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BEGINNER TIPS FOR NEWCOMERS
Do obsess over character creation, especially your First/Last Name and how your character looks – there isn’t a ton of reasons to make different characters in the game unless you specifically want to use different races for different classes.
- You can change your race/appearance/gender once with a potion you get by mog delivery when you've paid for your first game-time month.
After your first month's trial period expires, if you want to be allowed to have more than one character on any server - or more than 8 total characters - you will have to either commit to buying 3month blocks of game time (which for many is going to be no big deal) ... or you are going to have to pay $2 more on a monthly basis. A lot of people still in their trial period are not yet aware this. Subscription options are;
1 char/srv + 8 char max : 1 month recurring = $12.99/mo
8 chars/srv + 40 char max : 1 mo. rec.=$14.99/mo ; 3 mo. rec.=$13.99/mo ; 6 mo. rec.=$12.99/mo
TRANSPORTATION
You can set 3 'Favourite Locations' at Aether shards. This gives a substantial discount on teleporting there. My personal way of doing it is to set all 3 main cities as Favourite and wherever I am leveling/playing as my Home point (for the free Return spell). Saves a lot of time or gil running/teleporting back and forth on quests, etc.
Always ALWAYS talk to the Chocobo Porter the first time you visit a town/village/city. While 'Teleporting' is the quickest way to get around it is expensive and should be used sparingly. Hiring a 'Chocobo Porter' on the other hand is extremely cheap and much quicker than traveling by foot. Whereas 'Chocobo Porters' function like 'Flight Paths' in WoW, you can often also 'Rent a Chocobo' as a single-use 'mount' at a premium.
You can unlock the chocobo by completing a level 22~ story mission, choosing a Grand Company, and then earning 2,000 Grand Company Seals to purchase the required quest item. You can earn the Seals by participating in FATEs, doing Leves, working on the rank 1 grand company hunting log and more. When you get your chocobo as a fighting companion be aware the tanking tree sounds a lot better than it is
EARLY QUESTING & COMBAT TIPS
As in most MMORPGS... when logging out ALWAYS log out in an Inn/Sanctuary/etc. to earn rested xp.
There is a little icon next to every mob's name/health-bar; blue = it won't aggro you unless you attack it first ; red = it will aggro you if you get too close to it.
- Don't be afraid to buy vendor gear at early levels... however always check the Market Board first as many such items are re-sold at much cheaper prices. (some may actually be listed above vendor price so beware)
ALWAYS have a consumable 'food' buff active as they all provide the same +3% XP boost. They also provide additional stat buffs. It's a good idea to have a buff active with stats specific to your craft when crafting.
- When leveling your first class of a 'class type' (physical/magical) it is a good idea to save a set of low level equipment staggered every 3-4 levels on your Armoury, so you can easily equip them onto a secondary class while leveling it.
[IMPORTANT: This is a core design structure of the game] Each character can (and should eventually) play every class & every craft, i.e. you do not have to create a new character to play a different class.Additionally there are specific 'cross-class' abilities acquired by each class that can be used by other classes as well if slotted (certain restrictions may apply, e.g. melee combat classes only). You gain one cross-class ability slot every 5 levels, thus it is wise to level multiple classes early instead of focusing on one class at a time in order to gain access their respective low-level cross-class abilities .
- You change class simply by changing the weapon(s) used, but only when out of combat.
You cannot sell things on the 'Market Board' (re: auction house) until acquiring a 'Retainer'. To get a retainer you must reach level 15 and then complete three main story quests; one for each dungeon. Then visit an NPC near the Market Board to hire a Retainer.
You have to withdraw gil made from items you sold from your retainer.
- In the upper-right corner of an item's listing on the Market Board is an option to view recent transactions involving that item. This will help determine the fair market value of that item.
'Refresh' means MP Regen, 'Regain' means TP regen, and 'Regen' means HP Regen.
The icon next to the moster list is a threat/emnimity meter. Green square = low threat/emnimity. Yellow triangle = Medium Threat. Orange triangle = High threat (As in; if you are in a party stop DPS or you'll die and the tank/healer will hate you) Red = You have aggro and you will be attacked (you should never want to see this unless solo or are a tank)
- The little bar in the lower left next to each party member in the party frame is an individual threat/emnimity meter that other players can see. If you pull a monster off the tank, (s)he'll know who to blame.
Some craft abilities can also be used as 'cross-class' abilities allowing for creative combinations to boost crafting
- Creating 'Gear Sets' is an invaluable tool to quickly and easily change both classes & gear simultaneously. It is recommended to create a 'Gear-Set' for each class & simply swap Gear-Sets to change classes instead of merely changing your weapon. The UI to create a Gear-Set is located in the Character Pane.
- There is a button that instantly updates your current Gear-Set to your currently equipped gear for quick & easy Gear-Set maintenence. The icon its in the top right of you character pane denoted bytwo arrows circling each other.
