Harvesting: Logging / Notch Position

Using the same principles as mining and fishing, here are the results in the same way I have been fishing.

Using the wonderful depth gauge notch gauge above here are my results so far. Please note as with fishing and logging you will still harvest items that are not necessarily what you are targeting, just more likely to get what you want.

Grade 1 / 2

Notch +5: Nothing Confirmed
Notch +4: Nothing Confirmed
Notch +3: Nothing Confirmed
Notch +2: Cock Feathers*
Notch +1: Cinderfoot Olives*
Notch 0: Nothing Confirmed
Notch -1: Nothing Confirmed
Notch -2: Ash Logs
Notch -3: Ash Branches*
Notch -4: Nothing Confirmed
Notch -5: Nothing Confirmed

*Not Confirmed

All-purpose Dyes

The following dyes have been added to the game to allow Disciples of the Hand (Crafters) the ability to style the clothes and armor. Currently it appears that by dyeing your items gives you an added bonus in stats.

All-purpose Black Dye, All-purpose Blue Dye, All-purpose Brown Dye, All-purpose Green Dye, All-purpose Grey Dye, All-purpose Purple Dye, All-purpose Red Dye, All-purpose White Dye, All-purpose Yellow Dye.

I have found the following dyes whilst harvesting:-

• a pot of all-purpose blue dye (grade 2 zone) [La Noscea]
• a pot of all-purpose grey dye (grade 1 zone) [Thanalan]

I have found the following dyes whilst quarrying:-

• a pot of all-purpose white dye (grade 2 zone)
• a pot of all-purpose red dye (grade 1 zone)

I have found the following dyes whilst spear fishing:-

• a pot of all-purpose black dye (grade 1 zone) [Thanalan]

Mining: Exposed Ore

Taking a short break from fishing, I decided to try my luck at mining, and recording the results in the same way I have been fishing.

Using the wonderful depth gauge above here are my results so far. Please note as with fishing and logging you will still harvest items that are not necessarily what you are targeting, just more likely to get what you want.

Grade 1 / 2

Depth +5: Nothing Confirmed
Depth +4: Bone Chips
Depth +3: Copper Ore, Rock Salt
Depth +2: Yellow Copper Ore
Depth +1: Nothing Confirmed
Depth 0: Fire Rock, Bloodworms*, Lightning Rock*, Alumen*
Depth -1: Tin Ore, Zinc Ore*, Sunrise Tellins*
Depth -2: Minium, Raw Sphene*, Iron Ore
Depth -3: Nothing Confirmed
Depth -4: Solid Femurs
Depth -5: Nothing Confirmed 

*Not Confirmed 

Fishing: New Hat

While pottering about completing my daily fishing leve's I came across a chest; low and behold it contained a Yellow Fishing Hat. I have always wanted one of these, just refused to pay the current market ward prices.

Finding Some Free Time! ... cont

I mentioned in my last post that you require Dark Matter to repair items, however apart from the local NPC I was unable to source any. I have just managed to gather some Dark Matter from mining and harvesting. I have sadly had no joy in getting any from fishing, but that does not mean that it is not possible. The drop rate appeared low compared to the other items you get when gathering. But then again how often do you need to repair your equipment. I was able to gather one piece of Dark Matter for approx 2-3 harvesting spots. So I would imagine if you were harvesting for a few hours you could get enough to repair a full set of tools and armour.

Patch Review (November 2010)

After downloading the patch (250~MB) I was some what apprehensive, how much can change in such a small patch.

Macros

First off, if you use macros to change equipment you now need to include the HQ suffix. Naturally this makes perfect sense, and is what I tried to do after creating my first HQ items back at first launch.

/equip main "Bronze Dagger +1"

You also get a nice friendly warning that your equipment is damaged, if indeed it is. Although this message does trigger when your durability is around 70%, maybe even higher.

Disciples of the Land: Fishing

There have been some tweaks to fishing, in that once you have caught or lost your first fish (on cast). You are presented with a message "Your senses tell you that there are [fish name] above/below your position". Although I only tested this for about two hours, it does come true most of the time, and ignoring the suggested position may allow you to catch another type of fish.

Disciples of the Land: Mining / Logging

As you might expect the other Disciples of the Land action follow a similar flow, informing the player that if they change their depth or angle they might harvest that particular item.

