A White Mage's Guide to FFXIV

A handy collection of guides for the Spout stranded in Limsa.

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A White Mage's Guide: Hotbars

I've been slowly running more content while finishing my relic weapon and prepping for Evercold. With the recent release of XIV on the Switch 2, there's been a huge influx of new players, returners, or people who have never held a controller when they play XIV.

My potions have been getting a workout, needless to say.

I've gotten on the topic with a couple of groups--a collection of potions on your hotbar can make or break a run, or at least your ability to recover from death during mechanics. So today, let's break down all the fun things you can do with your hotbars!

Hotbars are the collection of buttons that you press to perform actions in FFXIV. You will have a total of ten different hotbars, that you can arrange, configure, or hide in different ways depending on their usage. By default, you will have the first three bars enabled; these are where your class actions go, as well as some 'default' general actions such as teleport, return, and the player guide.

Many of the default settings for hotbars can be adjusted in the HUD Layout menu. Remember that you have four different layouts you can make, which I"ll bring up again later on. For now, we're going to be working with one layout. You can change the size of each hotbar on your screen, set a 'transparency' for it, and change how the ten blocks in each hotbar are arranged. We're going to leave our class bars in the default setting for now, but if you decide to play with it later on, then go for it!

As an example, I've set all the other hotbars to a low transparency, and made my main hotbars bigger. As you play through the game, you will learn new actions and skills. However, you may not like the default placement for them. You can move actions and skills around your bar for optimal usability. Make sure you toggle the lock on the right hand side when you're done; it's easy to try and use an action and remove it from your hotbar by accident.

You can also adjust the keybind of actions on your hotbars. For example, I have 'Swiftcast' and 'Raise' bound to my two extra mouse keys, so I can quickly raise a downed player while remaining in better control of my movement.

You can adjust the keybind of any slot on any hotbar in the keybinds menu. (You can also set shortcuts for common actions, like switching HUDs or a really common emote you use).

Once you have your class bars set, we can move on to your auxiliary bars; These you will have to set on your own, but will provide extra utility in exchange. I highly recommend putting some potions, recovery items, and food on a dedicated hotbar slot. In another hotbar, put your cross-class actions like teleport, return, sprint, and your mount. Yes, you can put your mount on a hotbar slot. Have a key item you refer to frequently for a quest, or Khloe's journal? You can put that in a hotbar slot too!

Now, it used to be that players would have to get creative to use extra hotbars without cluttering the screen, but SE recently introduced a feature to help cut down on screen bloat; the Command Panel. (That's the yellow icon in hotbar 4).

The Command panel acts as a set of 4 collapsible hotbars with 25 slots each. You can't set a keybind for of these slots, but they're still useful for out-of-combat actions. For example, you can set your class presets in these slots. (Yes, you can do that!)

If you've seen an earlier edition of White Mage's Guide, you should have your different classes saved to a gear set. You can click and drag these gear sets into the command panel for easy recall. (They'll auto-update, so you don't have to worry every time you change one piece, unlike your portraits).

You can also add Macros to these slots; Macros are a collection of commands set to one button. Most people use them for longer chats, announcements, or crafting.

In addition, you can add anything from your Actions and Traits menu. Want to G-pose quickly? Slap it in a command slot or on your hotbar. Want an umbrella? Command slot. Tired of digging in the menus for the HUD Layout menu while you're fixing all your hotbars? Guess what, you can slap that in a command slot too.

Again, you can't use the Command Panel for on-the-fly combat; it's best for single actions you need on a semi-regular basis, but don't need instant access to.

So what about our last set of hotbars? If we have the command panel, what are these for?

Well, remember those extra HUD layouts you have? That's where these come in. Say you have HUD 1 for your normal day-to-day play, going through dungeons or slogging through South Horn. Now you want to go and try out an RP event--but you don't want all your combat bars in the way! You can use HUD 2 to create an 'RP' screen, with reduced hotbars and screen bloat.

Your extra hotbars can be used here to store your emotes and other general actions without messing with your main bars. Again, the goal is flexibility and functionality.

Now, back to the original point that led to this whole diatribe; Helpful tools on your hotbar in combat. As a veteran healer, I recommend that every player have the following on an auxillary hotbar.

A Healing potion of appropriate tier

An Ether of Appropriate Tier

Antidotes (Cure poison)

Echo Drops (Cure Silence)

Spine Drops (Cure Paralysis)

Cordial (For Gatherers only)

Phoenix Downs (Can now be used in 4-man content)

Simple food (For that 3% EXP gain)

These are vital for recovering from death, or recovering from a status effects when running with either A. a raid where the entire party is afflicted or B. A healer that hasn't learned what 'Esuna' does yet.

You can get the recovery items really easily, even on free-trial: Talk to Albgast in Gridania. Some items have a steeper cost, but it's worth keeping a few on hand. You can also craft everything except the Phoenix down. The Pots and Ethers you will have to buy off the MB or craft yourself. (Alternatively, gather the ingredients yourself and bribe an alchemist in Limsa)

And that's the basics of hotbars! Now, I offer this disclaimer: THIS GUIDE WILL BE EFFECTED BY EVERCOLD AND HAS A EXPIRY DATE OF EVERCOLD LAUNCH. I will update this guide when EC launches, as we will have an entirely new combat system to explore and navigate.

See you around Eorzea!

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A Player's Guide: Queue Patience

DDOS gets us all, these days. While you're sitting in a 1000+ Person queue to get back to organizing your Glamour Dresser, here's a few QoL things you can do to pass the time.

