New player here, too. Char name is Knarl, I've solo'd mostly, with RDM at 30, THF at 16, BST coming up. Only Dunes pt I've been able to get was on WHM, after I had finally gotten my subjob and gear/spells. Fire off a /tell if I can ever assist in any way.

@ Nightcoder I would love a pearl too, if at all possible

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You think whm is hard to level now, you should of tried it when server was 250-300 big and EVERYONE had a PL. It was dark times of seeking as smn and /anon myself and be whm/smn and be a gimp smn lol. Best advise I can give is farm while seeking for pty. You can farm some ep mobs, get gil, and some exp too ^^ Theres some mobs that are good to kill like sheep. I believe their items sell well on the AH. Worms drop ore, that sells quick and good. You can go to places like giddeus and farm beehive chips, or can go to palbrough mines and farm fedish items. Those sell good on the ah. Plenty of things to do to farm. Some of your spells as whm can even be farmed.

The game is a grind. If it was easy, it would be ffxiv

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Our recent accomplishments

To be honest - its a tough time. But its not supposed to be easy. You have to work for your gear. Go fishing or something to make your gil. There is no sense complaining. I have had an easier time on Nasomi than retail.

The whole "just make friends They'll invite you again" is not true at all, thats the #1 FFXI myth. People in dunes usually have a high turnover rate so their is a high chance you won't ever see over 50% of them ever again after like a month when they get bored and move on to some other game. Also people invite based on what they NEED more then anything else, do they need your class, are you at the right level, are you geared, do you play well. As you can see they kicked you because you weren't geared properly so they deemed they could find better and booted you. The only time making friends counts is if you know them personally or talk to them regularly on discord or something on the mic.

White mage is probably one of the rougher jobs to start out with, for all the reasons mentioned. The good news: you don't actually need it for bard. At some point, usually between the mid 30s and early 50s, bard transitions to nin sub and takes over the role of pulling anyway. WHM sub is just an easy way to get your foot in the door and get the ball rolling until you can unlock nin and level it up.If bard is your goal, take warrior to 30 and use it to unlock bard and ninja. That way you can do nin/war to 37, bard/whm until you get utsusemi from nin sub, and have at it.

If you like whm I'd suggest picking at that when you feel more patient. Or when you're willing to form your own parties so you aren't wasting time seeking. Also, find ways to not waste time seeking. Get the dunes and qufim Island outpost warps ASAP, keep a warp scroll on you. Seek party while farming/fishing/crafting/doing missions etc. I don't start every party I'm in, but I also never just waste time seeking. I go do something that I can get done solo (That I can also drop at a moment's notice), if I get an invite I warp back to town, gather gear (and another warp scroll), then head to camp.

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how u can be undergeared as whm in dunes , u dont need any gear there outside the lvl 10 wand for mnd+2 ,and maybe the neck of mnd , i have been in the dunes leveling some jobs and mages are all almost naked and no1 give a damn , u just need your spells (cure I , Cure II , poisona for the lizard poison breath , and protectra for buff , dia/paralyze/slow but dunes parties have a whm+rdm or just 1 rdm and PL so rdm cover debuffs and offheals)

and yeah its a pain finding party as whm at low lvls , its get much better after dunes , and easier as the lvl go up

farming gil at first sucks no matter what , but there are repeatable quest on every city to gain some gil ,plus there is drops that help , bees , crawlers , yagudos /orcs / quadav drop armor that sells well

My advice is to level all six standard jobs to 10 in your starting area, beginning with the melee jobs first, because buying a few weapons from the weapon shop is cheaper than buying spells. By the time you finish them all, you should have plenty of money to carry on with WHM, and you will have BLM or RDM leveled appropriately to use as a subjob when you do the quest at Lv18.

If you started in San d'Oria, (and why would you choose anything else?), keep hold of your bat wings, flint stones and rabbit hides because for each there is an NPC with a repeatable quest that rewards gil for them. Goblins are plentiful in these areas, and their masks are especially good for making gil early. Once your WHM is Lv13, you should be able to fish freely without worry of mob aggro in West Ronfaure at Knightswell for Moat Carp. Use a Yew Rod that drops from the Goblin Fishers around the pond, or buy a cheap wooden rod from the AH. Use the Wiki to find the NPC that sells Little Worms to use as bait.

These are really the best options you have for making money at low levels, and as a mage main. But, if you do them, you shouldn't have many problems at all.

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The universe is so large that, if life is not rare, a world much like Vanadiel probably exists out there somewhere.

It's actually funny that more than a few times while browsing back thru the months of posts here on the main forum, people have given the exact opposite advice: To not bother lvling all of your basic jobs like we all did back in retail. Instead I agree with you 100%... leveling those jobs to 10ish is so quick and easy, and simply grinding them out in certain specific targeted spots will rake in tons of starter gil.

I am much more familiar with Bastok and Windy, although just considering things like OP supply quests, Conquest rankings, and broken Missions Windhurst is really not a wise option on Nasomi. But any of the cities can make great dough, since all of the AHs are connected. Just gotta be aware what sells good for consumables/crafting, and what items are used for repeatable quests. As an example if I am in Windy I will start on bees and mandies, but when I'm high enough I hit the Tower where Ropipi spawns, and mass exterminate Crows Crawlers Rarabs and the occasional Gob if it aggros. Decide if it's wise in the short term to turn in the repeatable quest items for instant gil and raising fame (like Cornettes and Crawler Calculi), or if later you want to put them on AH for others that are raising fame.

Every city has examples like this, and from a newbie's pov TONS of gil can be made from selling stacks of 12 to the AH on all of your usual suspects: Beehive Chips, Silk Thread, Sheepskins, Rabbit Hides, Zinc Ore, Crystals, etc. Funding a mage's spells at least into the subjob and/or 20ish range, should be absurdly easy.

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Can only echo what most people have said. I started as a WHM myself new to the server few months ago and its been a hard long road, farming Gil isn't as quick or as easy than other jobs. I was very lucky to find amazing friends who help a lot (you guys rock! <3). If you've not already joined a Link Shell check out the recruitment posts. Many of them have members willing to help you. Nobody is going to give you Gil but they can give you tips and help you with missions/quests ect.

An idea would be to lvl up a BLM instead for now, most WHM sub BLM so you will be lvling up your sub job if WHM is truly what you wanna play. It will make it a little easier to farm and will take the pressure off a bit for dunes parties (though you still need to come prepared). THF is probably the best one for farming as you will get more items drop after a certain lvl.

Just to note nobody ever just lvl's up to 75 here you have to put the time into farming/crafting/fishing ect as well as play in parties to keep your gear in keeping with your lvl. Good luck and don't give up!

This is why I hate dunes

Get some hecking gear. It’s not hard. It’s not expensive. Just because you’re a mage doesn’t mean you can’t get some basic gear.

I 100% support mages getting kicked for this reason
Scrubs