FFXIV New Level 50 Player’s Progression Guide

FFXIV New Level 50 Player’s Progression Guide by CrabCommander

Content which drops gear will have the item level of the rewards listed in [brackets] after the name.

Tier Zero – Fresh 50 [Item Level 50-70]

So you just hit level 50, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and you’re all rip raring to go. Well, hold on just a minute, and lets get you all prepared.  Everything in this category can be done with few to no “unlocking steps”; it’s open from the start.

[Prerequisites] – These should be your first priorities after hitting level 50.

• Item Level 101 – [N/A] – Gear at Level 50 is measured mainly by the gear’s ‘Item Level’. This is a number listed in a little black strip in the item’s description, and represents the total amount of stats on that item. The maximum item level in the game currently is 130 for armor, and 135 for weaponry. Item Level is commonly abbreviated as iLevel, and often further shortened. Ex. ‘Item Level 95’ to ‘i95’ (which you will see in this guide).
• Tomestones 101 – [i100-130] – Throughout the process of completing various pieces of level 50 content, you will be awarded Tomestones of Soldiery and Poetics. Both can be exchanged in Revenant’s Toll for gear: i100-110 in the case of Soldiery, and i120-130 in the case of Poetics. Poetics is also capped at a maximum of 450 per week.
• Finish your Job Quests – [N/A] – Your AF gear and your level 50 Skill are ‘must have’ items before you get rolling here. Go knock that out before you continue.
• Knock Down Praetorium – [N/A] – Keep slugging your way through the main story quest line at least up through Praetorium for now. It is necessary to unlock just about anything else.
• Rank Up! – It’s very important that you max out your rank with your Grand Company.  The entire relic questline is locked behind that, as well as access to crafting materials and other helpful items for purchase.
• Clean Out Your Leveling Gear – [N/A] – If you still have pieces of gear that are below Item Level ~48, replace them with some cheap market-board alternatives.
  • When you complete an entire hunting log for a class, you can obtain an i55 class-specific ring from Jonathas at Apkallu Falls in Old Gridania.  This can save you some gil off the bat!
• Finish Up Those Sub-Classes – [N/A] – Take a look through the options your job gets for cross-class skills, and if you don’t already have all of the useful-sounding ones, start working your sub-classes up in tandem with your progression. By the time you start hitting your first EX Primals, you should have all your most-important cross-class skills unlocked.
• Challenge Log – [N/A] Unlock the Challenge Log for fun and profit!  It is a nice way to get easy exp on classes not at 50, and also rewards you with a tidy lump of gil every week.  Most of the Challenges are things you do anyway (run duty roulette, complete FATEs, gather and dig up/open treasure maps, give commendations) so it’s easy gil.
• Start Your Relic Quest – The Relic weapon for your class is an ever evolving weapon that starts at i80 and currently can be raised up to i135.  You must complete all your job quests, clear The Praetorium, and speak to Nedrick Ironheart in Western Thanalan to begin this quest.
• Questing For Dummies – Lots and lots of post-50 content is unlocked by doing very quick quests.  All dungeons, primals, and many features such as Treasure Maps and Glamours require completing a quest.  The majority of these are in Revenant’s Toll, but some are scattered around the world of Eorzea.  Any quest you see that’s level 50 is almost certainly going to unlock something, so pick them up!  I highly recommend you check out the various Patch Notes, available on the Lodestone, for specific details on specific quests.
• Making Money – Making money can be a daunting task.  Fortunately, there are some very easy gil fountains to take advantage of.  None of these will make you millions in a day, but they do add up fairly quickly.
  • Firstly, run your daily roulettes.  Dungeons and the roulette itself both give you gil rewards, and if you match the Roulette Bonus Role (which, let’s be real, is probably Tank), you get a significant increase to your gil intake.
  • The Challenge Log is a great source of microinfusions of gil.  Simple things like giving commendations and doing roulettes activate the challenge rewards.  It’s fairly easy to get the second rank of the Log done every week, and with some effort (beastman dailies, PVP matches, materia melding, and gathering) you can get the third and fourth ranks done as well.  Note that gathering shards and crystals DOES count toward your 100 NQ gather challenge.
  • If you have a gathering class above level 45, you can gather Treasure Maps from nodes that are 45 and 50.  Peisteskin and Boarskin maps typically sell well on the Market Board, or you can go and dig them up yourself for the hopes of larger rewards.
  • Desynthesis can be a big money-maker.  If you level Goldsmith, Weaver, Leatherworker, or Armorer desynth, you can desynth the gear that drops in your Roulettes and hopefully get money items like Battlecraft Demimateria, Rose Gold Ingots, Vanya Silk, and more.
  • Get your retainers set up as Botanists or Miners and send them on Ventures for shards and crystals.  At 90 gathering, they’ll bring back 60 shards every 40 minutes.  Even at level 1, this can be consistent money.
  • Beastmen quests give reasonable gil rewards.  Once you’ve maxed out your Ixali rank, you can earn one Ehcatl Sealant per day, which can either be used to improve your crafting gear or sold for consistent money.
  • Picking up the daily Hunt targets can get you several thousand gil if you’re smart with your teleporting.
  • Crafting is a major investment, but once you become a 4 star omnicrafter, you’ll be able to make and sell equipment for huge amounts of gil.  Of course, by that point, hopefully you’re already fully aware of how to manage your money.
• Gold Saucer – The Gold Saucer was added in patch 2.51.  There are two major attractions in the Gold Saucer, and several minor ones.  The Gold Saucer operates on Manderville Gold Points.  The small games are games of reflex and give very small MGP rewards.
  • Cactpot – The Mini Cactpot can be played every day.  You purchase a ticket for 100 MGP with nine blank spots.  You can reveal five of them, then you must pick a row or diagonal.  Different sums have different rewards.  There are several online Mini Cactpot Solvers that can help you with which spots to reveal and which rows to choose.
  • CACTPOT – The Jumbo Cactpot is a once a week drawing.  You purchase a ticket at the Cactpot Square and choose four digits.  On Sunday morning, the winning numbers are drawn, and based on how many of your numbers match, you receive a reward of MGP.  Matching all four numbers can give you over a million MGP.
  • Chocobo Racing – Chocobo Racing is a fun, interactive racing game.  Your chocobo can learn abilities to interfere with other racers, as well as to boost its own performance.  As your chocobo ranks up, you can breed it by purchasing Covering Licenses to increase parameters and teach new abilities to the offspring.  Here’s a fairly in depth guide to chocobo racing.
  • Triple Triad – The card game from Final Fantasy VIII has returned!  You can play many NPCs as well as other players to earn cards depicting many FFXIV characters, as well as heroes from the first 13 Final Fantasy games.  I highly recommend the Road to Squall guide to get you through acquiring your first 30 cards and earning the powerful Squall Leonhart card.  Tournaments are held every two weeks, and you can earn large sums of MGP and rare cards like Lahabrea, Ultima Weapon, Firion, and Tidus.  NPCs all over Eorzea can be played, and nearly all drop unique cards, so explore and play any NPC you see with a triple triad icon!  Cards can also be gained by completing duties after you’ve played your first Triple Triad game in the Saucer.

