Back To Basics

Like many, I have come back after a very long time and I'm getting caught up on leveling/story.

I decided to take my fav job to 99 MNK 1st :) The area I am struggling in is gear, macros, and sub jobs. I have been following the 1-119 guide on BG but I can't find much on what subs are good for monk, useful macros, and I don't have much clue on gear anymore.

Very open to any advise/help. I'm on Asura now, I need to update that here.

Standard is /WAR for leveling. Trusts handles all healing, so it's not like you need much from anything else, like how /DNC used to help with survivability.

As for after 99 and into endgame, I know /NIN, /DNC, maybe /DRG all works. Some people I know also would say /DRK, but they are crazy people.

As for gear, well, haste is king, accuracy is next in line, but really, you would level so fast that gear isn't much of a priority until 99. You could literally go to 99 naked and not much would be effected (except haste, I strongly recommend getting the Purple/Brown Belts at the very least, Black Belt if you really want to go that route but not really worth it if you are just burning to 99 asap).

Edit: I saw your Fenrir character, if you made a new character from scratch but on the same account, it may be possible to transfer your Black Belt over to your new account.

I just transferred him over, still trying to figure out how to update that on here.

The gearing makes me feel better. I'm pushing to at least get this to 99 right now but I'm pausing to catch up some of the story since I never did much in Treasure/Wings/Addons/Rhapsodies.

So many new things to learn :O

If you're following the 1-119 guide, I'm guessing you already know about trusts, Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, and Records of Eminence. But just in case you don't, those will definitely help you along your journey.

Gear is hard to recommend for someone focused on sprinting to 99 in the current state of the game just because leveling happens so quickly now. You could probably get away with equipment bought with Sparks of Eminence until race-specific equipment, which itself should last until your artifact armor. AF will last until the gear you can buy with Cruor. And then the Item Level 117 stuff from Sparks of Eminence again.

As I'm leveling my mules to 99, I don't even mess with AF quests.

Mind you, I do have specific items used between level caps (1-30, 31-50, 51-78, 79-99). I mainly update gears when a good item comes available, like Empress Hairpin, Peacock Charm, Purple/Brown Belts, Scorpion Harness +1, and so on. If memory serves me right, I only have 6 weapons from 1-99.

You don't need to be BIS the entire time either.

Gear isn't super important till 99, I would argue getting the useful Trusts is though. Accuracy and haste are king. The real grind is gonna hit at 99.

Do DI for the points for Abj you will need. Try to get a semi decent DT set put together so you can start the Malig grind asap. Ambu to bank upgrade items for Kaja Knuckles/Karambit if you're wanting to use that as weapon till REMA. You'll also be able to get your free +1 sets from there as well, and save the free upgrade mats to +2. Kenda set when you get SU level from JP.

Can't do Malignance until WotG is done first. That will take a while.

Malignance could be considered endgame tier content, as far as a newer player is concerned. They shouldn't even be considering it at that point.

Usually goes something like this as far as priorities:
(Though numbered, they are not particularly linear for everybody depending on your resources)

1 Leveling (Trusts), get 99, start job points
2 Quests/Missions/Access to important stuff (includes job unlocks, Sky, vanilla dynamis clears, starting coalitions/ wkr kills, delve all that adoulin jazz, reforged gear etc)
3 Ambuscade
---------
--3a entry Gear
--3b Money
4 mid tier bosses/gear (domain invasion, escha, HTBFs, low level Odyssey)
5 advanced (omen, dynamis, for +3 Gear)

At least that's how I would approach it if I were starting from scratch, knowing what I know now. You can do multiple things at once, like Ambuscade or job points, before you get any real access to stuff. For jobs like monk, you can buy most of the great gear if you can invest some job points into it early on, do you can kind of speed up your gear progression a ton just hitting that first 500 point benchmark. Ambuscade will provide your weapons and gear, and fund your small purchases for a while. The 1-119 guide probably already covers a lot of this.

Half of this made no sense to me yet lol I'll look into those items though.

Trust! I am trying to go through and unlock different ones but really is like whack a mole right now. I need to look at this more.

DI = Domain invasion. It's a scripted dragon fight in one of three zones every 10-15 minutes or so, depending on how fast they are killed. Rewards you with domain invasion points you can use to purchase gear and abjurations (abj), which can be used to uncurse certain gear, making it wearable

Ambuscade = The monthly rotating battles with adjustable difficulty, ranging from very easy to very Difficult. You'll spend a lot of time in this battlefield, as it has a ton of gear you can buy for every job. You can also use the points that you get from it to buy expensive materials to make ultimate weapons, or you can sell them for fast money. There's no level requirement, do you can start that immediately.

Malignance = a really powerful gear set that you shouldn't be concerned with at the moment as it's a long ways off in your case. Keep it as a future goal.

