Miner, Botanist, and Fisher Gathering Leveling Guide in FFXIV Patch 7.0
This guide will cover the best ways to level your Mining, Botany and Fishing gathering classes and assist you in gearing along the way for an easy leveling experience!
Gathering Leveling Overview
This guide will explain the ins and outs of leveling your three gathering classes: Mining, Botany, and Fishing. This page will also explain good methods to obtain gear as you level throughout the expansions.
To get a good understanding of these classes, i would suggest checking out the following guides which cover skills and basics for Mining, Botany and Fisher.
How To Level Miner, Botanist and Fisher?
There are a handful of key leveling methods which are used on your 3 gathering classes. These are:
- The Diadem (Lv10-80)
- Leves
- Collectables (Lv50 onwards)
- Ocean Fishing
The fastest of these methods is Leves, but you only gain 3 leves every 12 hours with a cap of 100. They are also best used on crafting classes.
There are additional methods worth looking into and using at times:
- Grand Company daily turn-ins - Once a day, your Grand Company will request an item for you. The experienced gained scales based on your level.
- Class quests - Do not neglect your class quests! They grant you various items, skills, materia, gear, and experience buffs.
- Custom delivery - These also give experience, but I would recommend using them for scrips as they are weekly and much faster than using normal collectables.
- Regular gathering - This grants similar experience to the Diadem but also requires better gear. If you have no leves and do not have the Diadem unlocked, this would be the go-to method to level.
Leveling Gearsets for Gathering Classes
Listed below are our recommended gearsets for each stopping point in your leveling journey. It is worth noting though, that if you are leveling Fisher through Ocean Fishing, gear is less important.
Gathering Gearsets While Leveling
Level 1-59 Gearing
With the main leveling method for 10-60 being The Diadem, you do not need any stats above 50 Gathering which is easy enough using items from your first few class quests before you can unlock the Diadem at Lv10. More Perception can be beneficial to increase your Gatherer's Boon % chance which grants increased XP. However, this is entirely optional.
While not advised, if you instead plan to level via leves or repeatedly gathering items, you simply need to be above the following gathering requirements shown below to have a reasonable chance to gather. These are gathering requirements for the class quest items at that level and would therefore be good enough for general leveling purposes.
Lv | Gathering for 70% Chance | Gathering for 100% Chance |
---|---|---|
10 | 36 | 50 |
20 | 80 | 110 |
30 | 114 | 158 |
40 | 144 | 199 |
50 | 187 | 258 |
Level 50 Gearing
At Level 50, it starts to become important to have a decent set of gear. The only problem is that there is no easy to obtain lv50 set and instead you need to grab pieces as you level beyond 50. Here is an ariyala Link (because Etro doesn't support below Lv70) to a gearset you can use.
This does not need to be HQ if you have no crafters, NQ is perfectly fine and can be purchased from a vendor.
Level 60 Gearing
At Level 60, good gear starts to become important now that Diadem leveling stops being the main method. I would advise getting to Level 63 though to get the general set listed below:
Alternatively, Using your Lv50 gearset, you can gain Scrips using Custom Delivery, Ocean Fishing and the Collectable exchange to gain enough Scrips to purchase Lv60 gear. The big downside to this is that you need a set for each gathering class, you may therefore choose to instead use The Diadem to level to 63 and grab a vendor set again.
Level 70 Gearing
At level 70 you will want to purchase the Landking's set from the scrip exchange in Rhalgrs Reach listed below. This is the final endgame set at level 70 and is more than enough to reach level 80 without having to change gear again.
If you have not farmed scrips for this set, doing your custom delivery for the week would also provide enough Scrips for this gear.
From this point, Scrips are incredibly important to allow you to easily gain gear at each level cap.
Level 80 Gearing
Just like at level 70, the best leveling gear to purchase is going to be the level 80 Scrip gear. This is the Landsaint set including an additional CP bonus from having all the accessories.
This set is very easy to purchase using Scrips you earned from your Facet quests, Custom Deliveries or simply from leveling a class using Collectables.
Level 90 Gearing
Much like previous level caps. The best gear to level with will simply be scrip gear. The biggest difference however is that this gear now has a few meld slots. Melds are not needed to level and this gear will be fine without melding.
Level 100 Gearing
Congratulations! Once you hit level 100 you can start to look into endgame Gathering. My first advice would be to start looking into gearing your classes.
You can use the level 90 gear you currently have to gather materials used in endgame Lv100 gear, from there meld everything according to our melding guide.
Listed below is leveling advice for Mining, Botany and Fishing. It is also very important to complete your Class Quests as they unlock skills and traits which are very useful.
Gathering Leveling Guide
Mining & Botany
Just simply go out into the open world and gather. Make sure you finish your class quests to give yourself some starting gear. Level 10 is the requirement to unlock The Diadem inside of the Ishgardian Restoration which will be the main leveling method from here for.
Fishing
Even starting from Level 1, Fishers are able to unlock Ocean Fishing. That being said, use the first 10 levels to fish outside of the guild and get used to your skills and bait while you complete class quests and gain some gear.