[Roulettes] – The Duty Roulettes are daily quests that randomly select a duty and toss you in.  Completing the duty gives you bonus tomes of Soldiery, Poetics, possibly gil, and possibly GC seals.  There is an “Adventurer in Need Bonus” that can be Tank, Healer, or DPS (good luck with that one) that will give you increased gil rewards.  Once you’ve queued, you’re locked into that In Need bonus, so if you catch a DPS bonus but it changes to Tank later, you will still get it.  You must have already completed every duty in the roulette at least once in order to queue for the roulette, and you can not queue for a roulette and anything else at the same time.  There are several types:

• Expert Roulette – Wanderer’s Palace (Hard), Amdapor Keep (Hard), and Keeper of the Lake.  This rewards you with i100 gear, the highest Poetics per duty, and a large chunk of Soldiery.  Can be combined with a daily quest for an Alexandrite Map.
• High Level Roulette – All other 50+ dungeons.  You’ll receive varying rewards of poetics and soldiery, as well as varying gear, but the Roulette reward (listed in your DF window) is constant.  Note that, with the exception of Snowcloak, Sastasha (Hard), and Sunken Temple of Qarn (Hard), these dungeons are all ilvl capped at 110.
• Trials Roulette – Can be any HM primal, Cape Westwind, the Chrysalis, Gilgamesh, Ultros, Battle in the Big Keep, or Steps of Faith.  This is usually a very quick run.
• Low Level Roulette – Can be any sub-50 dungeon or trial, including the story versions of Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda, from Sastasha to Aurum Vale.  If you are below level 50, you’ll receive a massive EXP boost at the end of the dungeon.  If you are at 50, you’ll receive a decent amount of tomestones.
• Main Scenario Roulette – Can be either Castrum Meridianum or the Praetorium.  Will give you a large soldiery reward upon completion, with the possibility of a new person bonus nearly doubling it.
• Frontlines Roulette – Can be either of the Borderlands raids, Secure or Slaughter.  The reward for the Roulette is poetics and soldiery tomes.  The reward for the Frontlines duty will be PVP exp and Wolf Marks.
• Guildhests Roulette – Can be any Guildhest you are of an appropriate level for.  The reward for this roulette is gil and GC seals ONLY.

