[Althrun]

I wasn't using food in dunes, because basically I don't like wasting things, and eating food there is a waste of time.

*drives up in a car and rolls down the window*

Oh Daryn!.... I disagree!

*speeds off*

Now that the drive-by disagreement is out of the way, the "food in the dunes is a waste of money" is 100% wrong. Unless you're of the mindset that all food is sushi, that is, then you're right- sushi is a waste of gil in the dunes.
The math says you get like 1% more acc or something @ that level. I'm currently leveling my PLD through the dunes, and it would be a lot more difficult to tank if I wasn't using crayfish/crabs- it knocks a good 5-10 dmg off per hit, by what I've seen so far (when food is down and when food is up). With that being further reduced by shield blocks, it makes tanking a breeze.



For the OP-

First, get to 10-11, and farm until you can upgrade your frame to something else before moving forward. Then farm until you can get whatever attachments are missing (not the tier II stuff, obviously, but there are a lot of tier I stuff that makes the job). There is no excuse to play such a fun job as PUP half-heartedly.

Now, insofar as DMG goes, there isn't much you can do to upgrade your acc in the dunes, so it would be best to concentrate on making the hits you actually do connect with hit as hard as possible. Here's how we do this:

Gear up, go to equip and see what your base attack rating is.

Then go to this page:
http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/food.php#Melee_Attack

and choose what you can best afford in relation to your tier of attack food. Meat Jerky (which on my server is a cheap 2k or so for a stack) is probably going to be your bread and butter through the dunes. No, you're not going to suddenly be hitting like you have 2x Relic lances or something, but you will hit noticeably harder. PUP is a DoT-dmg job, so you have to chant the following like a mantra when it comes to how to deal optimum dmg: "Every point counts; Every point counts."