So. Yeah. Final Fantasy XIV, then.

[EricKei]

I think I'm the only one who mains on Sarg, tho some people here do have a toon there. If we end up with a BUNCH of people on another server, I can always roll a new toon wherever that is, as well. I'll just have you guys FATE train with me ^_^ And mayyyyybe donate some gear

Aethian: Yup. There is indeed an app for that...And it's free.

Android

iOS

caveat: Once you have this set up, you need it for ANY SE website that requires your SE name and password. Nothing is perfect, of course, but it's still better than nothing.

[Kaylyn]

My husband and a friend are maining on Balmung so I have rerolled my Leviathan character there. We still want a static group to level together so I may see if they want to do that on Sarg. And my little Lalafell is just too adorable to abandon so I'll get around to playing her again at some point.

[Kagato]

been really enjoying playing as a conjurer, up to level 25 so far, so my next goal is to work on arcanist so that I can finally take up white mage and go on from there.

Need to work more on my tradeskills though, most of my trades are around level 10ish, with my highest being goldworking at level 18.

My main desktop computer completely died earlier today though, so I am scrambling to transfer what I can to another spare HD before I do a complete reinstall, one of the hard drives is on its last legs, it is recognised on a cold boot, but when I try to boot windows it restarts and does not recognise the drive beyond that point until I do another cold boot.

[Aethian]

I think when I get home from my second job tonight ill roll a girl in Sarg if I can. Cause I'm so alone on the other server since I keep missing everyone else.

[Kagato]

Oh, regarding the recent update, I like how they finally added an AFK timer - after 30 minutes inactivity you get the boot.

[EricKei]

Kagato - Ouch. Once yer back in: Get CNJ to 30, both for the unlock quest and for the unicorn mount. Get one more level in Goldsmith so you can unlock Materia melding. GSM is used for melding on many weapons (esp thm/blm) and tools such as rings/earrings/neck pieces, so it can be useful. Keep in mind that, on any craft, the stuff the Guild vendor sells will only last you until level 20 or so; after that, you'll need to look for higher-level vendors (for some of it) and hit the market board or just farm for components.

One thing I've noticed -- predictably enough, low-end craft products generally don't sell for very much, but some do. When you fill up your inventory from leveling, check the markets to see what's worth enough to sell. Anything that you can make just from vendor parts should be profitable even if you sell them for 200gil. I've found 2 or3 that (on occasion) sell for 2k at low levels on Sarg ^_^

If you have the gil to spare (or you don't mind spending time doing Gathering), play the markets on elemental Shards. On Sarg, Wind is worth considerably more than the other types (I've gotten as much as 35-60g each (instead of 9 for some others)) , with Lightning close behind. As with FFXI, the prices vary by the hour, if not more quickly. Just list big packs of them and be patient if you want to get a good price. They get bought and sold quickly enough that pricing a bundle of them just above the average can be worth the wait - sooner or later, the little ten- and twenty- packs that the non-crafters post will sell out, leaving only the better ones (I like to sell in packs of 500).

Also, each crafter class gets a cross-class skill at 15 (and an enhanced version of that at 50), as well as one or two more along the way. If you do nothing else, get Leather to 15 for the skill that cuts Durability loss in half. Your wallet will thank you, and your EXP bar will thank you because more chances to use a Touch skill = higher quality = more EXP per synth.

===============

Detailed FATE farming guide here (check the link at the bottom for a world map with FATE and Gathering spots!)

edit: That comprehensive world map as one huge image

[Kagato]

I'm just thankful I had a spare 1Tb hard drive tucked away for an intended upgrade, it means downtime will HOPEFULLY be minimal, I managed to revive the old drive for long enough to get everything off it, now I am reinstalling windows and downloading service packs

[Aethian]

That being said, if anyone wants to come join me,

Look for Rhaya Dakwhil.

[KhirasHY]

Fun note for CNJ/WHM types: when rezzing a party member, at the exact moment that the "warp" graphic appears after a raise, cast Medica (Medica 2 supposedly works too, but it never does for me). It prevents rez sickness if you time it just right

[Lachrymose]

I am, at the moment anyway, level 20 Hyur archer on Fanfrit.

I have a bit of a problem/advice request/whatever.

Now, I'm usually a solo quester. I have no problem with that.

I just ran my first dungeon (that was actually part of the main storyline). It wasn't all that bad. However, I don't function well in groups. And I sort of want to. But the jackasses in said groups make me angry and not want to join a party again. There were several times I was just going to log out of the game and say screw it since someone kept calling me NOOB (I know it's not that bad, and kind of laughable actually. BUT when I already go into it knowing I probably am going to screw up and am already nervous, that kind of stuff just sets me over the edge).

