New Scholar, New Player

As the title suggests, I'm both new to Scholar, and to FFXI in general.
I'd like to think I fall into the category of newb, rather than n00b.

I've read several guides, on both SCH, and other Jobs, in an attempt to understand both the Job itself, and where it fits into the wider game. For the record, Sawtelle's guide was incredibly useful.

I am, however, facing a number of practical difficulties with this brilliant Job. Mainly of the cold, round, golden variety.

I'm finding that I simply cannot keep up with the cost of spells, gear, and to a lesser extent, keeping skills capped. I'm now level 50, with LB1 done, and to give you an idea, I'm wearing:



and I'm missing (from SCH-main spells, I'm missing a few RDM enfeebles and En-spells too):

21 Drain
32 Dispel●
35 Reraise○
36 Aspir
38 Aero II
39 Erase○
42 Fire II
46 Blizzard II
46 Viruna○
50 Protect III
50 Stona○
50 Ice Spikes

I've grabbed an NQ Earth and Light staff, and I'm about to set out to get the first few AF1 pieces, and I'm also going to try and get my Torque. I'm also planning to buy an Iridial Staff, as until I can afford to increase my Jeuno rep, I'm stuck with my basic Gobbiebag and Mog Sack (and the Chatoyant Staff is way out of my price range). I do, however plan to get my Magian Staves.

I can't really see the gil situation improving until 99, so really, what can I afford to skip, and what do I need to prioritise over all else until then?

I've actually just restarted my Nations missions (Migrated to San d'Oria to make use of the vendors and generally less shambolic Conquest performance compared to Bastok) - I had soloed up to Rank 3. I plan to push to Rank 5 in a few levels to get the Airship Pass. I already have the Kazham one.

I've also kicked Joachim's timer running.

Gil farming is definitely my main hurdle at the moment (other than useful practice), and I do accept I wont be able to keep up perfectly with spells and gear.

Mainly I need to know what's safe to skip, to avoid letting both myself, and my groups down.

I should clarify - I don't plan to skip any AF gear! I meant spells and the "other" gearslots.

While the Chatoyant is a great staff, and I definitely intend to get one in time, it costs around 1mil on Bahamut, and my main gil income is Wild Onions.

Farming 50 stacks of those damn things is not happening anytime soon, let me tell you...

The 4 stacks for an Iridial Staff seems far more like a reasonable solution in the short term.

Low level crafting materials are a good way to earn gil. Mine or harvest the materials then synthesize them into stackable ingots or thread. It's how I made most of my gil when I started my character over with basically nothing.

Some of the spells you list can be quested. Drain and Aspir for two. Others can be bought from NPCs. Indeed some players make gil by buying scrolls from NPCs and AHing them at a profit.

Go level a few low level jobs solo in the Sarutabarutas concentrating on bees and crawlers. Sell the drops. For that matter you could make some gil Manifestation nuking Yagudo wholesale in Giddeus.

No one seems to care how people dress in GoV alliances. Right now you are getting into caring territory.

Out of the spells listed your biggest priority should be Reraise > Dispel > Erase > Aspir > Drain > -na spells and protect/shell. You can play scholar as a pseudo WHM and be fine while leveling, though I would recommend getting the occasional nuking spell so you can do some damage and keep skills close to capped.

Also, ffxiclopedia has a section on how to obtain the scroll on each spell's page. Quest as many spells you can, as buying the scroll for something like drain could be prohibitively expensive.

Also for the gobbiebag quests, the cheapest/fastest way to get Jeuno fame would probably be loading up on La Thiene Cabbages from the regional vendor and selling them to the sheep farmer in Selbina.

Hope these help.

(b ' ')b

First goal should be atma of the minikin monstrositiy. Suck someone's D if you have to. :3 It will really make all the difference in abyssea.

In terms of spells if you get cure 3/4, regen 5, haste, shell 5, nas and erase and mix that with your light staff you'll be able to at least start abyssea. get T3/4 nukes as money allows. Indral staff would be a little ahead of your light staff.

Gear: something like this is honestly good enough for starting out.

I definitely plan on getting the Obis - Al'Taieu is somewhere I really want to clear properly one day (Both AV and PW are on my MMO bucket list). (I also took the time to read up on weather mechanics - It's kind of a core part of being a Scholar after all!)

Do you have any recommendations as to where to farm gil?

Goblins for 20k/stack Wild Onions are getting a bit stale, and the returns aren't cutting it any more.

Sawtelle - would be reasonable? If I get high enough to use some of those items, I'd have to have the mortarboard anyway, it's a requirement to unlock the 75 LB quest.

WHM-lite seemed to be the most cost-effective option, glad you could confirm that.

Veltan - I'm aware of the quests, however, I don't have the San d'Oria rep to get Drain, and I've struggled to get a group of mages to get Aspir.

I've got a nice list of spells listed by level, seperated by LB group, and colour-coded based on source :)

ya, that would work fine. And you get to see the awsome sch story line that way!

I'm on Bahamut So if you need help with af3+2 or obtaining gear shoot me a /tell in game.