SU= Superior 1/2/3/4/5. There are ranks in the job points (JP) system you can hit to unlock tiers of gear that is only accessable at that level. The Kenda set mentioned is a staple for monk, and very easy too acquire once you hit su3 (500 job points)

Best trusts to get right now are Shanttoto II (if event comes up), Koru or King of Hearts (again, event), or if you can't get any of those, just your standard trusts you get from RoE quests in Tutorial/Basics. But Unity Healers (Yoran or Apururu) are absolute must to get. Other healers are really shitty. Kupipi is probably the best out the bunch, but you will find yourself having to dismiss/resummon her many times cause she can't keep MP up at all. Like, literally resummon once ever 2-3 fights until you can get a Unity Healer.

Other trusts are just icing. Matsui-P is a really great DD trust, and you get that free for a limited time.

<pre 99>
War to lv18
Unlock XP Bonus
War to lv30
Unlock XP bonus
War to lv49
Mnk to lv90
XP bonus unlock at lv90
Mnk to lv99

<Macros>
I have something like 4 macros:
/ja "Provoke" <t>
/map
/ws "Raging Fists" <t> ("Combo" before)
/ja "Berserk" <me> /ja "Impetus" <me>

<Equipments>
I bought weapons with sparks and armor at lv21,50,87,99

<Trusts>
I don't have the fancy trusts, plus I only have like 3-4 Trusts until lv99 unlock. So it the same basic Long-Neck Pld, Yoran-Oran (best) or Kupipi/Hammer-Cat, Joachim. Later on, I used Archer-Cat as I get the 5th Trust.

My alt path after lv99:

#1 Finish all missions+ROE to unlock the remaining CP/XP bonuses, unlock WSes, merit points and warp locations. Grab the 7% DT ring and Rajas from reward.

#2 Level a support job (Whm/Sch or Geo/Whm) to lv99, nin to lv49, Thf to lv49 or lv99 and make Ambu parties to earn money and Ambu gear. Specifically the mumu+2 set.

#3 Do the daily DI fight for beads, DI gear. Mumu+2 set is awesome here.

#4 Purchase God Hands from merc for 30M and leech the random gear from the process. Purchase the rest from DI rewards as needed. You don't have to unlock merit WS with GH equipped.

--------------

<The following is my current plan>

#5 Begin working on JP for Mnk. I think I will buy the 1st 500~1000JP because they are the slowest.

#6 Save money for Ken+1, HQ Escha armor, Belt+1 and Neck+2.

#7 Flesh out the rest of the Mnk gear and begin farming for Malignance set.

Respectfully, this is very bad advice to be sharing with new/returning players. They'll just end up as very bad monks.

Tbh.. why?

It's just a weapon. What negative impact you actually mean here? I mean you could grind VeretR15 too and you probably wouldn't use monk for it at all. Are you suggesting that you should get Godhands on your own, playing with some people? You wouldn't probably use nonREMAS monk then, so you wouldn't learn anything on MNK anyway. If anything you could buy Godhands and then try to use it to get next Aeonics and learn something on MNK then.

Maybe I am missing something tho.

Honestly, I don't see why. It's not like you can participate in any of those fights as a 0JP mnk with lv117 gear. It's just like buying equipment from AH.

The best way to learn about mnk is to start with CP parties. It gives you the basics of gear swapping from . Then ambu parties for the intermediate as you flesh out your DT and fast cast.

The barrier for CP is 1100acc. Not something you can get at lv117. It's like an entry-level job that requires 2years of experience.

You can do tier 1 apex mobs with 1037 / 1029, tier 2 are over 1100 acc.

I think I got like 900-something acc at lv117. The ambu gear brought me to 1050+, I think. Most people just jump to crabs and bats.

It's much cheaper to gear up for 1100~1150+ because you will keep using the gear. Plus the 1st 500JP is slow, I would just buy the JP to get to 550JP for Ken+1 and grind the remaining one in party or solo.

Yeah, but they give you the cool side-story and grant you free armor that's generally pretty OK. I'm trying to think from the perspective of answering someone who's starting over from scratch and likely doesn't have much in terms of the good stuff from NM drops or quests. Not to mention, it's good to have for Reforged upgrades later.

But that's just my two cents.

What makes you think he has that much gil to just get free CP and ken+1?

Here we go again. lol

You wouldn't be able to contribute to any Aeonic as a new player with Godhands. I also wouldnt recommend a newer player grind an R15 weapon right off the bat, either. All of that is so far ahead of their current progress, it truthfully should not be on any new player's radar for a little bit. Especially REMA weapons which arguably really only shine when a player hits a certain point with gear/sets. Too much emphasis on the weapons and the rest of their gear will suck, because YOU all told them the weapon was the priority. ALL they will learn: make gil and just buy everything and shout for merc help nonstop. Buy your dynamis clears. Buy Omen. Buy [Odyssey] armor. They will see the instant success and then spend all of their time making money to pay someone else to get things for jobs they will never play, for events they will never do. That is a recipe for boredom really fast.

I'm not actually opposed to buying from mercs in general, just the effect for newer players is they will prioritize that, rather than forming smaller groups to get the same done and actually learn mechanics, fights etc.

I find it crazy we are always suggesting newer players should constantly BUY from merc sources everything just to get it out of the way. Sparks barely exists anymore, do people realize how hard it is for a new player to make gil, let alone 30m? LOL Ken+1? How much do you think that set costs, and how long would it take a fresh player to earn that kind of cash? This is unreasonable logic.