[Side Content] – These pieces of content are fun and easy, and can be done at any point after you’ve completed the above steps.

• Hildebrand Quests – [N/A] – A chain of humorous quests with a few small, easy, and entertaining battles, with minor rewards.  You must do these quests in order to unlock your Trials Roulette.
• Mail Moogle Quests – [N/A] – A branching chain of quests following some of the NPCs you met in the main story, usually with plenty of humor to go along with it.  Completing this chain rewards you with a cute Postman’s hat, as well as two Postman titles.
• Hunts – [i70-i130] – Open world bosses, tackled with a whole pile of people. Easy, and offer good rewards, if you’re willing to invest the time.  The seals you get from successful hunts (they give tiers of credit just like FATEs) can be exchanged for Oils of Time (500 seals), Sands of Time (750 seals), Carboncoats (2000 seals), and Carbontwines (3000 seals).  These items will upgrade soldiery or poetics gear.  You can also purchase Alexandrite, minions, i70 glamour gear, and ventures with these seals.
  • Weekly Hunt Quests: You can pick up a weekly hunt that asks you to find a B rank monster.  These are non-aggressive, level 50 monsters that can be in any zone.  They have 100% uptime, but can spawn nearly anywhere, so shout while you’re looking to see if anyone has a handy coordinate for you.
  • Daily Hunt Quests: You can pick up a daily hunt that asks you to find 3 sets of monsters.  These can be essentially any monster in the game; most of the ones I’ve seen are level 30+.  Killing 3-5 of these will get you a few allied seals and gil.  You can also get two FATE boss marks per day which will give you slightly more seals and gil.
  • A rank hunts pop once every 2-4 hours, one per zone.  These are very good sources of soldiery and seals.
  • S rank hunts pop once every 2-3 days, one per zone.  These give the most seals and soldiery per kill, plus a limited amount of poetics.  S ranks have a chance to drop the Unstained Mark Logs that you can trade for Carboncoats and Carbontwines.
  • Useful Hunt Chat Log Tricks: if you see someone post a coordinate that has a small orange flag in front of it in the chat log, you can click that to get a flag put on your map.  You can then put that same flag into your own chat message by using the <flag> tag.  If you find a hunt yourself, you can spread the location by saying something like “Gatling located at <pos>”, which will generate a new <flag> on your own map at your current location, and other players will be able to click on that message to quickly see where the hunt is.

• PvP – [i70-110] – PvP comes in the form of both 4v4 Arena mode in the Wolves Den, and the more popular 24v24v24 Frontlines combat. Frontlines also rewards you with Tomestones along with PvP Credits/EXP, which can make it a lucrative option if you enjoy it.
  • Frontlines will gear you up in i90-i100 gear in two ways, by giving you soldiery and wolf marks.  PVP gear is just as viable as weathered soldiery gear, and can be purchased at the Wolves’ Den in La Noscea.
• Light Party Dungeons – [i60-90] – There are a large amount of Light Party/four man dungeons available at level 50. The first ones to start with at this point for you should be Amdapor Keep, Wanderer’s Palace, Copperbell HM, Haukke HM, and Pharos Sirius. Even the most difficult of the light party dungeons are relatively tame, so you should feel free to keep working your way down the list of Light Party Dungeons as you move along and meet the iLevel requirements for each tier of them.
• The Market Board – [i48-i110] – The Market Board offers plenty of options for either short-cutting some of the progression and grind as you advance on, or just filling in awkward gaps in your gear. Don’t be afraid to use it; though you’ll have to pay a pretty penny for the nicest items out there. HQ Crafted gear (before Materia Melding) is statistically on par with dungeon drops of the same iLevel. When Melded, it is more akin to about +5-10 the stated iLevel.
• Glamours/Housing/Chocobo Raising/Etc. – [N/A] – There are lots of small 1-quest system unlocks available once you hit 50; take a little time to hop through Revenant’s Toll, Vesper Bay, and the three cities and look for quests marked ‘level 50’.
• Achievements – [N/A] – There are ton of level 50 specialty achievements, from completing dungeons a certain number of times, to finishing your hunting log, to getting thousands of player commendations, and more. Some of them even give you reasonably good gear, unique vanity pieces, or amusing titles. Talk to Jonathas at Apkallu Falls in Old Gridania to pick up any Achievement rewards you qualify for, if it sounds like something that interests you.
• Beastmen Quests – There are five tribes of beastmen that you can do daily quests with.  The Amalj’aa in Southern Thanalan, the Sylphs in Eastern Shroud, the Sahagin in Western La Noscea, the Kobolds in Outer La Noscea, and the Ixali in North Shroud.  By unlocking each tribe’s quests, you gain access to a vendor that sells you crafting materials and dyes that are otherwise unpurchaseable.  Ranking up each tribe is done by completing daily quests; maximum rank in a single tribe allows you to buy a mount and a minion.  The most efficient way to rank up is by doing two tribes at once, doing the highest possible tier of quest; you can do up to six quests per day, and each tier has three quests per day.  The Ixali quests are specifically for crafting classes, and cannot be accepted or turned in on any other type of class.  Once you have maxed all five tribes, there is a questline that will eventually unlock an additional minion from each vendor.

