Starting again really that easy?

[Nianny]

I shall. :P

[bungiefan]

Leveling is indeed faster, though you missed the Novennial Ring for this year's Adventurer Appreciation. You get about double EXP for enemies now, and you have no EXP loss for death until level 30, with reduced EXP loss at higher levels compared to when you previously played. Fields of Valor and Grounds of Valor also give buffs and bonus EXP/gil for beating certain monsters.

I just soloed my SAM from level 1 to level 30 in about a week because of the EXP boost, and the adventurer appreciation free outpost warps to counter any death I had.

1 level 90 player will be able to help you with all but the Maat fight for limit breaks.

The very first thing you want to do when you reach 30 is talk to Horst in Port Jeuno and get a traverser stone. That starts your timer and you get a new stone in his stockpile every 20 hours. You then want to have a stone in your key items every time you examine a cavernous maw for Abyssea so you can unlock teleports to all 9 zones from any Abyssea NPC in the four main cities.