If you equip any gear that has an item level you lose a large amount of experience points then what you previous got before the Aug 5th patch.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/th...em-Adjustments
Now in the above post Matusi said this
The main point is he said exp obtained will not take place via item level, but currently it does change a lot. We lose a very large amount of EXP with item level gear equipped in areas like Dynamis and Abyssea. This is a huge problem for doing dynamis AF trials, and slows down leveling / merits in Abyssea.Other II
When equipping items that show an item level, we’ve made it so the message displayed when checking monsters will vary depending on your average item level.
As the level range of monsters you can obtain experience points from has increased making it difficult to understand just how easy an "easy prey" monster is, we’ve added a new message: "Incredibly easy prey."
We've made it so that adjustments to the amount of experience points obtained will not take place via item level.
Is this intended or is it a bug?