters. He's doing Blacksmithing and I'm doing Leatherworking (I think, I have Armorer too). Both of mine are level 12 only. Don't know what his is. Sage is doing Goldsmithing and Nace is doing Armorer too. No idea about levels though.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

Though really, crafters are turning into assholes lately like charging 40k to create a Bronze chainmail with your mats and shards and asking that you pay in advance and get no fund of failure since "your paying for their time not the synth".

Or refusing to repair anything unless the pay is rediclous, like 25k to repair a Scutum (really big shield) ehich only takes 1 lousy bronze square to fix.

Ridiculous, and I outright offer to make the item for free/only charge mat used. if I see that kind of attitude happening near me, and then more than one person would bitch and moan that I'm "ruining the market" by not joining in on their mafia play.

Which is ironic since not trying to rip people off got me enough business to make millions since I got R15 and started making usable junk.

I think some of that has to be the crafting mentality from FFXI migrating over. Repairs costs should be proportionate to the damage the weapon has taken and materials required.

I'd hope SE would put in a few NPCs that can do repairs themselves just to keep people honest on repairs out on the field. I have a feeling it will come to that before long. I would certainly hope the cost of repairs wouldn't be a slap on the wrist as it is in WoW, though.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

Though really, crafters are turning into assholes lately like charging 40k to create a Bronze chainmail with your mats and shards and asking that you pay in advance and get no fund of failure since "your paying for their time not the synth".

Or refusing to repair anything unless the pay is rediclous, like 25k to repair a Scutum (really big shield) ehich only takes 1 lousy bronze square to fix.

Ridiculous, and I outright offer to make the item for free/only charge mat used. if I see that kind of attitude happening near me, and then more than one person would bitch and moan that I'm "ruining the market" by not joining in on their mafia play.

Which is ironic since not trying to rip people off got me enough business to make millions since I got R15 and started making usable junk.

Ya I npc'd some damaged shit because getting someone to repair it and not jerk me around wasn't worth my time. It wasn't anything big but I still lost out on about 20k by doing it.

---------- Post added at 02:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:39 AM ----------

I think some of that has to be the crafting mentality from FFXI migrating over. Repairs costs should be proportionate to the damage the weapon has taken and materials required.

One of the nice things in FFXIV is you can provide the mat for the repair. You go to your inventory, then click on the item and in the box that pops up you have Seek Repairs button. When you click it you have an Offer (Item) button so you can put the mat that repairs it as the offer. After you put the mat in it then changes to Offer (Gil) if you want to also give a reward. Well done, imo. Of course, you can just offer gil but I really like offering the mat.

[Aeni]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

I plan on leveling every craft and being self sufficient. I'll also go around and do repair for other people. I avoid repairing for people who only offer 100g when the mat vendors for 500g. Repairers aren't the only jerks around ... people who need repairs are guilty of that kind of crappy attitude as well.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

I plan on leveling every craft and being self sufficient. I'll also go around and do repair for other people. I avoid repairing for people who only offer 100g when the mat vendors for 500g. Repairers aren't the only jerks around ... people who need repairs are guilty of that kind of crappy attitude as well.

To be fair, in the beginning I had no idea of the price of mats and was offering less than it would take to fix. A little JP Lalafell came along and fixed all my stuff but gently told me that I should go to the guilds, buy the mats, and offer them too. That was when I realized that I was not being very generous.

[Aeni]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

It's hard if it's on the retainers since you can't communicate with a live person to let them know that what they're offering is ridiculous and no one will repair it. I saw someone offering only 50g to repair a bronze haubergeon. They think 50g is 50 gold in WoW and think that's a lot.

[Dux]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

I just spent the entire weekend doing nothing but crafting in order to not face the issue's you just went through. The jump from one material type to another isn't very easy right now due to the infancy of the economy and my lack of patience to look at bazaars.

Whilst I didn't actually make finished products (except a Bronze Needle) I did end up with alot of components such as bronze pickaxe heads, birdsbeak hammer head, bronze saw blades, bronze claw hammer head. I am hoping today that I will get into some cotton gear for my cloth as well and finaly get to convert all the individual componennts into finish products. If I fail the final synth I will cry myself to sleep as it was a massive massive effort this weekend to get to where I am now.

IMO the best solution long term is to level every craft and HELM now and make everything yourself from the materials you gather from HELM, it's not like there is anything else to do in the game. My definition of every craft is "Blacksmithing, Goldsmithing, Armourcarfting, Weaving, Leatherworking, Carpentry, Alchemy, Mining and Botany" which is what I am currently leveling and it is normally enough to ensure I don't need help from anybody else to make what I need in terms of equipment. The down side to this is that I need to store massive amounts of materials and I can quite literally spend every waking moment crafting and seem like I am not progressing very fast. In the long run I am hoping my approach will pay off though.