Do the Dishes

Pay your Credit Card bill

Put your Laundry Away

Empty your office/bedroom/den trash into the main trash can

Take out the Trash

Hang up that shirt that's on The Chair. You know the one.

That other shirt too, while you're at it.

Wash the bathroom mirror.

Scrub the toilet.

Wipe down the vanity

Make your bed

Go hang up another shirt off The Chair.

Tidy up your shoes, wherever you store your shoes.

Have any jewelry? Might wanna put those earrings back in the jewelry case.

Tidy up your pens and put them in a little jar or pencil holder.

Oh, you have a pair of pants on The Chair too? put those up.

Put all your loose books away on the bookshelf where they belong.

Make sure your controllers/Handheld console are plugged in and charging.

You've made it this far? Go put away another piece of clothing that's on The Chair.

Go gather up all the loose mugs/glasses and bring them to the kitchen.

Send your mother/father/positive parental unit a loving text.

Start Laundry.

Move your laundry.

Fold your Laundry.

Tuck that paperwork you've been meaning to put away back where it *actually* belongs, not on the edge of the desk.

Can you see The Chair unhindered? Better put away something else.

Wipe off the dining room table.

Write a card to a beloved friend.

Plot vengeance on your enemies.

Tidy your desk

Feed your pets

Oh, get that last thing off The Chair while you're at it.

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A White Mage's Guide: Crafting

Sometimes you just want to take a break from the endless ebb of the battlefield. And what better way than to sit back, relax, and craft yourself that shiny new glam you've been eying for weeks? Except... you have no idea where to start. Worry not! That is what we are here for!

There are eight crafting classes in Final Fantasy XIV; Carpenter, Armorer, Blacksmith, Weaver, Goldsmith, Culinarian, Leatherworker, and Alchemist. You can start any one, or even all of them after completing your first level 10 class quest and the world becoming your oyster. Culinarian, Blacksmith and Armorer are in Limsa Lominsa, Goldsmith, Alchemist and Weaver are in Ul'dah, and Carpenter and Leatherworker are in Gridania.

You'll start as you do any other class in the game; talk to the receptionist and affirm your aspirations for crafting greatness. They'll send you to the guildmaster to get your first crafting tool. Once you equip it, you're ready to start crafting.

The first thing you'll notice is the Crafting Log. This is where you track all of your recipes you use to craft items. Crafting Items use Materials and Crystals, shown on the right. You can either buy these from a vendor or the Marketboard, or gather them yourself. It's recommended to level everything at once, because the crafting/gathering classes are reliant on each other for materials, and it saves armory chest space. You've probably picked up some crafting materials already just from completing quests and fighting monsters.

There are two main components to crafting an item; Progress, and Quality. Progress (The green bar) is how close the item is to completion. Quality (The blue bar) is the chance the item will be a High Quality item when you are finished. High Quality crafting components give a boost in Quality to successive recipes, and High Quality gear/accessories have better stats than their regular quality counterparts.

You'll notice as you level that certain actions spend CP. These are Crafting Points, and are the MP of crafting. It's a balancing act that must be carefully watched so you don't burn out of CP before you finish. CP will always replenish when you start a new craft. Each recipe has a certain amount of Steps, shown here as Durability; if you deplete all of your steps, the craft is ruined. There are several recommended methods to get the most out of your crafts; I tend to aim for almost-complete Progress, then fill quality as much as I can before I run out of durability/CP, then finish. As you level you'll learn skills that can reduce step wear, or boost the quality/progress of an action.

You'll also have Condition, which affects the Quality of an action used on that step. In normal crafting you'll see four; Normal, Good, Excellent, and Poor. Good and Excellent will give higher boosts to Quality-based actions on that step. When a step has an Excellent condition, the next one will always be poor whether or not you used a quality-boosting action. You can use the Calculations button to see how far an action will take you in Progress or Quality, and 'Trial Synthesis' in the main Crafting log to practice a recipe without wasting ingredients.

Speaking of Gear, your crafting gear is going to have a different set of stats compared to your combat gear. Your three crafting stats are Craftsmanship, Control, and CP. Craftsmanship is the amount of Progress gained in a single step, Control is Quality gained in a single step, and CP is the amount of Crafting Points you have (Similar to MP). Crafting gear is unique in that it can be Pentamelded, or have materia melded to it beyond 1-3 slots. It is VERY expensive, though, and only recommended at endgame.

Once you've leveled high enough, you'll be able to take on special crafting quests or Custom Deliveries that will give huge boosts to XP, and give you House of Splendors Scrips. (See our guide Here for more on Scrips) These are all listed in the Special tab of your crafting log. You'll also find recipes for housing items, dyes, and beast tribe quests. The Master Recipes are kept here as well, and are end-game recipes that require near-perfection from crafters. You can also craft Collectibles to trade in for Scrips; this system was recently slimmed down; the collectables have their own tab, and instead of 'Quality' you'll aim for 'Rarity' (Functionally the same thing)

Ready to begin? Great! You'll find yourself powering through the first ten or so levels easily enough, but then the XP starts to peter out. How do you keep up your momentum? Three solutions: Leves, Grand Company Turn-ins, and the Firmament.