Mining & Botany
Miner and Botanist should begin leveling inside of The Diadem to go all the way to 60. No new gear is needed at any point and the items you gather do not even change. The experience given by the lv10 items scales until you hit lv60. This also allows you to gather a bunch of materials to use while leveling your Crafting classes.
To make the most of this, use Mountaineer's Gift I and II to increase your Gatherer's Boon % which when triggered, grants you additional experience points. You can use Cordials to allow you to use this more regularly and even Company-issue Survival Manual II alongside a Squadron Survival Manual to further increase your XP gains.
Fishing
Fishers do not really use The Diadem to level and instead you can essentially Ocean Fish to level 100 if you wanted. The fishing boat is only available every 2 hours so between boats it is advised to level other classes. Fishers gain more XP when gathering LARGE fish, that being fish above a certain size that the game marks as LARGE. This means you want to use Patience and Patience II alongside Cordial, Company-issue Survival Manual II and Squadron Survival Manual
If you still want to fish outside of Ocean Fishing windows. Your best bet is to use a Versatile Lure and fish in the highest level zone you can find. The strategy is still the same as Ocean Fishing however. Fish used in Leves at this level range are often incredibly cheap and you can literally buy your way to 60 if you have no other use for these leves. Here is a Leve guide which also contains Fish information up to level 70.
Mining & Botany
This is generally the point where you want to stop farming inside of The Diadem for experience points. Your best method from this point tends to be Collectables. This is because you gain Scrips which are used to purchase gear, materia and Folklore Books which are all important with gear especially being needed.
Collectables are also by far the fastest source of experience points, they are just not always available. During downtime, you can gather from nodes to make gil, head back to The Diadem or simply run other content.
You do not want to gather the untimed collectable as it does not provide much exp. This is Rarefied Gyr Abanian Mineral Water for Miner and Rarefied Bloodhemp for Botanist. Here is a link to Teamcraft's collectable list which provides information on when the node is up and the rewards provided.
Fishing
Fishers can simply continue with Ocean Fishing, Collectable farming or using this Leve sheet to level to 70. You can also spend Scrips on Commercial Survival Manual instead of the manual used previously.
On top of the normal leveling methods outlined below. Level 70 introduces Facet quests. These are located in the Crystarium and are similar to Class Quests. For gathering, there are two Facets: one for Mining/Botany and one for Fisher.
Mining & Botany
Just like the last leveling range, you want to primarily focus on Collectables so that you can obtain Scrips which are used to purchase gear, materia and Folklore Books which are all important.
When there is no node available, you do not want to be spending your time in The Diadem at this point. Either gather items from your log or complete Leves if they are not going to be used on other classes.
You do not want to gather the untimed collectable as it does not provide much exp. This is Rarefied Bluespirit Ore for Miner and Rarefied Bright Flax for Botanist. Here is a link to Teamcraft's collectable list which provides information on when the node is up and the rewards provided.
Fishing
Fishers can simply continue with Ocean Fishing, Collectable farming or using this Leve sheet to level to 80. You can also spend Scrips on Revised Survival Manual instead of the manual used previously.
Just like the last level range, there are Studium quests available for Mining, Botany and Fishing classes to gain experience points on top of the main methods. This can be located in the Studium inside of Old Sharlayan.
Mining & Botany
Again, you want to primarily focus on Collectables so that you can obtain Scrips which are used to purchase gear, materia and Folklore Books.
When there is no node available you should gather high level items from your log or complete Leves if they are not going to be used on other classes.
You do not want to gather the untimed collectable as it does not provide much exp. This is Rarefied High Durium Ore for Miner and Rarefied Thavnairian Perilla Leaf for Botanist. Here is a link to Teamcraft's collectable list which provides information on when the node is up and the rewards provided.
Fishing
Fishers can again continue with Ocean Fishing, Collectable farming or using this Leve sheet to level to 90. There is no new manual from this point on, just Revised Survival Manual.
Dawntrail instead has Wachumeqimeqi Deliveries which function just like Facet and Studium Deliveries. If you are leveling through the expansion still I would advise that you specifically use your deliveries on Botanist. This is because the first Collectable for Botany is difficult to get to without flight.
Mining & Botany
Just like the last few expansions you want to focus on Collectables so that you can obtain Scrips. It is even more important to do so in Dawntrail because Folklore Books are more expensive on the current expansion, relevant to endgame, and you also need a bunch of materia for endgame meldsets.
You do not want to gather the untimed collectable as it does not provide much exp. This is Rarefied Raw Ihuykanite for Miner and Rarefied Kozama'uka Chamomile for Botanist. Here is a link to Teamcraft's collectable list which provides information on when the node is up and the rewards provided.
Fishing
Fishers can again continue with Ocean Fishing, Collectable farming or using this Leve sheet to level to 90. There is no new manual, just Revised Survival Manual.
Changelog
- 24 Jul. 2024: Guide overhauled to more similarly match Crafting equivalent.
- 26 Jun. 2024: Tentative updates for Dawntrail.
- 13 Jan. 2022: Guide added.
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This guide has been written by I'nanghal Shikhu (Discord - Shikhu). He is a Crafting & Gathering theorycrafter, mentor for The Balance and also a guide maker for Teamcraft alongside Icy Veins. He also managed to obtain 10 top 12's on the leaderboard during the Ishgard Restoration rankings.
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