- You can drag Gear Sets to your action bar! This way you can change classes with the click of a button instead of having to go into your character menu and your equipment set menu each time.
Every class can 'combine' (note: the classes are not consumed) with at least one specific alternative class to unlock an additional 'class' called a 'job'. This requires a specific combination of two classes where one class must reach level 30 and the other must reach level 15. (it is best to do some early research to find what 'job' most interests you to decide which classes to level first).
'Swift Cast' + 'Raise' is a very helpful ability combo for quickly resurrecting allies.
You can respec attributes! It costs 10,000 Seals at your grand company.
If you click on your Gil it will switch to the amount of Seals you have (can switch back and forth).
'Leves' are 'daily quests' & the number you can do in any single day accumulates daily (so you do not have to do them every day), but caps at 100.
- Save your Leves for your secondary jobs/class. Finding quests on your first run through will not be a problem. After that quests become scarce. Save your leves and you will find leveling a breeze when paired with FATES. Just note they cap at 100, so if you are still on your way to 50 and it's near cap, spend some otherwise they will go to waste.
- It's best to use any Leves on your crafting class(es).
- Turning in HQ (high quality) items for crafting leves (daily quests) give a HUGE bonus to exp and gil. Turning in crafts for a Crafting leve that require multiple items to be turned in can sometimes be turned in multiple times, saving you 2 leve allowances and giving you multiple exp/gil rewards.
- Even if you have a low chance to craft HQ items, always try and bump HQ percentage if durability allows it. Any increase you make to a craft's quality rating translates to more exp for completing the craft, even if the end product is of normal quality. Example (not actual numbers); a crafted item with a 1% chance for HQ gives 100 exp, whereas increasing that craft to a 10% HQ chance gives 200 exp. (An increase in XP is only attained when the item quality is increased through crafting, there is no inherent XP increase if the initial item quality is above 0.)
At level 15 you can do a quest in vesper Bay to open up the Dye system (once again, need better hints in-game. If there was a tutorial pop-up, I completely missed it). Don't bother with crafters or the market board for most dyes. You can buy 'm on the cheap from vendors in each capital city.
Pay attention to your Hunting Log! There are some things in game that require a certain amount of its completion before they can be unlocked. You get an additional Hunting Log once you join a Grand Company that rewards company seals instead of exp.
Around level 22 you will be given the choice to join one of three Grand Companies. Once you join, you'll be rewarded Grand Company Seals for participating in FATEs as well as a variety of other content. The important thing to note is that there is a limit to how many Grand Company Seals you can hold at any given time, and the number goes up as you increase in rank. It is in your best interest to use the Seals often to rank up, buy gear upgrades, and more so that you don't become capped and earn 0 Seals for your efforts.
Don't sell 'Spiritbound' gear that is marked 'convertible'. You gain a % towards spiritbinding a piece of gear by simply having it equipped in combat. When it reaches 100% that item can be converted into materia which can be slotted into gear for stat bonuses.
Don't buy Orange Juice or Lentils & Chestnuts from the Market Board. Not when the vendor selling them is in the next room :|
When editing your UI, press Ctrl + Home when an element is selected to resize it. (Smaller action bars... YAY! :D)
You can set up macros to use multiple abilities consecutively. This can be very helpful in condensing your hotbars and hotkeys.
- [My personal favorite tip] For a quick and easy way to block goldspammers who /tell you, create this macro to add the last person who messaged you to your blacklist and then add the macro to a hotbar for quick & easy spammer-blocking: /blist add
- A macro must use "/wait" to use multiple abilities consecutively (e.g. "/wait 3" waits 3 seconds before executing the next command in the macro). The GCD is 2.5 seconds and the game rounds all macros' time values to the nearest integer, thus "/wait 2.5" is equal to "/wait 3" as both will wait 3 seconds.
- You can store Untradable items in your Armoire in the Inn, Especially useful for event gear such as the bikini's from the Faire. Saves retainer and inventory space.
You can 'Sleep' (crowd control) multiple targets. I found that Healers loved me on my THM for sleeping multiple targets. They ended up DPSing more than healing because there was so little incoming damage. Especially useful with a GLD/PLD tank. Many adds in boss fights can also be put to Sleep in the earlier dungeons. They despawn if the boss is killed before the adds themselves die. I've skipped entire add phases this way. Sleep does NOT break from DoT damage if the DoT is applied first, only from direct damage (great for traits such as Thundercloud, which proc on DoT ticks).
Don't finish exploring the entire map until you're a much higher level - you get much more experience points for this achievement!
SAVE YOUR TOMESTONES OF MYTHOLOGY FOR RELIC+1
The Summoner class is an Affliction Warlock with ten inch tall avatars that look like a ketchup demon, an oversized chicken nugget, and a mutated parrot.