Leves are just like the combat leves you've probably already seen; small quests from Levegivers in the adventurer's guild or around the world that request an item for a certain reward. HQ items will always give better rewards. You'll notice in the top right that each leve has a 'plate' depicting a piece of art. For every set of three leves, look for the one with a different plate. This one will give you an opportunity to turn in three items instead of one, netting you further rewards.

The Second is your Grand Company turn-ins. These are once-per day items roughly equivalent to your level that you can 'turn in' to your Grand Company representative. (If you don't have this unlocked yet, don't worry! It's part of your MSQ) You can also turn in dungeon gear once you're a high enough rank with the GC.

The last is the biggest boost, but also requires the largest pre-req; Completion of the 3.3 MSQ scenario. (Basically, finish Heavensward up to 'Litany of Peace') The Firmament is a Crafting/gathering playground that was introduced in Shadowbringers. There are special items to collect and craft that you can turn in for special scrips and stamps for rewards. These by far are the easiest to sit down and grind out, and with the right boosts you can go from 20-40 in very little time at all.

If you're ever struggling with a craft, make sure your gear is up to date, or eat some food that boosts crafting stats. You'll unlock new recipes about 3-4 levels before its recommended one, so don't be alarmed if you're struggling with one at the far range of your abilities. You can also buy Engineering Manuals from either your GC or the House of Splendors that will give a boost to XP up to a certain amount.

And those are the basics! Grab a hammer, get to sawing, and have a blast crafting your way around Eorzea!

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A White Mage's Guide: Dungeon Etiquette

Yes, I know it sounds strange, but there IS etiquette when it comes to dungeon delving. Even in a low-interaction style such as FFXIV, there are a few things to know in order to ensure a smooth run and loot for all.

First off, Greet your fellow party members! A simple 'hello' or 'first time here' goes a long ways towards generating cooperation amongst each other. If you're on PS4... I dunno, jump up and down excitedly. We'll get the point. This also goes if you're running something you haven't run in a while. It allows the Tanks and healers to adjust their expectations and strategy accordingly. This is also the time to mention any factors that could affect the run, like weather, time limits, siblings, or the desire for particular loot.

Which leads into my next point; Party Lead. While in Duty Finder parties the Party Lead is randomly selected (I think) In practice it is usually the Tank that takes the lead and sets the pace. A good tank takes notice of who is new, the style of healer they have, and the level of the dungeon before sprinting for the far end, as these are all factors that affect the Party's overall ability. If you're a new tank or unsure about the dungeon, just say so! The more veteran players are happy to guide you, as it means a faster run than stumbling around.

Most veteran Tanks are going to 'wall to wall' pull as much as they can, which basically means pulling EVERYTHING they can in a segment of the dungeon and whittling it down with AoE attacks. This is less effective in A Realm Reborn Dungeons, as dungeon design philosophy was different and not all classes have AoE attacks at the ready. (FYI, healers don't get them until the level 40 range. Yes, it hurts.) Don't let veteran players force you into doing this if you are new, although you can start to engage more if you're feeling confident. Keep in mind that newer healers or low-level healers will NOT have the same kit they will at the higher levels, and may not be able to accommodate wall-to-wall pulls as well.

Now that you've whittled down a few packs of monsters, you've probably found a treasure chest or two. Worry not! You're not about to get stuck arguing over loot for ten minutes like a DnD session and dragging the run to a halt. That's what the loot system is for.

There are three different categories for the loot system; Need, Greed, and Pass. Classes that can equip the item in question will be the only ones that can roll Need. All Classes can roll Greed or Pass. Need will always take priority over Greed. Each person that 'rolls' will roll a number from 1 to 99, highest number wins. As a general rule of thumb, Roll Need if you desperately need that piece of gear to upgrade your current kit, Greed if you want it for an alternate class, or to turn in for GC seals or desynth for loot. Pass if you want that thing as far from your inventory as possible. If you're running a dungeon for a particular piece of gear, make sure to mention it at the start of the dungeon! Just because you can't equip it, doesn't mean you can't roll for it!

As you advance to later dungeons, orchesterion rolls and minions will start to appear. I personally consider it good etiquette to only roll Greed or lower if you already have the item in question, to allow others a chance to attain the item. Certain items will not let you roll for it if you already possess it.

This last piece of advice is less formal than the previous ones, but I've still seen it fairly consistently. This occurs at the end of the dungeon, right before you face the boss. A cutscene will always play, introducing the boss. If you've already seen the scene and are ready to fight, stand just INSIDE the purple line that appears. This signals that you're ready to start the fight. The tank can pull when everyone is inside the line.

WARNING; DO NOT DO THIS on Thousand Maws of Moro-Tak. Not only is that cutscene VERY long, but the distance between 'inside the line' and 'being dragged into aggro the boss' is VERY small. It is very easy to start this boss fight on sheer accident. Stand just outside the line instead.

And that's everything! Best of luck in your dungeon Delving, and See you Around Eorzea!

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A White Mage's Guide: What to Do While Waiting for Duty Finder

You're sooo close to that next level, you can TASTE it. Finally, new gear, new skills, and amazing glams are within reach! You just have this last dungeon and...

an eighteen minute wait. Wonderful.

Well, don't worry! There's lots you can do while waiting for that queue finder to pop!

Like maybe...

Building an Airship

Or Helping a Dummy!

Or Climbing up Kugane Tower!

Fighting the Monsters that Rarely Exist

Or Giving M'naago Some Flowers!

Digging up Treasure maps

Making the Wrong Bronze Rings

Or finding the perfect WHM Cane

Getting the Perfect Shot

Fishing Monstrosities

Or Driving your FC INSANE!