Actually, it's the fastest unless you don't play DD at all (which defeats the whole purpose).

Hence level another job to farm ambu. Honestly, it's not that hard to make gil if you just farm sparks for the weekly trade and sell Mars Orbs with 2-3 mules. Combine that with Ambu sells you can grab 10-20mil a month.

It is crazy but there is a HUGE gap between a fresh 0JP DD with 117 gear and a 2100JP, fully decked out R15 DD. If you buy everything possible to deck out your DD then it will take roughly 200mil more or less plus farming in Omen, Ambu and other activities. It will take 6-8 months with constant grinding.

If you go by the normal route, you will have to 1st solo a lv119 weapon which will take a lot of v2 VE/E ambu or spend money for a gimp 100JP weapon. It's a lot more expensive and take longer if you go for NQ gear only to drop them later or try to re-sell them.

The same thing goes with other equipment. Frankly, Mumu+2 is probably the best gear you can get until you get HQ gear. NQ Ken is okay but you will have to buy Ken+1 at some point so might as well save for it. NQ/+1 Neck is another waste. Just use the free one from DI until you can buy the HQ one or buy the cheap +8stp from AH.

Or do DI to get the weapon that way. Sure, it takes a few days, but most of those weapons are really good for the jobs they have, and will last you until you get an Ambu pulse weapon.

I do not disagree with fastest.


This is more unreasonable talk. We are not talking about you and I. We are talking about a new/returning player. You are saying, they should level four (main +3 mules) to 99 to unlock AMAN Trove to be able to sell the Orbs to fund enough money to buy a REMA? And do the weekly Gain EXP for 4mil across characters? Lol. Do I really need to break down why that is super unreasonable of an expectation for a new/returning player? The weekly sparks is 1m, and if you have TC or Tolba clear, you can sell those mats. But a new player won't, so Prize Powders it is. Even still, what you are expecting a newer person to do every month is unrealistic. By comparison, I have one main, zero alts, and one storage mule at level 65. I haven't even finished LBs on it because that actually takes a little effort without alt help xD. Expecting a less experienced person to do this is ridiculous. It would take them a lot of time to even get to a point where they can start earning money on their own using this method. I can make a few million gil a day doing dailies and selling stuff in my mule inventory, but if I had to start from absolute scratch making money, it would be difficult. Especially without Ambuscade. Your assumptions about money are not reasonable Andret. It is just not that easy to make that kind of money you talk about anymore.


I do agree it might cost less, when factoring in time, to get everything you need. But there's newer items and other alternatives a player can get fairly quickly with very little cost, and they can use the money they do have towards more meaningful upgrades. Also, using your example of having 2-3 mules, it would not take 6-8 months of constant grinding. If it did, how long would it take a person not using mules?


Kaja Knuckles is not that hard to get. If you do spend money on a merc, ambuscade would be the best place to do that. You get points for gear, weapons, and you can re-sell the materials for very little gil loss, mostly a break even, sometimes a positive. You can buy the NQ1/HQ1 necks so long as you don't augment it, because you can resell it anyways. The same goes for Kenda gear.

I just think your advice comes off as someone who KNOWS how to do all of this stuff and is looking at the bigger picture, but a newer player would have no clue where to start with all of what you just mentioned. This is why I feel like it's not good general advice for newbs.

It's more like it's too much to bear.

Imagine starting from scratch, without any knowledge you know today, and somebody is telling you everything you currently know. The sheer amount of information alone is enough to discourage and even stop new players from doing anything.

I personally know a lot of people who are intimated by just the basic knowledge about certain jobs (such as WHM or BRD).

The OP literally responded the way I would expect when Andret shared all of that information:

Try to get 119 gear asap, whatever gear doesn't matter, get it so your trust are 119.

Try to get Ulmia, Quiltada, Amchuchu, Koru-Moru and Yoran-Moran trusts. That should be enough to let you win VE Normal Ambuscade.

After 11 VE wins, get some Hizamaru/Mummu gear. After 4 more VE win, get a Tokko Knuckle and try to upgrade it as far as possible.

Get 400 DI points (talk to Zurim in Norg about this), get a Vexed Kote + Arean Abj Hand = Ryou Tekko, trade that to Nolan with 3 eschalixir +2 to augment path A or D. Get another 400 DI point, get a Vexed Bonnet + Jovian Abj Head = Adhemar Bonnet, augment path B.

For subjobs, /DRG if you are attack capped, /WAR if you aren't, /NIN if you need the shadow

Thanks for all the responses! I am still working through reading them all but so much good info!

I just hit 80 and working through some story stuff. Thankfully I have finished Zilart and CoP. I left shortly after Treasure and came back shortly in 2009(?) but was so lost, I just stopped.

So far, it hasn't been that bad other learning my way around places. I got chased in Abysses today by a dragon for 10 min :(

The gear or end game grind look scary but I'm sure once I get there it will make more sense.

When I returned after a 6 year hiatus, this is the guide I followed to get to 119. It was very inexpensive to do and easy to follow. I hope it helps you too.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Fresh_99/RoE_Intermediate_Quest/119_Gear_Guide