If our timezones ever cross, I will!

^ This. Absolutely this.
Also, http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Quick_Reputation is a great spot to look for repeatable quests to increase your fame. Between that and FFXIAH, you can usually figure out which repeatable quests are worth buying the requirements for and which ones are better to farm, and which aren't worth it at all.
http://www.ffxiah.com/item/314/9-drawer-almirah
I know it's expensive, but if you can manage, it's one of the most efficient ways I know of to expand your space.

That's only 16 storage, the Panetiere is treble the cost but is a 65 storage furnishing http://www.ffxiah.com/item/3584/panetiere

Either way, both are probably outside of where you may need/want to spend your hard earned gil!

I would recommend going to North Gustaberg, around Stinging Sophie's spawn area and farming Bees for chips and honey - AH them as stacks
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Stinging_Sophie

Could even level subjobs at the same time and kill 2 birds with one stone

Storage-wise, I'm fine at the moment (I have my Hume gear, an Onion Dagger, and my RDM sword and board, and a few odd bits stashed away (no more than 10/50 of my basic storage used.

It's the "live" storage I'm short on. 8 macroable staves would bring me to half my gobbiebag on gear alone (which at this point is massively impractical

Do the Only the Best quest for Jeuno fame. I allways prefered to do it with Millioncorns (check conquest tally to find out where you can buy it) You dont need max fame, when you get to fame 5 or 6* you already get some gobbiebag quest done.

Also, get your mog sack, if you havent already. One Artisan Moogle is outside Ru'Lude MogHouse. You allways need to talk to him again to increase your mog sack when you finished a gobbiebag. The sack cost you one tim like 10k gil.


Also for farming gil:
you can also try fishing moat carps if you like fishing. You can buy Little worms (or even better insect paste in Kazham) and fish at the knightwell in west ronfaure. They are easy to catch, cap at skill 12 or 11 and they sell for 10-12k (atleast on my server, need to check for yours) per stack. another nice way to make gil is with crafting Ingots (like suggested above) and Leather.

for Leather you would need to farm the hides (best /thf for this) and buy the water and the tea leaves from merchants. Good is Sheep leather (Leathercraft level 2) Dhalmel Leather(21) Ram Leather(35) if you like crafting and farming leathercraft is nice. You can make alot of money while skilling it.

I have the Mog Sack (but not being able to macro into it is the main issue), and I do plan to make use of Only the Best (and have done with the huge haul of 3 moss I got after farming Pashhow for an hour)

I'm probably going to try for Rank 3 (and the first bag), but at the moment, the cost/time benefits aren't enough to make it a high priority. I (the, ~20k outlay required to pay for the Millioncorn in the first place, or the time to do multiple runs to Selbina can be better spent elsewhere for now

just empty your Inventory/satchel/sack so you can carry like 60-70 stacks (or like 35 for 1 trip) use the Abyssea Misareaux warp, its a 1 minute walk from there.

The millioncorns cost you like nothing. You buy the single for like 50 gil (Aragoneu merchant in starter city, Beneige in South Sandy if Sandy is 1st) so you need about 600gil for a stack, you get 120gil/3Millioncorns back so 480gil for a stack. Trading a stack of Millioncorn will cost you 120gil, trading 60 stacks(should be fame5) is 7200 gil... thats really like nothing.
The worst is the trading time. i did it for mule not long ago and i think 1 trade needs about 10-15(cant remember :x) seconds, so lets say in 1.5 hours you have your fame 5. The expensive part can be some meterials needed for the gobbiebag...

but fame is allways good to have, not only for the gobbiebag. When you have like fame 3 i think in starter citys you ca do the teleport-scroll quests. (which you should use for yourself) You can also do the quests to get drain and aspir.

As soon as you reach level 75, and have rank3 in your starter city start Voidwatch in Sandy/Bastok/Windy Norg(Kazham/Rabao) and Whitegate. Thsi way you get alot of teleports to sme outside regions and many "city" teleports.

You should focus on leveling for now, and do missions/gear once you are higher level. (Unless you want to exp outside abyssea) You dont need all spells while you level, you can play fake-whm in abyssea PT with just Cure IV and Protect/shell. If you ask them they will also let you lot Kindred crest and stuff for your last genkais.

Yeah, trading 60 stacks only costs 7200, but it takes nearly 40k to buy in the first place.

If the price dips below 40 (it can, just), I'll drop everything and do some runs.

Until then, or until my cash flow gets healthier, that initial 40k layout can be better used. (like buying 10 stacks of Fire Crystals!)

This quest is what I was talking about for La Thiene Cabbages. If you look at the analysis page that is linked in the article, it shows that it can be done for profit from rank 1. You just need time. Get the La Thiene Cabbages from the Zulkheim regional vendor for about 300 gil a stack at no fame and he gives you back 240 gil/stack. If you have a friend that has fame willing to make the purchases for you, the cost is only 216 gil a stack thus, profit. Of course, this takes more time because you have to trade 5 each trade instead of 3 for millioncorn and 1 for boyahda moss (inventory space is biggest limiting factor) but if you are short on gil and you have time, this is the best way to go.