...Okay, Maybe I should Elaborate a bit.

Building an Airship

If your FC has an estate, you have access to the Company Workshop. You can use this to build Airships and Submersibles to send out on expeditions. They'll come back with rare items and loot!

Helping A Dummy

No, I don't mean the Sprouts. There are various groups throughout the game referred to as the "Beast Tribes', who will have quests you can take every day for rewards. Over time you will build up Rep with them, and get cool mounts and emotes for your troubles.

Climbing Kugane Tower

There are jumping puzzles hidden in places all over the map. While Kugane tower is the most (in)famous, there are some in each housing district, the Firmament, and some other cities! Keep an eye out for them.

Fighting the Monsters that Rarely Exist

There are rare monsters that appear throughout the world called 'Hunts' which are more challenging monsters, but will give special rewards upon defeat. You also have your Hunting log that you get in ARR for the base classes. If you haven't already completed these, take some time to grind them out!

Giving M'Naago Some flowers

There are special NPCs that have 'Custom Deliveries' that you can fill each week, again for special rewards. Some of these are more challenging to unlock than others, but they're a worthwile expenditure for Crafters and gatherers!

Digging up Treasure Maps

Treasure Maps are a fun bit of Side Content that give fun, rare rewards, gil, and Xp depending on the class. You can only gather 1 per day, but it's worth it to save some up and then go treasure hunting with friends.

Making the Wrong Bronze Rings

Are you a crafter? It's an easy skill to pick up while You're waiting for your queue. You can make materials to sell on the marketboard, and it becomes cheaper to repair your own gear depending on your crafting level. (The title refers to the level 5 goldsmith quests. You want the one that looks like a BOX of rings, not the jewelry ring.)

Or Finding the Perfect WHM Cane.

Glamour is the True Endgame. Fashion is Pain.

Getting the Perfect Shot

It can be fun to just mess around with G-Pose and try out filters and stickers! Especially if you're satisfied with the results from the last entry.

Fishing Monstrosities

Fishing is a great way to pass the time. Fill out your fishing log and see if you can find those rare monsters, and complete that one quest that's been sitting in your journal for two years.

Or Driving your FC insane!

Hopefully your FC is more active than mine currently is. But yeah, go bug your friends.

Stuff I couldn't fit into the song:

Triple Triad

Blue Mage spell Hunting

Sightseeing Log

Gathering/Crafting Log Lockouts

Fates

As you can see, there's a whole of stuff to do while waiting for Queue to pop!

So buckle up, 'cause if you're queue is long, you're gonna do it all!

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A WHM's Guide; The User Interface and its functions.

I really pity anyone who starts their adventure in Limsa Lominsa, simply because of the sheer amount of STUFF that clogs your screen after you sign on with the Adventurer's guild. There's maps, hotbars, weird logos, and NAMES EVERYWHERE. It can be overwhelming. Here's a quick guide to adjusting the UI to your liking so you don't go blind before you even leave the city.

Even at a quiet point, the names of players will clog your screen if you don't adjust your UI at all. To address this, we're going to start with phase 1 of UI; The Character Configuration menu. You find it under the System menu.

Under the 'display names' tab is the ability to change how names are displayed; color, full names and titles, and even if you want them to appear at all! I personally only have abbreviated names of other players appear when I am in combat for easy rezzing. They're organized into groups, so you can have most names hidden, but your Party/FC/Friends will always pop up in a different color.

There's a ton of other settings regarding what appears on your screen; The best one to know about is under the control settings; the Character tab in that menu allows you to turn off battle effects of other players. It's great if you have a low-spec PC or are tired of getting blinded by Holy.

(Certain actions like Healer's AoE Heals will still appear, so you know the good places to stand to get heals/shields. Also Limit Breaks, because RDM doesn't care, they want to be Flashy.)

Next up is your HUD; This is accesed through System -> HUD Layout. Here you can adjust all the hotbars, emnity/party lists, and other elements of the like. You can have four different Hud Layouts, and each can be set to their own keybind. HUD Elements are separated into four categories; Basic, Duty, System, and Hotbars. It's best to play with this yourself so you can set your HUD to your liking, but here's a couple of tips;

Most elements can be set to a certain transparency and size, or you can hide the element altogether. Your hotbars can also be rearranged into lines or squares. One of the only elements that can't be changed or hidden is your Job Gauge. You can move it, but it can't have its transparency or size changed. You can change it to 'simple' if you like a cleaner layout, or leave it as is. Chat log and certain Minimap settings are configured under character configuration, but the Minimap's location can be adjusted here.

While your personal tastes dictate your HUD, I've found that having a 'dungeon' HUD, a 'General' HUD, and a 'simple' HUD serves most of my needs.

Last up is System Configuration. This is (Surprise) under the 'System' menu. While this is more for graphics and audio changes, the changes made here can help make your experience smoother if playing on a low-spec computer or console.

You can switch between your different HUD Layouts with Keybinds. This is also under the System Menu. You'll have to generate custom keybinds for the HUD swapping yourself, but then it is tailored to your liking. Note that I am using my 'simple' HUD here; simple job guage, only one hotbar and few other elements. Keybinds will still work even if the relevant hotbar is not displayed; the element is only hidden, not removed.

There's a ton of guides out there for more advanced versions of UI that REALLY get fancy with the hotbars, turning them into their own menus and submenus! I'm not about to cover that here, but hopefully this guide gets you off on the right foot.

