What's the best method to leveling Miner? With and Without Leves.

[Makado]

Levequests are fastest.

[Conradus]

It's kind of hard for me to figure out what's the most productive use of my time. I consider the leve investment worthwhile, to a point. I don't want to spend all of my leves, or even most of them, on mining.

Regarding leves, too, is the fact that I hate the RNG nature of the +% leves. It's something worthy of 1.0s awfulness. Having to sit and wait for my GP to recover just so I can guarantee a +25% is a bummer.

If I'm just mining grinding, what's my best option? I'm currently using EXP manuals and going after stuff my level. Attempts are no longer guaranteed, and even HQ gathers are lower than the 15% chance I'm used to. Should I mine for stuff below my level for guaranteed XP/better HQ? Or should I mine things exactly my level? Stuff above?

Tips, please.

You can do the +25% leves pretty consistently, and you shouldn't *ever* wait for GPs to recover. You can make more XP in the time you waste than getting the full bonus would get you. If you can't do it, just accept that you won't get the full bonus and move on. Use Sharp Vision II, which if you're geared and eating correctly should put you around 95% for the standard item. Your GPs should last you to the end of even the eight-node ones (Piety; the four-node ones are Benevolence). Chain #4 on the standard item and then use Deep Vigor to get the advanced item. This will get you the +25% bonus even if you miss a couple of the standard items. Make sure the leve level is equal to your own or you'll only get six points on the standard items instead of seven. If you do fall behind, you can do a Sharp Vision III to get all advanced items at one node. In a Piety leve, this will run you out of GPs, so you'll need to use a Cordial. After a +25% leve, do another kind of leve; the get 40 items on a single respawning point leve (Munificence) doesn't require any GPs at all and the get 32 items on eight nodes leve (Candor) can usually be done without using GPs as well; even if you do, you'll only need it once or twice. This recharges you for the next +25% leve. Leves are the way to go; it's how I got to 50.

[RafeMacleod]

I'm a 37 botanist, but I imagine it isn't much different for miner. I've been farming the 4 node eval leves. Use sharp Vision/Field Mastery III skill for 50% bonus and get the 9 eval items 100% of the time on two of the nodes and increase difficulty rating by 1 or 2 levels to get the unbuffed gather percentage around 50%. Get all 7 eval items on the other 2 and if you can use the ability to increase gathering rate to 100% after chain 4 then go for the 9 eval. I'm able to get the +25% bonus every time.

[Kenka]

I'm a 37 botanist, but I imagine it isn't much different for miner. I've been farming the 4 node eval leves. Use sharp Vision/Field Mastery III skill for 50% bonus and get the 9 eval items 100% of the time on two of the nodes and increase difficulty rating by 1 or 2 levels to get the unbuffed gather percentage around 50%. Get all 7 eval items on the other 2 and if you can use the ability to increase gathering rate to 100% after chain 4 then go for the 9 eval. I'm able to get the +25% bonus every time.

I'm asuming you are using Cordials, aren't you? Never occurred to me to attempt leves with +2 difficulty. Will try this later

[Jotunhammer]

whats wrong with just using buff food, using the GC 50% buff and just grinding the nodes? I find a level every 27 minutes is fast enough for me. Being just passed level 30. and I make nice money from the items I sell on the board

[TemprusofTime]

I agree about grinding the nodes. I've done it to 25 so far. I assume I may need leves later, but as a crafter, getting one stack of everything certainly won't hurt a thing and I hate mining/foraging without getting anything but exp and a litte bit of gil.

[Cuban]

Using leves makes mining to 50 a breeze. As I leveled my other jobs I stacked up leve quests and burned through them on my Miner, hitting 50 was a joke and I will do the same thing to level Botanist.

Breeze yeah right. People are burning through 70-80 leves and still hit about low 40s.