[Progression Content] – This content is what you will be required to complete to advance onto the next tier of content of that type.

• A Relic Reborn: The Chimera and The Hydra – [i55] – These fights are not difficult, but are the first 50+ Trials that require tactics and strategy.  People will love you when their Trials Roulette pops and you give them 50 free soldiery for the clear.  You can unlock these fights by proceeding with your Relic Quest.
• Ifrit HM – [i60] – The first Hard-Mode primal, this guy should present you no major challenge, and be easily killed with any Duty Finder group.
• Garuda HM – [i70] – Slightly more mechanics, but once again, you should be able to clear her with minimal challenge.  Please note that both Ifrit and Garuda HM are favorites of players attempting to gather light for their advanced relics, so you may be overwhelmed by a group of overgeared players your first few times in these fights.
• Titan HM – [i80] – Your first real challenge; though even if you get yourself KO’d off the map, there’s a reasonable chance your group can carry you through DF anyways. You must complete Titan in order to unlock the Binding Coil and all EX Primal fights.
• Relic Weapon Progression – [i80] In order to finish your relic’s initial stage, complete these five trials in addition to Amdapor Keep (Normal Mode), and kill a number of mobs in the overworld (which monster varies by weapon).  You will then need to purchase a vial of Radz-at-han Quenching Oil from Auriana with Soldiery tomes.
• Urth’s Fount – Urth’s Fount, unlocked by a quest starting in New Gridania, is a HM Primal level fight that gives gear that is essentially glamour only.  The fight has an item level requirement of 95, so you won’t be able to do it right off the bat, but it does not drop any gear that will aid in your progression.

Tier 1 – The Binding Coil of Bahamut [Item Level 70-90]

[The Side Content] – These pieces of content can be fun, and can be done at any point after you’ve completed the above steps.