That's all for now! Have fun adjusting your view, and see you around Eorzea!

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A White Mage's Guide: Tomestones and the House of Splendors

If You're sub-50, you won't have to worry too much about this yet. But for those of you just cresting that beautiful 5-0, you've probably heard about and been confunded by Tomestones. What are they? Why do they keep changing? Who's this Rowena person everyone's terrified of?

Well, look no further.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Bane of your existence.

Rowena runs the House of Splendors, and end-game, high-end shop from which you buy gear, weaponry, items, and so forth. however, Rowena doesn't deal in gil; instead, she deals in those enigmatic tomestones that you'll start collecting once you've reached level 50.

These are Tomestones; they're accessed by clicking Ctrl+C to open your currencies window, under 'battle'. These are collected automatically when you run dungeons after reaching level 50. Tomestones of Poetics, the base level, are earned with any post 50 dungeon or roulettes run under level 80. The next three are on a roatation; the second one (under poetics) is the 2nd-high end; you earn it at level 80 by running roulettes or level 80 dungeons. The Third is the Highest tier you can currently get; it's earned the same way as the previous, but you're capped at earning 450 of them per week. Each set of tomestones can purchase a different set of gear or items.

Notice that I never gave them names? Well, that's because they rotate out whenever a post-MSQ patch is released. (Or rather, every other one.) The 'discontinued' tomestone you see was the previous 2nd-high end. So when a new patch hits, a new tomestone is released. The high-end becomes the 2nd-high end, and the 2nd-high end is discontinued and its purchaseables switch to poetics. If you happen to have any of the discontinued ones, you can trade them in for an item that will give you an equivalent you can spend.

Rowena's got her claws in almost every corner of Eorzea and beyond. Practically speaking, it means she's not hard to find. She's got representatives in every major city, and in certain end-game areas for each expansion pack. They're represented by a blue bag on the map for the sundries girls, usually near the aetherytes. The full suites of the House of Splendors are going to be in the endgame areas.

The Girls in Gridania, Ul'Dah, and Limsa, and Mor donuts Dhona will all sell level 50 gear, regardless of what class or you currently are. The girl in Ishgard and Idyllshire will sell level 60 gear, and so on. The sundries girls will only sell items you can buy with tomestones, and there's a reason this is important.

The House of Splendors deals in a LOT more than just tomestones. You'll find random items from raids, fates, and events that you may not know what to do with. Chances are, you can spend them at the House of Splendors. Odin's Mantle, for example; you get it from a Fate that spawns randomly in any of the Black Shroud areas. You can trade it in Mor Dhona for gear, a sword, or a barding. However, you can only do this in Mor Dhona; each end-game area will deal with different 'rare' items you can only gather in that particular expansion.

The items you are most likely to collect come from the 8-man raids that were introduced in Heavensward. You'll get one for completing any of the raids, but the item will differ depending on which of the 12 in the raid series you do. You can trade these in at the Splendors house in the relevant area (which I'm avoiding naming all of them for spoilers reasons) to get a different selection of high-end gear from the normal tomestones. There's a different selection of items that you get from the savage version of the raids that will let you purchase the augmented item (which is dyeable).

It's important to note that, unless you're a glamour fiend, you don't need to save any of these special 'raid' commodities until you reach the current end-game. (As of This writing, that would be Shadowbringers Post-game.) Whatever the high-end Poetics armor/weapons are will always be the 'top' gear over anything else available. A recent patch even removed the normal versions of these poetics gears; you can only purchase the augmented ones now. So for ARR, that would be the Augmented Ironworks gear, for Heavensward it's the Augmented Shire Gear, and so on.

This being said, the Augmented gear will usually last 5-6 levels into the next leveling segment; if you play your cards right (and only do certain roulettes) you can make the armor last until it's time to buy the next set. (We don't recommend this for progressing through MSQ, though; usually the level 65-67 dungeons purposefully have a skill/damage boost to prevent people from coasting through on lower-leveled gear. This tip is more for leveling subsequent classes)

I do want to add this, just to explain how tomestones work once you DO reach the endgame. In addition to straight armor and gear, you can buy items. You can use these to buy crafted armors and glamor sets. I have an example of a piece of armor you can use the highlighted material to get. Again, unless you're a glamour fiend you won't be messing with these too much until the endgame. whatever the 'top' tier of armor is changes with the patch, alternating between crafted gear and gear available from tomestones or raids. Unless you want to be a savage/ultimate tier raider, you won't miss much if your gear lags a bit behind.

Crafters and Gatherers aren't excluded from this, either! The House of Splendors has a separate set of currencies for each that can be used to buy equally high-end gear and tools. These are called scrips. They break down in a similar way to the tomestones, and rotate out, though on a less frequent basis.

Editor's note: The Skybuilders scrips are from a separate event called the Firmament Restoration and are not associated with the House of Splendors in any way.

Earning Scrips is a different process from earning Tomestones, one that you don't even fully start until you reach Heavensward. To earn scrips, you need to complete turn-ins similar to your Grand Company. Unlike the GC, though, the 'collectablity' of the item dictates how much XP or Scrips you get in exchange. (Functionally, the rarity replaces the 'HQ' meter when you're crafting.) These 'collectibles' are separate recipes within your crafting menu.

