Seeking advice towards finishing Lightning Returns event in time

I've started again a few days ago, and I'd like to finish the LR event before it ends. When I logged back in I was 36 with full rest state and 100 Leve allowances. I don't have a lot of money, and I'm not super familiar with the ideal level paths. I'm 38 so far from running quests/Leves/FATEs, but I'm worried it'll become very slow going once my rest state runs out.

Some web posts say the high 30s and low 40s are a dead zone for XP.. Is there something better I could be doing, maybe focusing on FATEs in a given zone? Most people were ignoring the 3rd LR event FATE when it popped, is the 4th in a similar state this late in the game?

You should be queuing for dungeons and doing quests/fates/hunting logs while you wait for the dungeon to pop. Dungeon XP was significantly boosted and Duty Roulette is a hefty chunk of XP that you can get once a day on top of the much-improved regular dungeon XP.

The level range dead zones aren't so much anymore now that dungeons are much better and the beastmen daily quests are around, they start at level 42 (Sylphs) and 43 (Amaal'ja) and offer 6 quest allowances combined that are repeatable once a day.

Dungeons are probably the best source of XP. The Duty Roulette run gives a big bonus once a day, but just continuing to do a couple additional dungeons each day is still a ton of XP if you clear out all the mobs in each dungeon.

In the mid to late 30's, for instance, even the low-level starter dungeons give six or seven hundred XP for every trash mob killed, whereas outside the dungeon an on-level mob in the late 30's will be a little over two hundred. Once you combine that with the fact that a group can drop a whole roomful of four or five dungeon mobs in significantly less time than it takes to solo just one on the landscape, it seems that mob kill XP is at a roughly 1500% bonus just by being in the dungeon as opposed to outside it.

Coerthas is a good place to run FATEs in the upper 30s and low 40s.

You should still queue for dungeons and do Duty Roulette to get your EXP bonuses per day. Dungeons will be your quickest route to 45. Make sure you do the sidequests to unlock Sunken Temple of Qarn and Cutter's Cry if you haven't already, as those are both optional dungeons for Levels 35-40. (And will net you a good chunk of experience when you run them.) Stone Vigil will unlock for you at Level 41 through story quests. All of those should net you around 100-150k experience per run, depending.

Whenever you log out, obviously make sure to return to a sanctuary to replenish some of your rested state.

I suppose that explains why most people were just standing around. It's kind of tough for me(mentally) to queue for dungeons since I'm a tank class, and people have insane expectations about how I should know all the fights and have all the best gear. I'll have to try though, thanks for the info.

You'll get better gear running dungeons as well. If you've not played a dungeon before, the best thing to do is watch a dungeon guide video on YouTube. I *highly* recommend MTQCapture (aka MizzTeq): http://www.youtube.com/user/MTQcapture

She's a tank and her videos are concise and go over some of the finer points about the boss encounters you'll face. Qarn is especially brutal to Duty Finder groups because its really the first dungeon to feature somewhat tricky mechanics that can wipe the party out if you don't know them ahead of time.

Back when I was playing, I had done every dungeon as I levelled(sometimes multiple times) but I haven't played in long enough that I 'forgot how to play' and am recovering from that. Most of it's come back, but I know I'm not nearly as good as I was. I'll watch the videos during tonight's downtime, thanks.

You can easily make the 3rd event at level 38. Being a conjurer will make it easier to get dungeons que times. Dungeons and hunting logs are the way to go. If you've been leveling a grand company you'll get new logs there if you make it to sergeant 3rd class.
There are 5 days and 14 hours left... Good luck and happy hunting ^^

Had almost 5 days.. Maintenance chewed up a night..at any rate it ends Monday morning really early.