I'm losing out on Road to 70 as a new player

I started an account on Goblin sometime last year around summertime. I went straight for Black Mage and started moving on some of the main story quests but just couldn't get engaged with the game so I stopped probably after a week.

My friends managed to get me playing again about 3 weeks ago and I decided to pick up with my same character. When I started again, I had ONLY THM lvl 16 and probably about an hour of main story progress. After a few days, I realized I found a lot more enjoyment in playing Lancer, so I continued with that and actually really grew to enjoy the game.

Then some of my other friends whom had never played before started an account themselves about 1 week ago. They skyrocketed through levels which baffled me. I learned that this was due to the Road to 70 buff that was given to new players on a preferred server. I quickly realized that I was going to miss out severely on keeping up with them and catching up with my friends that are currently enjoying end game content. I feel like I was so close to just being able to start a new character and get to the same point within an hour but I just wasn't aware that this was a reward to new players.

I am kicking myself now and reaching for any possible way to give my account this buff, if even just for 60 days. I've sent tickets in but I really don't know what to do at this point.

Does anyone have any recommendations of things I can pursue?

Sure you could always buy your way to the end but that's not the same as actually learning how to play the game. The buff is a nice way to lower the amount of straight grinding through levels.

I'd say that as a new player you do NOT want the Road to 70 buff.
It really messes up the leveling pace, and causes you to outlevel content sooner rather than later unless you know how to split up xp among several classes.
If you skip sidequests you will also miss out on a lot of quest rewards, which can easily lead to you having substandard gear.


If you really want the Road to 70 buff there is only one way to get it on a character:
Start a new character on a New or Preferred world. (Currently there are no New worlds.)
New or old player does not matter - all characters created on Preferred server gets the buff.
Note that such characters cannot be transferred to another world until 90 days have passed - at which point the buff will normally disappear as well.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

I'd say that as a new player you do NOT want the Road to 70 buff.
It really messes up the leveling pace, and causes you to outlevel content sooner rather than later unless you know how to split up xp among several classes.
If you skip sidequests you will also miss out on a lot of quest rewards, which can easily lead to you having substandard gear.


If you really want the Road to 70 buff there is only one way to get it on a character:
Start a new character on a New or Preferred world. (Currently there are no New worlds.)
New or old player does not matter - all characters created on Preferred server gets the buff.
Note that such characters cannot be transferred to another world until 90 days have passed - at which point the buff will normally disappear as well.

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I intended on branching out to tank classes and healer classes, I don't even know what they are like but I know I won't have the main story quests to keep me on pace if I decided to switch to any of those. As far as I can tell, side quests often hand me pretty insignificant rewards (barring a few) and especially lack in an exp reward that even close to matches exp you get for grinding dungeons.

I guess I was reaching out to see if somehow the devs would/or ever have been willing to grant things like this on case by case basis. Definitely not interested in restarting at this point as I've made it past the credits of the base game. Thanks for the response :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

I'd say that as a new player you do NOT want the Road to 70 buff.
It really messes up the leveling pace, and causes you to outlevel content sooner rather than later unless you know how to split up xp among several classes.
If you skip sidequests you will also miss out on a lot of quest rewards, which can easily lead to you having substandard gear.

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who needs sidequests rewards when you got lvl 50 dragoon armor on when you're only on lvl 30 quests in the story. LOL

Although I don’t have an answer for how to acquire the buff post expiration beyond creating a new character, I do have to say it is a well worth buff. MistakeNot is right, the buff will throw you off on levels for the MSQ, but it’s extremely useful for crafters and picking up late classes. I started as a Pugilist, and wasn’t overly a fan of the class... it’s currently my lowest at 18... but then I bounced between Paladin and White Mage (I had the road to 60 buff), but also tried all the other classes a bit to find what I really liked and didn’t.

The buff is useful and really helps, and saves a ton on crafter classes... ishgard has been great with its XP gains... but the buff helps a ton.