90% of Crafting/Gathering scrips is going to be the same as tomestones; earn currency, trade for loot. There are, however, two extra things to know about Scrips. The first is that there used to be a LOT more items you could trade in for scrips. As the game expands these processes tend to get streamlined. To prevent old players getting completely screwed over after a 2-year break, there is a vendor in Idyllshire that will trade a lot of these items for Blue tokens. You can get these with Yellow Scrips too, and this is the other extra thing to know.

Crafters can learn 'expert recipes' and gatherers can learn about 'unhidden' nodes, but only through books purchased through the House of Splendors. Crafters purchase their books with scrips, but Gatherers need to use the blue gatherer's tokens. They aren't super necessary for progression, but they DO allow you to gather rare items for that high-end crafted gear, and are worth grinding out.

Probably the best thing you can buy with your scrips if you're still leveling a crafter or gatherer is the manuals; these are one-use items that provide a 2-hour buff to your XP gain as that class, up until a certain point. After that, you can buy materia, orch rolls, and lots of other sundry little goodies. Or materia.

And... that should be everything! Best of luck with your dealings with Rowena, and see you around Eorzea!

[whmguidetoffxiv]

A White Mage's guide: G-Pose and the Art of the Perfect Shot

you've probably heard of G-Pose in your travels around Eorzea, even if you've never used it yourself. You've seen examples of beautiful vistas and epic battles captured in beautiful frames and filters. "How do I use this magnificent tool?" you may have asked. Well, ask no longer!

You can either activate G-Pose (Called Group Pose Officially) here in your actions and traits, or by typing /gpose in the chat bar. WARNING: The Game does not stop when using G-Pose. WHM's Guide to FFXIV does not recommend using this feature in combat.

When you first open Gpose, your HUD will disappear. You will be left with your subject, your background, and the menu.

On the left is your camera movement guide. On the right, the menu with the various settings you can use to manipulate your photos. Take some time to manipulate the camera to learn how it moves. The above photo is the exact same pose and location, I've just moved the camera to the right.

When positioning your subjects, it's important to keep the Rule of Three in mind. That is, your photo should be balanced across three different 'portions' of your photo. This is harder when you are doing a G-pose shot with multiple people, but it's doable if everyone coordinates. I've demonstrated here with a couple of models, and a frame that conveniently breaks the photo up into three segments. Unless you are deliberately planning to add extra effects or text later, there should be no empty spaces that focus on nothing.

The top is an example of poor balance; there's too much empty space on the top with no purpose, one character is cut off and is standing too far away from the others. The bottom is an example of good balance; while there is 'empty' space with no characters, the trio on the left are all looking the same direction, directing the viewer's attention to the old ruins in the distance on the right. Empty space in a shot isn't bad; it just needs to have purpose.

You also need to consider the positioning of your subject in relation to the camera. On the top, while it is balanced, you can't see the person's face on the left. On the bottom, you can. You may want to take the stylistic choice of not seeing faces, and that's okay! But be aware of where your characters are facing. This is somewhat adjustable in G-pose, but only for yourself; you can't adjust other players' positions, only where they look. You can also 'hide' unwanted players, minions, and NPCs from your shot, if you wish to prevent unwanted photobombing.

Before I get into the fun filters and stickers you can add, I want to talk about lighting. You may have noticed that there's an option to add extra lights to your shot. Here's how it works; when you activate each light, it will appear in the spot the camera is currently in. You can give each of your three lights three different intensities, and a wide array of colors via color mixing. Keep in mind that mixing lighting colors is not like mixing paint; your three primary colors are Blue, Red, and Green. This is additive Color mixing, adding other colors to your primary to get the desired color. The second shot is subtractive color mixing; starting with either Cyan, Magenta or Yellow and removing color as needed. Taking all three colors to full will give you a clear white light. When you add lighting to your shot, you will need to move your camera to the desired spot for the light before turning it on.

It's also important to keep your lighting in mind when using filters. Filters like Sepia or Monochrome will benefit from extra lighting, while filters like Bright or Pastel will not. Time of day is also a factor; while you can 'stop time' while in G-pose, if you're taking a shot at night you still want to make sure your subject is well lit.

Last but not least is Depth of Field. This is how clear your background is in relation to your subject. There's no right or wrong way to use this tool, but it can make all the different in establishing a subject.

From there, the world's your Oyster! There's plenty of Frames, Filters, Emotes, and stickers that you can use to build your shot. I'll leave these for you to discover and play with; after all the best way to learn G-Pose is to use it! You can also saved 'preferred' settings so you don't have to rebuild your favorite look from scratch.

And that's it! Have fun with G-Pose, and See you around Eorzea!

[whmguidetoffxiv]

A White Mage's Guide; The Armory Chest and Glamor Dresser

Your equipment is one of the most vital tools in your adventure. In FFXIV, this is where you get the majority of your stats and your protection. if you don't have gear that is strong enough, your ability in combat will suffer. But where do you keep it all? Why do you keep it all? Well, let's find out.

This is your Armory Chest; I've put it next to my current loadout for comparison. Each 'slot' in your armory chest can hold up to 35 of a particular item. (Editor's note; this will be changing with the expansion pack Endwalker, where Belts will be removed as an equipable item and more slots will be added to your main-hand weaponry.) When you 'sort' any particular category, it will start with the highest ilevel and work its way down.