• Main Story Quests – [N/A] – The main story continues after Praetorium, and you can pursue it at your leisure at this point. Be aware, storyline completion to various stages will be required for each of the EX Primals from here on out and two of the 50+ dungeons; so don’t just ignore your story quests completely.  You must complete the storyline through the 2.55 content to access Heavensward content when the expansion is released!
• Garuda/Titan/Ifrit EX – [i90] – The original three EX Primals are no longer connected to the main progression track, and can be completely skipped, if you want. Still, they offer fun and interesting challenges, and there are unique rewards for vanity or general use. They also must be completed initially in their own mini-progression track of Grauda -> Titan -> Ifrit.
  • Pony Time!  Each EX Primal (excluding Moggle Mog EX) has a chance at dropping a shiny, shiny pony.  These three in particular can also drop the Nightmare, a black unicorn.  Acquiring the six colored ponies (excluding the Nightmare) will allow you to start a quest to receive Kirin, The Ultimate Pony.  Ponies drop at a low rate; it has been raised in patch 2.5, but it will still require some time investment to get all six.
• Ultima HM – [i80] – Like the above, Ultima HM is disconnected from other progression, but is still a fun and interesting fight, that drops some unique equipment rewards. Ultima HM is eventually a requirement for unlocking Savage Second Coil; if that interests you.
• Moggle Mog HM – [i75] – Technically you’ll have to slap this guy around at some point for the main story line, but if you like, you can beat up on him some more to get his ever so entertaining Moogle weapons.
  • Fancy Primal Weapons: Crafted i95 versions of the Ifrit, Garuda, Titan, and Moogle weapons exist.  They share models with the original drops, but have glowing effects.  Ifrit weapons have flames, Garuda weapons have floating feather auras, Titan weapons glow and have dust clouds, and Moogle weapons have music staff auras.  These are fairly advanced crafts and require the furniture drop from the EX mode of the primal, in addition to Demimateria from desynthing the original primal weapons.
• Leviathan/Ramuh/Shiva HM – [N/A] – You’ll have to do all of these at some point for the story and unlocking their EX versions. None are particularly challenging, and none of them offer anything beyond furniture drops, so you can functionally treat them as easy/for-fun side content.
• Labyrinth of the Ancients – [i80] – The first 24 Man Raid, and the start of the Crystal Tower storyline, this can be a fun way to kill time and get rewards in a very casual fashion.
  • High Level Gear Progression: Every week, you can obtain one Carboncoat, Carbontwine (used to upgrade Poetics Accessories and Armor), OR Encrypted Tomestone (used to purchase an i120 weapon along with 1300 Poetics) from running LotA and the two other Crystal Tower raids.  This quest is not available until you’ve completed World of Darkness once.
  • Light Party Dungeons – [i70] Like in the last tier, there are tons of dungeons to explore. At this point, Brayflox HM, Halatali HM, and the Lost City of Amdapor should present you no particular problems, and you can begin tackling harder dungeons if you meet the iLevel requirements.
• Relic Quest Progression – Zenith [i90] To raise your Relic weapon to i90, purchase three Thavnairian Mists from Auriana with Soldiery tomes and interact with the Forge near Gerolt in the North Shroud.
• Relic Quest Progression – Atma [“i100”] Speak with Gerolt to begin a quest chain that will end with an NPC named Jalzahn appearing in North Shroud.  Once you have completed the quest Up in Arms, you gain the ability to harvest Atma from FATEs in various zones.  The only requirement for harvesting Atma is that you gain credit on a FATE (even Bronze will do) and have a Relic Zenith equipped at the time the FATE is completed.  Every zone in the game except for Coerthas Central Highlands, Northern Thanalan, Eastern La Noscea, Southern Shroud, and Mor Dhona has an Atma to be harvested.  Every FATE has a chance of dropping an Atma.  Once you have twelve, turn them in along with a Relic Zenith to Jalzahn to receive a Relic Atma Weapon.  This weapon has the exact stats as your Zenith, but can be further improved.

[Progression Content] – This content is what you will be required to complete to advance onto the next tier of content of that type.

• Moggle Mog EX – [i100] – One half of your first step in the actual chain of progression for the EX Primals. Moggle Mog EX will give you a very unique fight with some ho-hum rewards in the form of i100 neck ribbons.
• Leviathan EX – [i95-i100] – The other half of the opening step for the EX Primals, Leviathan EX is a relatively well put together fight all around, that will test most of your abilities just a little bit. Turns out some nice rewards for the effort too. You will the need Main story up through Leviathan completed to challenge him. Both Moggle Mog and Leviathan EX must be completed to continue forward with your EX Primal progression chain.  Leviathan drops i95 weapons along with a single Mirror of the Whorl; using a Mirror on any Wave weapon with Aelina in Revenant’s Toll will upgrade it to a Tidal Wave weapon, at i100.  Note that the two shields (PLD and WHM) can drop as either i95 or i100 versions.
• The Binding Coil of Bahamut – [i90-95] – The original Binding Coil, also known as Turns 1 through 5, or BCoB, are your first taste of some real endgame activity. You can technically skip Turns 1 through 4 at this point, if you want, but Turn 5 must be completed before you can advance further in your Binding Coil progression.  These drop i90 gear, and Allagan crafting material, which is often highly priced on the market board.  Turn 5 drops i95 weapons as well.

Tier 2 – The Second Coil of Bahamut [Item Level 90-110]

[Side Content] – These pieces of content can be fun, and can be done at any point after you’ve completed the above steps.

