So you’ve hit level 100 in Final Fantasy XIV, completed the Dawntrail MSQ quests, and now you’re feeling a little lost. It can seem a little daunting, at first, to have a whole new world to explore, but worry not.
First of all – take a break. It’s been an emotional journey filled with ups and downs, laughter and tears. Switch the game off, go outside, and soak in the real-life sunshine for a moment. Take a nap and eat some proper food – you’ve just saved Tural, so it’s not as if it’s going anywhere.
After that, there’s actually a lot you can do. There’s no end of side content out there, especially if you know where to look. But, with that said, here’s the 10 things I start to focus on once the MSQ is behind me, in no particular order.
1. Unlock the Dawn Hunt
There are a lot of really cool items locked behind Dawn Hunts. In this case, you’re going to need to do Hunts if you want to get your hands on the Automatoise mount, Bluecoat Cat minion or Wild Ride Barding. Hunts are also a great way to get both Gil and EXP.
2. Get your Shared FATEs done
Again, a lot of the most wanted minions, including the Alpaca Cria, are locked behind Shared FATEs and you can’t even see what the Gemstone Trader in Tuliyollal has on offer until you’ve completed 66 FATEs in each area of Dawntrail. You can easily complete a zone in a couple of hours if you put your mind to it, unlocking lucrative crafting materials to sell for Gil in the process.
3. Unlock the Spire of Trial
Whether you’ve just unlocked Viper or Pictomancer, or you’re getting to grips with your main class with additional or changed abilities, the Spire of Trial is perfect for perfecting your rotations. If you’re planning to dive into Arcadion (Savage) when it releases, you’re going to want to be on top of your game and what better way to do this than against an enemy that doesn’t fight back?
4. Level other Jobs and complete Role Quests
Whether you’re gunning towards the Outrunner mount reward for getting all level 100s, or you simply want the option to dye your Artifact Gear, you need to level your Jobs and complete the level 100 Role Quests. You can level pretty effectively by doing FATEs, so combine this with the Shared FATEs grind and kill two birds with one stone.
5. Unlock Expert dungeons
So far, there are two dungeons which can be unlocked post-Dawntrail MSQ:
You’ll need to unlock these if you want to run Duty Roulette: Expert, which will reward you with 80 Tomestones of Aesthetics on top of the Tomestones you get for completing the dungeons themselves.
6. Unlock Extreme trials
If you enjoyed the battles against Valigarmanda and Zoraal Ja, you’re going to want to dive into the Extreme trials. Hell, even if you didn’t enjoy them, you’re probably going to want the Wing mounts which drop as rewards from them. Either way, you can unlock these Extreme trials by talking to the Wandering Minstrel in Tuliyollal (X:11.1, Y:14.6).
7. Grind for Aesthetics to get Neo Kingdom gear
Even the most casual of player can stock up in Tomestones of Aesthetics simply by running roulettes daily, so you’ve no excuse to not do this. Aesthetics can be exchanged for Neo Kingdom gear, which is currently the highest level gear in FFXIV at iLvL 700. You can get it from Zircon in Solution Nine (X:8.5, Y:13.6).
8. Complete side quests
Maybe it’s just me, but there’s nothing better than a map without any side quests on it and, while they don’t give a huge amount of EXP or Gil, you can definitely get a few levels out of them on a Job that you don’t want to level the old fashioned way. Besides, you might learn some additional lore if you happen to pay attention.
9. Unlock any Aether Currents that you may have missed
Flying in Final Fantasy XIV makes life so much easier and if you’re wanting to do that, you’ll need to unlock all of the Aether Currents in each area. Luckily, we have a guide for each area:
10. Level at least one crafter and one gatherer
Whether you want to make a quick buck selling items from the new Br’aaxkin or Loboskin maps, or you resent giving Gil to a Melder and want to do it yourself, you’re going to need a level 100 Crafter or Gatherer. This is especially important if you want to overmeld or even pentameld your own gear, because a Melder can’t do that for you.