What is iLevel, you ask? Excellent question!

iLevel is the strength of your equipment. I have two different hats here, equipable by the same class at the same level, but they have two different strengths. The Crystarium Turban of Healing has an iLevel of 490 and has slightly higher stats than the Weathered Ebers hood, which has an iLevel of 430. Note that the Materia melded to the turban stacks on top of the original stats. This is usually only noticeable at the end of an expansion pack or when you've hit the level cap, but you may encounter a raid or dungeon that won't let you in until your overall iLevel is high enough.

I've Circled it for convenience here. That's the 'mean' of all the iLevels of your equipment. A little trick about the stats of your equipment is that 'rare' items, ones with blue or green (or in the reaaaaly early game pink) have better stats than a crafted or 'grey' background one of the same level. These will hold out a bit longer in terms of leveling, but a rule of thumb is that your equipment should stay within 5 'equipable' levels of your own. So, if you're a level 45 White mage, your equipment should not be equipable at level 27. If you look at the comparison image of the two hats, they both say 'WHM, Lvl 80'. That means a White mage can only equip those at level 80.

This is important because, again, your equipment determines your stats. A Paladin wearing level 30 equipment is not going to be able to soak up as much damage as a Paladin wearing level 50 equipment, even if they are both level 50. Your gear will also stop giving stat buffs when it breaks, as indicated by the red/green bar to the left of each item. make sure to keep your gear in top shape!

As you wear your armor, you'll notice a second, blue bar next to it. This is your 'spiritbond' with your gear. When it hits max, you can right click the piece of armor and select 'extract materia' to get an extra bauble that will boost your stats even more. Again, this isn't as relevant in the early game because you'll be out-leveling your gear faster than you generate spiritbond. but come endgame, it's an easy way to generate materia.

If the idea of manually equipping your loadout every time you change class is daunting (and it should be) you can save your set to a 'gearset'. This will automatically equip whatever is saved to it, and is sorted by your main-hand weapon. (Blue circle) It will show the iLevel of the loadout, and if there is a glamour plate attached to it. (Which I will talk about later.) use the plus sign in the top left corner of the menu to add a new gear set.

The green circle is your 'recommended gear'. This is the easy button if you just got a whole slew of new equipment. It will automatically equip the best gear for your level, stats wise. (This is actually unhelpful regarding accessories at the early levels, because it will always prioritize your weathered accessories first. ) The yellow circle is your Glamour menu, which I will talk about next.

you've probably received an item like this at some point. it has no stats, and can be equipped at level one. This is a 'glamour' item; it's meant to be glammed on top of something else rather than worn as a piece of armor. to make the best use of these, use your Glamour Dresser.

You can find your glamour dresser and armoire in any inn room in the main cities. Unfortunately you can only put an armoire on private estates, not the glamour dresser. If you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, you need to find the lady below, outside the Waking Sands in Eastern Thanalan.

She'll give you an easy pair of quests that teach you the bare basics of glamour prisms and dyes. Once you're ready to reach the True Endgame (Glamour) then grab a few pieces of armor you really like and some glamour prisms (easily attainable from your Grand company or the marketboard) and return to your glamour dresser.

To add items to your glamor dresser, select it from the menu on the right, which is your inventory/armory chest. you can swap between selecting something from your inventory, or from various parts of the Armory. WARNING: It WILL put something in the dresser even if it's attached to a gearset, so for ease of use put anything you want in your glamour dresser in your inventory first. Or risk fighting your mortal enemy in your Skivies.

The stuff of Nightmares, I'm sure.

Anyway, it will use one Glamour prism for every item you store in the dresser. The exception is items that can be stored in the armoire. These are almost exclusively Mogstation, special event or seasonal event items, Achievement rewards, and your level 45 job gear. If you try to put these in the glamour dresser instead, the game will tell you it can be stored in the armoire to save crystals and space; you can have 400 items max (across ALL categories) in your glamour dresser.

Once you're ready to create your look, click 'edit glamour plates' at the bottom of the brown menu to pull up your plates. You have 15 plates to design and trust me, they can go quickly. You can design to your hearts content and even preview dye colors for items that can be dyed; those will have a circle in the upper right hand corner of its icon.

Be aware that a high-level item cannot be glammed over a lower-level one, and armor belonging to one class or job cannot be glammed over armor of a different armor type. That's why the specialty items have an equipable level of one. There's even special items designed to be transparent; these can be bought from a vendor near the Waking Sands.

When you're done, click 'save' to save your plate, then open your character menu and click the glamour plates button to chose one of your new designs to glam over your equipment. Now you can fight your mortal enemy in your Skivies whilst having the protection of a tank.

Remember that gearset menu? If you right-click the gearset, you can change its order in the list, and attatch a glamour plate to it. This is handy when you have three jobs that wear the same armor, but you want different looks for each.

Just like your normal inventory, it's important to go through and clean out your Armory Chest and your Glamour Dresser once in a while. You may have forgotten to discard or sell a bracelet you no longer need, or a chestpiece that you were saving for when you leveled that second healing class, only to have outleveled it by the time you remembered you had it. This goes double for the rings, since you equip two per gearset but only have 35 slots.

That's all for now! Best of luck on your Journey through Eorzea, and remember; Glamour is the True Endgame.

[whmguidetoffxiv]

A WHM's Guide to Inventory Management

There's a lot of stuff to collect in Final Fantasy XIV. And I mean A LOT. Even for a veteran player, keeping a decluttered inventory can be a daunting task. Let me walk you through some of the basics of your inventory and some of the tools you can use to make space for that one special item you've been tracking down for weeks.

