Game Progression

By the time you hit 70 you should have hit job level 40 and can now do your next job advancement to T2.  I hit this on my archer at exactly base level 70.  Once you've hit job level 40 you'll see a red quest called "Job Upgrade" that sends you to Higgy Eez in the Adventure Hall in Prontera City.  Head over to start your advancement questline.

At base level 70 a new instance is unlocked in the instance interface called Echoing Corridor.  This is a very tough 3 man instance that was released when fourth job came out so it expects you to have that level of power.  This means you won't be able to touch this content without someone very strong to carry you through.

The primary reward of this content is currencies used in a weekly shop that sells fourth job runes and light extract crystals, an item used by the Oracle Mirror system.

If you can't find anyone to carry you through this don't sweat it, this probably shouldn't have unlocked until around 120+ anyway.

For more on this content read up on Echoing Corridor.

At this point you should start focusing on your primary weapon.  The best case would be to find one on the Exchange that has already been upgraded to +10 but for several weapons this is just not possible for new players.  At this point my Ranger has just over 7 million zeny, no where near enough for what I'll need.

In my case, my Ranger is running an ADL so in the long run I'd want an Overlord Snow Crab Bow which comes from synthesizing a Malang Snow Crab Bow.  A +10 version on the Destiny's Promise NA server (CRAZY high prices for everything, so weird...) would cost me about 120 million or more, way out of reach!  If you find that your weapon costs a ton then you need to start upgrading one yourself.  In fact, the game was designed expecting you to grow your own gear so this is natural.

There are several upgrade systems:

• Tiering - The process of activating bonuses on your gear with the final bonus sometimes transforming the item into a new one

• Slotting - The process of adding another slot

• Refining - The process of adding miniscule amounts of true damage that activate scaling bonuses at certain points

• Synthesizing - The process of taking several items and combining them into a stronger variant

It is my opinion that unles you're rich you should procure the base item or one of its upgrades and tier it up all the way.  The cost of a Malang Snow Crab Bow is exactly the same as a Gakkung bow plus the cost of tiering it up all the way until it becomes a Malang Snow Crab Bow.  This is how all gear that tiers up into a new piece of gear works!  This means you can save some zeny by tiering it up from scratch yourself so that you can use up any materials you already have.

After this try and add the second slot to your weapon.  Cards are very powerful so this will give you a significant boost so long as you have appropriate cards for whatever it is you're fighting.

From here, look into Synthesizing it into its final form.  This will most likely give you around 100 flat attack/mattack and sometimes new bonuses but for most classes the overall damage increase between a +10 unsynth and a +10 synth weapon is roughly 5-10%.  This means synthing and refining should be your final upgrades.  Due to the low stats on a new account we're after that juicy flat attack/mattack bonus.

Once you've done this you can finally start Safe Refining to +10.  This type of refining has 100% success rate and is a bit pricey but guarantees you'll get there.  Enhancement chances are always against you so don't get impatient, trust me.  Failing when you're very close to +10 is devastating to a new account since the cost to safe refine it back is a lot to a new player.

Refining bonuses are saved for last because they activate small scaling bonuses when refined to certain levels which varies from gear to gear.  You may have noticed some of your ancient equipment from those rift challenges also have some bonuses that activate when refined to certain levels.  Typically these levels are 5, 10, 12, or 15 but always check to see how and when this will actually benefit you.  These bonuses are critical in mid-end game but for now you'll actually get higher flat values if you tier it up, slot it, and synthesize it first.

A final note, remember that you bought a starter weapon earlier so chances are it will be stronger until you've tiered up the base equipment quite a bit in order to meet and exceed the raw attack on your starter weapon.  This will take quite a while to complete so just work at it.  I recommend farming something that drops Rough Oridecon so you have plenty of it for safe refining since you'll need quite a bit.

Read up on Upgrading Equipment to learn about all aspects of gear upgrade and for details on safe refining including a table to help you breakdown the cost.

Also, check out the bottom section of Synthesis Gear Comparisons to look over weapons to see the differences between them at various refine levels to understand what it is you're getting for those refines after all that work.

Continue with the main story quest.