Good ways to get gear while levelling?

[✚ Mariel ✚]

I'd like to keep a decent level of gear while I leve lup. Since I'm most experienced with the wow MMO I'll use it for my example. I levelled with mining/blacksmithing as a paladin in that game which got me most of my gear slots sorted. Is that a good idea for FF14? For the other gear slots I sold ore that I mined or smelted them into bars and sold the bars, then purchased capes, trinkets, rings and necklaces from the auction house, is that viable in FF14?

I'm finding the UI somewhat more difficult to manage even though I'm an experienced MMO player now. Haven't seen anything that stands out like mining resources in the field so far. Chat seems far more difficult as well, no /general or /trade for me to use to ask questions and gain a basic understanding

[✚ Mariel ✚]

My problem with gearing through dungeons is its so random. I hate having to run through the same dungeon over and over trying to get an item to drop. I don't mind it so much at max level because I know I'm progressing towards the best gear, but I hate to do it while I'm still levelling since I know it will all be obsolete in only a few levels

[dnru]

If you have levequests unlocked and have a bunch unused there's an exploit where you can start one, search around the objectives for a treasure box that has gear, then abandon the quest before you actually complete it and grab a new levequest. The item level of the gear will only be as high as the level of the levequest, however.

You can certainly smith stuff but the gear you obtain that way won't usually be quite as strong as what you can find from treasure boxes. I believe crafting in this game has most of its more useful applications at the higher levels, unless you're just looking to sell gear or really wanna do it your own way.

[Neiker]

Just wear crap you buy from merchants and drops from dungeons until lvl 50, get the tomestone set for lvl 50 while wearing anything with a higher item level you find on dungeons further on, get to 60 you'll get a fairly decent gear on lvl 60 class quest, buy the tomestone gear for level 60 if you want, wear anything you find with an item level higher than what you curently have, get to lvl 70, do your class quest, get gear doing it, colect tomestones, buy even better gear, then go 8man raiding and get the best gear of the game( though i dunno if the curent meta are tomestones gear or raiding gear), in any case the ultimate goal is to show off with savage raiding gear to show everyone ur gud.

[Fang [DK]]

if you got one class at 50+ and wanna lvl another class, just do Palace of the Dead.. no need for gear and fast lvl up.
and once you hit lvl 50 you get gear from the tomes

[✚ Mariel ✚]

Well I'm mainly here for the story, and I like playing tanky melee characters with self heals and pushing the bar as far as I can on the kind of things that I can solo

[Moogh]

As others have said, you get perfectly fine gear from quests/vendors all the way up to level 70. If you absolutely have to have better stuff, the easiest way to get it is either dungeon grind and pray to RNGsus, or farm with a DoL class and buy upgrades with your profits. It takes FOREVER to level crafting classes, so you'll probably be done with the stormblood story before you cap your smith classes and are able to craft the HQ gear that'd be upgrades anyway. (or it'd cost you an arm and leg buying mats and that defeats the purpose)

[✚ Mariel ✚]

ok I'll do that then. where are the item vendors? uldah?

[Moogh]

There are item vendors in every major city, by the market boards. They sell regular quality gear for everything up to level 5.

[✚ Mariel ✚]

what about beyond level 5?

[Moogh]

Sorry, meant level 50 lol

[Violette]

Just wanna add Grand Company(GC) gear is the best way to fill up the gear slot gaps from dungeons before level 50. They cost company seals which are earned through duties and are way better than the normal stuff from merchants while having the same level requirements.

The order of which gear from best to worse assuming the level reqs are close, before level 50:
-Blue (from job quest at lv45 and 50)
-Pink (dungeons)
-Green (dungeons and GC gear)
-and then the rest (gray), usually from merchants or dungeons

Hopefully by level 50 you will have a better idea of what’s good and what’s not to manage on your own

[Chutney]

Realy, i wouldn't worry about it. This game is casual as ♥♥♥♥, you'll have no problem getting gear. Don't hype this up to be a difficult game. It isn't.

[✚ Mariel ✚]

Even if it isn't I have a tendency towards powergaming. Most MMO players do I think

[Elazul]

If you're on your first class the side quests in the different zones give out gear as a reward to keep you up to the level of the zone. That or you can buy vendor gear. Though if you're a very new player with low money I wouldn't recommend it and would save it for teleports.

Don't bother with mining and the other gathering classes until you get one class maxed out and you can fly in all the expansion zones. It's a pain in the ass trying to level gathering unless you can fly in the later zones. If you still want to do some mining for money though get it up to level 30ish I think and mine Silver Ore. That is a good low level ore that is almost always in demand until you get to 50 where you can spam Cobalt Ore which is still used in some high level crafts.

[Drakzen]

At level 50, 60 and 70 you get a set of decent gear from your class quest. The only point when you may need your level gear is if you play a healer or tank in the 60+ dungeons and the rest of your party are also in the same boat.