No matter what job or class you decide to play as in Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, there’s one thing that remains constant: weapon damage is the most important stat. As you obtain higher level weapons, your damage or healing potential will increase. While you may think that makes weapon progression a simple task, once you reach endgame things become a bit more complex.
Weapon progression from item level 60 to item level 80 is fairly self-explanatory. You get your level 60 weapon from Hard Mode Ifrit, your level 70 weapon from Hard Mode Garuda and your level 80 weapon from Hard Mode Titan. You can even take a slight detour and pick up a level 75 weapon from Thornmarch Hard Mode. But once you have a level 80 weapon and look to move up, you have two choices: relic weapon or Extreme Primal weapon.
Some will say that you can skip the process of getting a relic weapon and just focus on beating the three main Extreme Primals, then Leviathan Extreme. While it is true that you can get level 90 weapons from the three main Extreme Mode Primals, then a level 95 weapon from Leviathan Extreme, which can be upgraded to a level 100 weapon, that’s a lengthy process. Not only does it take awhile to defeat all of those Primals, the drop you need from Leviathan Extreme to upgrade your weapon to level 100 is rare.
Another important fact to note is that the quest to obtain a relic weapon requires you to defeat the Hard Mode variants of Ifrit, Garuda and Titan. You have to defeat these three before you can even think about taking on the Extreme Mode Primals. In addition, having a level 90 Zenith Relic will only assist you further in defeating these enemies.
With all of that said, you cannot obtain a Zodiac Weapon (level 100) without first having a Zenith Relic. Everything Square stated indicates that while you can obtain a level 115 weapons from the second Coil of Bahamut, Zodiac Weapons will be upgradable and customizable in the future. At the very least, it’s wise to obtain a Zodiac Weapon so you have it as an optional upgrade in the future.
Not only should you look to future-proof your character, you will need the best gear you can find to even think about completing the second Coil of Bahamut. In order to obtain the level 115 weapons, you need to complete the last Turn of the second Coil. That means you need to complete the first Coil, then proceed to the second Coil and complete all four Turns.
If we examine the options for weapons between level 90 and level 115, you’ve got Zenith Relic and Extreme Primal weapons at level 90, Coil Turn 5 and Leviathan Extreme weapons are level 95, Zodiac, Weathered (Soldiery Tomes) and upgraded Leviathan Extreme weapons are level 100, upgraded Weathered weapons are level 110, and second Coil Turn 4 weapons are level 115. You need to beat the Hard Mode Primals to get the Zenith Relic and gain access to the Extreme Mode Primals. This means you can have a Zenith Relic before you even think of fighting the Extreme Mode Primals, or running through any part of Coil.
Now let’s say you gear up and complete the first Coil to get your level 95 weapon. By this time, you would’ve been able to upgrade your Zenith Relic into a level 100 Zodiac, making it better than the level 95 Coil weapon. It will take a considerable amount of effort and a bit of luck to upgrade an Extreme Mode Leviathan drop to a level 100 weapon, which is very similar to your Zodiac weapon, except that it can’t be upgraded any further. Then you can use either the Zodiac or upgraded Leviathan weapon as you make your way through the second Coil to obtain your level 115 weapon.
Even after you obtain a level 115 weapon from the second Coil of Bahamut, there’s still room to upgrade and customize your Zodiac weapon in the future. No matter how you look at your weapon progression, there’s simply no reason to forgo picking up a relic weapon.
Published: Apr 30, 2014 08:59 pm