This is your inventory. Well, your inventory and a retainer's. You've been gathering this stuff as you adventure along because hey, it has to be useful, right? right?

Well, not always. Let me break it down for you.

Here's the same pic, but I've broken your collection down into categories. (This is the default when you use the 'sort' option; you can customize this in the menu I'll show you in a bit.) First is your armor and weaponry. Now, normally this will default to your Armory Chest, but after a while that gets clogged up and prevents you from changing classes. There's an option to fix that, which I will also show in a bit.

Second is your Consumables (food/pots) You'll get a lot of these early on, but because their effectiveness is based on a stat up to a certain limit, they lose their effectiveness the higher level you are. The exception is pots like Antidotes, Echo Drops and so on; those will clear certain debuffs, and I do recommend having a few on you at all times.

Next is your consumables (gear/equipment) You'll find your Materia, Dark Matter, and things like Fish bait. Unless your Materia looks like what's in the photo, it's not worth holding onto. Some of it resells well on the marketboard, but a lot of it can just as easily be sold to a vendor. You CAN meld it to your gear if you want, but because of the insane XP buffs it's not really worth it because you'll outgrow your gear before the extra stats really matter.

Then there's your crafting items, and what's likely going to be taking up the bulk of your inventory. It's a bit tricky to delve into here, but for the most part you should only be carrying the items that you use as a crafter, or are very hard to find. (check the MB price for an item; if it's expensive, and I'm talking like 300k+ expensive, it's hard to find.)

Then there are Housing items; it's pretty easy to get an apartment, which can be decorated any number of ways. Again, most aren't worth holding onto unless you want to use it. Remember; The Market Board is your Friend!

We're going to jump over to my Retainer's inventory for the next category; Vendor currencies. You'll pick up any number of these as you reach the end of an expansion pack and unlock raids. Each raid has a currency that you can use to buy special gear, weaponry or items; I would only hold on to these if you're a glamour nut (like me) or there's a particular mount/minion/whatever that can only be bought with the currency. The exception, of course, is the current end-game currency. (That would be the armor of antiquity, as of ShB) Use them to get gear to strengthen your secondary classes so they aren't completely left in the dust.

Last is the miscellaneous stuff; gardening soil, sparklers, and the like. They have their uses (unless it's the Indigo Star) so it's up to you to figure out how to use them.

So now you know what's in your inventory; what do you do with it?

Remember that option menu I told you about? You can find it here. (Character Configuration--> Items) Here you can choose how your inventory is displayed, whether or not to send new armor/weapons to your armory chest or your inventory, and how the sorting system breaks down.

Next, let's take a look at the tooltips for your items. I'm using a weapon here because it has the most information. It's important to know if the item is Untradeable. That means you can't trade it to someone else or sell it on the marketboard; you can only discard it. This tends to be stuff like Legendary weapons or special items received in dungeons; Those will have a blue or green background, and usually aren't dyable. Only keep them if you plan on tossing them in your glamor dresser or saving them for another class. You'll note the logos in the top right; when those are yellow, you can put the item in question in your armoire or glamor dresser.

You'll also see the shop selling price. If you're going to put something on the MB, it should not be below that price. Otherwise, you can just have your retainer sell it.

Let's get to the meat of the subject; managing your inventory. If you right click on an item and click 'search for item' this menu will pop up showing where that item is in all your inventories. For example, I have Mhiachi matter in three different places. It should not be in three different places.

You can also click 'see recipes using this material' to see if something is a crafting item you need or not. If nothing pops up, it's likely a special vendor currency. I recommend using either the Lodestone or GarlandTools to look up the item outside the game to see exactly what it does.

So how do you clear out your iventory? Well... Start with how many inventories you have. You have your most basic inventory, which has 124 slots. These should be the items you use every day and need constant access to. (Pots, food, crafting items, ect...) Your Key items and crystals are kept in separate tags, so you don't need to worry about those.

Your Chocobo Saddlebag should be your 2nd; stuff you may not need RIGHT THIS SECOND, but good to have on hand. (items for relic steps, items you can normally carry only one of, ect...)

If you hired a retainer, they should be the ones holding your extra crafting items, your rare items, and your vendor currencies. You get two for free with your subscription, and you can pay an additional IRL fee to have more retainers per month.

Keep in mind that 90% of the items that pass into your inventory can easily be re-gathered or purchased on the marketboard. An item will tell you if it's special, and most of the stuff you'll find pre-ShB won't stand up to the lastest, in terms of consumables. If you're ever in doubt, check GarlandTools or the Lodestone, or just ask someone!

One more tool to know about is Desynthesizing items; this unlocks after a certain level in crafter quests, but it allows you to break down unwanted items to a base component and some crystals. I recommend turning in items like these to your Grand Company first, to build up seals. But this is a good alternative if you're maxed out on seals and just want to get stuff moving. (Or need crystals.)

Ultimately, how you sort your inventory is up to you; do you plan on becoming an Omni-crafter, or never picking up a hammer at all? Are you going to level every single class? Maybe only a few? Are you hunting rare items to sell on the marketboard and make a profit? Your inventory management is going to be based around that.

Try picking a time once a month to go through all of your inventories and ask yourself, 'does this spark joy?' 'do I need this or was I saving it for something?' If not, you can probably sell or toss it. You might find a weapon you set aside, only to come back and realize you've already out leveled it. You might need three nagxian silk for something, only to do a search and realize you already had two.

Best of luck on your quest for inventory Zen! See you around Eorzea!