Returning Player From Pre 2.2 - QuestionsFollow

The content released between now and then can seem pretty overwhelming. But if you just take it one step at a time I think you'll be fine.

As for item level requirements, i80 sounds fine for any of the current dungeons. Whatever the duty finder minimum is will be fine since the vast majority of people you'll be with will outgear them by a significant margin (certainly enough to make up for whatever gear shortfalls you may have).

The trial roulette should be a thing you're working on, but since it requires progress through both the main story and the Hildebrand story, plan on that unlock taking a while. Just enjoy the stories and let that one unlock when it unlocks.

Crystal Tower might be a pain to get a party for since it isn't current and the drops from current 4-man dungeons are superior. You'll have to do it at least once to unlock Syrcus Tower (the second stage) so I'll just wish you good luck there.

One bit of good news is you're going to be showered in soldiery tomestones with your new player bonus. Basically the first time you do a dungeon you get a bonus. It's a large bonus. You'll be able to afford some gear by the time you're done for sure.

Good luck and let us know if you have any questions along the way.

Honestly, some of the newer high level and expert dungeons feel a lot easier than the higher level lowbie dungeons (the run from Qarn to Aurum Vale in particular.) This is because you're probably going to have newbies in those low level dungeons, whereas with the high level and expert ones odds are everyone in the group has done it a few times already and knows what to expect. Of the current expert dungeons, Snowcloak is a joyfully fun snooze fest, while Qarn and Stash hard are just annoying. Groups are trying to speed run them now. Illsaide said his group did Sastasha HM in 17 minutes the other day.

Syrcus Tower is a lot easier than the original CT for the same reasons. And it drops better gear. Unlike the dungeons, you'll probably hear joyful whoops of "woot bonus" the first time you run through ST, and people will gladly explain the mechanics. The queue is slightly less painful too since they balance the fight for one tank per alliance and 5 DPS, instead of 2/4 like CT.

uh, I don't want to be rude...but nothing you said here is how any of it works.

Personally I think it's only worth getting to i90 unless you like the grind involved in upgrading it further. After i90 you have to get 12 atma (grind FATEs in 12 zones until it drops from each zone, about a 10% drop rate so not that bad, used to be worse). After that you need to spend 500 soldiery tomes on 9 books of stuff to do (3 specific dungeons, 3 specific FATEs, 3 specific guildleves, and 10 batches of 10 monsters). So 500 soldiery x 9 books = 4500 tomes to get your weapon to i100. After this you need to gather 75 Alexandrite used to infuse your weapon with 75 materia of your choosing, which is very expensive because everyone usually infuses one or both of the same materia (crit and determiation). To get these Alexandrite, you can spend 500 soldiery on easy treasure maps that always give you one or they can drop randomly from doing FATEs with your weapon equipped), or you can get a free map from from a once-a-day quest that has you do an expert roulette. After this you need to grind light from doing various dungeons and trials. 2000 points of light that you get like 10 at a time. Completing this brings it to i115. The newest step brings it to i125 and it's mostly an item gathering quest. And... well... I'll just copy+paste this bit from the wiki article:


Now let's compare this to the soldiery weapon. For this you need 1300 soldiery total to buy 10 tokens along with an Unidentified Allagan Tomestone that drops in Syrcus Tower from two bosses, both at a 100% drop rate (at this point it usually doesn't get lotted). That gets you an i100 weapon. Then you need a Sand of Time to upgrade it to i110. Two of these drop from the final boss of Syrcus Tower, but they usually get lotted on by everyone. You can also get them from turn 7-9 once you reach the minimum ilvl, with turn 7 being a pretty easy fight now (which can also drop a few i110 pieces for you). Generally speaking this weapon will be just fine until you get your weapon drop from turn 9 or Shiva extreme. Also on Tuesday we're getting a patch that introduces the final dungeon in the Crystal Tower arc which will also be dropping weapons.

tl;dr- Zodiac weapons are mega expensive and mega grindy. If you want a pet project go right ahead but if you want to get right into endgame you have plenty of alternative weapons to tide you over.