• Syrcus Tower – [i100] – The second leg of the Crystal Tower will continue the trend of the first; more rewards via 24 man casual raiding, with lots of Final Fantasy 3 influence.  Syrcus Tower rewards you with i100 gear, as well as Oils and Sands of time to upgrade soldiery tomestone purchases and Unidentified Allagan Tomestones that you can use to purchase soldiery weapons.
  • High Level Gear Progression: Every week, you can obtain one Carboncoat, Carbontwine (used to upgrade Poetics Accessories and Armor), OR Encrypted Tomestone (used to purchase an i120 weapon along with 1300 Poetics) from running LotA and the two other Crystal Tower raids.  This quest is not available until you’ve completed World of Darkness once.
• Light Party Dungeons – [i80] – You know the drill; by now you should have no problem with Hullbreaker Isle, Tam Tara HM, or Stone Vigil HM, and should be comfortable with the idea of tackling the remaining dungeons if you meet the iLevel requirements and feel adventurous.
• Relic Quest Progression: Animus [i100] – In order to upgrade your Relic Atma into a Relic Animus, you must purchase and complete nine Trials of the Brave books from G’jusana in Revenant’s Toll.  Each book costs 500 soldiery tomes.  The books require you to defeat 100 overworld monsters, complete three level 45 levequests (one each from Northern Thanalan, Whitebrim in Coerthas, and Saint Coinach’s Find in Mor Dhona), three dungeons (every dungeon from Sastasha up to Lost City of Amdapor appears in these books) and three FATEs.  You must be alive and have your Atma weapon equipped when you receive the rewards from all this content; being dead when a final dungeon boss dies will not give you credit.  You must also receive gold on the FATEs.  Each book increases one of the stats on your weapon by an increment; when you’ve finished all nine books, go to Jalzahn in North Shroud to receive your Relic Animus.
• Relic Quest Progression – Novus [i110] – The next upgrade in the relic chain requires a lot of grinding.  Once you’ve completed the next set of quests from Jalzahn, you will need to buy three inks from Revenant’s Toll with 1500 soldiery, and purchase a Sphere Scroll from Hubairtin in Central Thanalan.  You must then meld 75 materia into the scroll.  This allows you to fully customize your relic weapon’s secondary stats.  You cannot alter the main stat or the Vitality on the weapon.  Healer relics also come with a certain amount of Accuracy, which you can increase.  In order to fully meld a certain stat, you must put in all four tiers of materia for that stat.  If you wanted 44 points of Accuracy, you would need 11 Heaven’s Eye I, 11 Heaven’s Eye II, 11 Heaven’s Eye III, and 11 Heaven’s Eye IV materia.  Each successive meld in a given tier has decreasing success; the first few will be 100%, and the final meld can be as low as 40% success rate.  You can meld one stat up to 44 points, and a second up to 31 points, or spread the points out among up to five different stats.  Determination cannot be melded beyond 31 points, nor can Piety.  There is a ton of discussion on the subreddit about optimal Novus melds; use the search bar to find specific guidance on how you should meld your sphere scroll.  In order to meld a materia, you must have 1 Alexandrite per materia.  Alexandrite can be found by completing FATEs with an Animus, Novus, Nexus, Zodiac, or Zeta weapon equipped, or by solving an Alexandrite Treasure Map.  You can receive one map per day by accepting a quest from Brangwine in Revenant’s Toll and completing your Expert Roulette, and you can buy additional maps for 400 soldiery apiece from Auriana.  Once you’ve turned in your completed sphere scroll to Jalzahn, you can alter the stats on your weapon by buying a new scroll from Hubairtin and repeating this process, or you can alter the points one at a time with Jalzahn’s help.
• Crafting Gear For Fun And Profit – There are three main sets of gear for each ilvl tier.  The Tomestone set (Antique Gear, Weathered Soldiery Gear, Ironworks Poetic Gear), the Coil set (Allagan, High Allagan, and Dreadwyrm), and the crafted set.  Crafted gear can be melded with up to five materia, and when a high quality piece is properly melded, it will actually function significantly better than its item level might indicate.  At i110, crafted accessories (while expensive!) can be enormously helpful when you are trying to push your job to the maximum output.  Some jobs actually consider fully melded i110 crafted pieces to be Best in Slot, even over i130 Ironworks or Dreadwyrm choices.

[Progression Content] – This content is what you will be required to complete to advance onto the next tier of content of that type.

• Ramuh EX – [i100-110] – The next step in your EX Primal Chain. Ramuh will test you with fairly high coordination requirements, and some sweet music. Beating down the old man is required down to continue forward in the EX Primal path.  Ramuh drops i110 rings and i100 weapons.
• The Second Coil of Bahamut – [i110-115] – Also known as T6 through T9, or SCoB. Like the previous coil, this one will challenge you with some real end-game feeling. With the changes in 2.4, you can now technically skip straight to T9, though I wouldn’t suggest it unless you like dying repeatedly. Regardless, a clear on T9 is required to continue your Binding Coil progression.  T6-T8 have been eased mechanically, but the only change to T9 so far is a 20% echo increase in your HP and damage output.

Tier 3 – The Final Coil of Bahamut [Item Level 110-130]

[Side Content] – These pieces of content can be fun, and can be done at any point after you’ve completed the above steps.