So, I guess..any advice on how to run dungeons as an archer? I mean, I know some things, like follow marks and what not. But I hate pissing people off and I hate them pissing me off for pissing them off.

#FirstWorldProblems (:P)

Thanks!

[Seraph]

I tend to not immediately attack. I watch what the tank targets, count to 3, and THEN start. That way, I don't yank aggro. And in case I do, I immediately do the shadowbind thing, and hit a macro that yells out "Don't touch that! Mob is bound, here's your chance to grab it, tank!"

I need to refine it, but I'm not sure how to set up macros in this game yet.

[EricKei]

For groups - Maybe bring it up in your Free Company and/or Linkshell and ask for advice, maybe ask if anyone can spare some time for a low level dungeon run just to help you learn the ropes. Yes, this game is incredibly solo-friendly. Another solution would be to look up a FATE guide and join groups doing those, as all they'll generally care about is (a) do you contribute to the damage and (b) can you follow directions (there are some FATEs where it is beneficial to wait until the last minute to do certain things, such as the "Lambs" fate at endgame time, or any of the "turn items in" fates. In both cases, waiting to do the actual "stated" objective gives you more time to earn EXP from kills, as much as 100K in the Lambs one).

Speaking of FATEs - I got to take part in another (failed) Odin FATE on Sarg a couple of days ago. Couldn't see a damn thing, but it was still a blast ^_^ Had him down to like 2% before the auto-wipe kicked in, too.

Seraph -- Good idea for ANY DD. Keep in mind that Archer/Bard is currently pretty much the fastest DD in the game right now, due in part to the fact that moving out of an AOE attack area does not cancel your special attacks.

I always try to let the tank get a good whack in (beyond the Shield Toss/whatever that grabs the mob) just to make sure. It also really helps if the tank is marking targets to Sleep (or, for mobs that cannot be slept, for you to Shadowbind before it ever reaches the tank; might wanna let the party know you plan to do this, tho ). A good tank will at least Flash before the secondary targets wake or bind wears off to make sure they don't come after you or the Sleeper. Be aware that, if you have an arcanist in the group who is using the blue (Emerald) carby, it likes to use its AOE knockback whenever it's up, ticking off the tank and breaking sleep/bind. A good ARC will set the little bugger on manual or just use the tank (yellow/topaz) carby instead.

My "Oh Shit" macro on archer is basically the lv15 Archer knockback ability, wait 1, Shadowbind. CNJ gets a knockback at lv15 as well, and on THM, I use Surecast (or Swiftcast) and Sleep. You can actually do both in one macro, even if you're too low for Swiftcast:

/ac "Swiftcast" <me>
/ac "Surecast" <me>
/wait 1
/ac "Sleep" <t>

This will try to do Swiftcast, if it's unavailable, it'll do Surecast. You can set up pretty much any skill/spell set to do this. First available ability gets used. Also comes in handy if you're higher level and sync down for low-level content. Doing this WILL throw error messages, so I just filter those out in chat options.

e.g., my BLM DoT macro is set up like this, and even works if I am targeting the tank ( t = my target, tt = target of my target):

/macroicon "Thunder III"
/ac "Thunder III" <tt>
/ac "Thunder II" <tt>
/ac "Thunder I" <tt>
/ac "Thunder III" <t>
/ac "Thunder II" <t>
/ac "Thunder I" <t>
/wait 3
/ac "Lethargy" <tt>
/ac "Lethargy" <t>
/wait 1
/ac "Virus" <tt>
/ac "Virus" <t>

[Lachrymose]

Thanks for the tips!

I also discovered guildhests are pretty good training tools.

[EricKei]

Yup. The Guildhests and dungeons (especially the early ones) are basically tutorials in disguise. They even keep it up later on -- one of the solo "fights" leading up to the Titan fight has you beating up a rock faster than some other guy who has no problem cheating...and it happens to include pretty much every important mechanic the Titan fight throws at you, save for the instant party wipe thing, in disguise. Well played, SE, well played.

[Chanlin]

I have a character on Faerie. Elezen by the name of Crystia Reywind

Lachrymose, don't feel too bad. It's been my experience that the vast majority of tanks in early dungeons have no idea what they are doing. Hell even in some of the level 30 dungeons tanks are terrible.

I have Scholar unlocked and my Faerie pet occasionally takes hate away from a tank when we're fighting groups of mobs because some tanks just do not take the effort to hold the threat of the entire group.

That said, the advice already given is very good here. Now we just need to train our tanks to do better at their jobs