If you aren’t attached to the Main Scenario Quest progress you could start over... but with everything you’d lose... I dunno.

my road to 70 alt is a Lv67 DRG, and I only recently did the MSQ to unlock jobs. I cant even enter totorak lol.
trust me, the MSQ only feel like a hindrance, since they slow down your exp gain. its just quicker to do dungeons your level, and then other methods of exp gain. (such as Palace of the Dead, PvP, and leveling roulette)

The game really wasnt meant to be played with road to 70 for new players. Its just something they made to encourage players to balance out the servers. not as a means to enjoy the game. (Most road to 70 players end up skipping the story, since it feels awful to go through)

Yeah road to __ is nice for leveling alt classes, but once you actually have a high level character and learn all the tricks there are so many other ways to boost exp that it isnt really that needed. Want to learn tanking? Armory bonus(plus food fc jewelry and whatever other bonuses you have) plus PotD(low levels) plus roulettes plus insta-dungeon ques = no problem leveling tank. Picking up a crafting class? Being far enough along to do GC turn ins, beast tribe quests, custom deliveries, crystallin mean, and ishgard restoration means you can go from 0-80 in no time at all(literally, it can be done in a few hours if you just spam it). Another DPS class? Armory along with PotD/HoH, challenge log tricks, squadrons, and roulettes will certainly save you some time(and thats accounting for long DPS ques for regular dungeons). So again, yeah its nice to have but far from required.

First off, welcome (back) to FFXIV!

The Road to 70 Buff, as mentioned above, is an incentive for new players to play on less-popular worlds. It has both is pros and its cons; while it is a fantastic way to level up a character, it's easy to overshoot the MSQ and, as another player on the forums is learning, can toss you into harder dungeons before you've mastered the class or dungeon mechanics. That's a kind of experience that can't be bought with a buff. If you don't know the intricacies of stats and weaponry, a new player can easily end up under-geared as well. (And broke; the MSQ is a good source of Gil.)

For your primary class, the MSQ does a good job of keeping you up to date with little grinding. The noticeable bumps are going to be between expansion packs, where content was designed for people at max level rather than to give XP. Those points, since you will be actively leveling up if you bought the expansions, will actually give you a boost since they will still give you XP. As long as you follow the MSQ at the same rate as your friends, you shouldn't have to worry about falling behind. Buff or no, it still takes time to progress through the MSQ (Which you WILL need to do to access HW and beyond.) Levels aren't an indication of skill!

I guess what I'm saying is, while you could start a new character on the preferred world your friends are on, you have to ask yourself if you're ready to re-commit the time to grind out that character. Especially since end-game content is going to be far more difficult than ARR end-game; every bit of time you spend learning your mechanics helps! It sounds like you're already making good progress, so don't give up!

Yes, we know the MSQ is grindy and boring. You said you made it the end of the base game, so congrats! Most of the worst is behind you. Heavensward and beyond is amazing.

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Originally Posted by TinkerTech

First off, welcome (back) to FFXIV!

The Road to 70 Buff, as mentioned above, is an incentive for new players to play on less-popular worlds. It has both is pros and its cons; while it is a fantastic way to level up a character, it's easy to overshoot the MSQ and, as another player on the forums is learning, can toss you into harder dungeons before you've mastered the class or dungeon mechanics. That's a kind of experience that can't be bought with a buff. If you don't know the intricacies of stats and weaponry, a new player can easily end up under-geared as well. (And broke; the MSQ is a good source of Gil.)

For your primary class, the MSQ does a good job of keeping you up to date with little grinding. The noticeable bumps are going to be between expansion packs, where content was designed for people at max level rather than to give XP. Those points, since you will be actively leveling up if you bought the expansions, will actually give you a boost since they will still give you XP. As long as you follow the MSQ at the same rate as your friends, you shouldn't have to worry about falling behind. Buff or no, it still takes time to progress through the MSQ (Which you WILL need to do to access HW and beyond.) Levels aren't an indication of skill!

I guess what I'm saying is, while you could start a new character on the preferred world your friends are on, you have to ask yourself if you're ready to re-commit the time to grind out that character. Especially since end-game content is going to be far more difficult than ARR end-game; every bit of time you spend learning your mechanics helps! It sounds like you're already making good progress, so don't give up!

Yes, we know the MSQ is grindy and boring. You said you made it the end of the base game, so congrats! Most of the worst is behind you. Heavensward and beyond is amazing.

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Thanks! Yeah so I guess my point really is that I was looking forward to trying other classes and gathering skills etc but if the buff was available, I could shorten the amount of just raw time I would spend grinding that up. Dragoon was going to be the class I chose to get through the story but all of the other classes seem interesting and I am interested in generally maxing everything out at some point.

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. Can't say I wouldn't jump at the opportunity to get the buff but it isn't looking like it's going to happen at this point so I just have to deal with it. I have tried the somewhat obvious methods of reaching out to the devs but I've been denied.