• The Second Coil – Savage Mode – [i110] – The extra-hard mode for the Second Binding Coil will hit you with a lot of crazy and ‘unfair’ mechanics. Still, for the masochistic, this is exactly what the doctor ordered.
• Light Party Dungeons – [i90] – You’ve probably already done them by now, but if you haven’t, at this point the four man dungeons of Snowcloak, Qarn HM, and Sastasha HM should present you no major problems.  Note that Snowcloak must be unlocked via the Main Scenario.
• Light Party Dungeons – [i100] – The new dungeons added in 2.5.  Keeper of the Lake is unlocked via the Main Scenario, while Wanderer’s Palace (Hard) and Amdapor Keep (Hard) are unlocked via quests in Revenant’s Toll.  These dungeons drop i100 gear (equivalent to weathered soldiery items) and are the current Expert Roulette (used to get Alexandrite maps).
• Relic Progression: Nexus [i115] – In order to upgrade from Novus to Nexus, have your Relic Novus soulglazed with Jalzahn, then go out and do content.  Every duty you complete with a Relic Novus equipped will now end with a light message, i.e. “The Stardust Rod Novus glows with a feeble light!”  Light can be feeble, gentle, bright, brilliant, blinding, or be as bright as a newborn star.  Each level of light gives increasing amounts of points toward your total.  You must collect 2000 light to receive your Nexus.  Feeble gives 2, Gentle 4, Bright 8, Brilliant 12, Blinding 16, and newborn star 32.  Hard Mode primals tend to be the most efficient way to get light, but anything from FATEs to treasure maps to FCOB give you light.  Notably, Hunt mobs and Guildhests do NOT give light.
• Relic Quest Progression: Zodiac – [i125] – After your obligatory chat with Jalzahn and Gerolt, you will pick up four quests.  Three are in Revenant’s Toll, and one is in Central Thanalan.  You will have to do the following for each quest: receive a random drop from 4 dungeons (very similar to Atma from FATEs), have two HQ items crafted, purchase an item for 100k gil, purchase a bombard core for 20k GC seals, and purchase a bottle of spring water from Auriana for 1600 soldiery.  You can purchase the Bombard Cores at any time, and you can have the items (one for each crafting profession) crafted at any time, but the rest is only available once you’ve accepted these quests.  You can only receive the dungeon drops while the quest is asking for that specific dungeon, and each quest is gated to a certain step at a time.  Once you have completed all four quests, return to North Shroud, follow Jalzahn’s directions, and you’ll have an i125 weapon with the stats you chose for your Novus.
• Relic Quest Progression: Zeta – [i135] – The end of the Zodiac Braves Relic questline.  Start up the process by visiting Jalzahn, as always, then harken over to Swiftperch, where you’ll see an NPC named Remon.  You can purchase Mahatma from Remon for 200 soldiery apiece.  Each Mahatma requires 79 light to “fully awaken”, in much the same way your Nexus weapon required 2000 light, and you must purchase the Mahatmas in order.  Each one awakens in exactly the same way as the other 11.  So your Zeta weapon (which will retain the customized stats you put on in the Novus stage and can be altered the same way) requires 2400 soldiery and 948 light.  The light levels are similar to the Nexus ones, though they have slightly different flavor text.

[Progression Content] –

• Shiva EX – [i110-120] – The last EX Primal available in 2.4, Shiva will give you a nice challenge and hopefully get you all warmed up for your stint in the final piece of progression.  Shiva drops i120 bracelets and i110 weapons.  Each time you defeat her, you will receive a Diamond Dust item.  You can turn in five of these along with a True Ice weapon to upgrade it to a Diamond weapon, at ilvl 115, equivalent to High Allagan weapons from T9.
• World of Darkness – [i120] – The World of Darkness is the final raid in the Crystal Tower.  It drops i120 gear that is equivalent to unaugmented Poetics rewards.  You can farm World of Darkness for gear without limits.
• High Level Gear Progression: Every week, you can obtain one Carboncoat, Carbontwine (used to upgrade Poetics Accessories and Armor), OR Encrypted Tomestone (used to purchase an i120 weapon along with 1300 Poetics) from running LotA and the two other Crystal Tower raids.  This quest is not available until you’ve completed World of Darkness once.
• The Final Coil of Bahamut – [i130-135] – The end of the Coil arc, also known as T10-13 or FCoB, is the hardest content in 2.4; make your way through it all to find out how the Binding Coil story arc ends, all while gearing up to look like the biggest badass on your server.  FCOB drops i130 gear, i135 weapons from its final fight, Carboncoats and Carbontwines used to augment Poetics gear, and Encrypted Tomestones used to purchase Poetics weapons.  You can farm FCOB for gear without limits, and you can access any turn without completing the turn before it.  However, you should consider clearing them in order just to see the cutscenes and complete the Binding Coil story.