In some ways you have it easier than any of us did, in others not so much.

The shear speed in what you can level these days makes it easy for you to miss out buying lots of armor, weapons, food just to get in to an exp party. But on the other side means you reach the point quicker where’s you need to start spending lots of money on spells & better equips.

For quick money early on crystal farming or cluster farming is great. Crystals sell so quick there’s times when from the AH-MH they have all ready sold. As a mage you can use you advantage of elemental’s weakness to kill them quick. /thf for the chance of more clusters per kill. This may not net you a fortune but it is sure to net you a nice sum quickly.

Also don’t buy crystals you can farm a load easily on a low level job. If you want fire crystals jump on a level ~10 job and go to one of the starter beast man strongholds where you can kill many mobs quick allowing you to collect lots of crystals. In an hour you should have a good few stacks +crappy stuff to npc and extra gill per each beastman although only low it all adds up.

So instead of buying them 10 stacks of fire crystals 3-4k a stack you can now put that 30-40k to use.

Moat carp fishing 200 fish a day of at least 100+ will be moat carp . 100 fish at 1k each is 100K over night if you bazaar them right next to the lu shang npc or sell them 10-12k a stack on the ah
Always check before you buy stuff from the Ah that there is not a happy little NPC standing 30 Yalms away selling the exact same thing for 100gil.

Good luck!

Get Voidwatch stones activated also. And bring donuts to all voidwatches. ty

Edit: I forgot about all the requirements, you are not quite ready yet. At any rate, make sure to activate them as soon as you are able.

Definately quest spells that require it. Camp NM's for as many spells as you find too expensive to buy, and check wikis' to make sure if it's not from the other two, it's probably from an NPC.

I suggest BCNM's for gil, get a few scrolls of utsusemi: ni, hopefully a phalanx(for yourself) while you're at it. If you run out of seals for BCNM’s then fishermen are always looking for ‘hare meat.’ You can garden and every couple weeks get a few flame geodes (2~3? & assuming 10 earthen pots).

While leveling, I would suggest skipping any spell that is not a "Cure" or if you are solo make sure you get stoneskin, blink, (utsusemi if on /nin), and the highest tier nuke for your level. You can probably skip the helix’s and buy them later once you are ready for LB5. So, I suggest skipping all the –na spells, regen spells, erase, en-, bar-, helix, poison, blind, slow, paralyze, silence, dia, bio, gravity, bind, dispel.

Which leaves sleep spells, drain, aspir, klimaform, break & all the elemental nukes; cures, aquaveil, blink, stoneskin, storm- & utsusemi. Decide for yourself if you want to get protect & shell, you can get those from pages so it’s definitely not needed.

Go to the grocery store in S. Sandy. Fill up with La Thien Cabbage. Then go to Selbina and do Only the Best. You will loose maybe 5 - 20 gil / trade. You will raise your fame in Sandy, Bastok, Selbina, Rabo, and Jeuno.

You don't need three mages to get past that gate, you only need one person with the Portal Charm, gained through the Windurst mission series. Most people have it.

Some really bad advice on this thread for a newbie. Many members gave advice that won't benefit you in the most ways possible.

First off, so many people are talking about "only the best" quest. It is garbage. Do not do it. Go ouside "The boyboya tree. Their are like 15 Goobies. Farm "Moss" Trade these stacks to a guy in sebelina in dunes town. If you trade enough stacks you can max fame in ALL cities excluding Windrust and I think norg. Even windy, will be 8/10.

Someone else menioned 75_ work on a MoT cure staff. Garbage. At 75 making a MoT staff is no easy to do and may as well wait til 99. Your fine for he time being with teh NQ 51 staff 10% or 15% for HQ staff cures. The MoT darkness staff is nice but something to strive for later.

As for spells seeing your going for 99 and no 75. Someone said reraise is very important. It is utter junk. Reraise 3 is only 5-10k and unless your in a cap fight you wont ever use it. Erease is worthwhile to have and i recomend it. Aspir can wait if you get aspir 2, then questthe "aspir" one. Quest scrolls will be much easier once you do the quest I recomended and are 99. really you won't need dispil for awhile. Mobs will die fst in party things and I don't see a use at lower levels dispiling something vs getting to 99 so you can quest or do a harder fight for it. Sleep is useful

Protect shell 2-3 uselss, dont bother.

Level your staff skill!!!!! shattersoul can make all the difference when farming things like KS 30's or oher things. Also MM nuggets if your 75+ can sell for 25 - 40k a pop, and one kaustra can kill it once you get somewhat geared. Not bad for a 10 minute pop. And theses always someone who will buy a stack while your afk.

Spells, T5 are 5-10k on ah or in abby free. I do suggest luminhelix and klimoflare.

If you want fast easy money, do besieged get the points and sell the coins.

Yeah, not so much as in your post.
That *is* Only the Best. And it gives *NO* Windurst fame/rep.



Reraise 1 is pretty damn vital for soloing AF quests.