[Aeni]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

@ Dux

Your way is the best way right now and I feel sorry for the PS3 players that will come later. They're going to enter a very mroe stable product and an environment with a higher quality of life. But, in return, they will find themselves dramatically behind the PC players and will find out that the crafting system isn't exactly casual friendly.

I think for future crafters, you may want to consider concentrating on what I feel are the "pillars of entry level crafting" or "how to craft without resorting to buying gil, exploiting the game and/or filing for bankruptcy".

-Focus on Weaving at least to 25 maybe even 30.
-Get all crafts to 10 to unlock abilities.
-Harvesting to 15 would be a good idea.
-Blacksmithing to 15 is only a quality of life issue -- a must if you are a casual player.

First and foremost, Weaving is sucn an essential craft for ALL other crafts that if you do not foray into that and make your own basic cloths, you will find yourself at the mercy of only a few handful. At one point in time, armorsmithing seems to be the lucrative craft, where Bronze and Iron Haubergeon could make you rich instantly. The problem right now is that the markets are being flooded with these products, so the pressure of the market forces crafters to undercut each other to bitter ends, sometimes as much as 50% of the actual cost involved in the craft. Weaving, on the other hand, is something ALL classes can benefit from, since you can also gain an advantage in your crafting with bonuses conveyed by a lot of these cloth gear and then of course, saving a lot of money from the cloth pieces themselves.

I'm learning this the hard way and have been primarily focused on getting Weaving and Leatherworking higher.

[Freelancer]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

Yep with bronze I made a million over night, and now with people realizing that using haubergeons at 13 is pointless and going with lower gear like bronze chainmails (which hasn't caught on enough but its coming) I can see my profit dying.

The beautiful thing about the hauby is that making it costs around 5k since I had the mats at hand from the grind 12-22 and sold em for 120~ now 80k a pop, so it was great, but when the population hit 27 and want haubys "for real" they'll be like 10k each...

So for now, I'll just make "cool" armor that people buy for looks and level up other crafts on the side to take over where armorer stops making money.

However, I can see armorer making a comeback when we all hit 50 and the level cap rises and every melee on the server suddenly wants R51+ gear, but that can be said about all other crafts.

But having money on "bursts" every once in a while doesn't look safe.

The beautiful thing is that as I am now and how goldsmiths are pumping out R30+ rings at cheap prices, I wont need to buy any gear until 50, except weapons. so I'll have money to get crafts up but I guess I gotta hurry.

The other horrible issue we're facing is that "top dog" crafters just don't let go of new recipes and will just tell you to fuck off if you ask them what mats they used for w/e item they're making like the Bronze Elmo, all the people I asked told me to soundly go fuck myself when I asked and wouldn't even tell what rank leve they got the recipe off.

And before it the Iron haubergeon, same thing, nobody would tell until good law abiding citizens get the recipe and casually share it.

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On an unrelated subject: I would kill to get a model viewer for FFXIV. I really would, I'm dying to see what other gear is out there.

[Dux]

Re: Anyone figure out how start upgrading gear yet?

Your way is the best way right now

I'm glad you think so

I feel sorry for the PS3 players that will come later. They're going to enter a very mroe stable product and an environment with a higher quality of life. But, in return, they will find themselves dramatically behind the PC players and will find out that the crafting system isn't exactly casual friendly.

The PS3 players will indeed come into a very different market to what it is now thats for sure. I too will be very interested in how the PS3 player base deals with the crafting system. The system itself is designed to prevent them from catching up, purposefully and deliberatly inhibiting casual players progress which is the exact opposite of what SE claimed it would be even with the Local Leve's helping them along.

At one point in time, armorsmithing seems to be the lucrative craft, where Bronze and Iron Haubergeon could make you rich instantly. The problem right now is that the markets are being flooded with these products, so the pressure of the market forces crafters to undercut each other to bitter ends, sometimes as much as 50% of the actual cost involved in the craft.

I don't see this as a problem more of a fact of life. You have to remember that right now the market is "broken" and that over time it will stabilise into a normal pattern. Existing crafters should also remember that devaluation of market prices as goods become more available is perfectly normal and expected this is basic economics and should not come as a surprise to anybody.

Weaving, on the other hand, is something ALL classes can benefit from, since you can also gain an advantage in your crafting with bonuses conveyed by a lot of these cloth gear and then of course, saving a lot of money from the cloth pieces themselves.

This I agree with, right now Weaving seems to be a good craft to level as it is used all over the place and by implication Leatherworking as well because Weaving needs it.

It also seems that crystal selling is also quite lucrative right now as some sections of the crafting community do not enjoy the HELM aspect and seem to purchase alot of their crystals. This is a bit of action that the casual crafter can get into with relative ease as they won't be burning all there crystals trying to level their crafts at the same rate.