Tier 4 – Heavensward [Item Level BEYOND]

We don’t know a great deal about incoming Heavensward content, but here are some of the things we do:

• New Jobs – Three new jobs will be added.  Dark Knight will be a tank job that uses its mana to manipulate the power of darkness for offense and defense, and wield a great sword.  Machinist will be a ranged, physical DPS class that uses turrets and attachments for attacks and indirect effects, and wield guns and robots.  Astrologian will be a healing class that uses a card drawing mechanic to achieve effects, while also being able to swap between a shielding stance (a la Scholar) or a more traditional healing stance (like a White Mage).  The Astrologian wields a star globe.
  • Not Classes! – These new jobs will not have base classes and will start at level 30.
• Free Company Crafting – Free Companies with their own house will be able to craft airships they can use to explore the skies of Heavensward.  Details are scarce on the mechanics here, but we have been promised treasure, secret areas, and giant monsters to discover.
• Level Cap Raised – The level cap, currently at 50, will be increased to level 60 by some means.  There will not be any kind of Limit Break-style quest; from the comments Yoshi-P has made, the EXP bar will simply be uncapped once you log in the first time with HW installed.  Here are some things you can do to prepare for getting that first job from 50 to 60, barring major gameplay changes in the expansion:
  • Rested Experience – Most of us probably don’t even worry about our experience bars anymore, but as we draw closer to June, make sure you log out in cities or sanctuaries to stock up on as much of this as you can.  It does cap at a certain point, but the more you have the better!
  • Leve Allowances – Levequests are a great source of experience points and can be quickly done.  Levequests also do not consume your rested EXP, so you can use them in between dungeons to maximize your EXP intake in duties.  They regenerate fast, but make sure you have 100 when 3.0 hits so you can use as many as possible.
  • Find Some Friends! – If you’re dying to level up Astrologian, find a couple Machinist enthusiasts and plan a leveling static.  They’ll love you for your fast queues, and you’ll love them for their thousand dps per second!
  • Don’t Forget To Eat – Food provides a 3% buff to experience gained on top of your rested experience.
• Four Weeks In Paradise – For the first two weeks of the expansion, there will be no access to the Alexander raid.  After those two weeks are up, the Story Mode of Alexander will become available.  After two MORE weeks, the Savage Mode of Alexander will be opened up, along with Allagan Tomestones of Esoterics, the capped tomestone currency.
• A Challenger Approaches! – Joining the lineup of Hyur, Elezen, Miqo’te, Roegadyn, and Lalafell is a new race, the Au’ra!  Male Au’ra are hulking and demonic, while female Au’ra appear waifish and somewhat sylphlike.  We’ve been told that you can adjust both genders in the opposite direction, so a monster girl may be in your future.  Yugiri, the mysterious masked woman introduced in the 2.2 storyline quests, is an Au’ra.
• So What Item Level Should I Be? – We don’t have any hard data on what the item levels of gear we’re getting post 50 are.  The last storyline content of the 2.X cycle, Steps of Faith, has a minimum of i90, so it wouldn’t be outrageous to assume HW content expects something slightly higher than that.  If you’re full up on WoD gear and soldiery gear, I’d expect you to be able to function just fine in the 50+ world coming our way.
• What About My Old Gear? – It’s been suggested that eventually, your precious Dreadwyrm Robe of Tackiness, sorry, Casting will be replaced, but you’ll be totally fine into the early 50s without worrying about serious gearing up.  Once we get past 53 or 54, it’s a decent bet that dungeons will be showering us with new gear to improve our stats.
• How is Crafting Going To Work? – This is not a guide for crafting, but we do know a few things about crafting and gathering in HW.  There will be level 60 gear that is superior to our current equipment.  You’ll be able to choose a “specialist” class.  You’ll be able to accrue some sort of token (the developer made an Allagan Tomestone of Crafting joke) to improve your crafts and gatherers.  There will be local myths and legends that, when unlocked somehow, will guide you to rare gathering opportunities.
• But What About My Relic? – The question is constantly asked, is it worth grinding through my entire relic weapon when 3.0 is about to hit?  At a certain point, you have to decide whether or not you want to have goals in the game.  However, now that Encrypted Tomestones are available through infinite t11s and the Archmagus quests, you can easily gain i130 poetics weapons with far, far, far less effort than a relic.  In 3.1, there will be some sort of new relic quest, and someone with an upgraded 2.X relic is going to have some sort of head start, but that is all we know.  It has been stated on Yoshi-P’s twitter that the three new jobs will not have Zodiac Braves relics.