UI Improvements

If you are playing Final Fantasy XIV like me, on what is called the bare minimum specification you will now find that the over all user interface is much more responsive. The game no longer freezes (between 5-10 seconds) when trying to: run into and new area, perform any crafting, view inventory, transfer items to your retainer, buy/sell items from shops, browse other players bazaars, view the world map, attempt to repair your items and change your equipment by the character page. Good Job :)

Synthesis

If you have not already checked out the Lodestone web site, I suggest you do. There are a flurry of changes to recipes which in my opinion should have been there are the start. Lesser rank items now require lower level materials, making them easier to make and source. As far as I am aware there have been no changes to how synthesis is performed. You still have a choice of Normal, Fast and Quality, whilst trying to keep the elements in harmony.

Retainers

Your retainer will still appear in the Market Ward, unless there is some server maintenance; where they seem to disappear. Unless I have missed it, there is no global search for items, although viewing items for sale on other retainers has improved in speed, as mentioned above in the general UI update.

Disciples of the War

Pretty much all classes that like to go out, and help keep the local aggressive monster population down, will now notice that you actually receive skill points / experience based on your class rank not your physical level. This certainly helps out when you have spent most of your time playing Disciples of the Land classes, and your physical is far higher than your chosen rank two class job. You also seem to get the skill points / experience after defeating the monster not during. You also seem to get shield skill points even if you do not actually use your shield in battle. So my tip, equip that shield or buy a very cheap one, if your job allows it.

Final Fantasy XIV: Fishing (Finding the Sweet Spot)

You will notice that once I get a nibble, I use the "Jig" command, my remaining stamina drops a little. I then use another "Jig" command in the middle position. The stamina goes down once again, but now I am shown a message "You take in some line.", I translate this to mean I am getting close. I pick another position just to the right of the previous one, and catch the fish. Always watch your stamina bar, if it goes down in large chunks you are way off target.

FFXIV Gathering Impressions (@Tankthat)

While search the web for various information about gathering (Disciples of the Land) experiences I came across this post: FFXIV Gathering Impressions.

The post comments on the annoying lag (server delay) you can get when harvesting throughout the land of Eorzea, and the shear randomness. I especially like the comment about harvesting ore and wood. You would think that a Disciple of the Land who trained as a Botanist would be able to tell a Oak tree from a Maple tree; or a trained Miner would be able to seek out required minerals. Although, the flip side could be certain mining veins or tree being over camped.

Perhaps a possible solution could be to create prospect skill that gives you a list of the main minerals in the mining node or tree; "This mineral vein contains 40% copper ore, 5% tin ore and other minerals"*

*And by other minerals I mean: fine sand, bone chip, elemental rock etc.

I guess this could this translate into fishing, "This fishing spot contains some black frogs...". Not quite giving the game away but giving the adventure a little information to make an informed choice.

Inspect Water, anyone?

Fishing Locations: Aleport

So, some time back I found a nice little haunt where I can fish away without a stampede of adventures running through, causing my questionable gaming computer to lag a little. So here it is, Aleport.

This is a rank two area with random grub spawns along the beach, where you can practice your lancer skills with a fishing gig.

For some reason not quite clear to me, the zone has no non-playable characters that act as vendors even though there are three shop signs. We have a fishing guild, a woodworking guild and a cooking guild.

Let me in dam-it, I need more bait!

God dam-it, I need some synthesis support to make a bench to gut my fish.

Come on in the..... oh! Its closed.

Hopefully, the local government will persuade some merchants to setup shop here, or maybe if the port opened up; where you could travel to a tropical island full of amazon Miqo'te and small green people with intense yellow eyes...

Anyhow, if you don't mind running around (should do by now) I recommend this for some quiet fishing, and maybe one day you can buy some extra bait from the guild when it opens, and cook your catch at the cooking guild.

Player is away!

It has been almost two weeks since I logged into Final Fantasy XIV, sadly no sign of an Auction House yet or simple search facility (maybe that's later this month). I have also just found out that I find Gridanian Walnuts very tasty, I can't wait to try the Gil buns.

Anyhow been harvesting some more wood from the local trees, west of Camp Skull Valley (Rank 2). I have found that setting your wood cutting aim in the center produces flurry of branches and logs, ideal if you need that.

Argh! The Dreaded R0

Oh! Poop, I've done it again!

After a bad case of RSI (work related) i'm back in the saddle. So I picked up my mining tools and headed to the hills. Our own Yeti is madly in need of Tin Ore for his Gold/Blacksmithing crafting, and maybe the old Alumen for some dyes. Sadly I was only able to find copper, bone chips and some Limonite.

Running low on inventory space I headed back to town to sell some items; not knowing what Limonite is used for I sold that too. After a little reading I released that you can use Limonite to make Iron Nuggets. Just the very thing I was after. All the Iron Ore I find while mining went to my retainer to be processed later, and after this mishap so is all the Limonite that I find.

Additional: Also, you might want to keep all the Iron Sand you pick up, as this make Iron Nuggets.