There are a few different types of tomestones in FFXIV, including the valuable tomestones of Phantasmagoria and Goetia available once you reach the highest level. However, many players forget all about Poetics once they reach the level cap and start focusing on endgame tasks. This leads them to sit at their tomestone cap because they aren’t spending Poetics.
Normal Raids (Sigmascape 4), 7 minutes, 5%, 0.7% per minute.the worst choice. Guildhest roulette gives negligible XP on high levels and not worth it. If you want its challenge log bonuses, better to spam Under the Armor, it's also good for fast commendations bonus. I'm not even 100% sure you need those. It said you have to have done 3 alliance raids to unlock roulette so theoretically you could just do the Heavensward series and skip ARR altogether. But I don' recommend it. Crystal Tower is still fun if extremely easy these days.
While they won’t help you out with any of your endgame goals such as crafting or gearing up, Poetics are great levelling other jobs, obtaining relic weapons and other glamour items, gardening, or even just turning a profit on the marketboard. Don’t let them sit maxed out in your inventory when they could be put to good use.
Any time you complete a duty where you or another party member have not previously cleared it, you get a bonus reward of Poetics. This gives you a steady income of the tomestones as you progress through the Main Scenario dungeons and trials, but it’s also a nice little reward for when you help new players through content.
Sometimes new players are advised to advertise in the Party Finder if they need help filling a duty queue, or clearing an old Extreme Trial to complete a quest. In order to attract high level players, they should advertise in their recruitment that they have the first time bonus. The extra Poetics that come along with that may incentivize more people to come help out.
It’s no surprise that roulettes are the most efficient and reliable way to collect tomestones of Poetics. After all, roulettes were designed to incentivize high level players to continue running old content so newer players always have people to fill their parties. Poetics are rewards for running content that used to be endgame level-capped duties, so the two just naturally go hand in hand.
One of the nice things about Poetics is that you don’t have to run content on a level 80 character to earn them. You can collect these tomestones at the same time as levelling a lower job.
There are only a few roulettes that give Poetics as a daily reward, listed below. The amount in brackets is the minimum reward you can get from the duty it places you in. Some dungeons or raids may give more; Up to 50 for an old level capped dungeon.
Roulette | Poetics |
Level 50/60/70 | 100 (+20*) |
Main Scenario | 300 (+200) |
Alliance Raids | 100 (+100) |
Normal Raids | 80 |
Khloe Aliapoh in Idyllshire will give you a Wondrous Tails journal each week full of duties to complete. Checking off nine of them will let you turn in the completed journal and receive rewards depending on how lucky you were with your stamp placement. Often one of the easiest rewards available is 500 tomestones of Poetics.
I’ve been getting more and more into PvP lately, and the amount of tomestones of Poetics you get is actually pretty decent for the small time investment. Frontlines matches will give you 50, while The Feast matches give only 20, but the matches are usually short. The Feast is more intense and you have more responsibility, so Frontlines is best if you’re not as confident with your job’s PvP kit yet.
If you still haven’t levelled all of your combat jobs, you can prepare for that by grabbing a set of gear for each stretch of the levelling process. Tomestones of Poetics are the currency used to obtain old endgame gear, so at level 50, 60, and 70, you’ll be ready with the best equipment available for your job. The equipment usually lasts until about the third dungeon of the following expansion (The Aery, Bardam’s Mettle, or The Qitana Ravel) after which dungeon drops start to have better stats.
Make sure to augment the gear with the appropriate upgrade items (twine, solvent, etc.) for an extra 10 item levels and the ability to dye the gear. This augmented equpment will usually last you until the fourth dungeon of the next expansion, at which time you should upgrade with dungeon drops or HQ crafted gear for best results in combat.
At level 50 you can pick up the Ironworks gear in Mor Dhona from Auriana (Aelina sells the weapon for an encryped tomestone and Rowena’s tokens of Poetics that you buy from Auriana). If you’re looking to upgrade these items you can buy the carbontwine and carboncoat here as well, but you’ll need to take them to Hyrstmill (North Shroud) for the NPC Drake to augment them to ilvl 130.
At level 60 you can buy Shire gear in Idyllshire from Hismena (Bertana will give you the weapon for Rowena’s Scripture tokens and a micro tomestone, avaiable from Hismena). Augment these items by buying Illuminati Deepest Gobdip, Tautest Gobtwine, or Darkest Gobcoat for weapons, armor, or accessories, respectively. Be careful to select the correct upgrade material to avoid wasing your tomestones of poetics. Once you have the items take them outside the building to Seika at Idyllshire (6.7, 7.4) who will give you the upgraded ilvl 270 versions.
At level 70 you’ll want to get yourself some Scaevan gear in Rhalgr’s Reach from Enna (weapons can be bought from Eschina for a military-grade tomestone and Rowena’s Genesis tokens, all bought from Enna). Augment all of this stuff through E’bolaff at the end of the counter with Scaevan Ester, Twine, or Shellac depending on the item type, and you’ve got yourself a set of ilvl 400 gear to begin Shadowbringers content with.
For the level 60 and 70 locations, there are several other sets of equipment that you might be interested in just for aesthetics. They’re lower ilvl than their counterparts above, but we all know glamour is the true endgame, so look through the vendors that were mentioned and see if you like any pieces.
They’re very cheap now because they’re bought with tomestones of Poetics, and many of them actually have cool designs. Remember to upgrade them if you want them to be dyed.
Some of the relic weapons require materials that are bought with tomestones of Poetics. If you’re working towards a Zodiac (A Realm Reborn) or Anima (Heavensward) weapon, make sure you have all the items you need before dumping Poetics on something less important to you.
The level 80 Shadowbringers relic weapons also require 1000 Poetics each. Aside from your first one, which you get for free, the base relics require four Thavnairian Scalepowders, which are bought from Auriana in Revenant’s Toll for 250 Poetics apiece. These are found under the ‘Special Arms’ section of her menu.
If you’re an avid gardener you probably want a good supply of soil. Grade 3 Thanalan Topsoil is especially useful for maximizing plant crossbreeding, and is a good use of tomestones of Poetics. This item can be bought from Bertana using Unidentifiable Ore, which is bought for 150 Poetics from Hismena under the ‘Special Arms’ tab.
You can also buy Grade 3 Shroud Topsoil, which increases the yield on your crops. Keep in mind there are a select few plants whose yield is unaffected by this type of soil. This high grade topsoil is obtained in the same manner as above, but with the Unidentifiable Shell instead.
I hope you found something useful to do with all your tomestones of Poetics. Let me know in the comments what you’ve been spending them on, or if I’ve missed an alternate use for them.