A Realm Reborn Leveling and Endwalker's Stat Squish

So I don't know how many of you have decided to replay A Realm Reborn on a fresh character ever since Endwalker dropped, whether to see all the reworked content and quests they put in or just cause you felt like it, but I think anyone who has may have noticed a very weird discrepancy between how the game was back then vs how it is now.
Why is exp so abundant now? It's like they reduced the amount of exp required to level up but not the amount you get for a given activity or quest. Before EW it used to be that if you wanted to do every extracurricular activity alongside the story like side quests and hunting logs you'd need to use a secondary class in order to not get too far ahead of where the game expects you to be, however now you're essentially forced to level 2-3 different classes just to get through the MSQ by itself.
How is it acceptable that a single dungeon which you enter at the lowest possible level will finish you 3-4 levels ahead? It just feels like there was no thought put into how exp is distributed but because it's a surplus and doesn't lock the player out of progression it went ignored, even if it does diminish the quality of gameplay.
Maybe this is just a me thing, but I really don't enjoy being 10 to 20 levels ahead of the story with high level gear and all my cool new abilities unlocked only to get synced down back to the point I should be for the story dungeons or instances that I'm doing. Ideally the game should be balanced so that if I'm only doing the story with a single class I should always have barely enough to make it through the level checks, so that it's possible to experience the progression of the narrative and the progression of your character in conjunction.

There used to be some dead spots in leveling, where if you only did the MSQ and nothing else, you'd be locked out until you ground out a level or two to continue. They were trying to correct that, but they overdid it.

It's even worse if you're on a server with the Road to 80 buff. I made an alt on one recently and I had my level 50 artifact gear before I even got to Titan. Currently said alt has three jobs at or close to 70 and hasn't yet made it to the Antitower.

I have a couple of alts.., one more if Female Hroths turn out nicely, and clearly of the same race as the makes.

but yeah, there's a nice chunk of exp to be had.

for me personally it's nice, since you can avoid lvl 80 for now and level your alts quickly.

I can get how for some it's too much, and not nice.[I wish I could get tome gear beforehand tbh. it's a pain when you're undergeared, yet overleveled for content. Bardams anyone..,?]

So in short, for me it's a boon. and I don't mind that it's like it is atm.
[when 7.0 comes around, new characters will be able to level to 89, without issue. which is an even bigger boon. since can you imagine leveling that long. on alts too. and unless you're RP your character mono, or a few classes. you will eventually level all again]


it's a, if you like it, you love it. if you dislike it. you ask Why..,?

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Originally Posted by Ameela

Why is exp so abundant now? It's like they reduced the amount of exp required to level up

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That was done on purpose for ARR and some expansions, particularly Endwalker, which was the first expansion designed to be done without sidequests. In all other expansions, you could do all sidequests and 6 fates in every area and still be slightly behind.

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now you're essentially forced to level 2-3 different classes just to get through the MSQ by itself.

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No you are not. You can still do the MSQ on that one class even if they are at max level. You lose out on the experience but it doesn't really matter because it's not that hard to level other classes.

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How is it acceptable that a single dungeon which you enter at the lowest possible level will finish you 3-4 levels ahead?

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This happened before the stat squish or any of the experience changes in ARR. It's increased a lot by a combination of factors including the challenge log, FC buffs, earrings you might have from an expansion, the hall of the novice ring and food. It's worse if you have the Road to 80 buff because it doubles experience gain.

I think it makes sense that the MSQ should provide ample experience to coast through the story and never have to stop to grind -- especially since there are now multiple expansions for new players to get through before they reach current content, and it's A LOT. However, they went WAY overboard with it, to a ridiculous degree.

I wish they would drastically decrease the experience from MSQ, but drastically increase the experience from side quests. At this point, I don't even know why side quests exist. People say "Oh, you can level alt jobs with them." Does anybody actually do that? These things don't even give you 1% of a level's worth of experience, they are literally a waste of time. I just want to do them for extra lore and mini-stories in the area, but it's hard to justify spending time on them when that's basically all you're getting out of it.

agreed.., but since it's informational.
later side quests are level variable.
so some players save them before Expac day, so they store up on exp, and get that nice exp chunk boost.
Alongside Tales, and other things.

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Originally Posted by Fyrebrand

I think it makes sense that the MSQ should provide ample experience to coast through the story and never have to stop to grind -- especially since there are now multiple expansions for new players to get through before they reach current content, and it's A LOT. However, they went WAY overboard with it, to a ridiculous degree.

I wish they would drastically decrease the experience from MSQ, but drastically increase the experience from side quests. At this point, I don't even know why side quests exist. People say "Oh, you can level alt jobs with them." Does anybody actually do that? These things don't even give you 1% of a level's worth of experience, they are literally a waste of time. I just want to do them for extra lore and mini-stories in the area, but it's hard to justify spending time on them when that's basically all you're getting out of it.

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I'm down for this. Leveling alt classes is such a pain because almost everything that you don't have to queue for gives so low xp. If sidequests and FATEs gave more xp I think there would be more incentive to do them while queued up for something. PoTD makes me go insane running it over and over, I wish there were better leveling options.

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Originally Posted by Ameela

So I don't know how many of you have decided to replay A Realm Reborn on a fresh character ever since Endwalker dropped, whether to see all the reworked content and quests they put in or just cause you felt like it, but I think anyone who has may have noticed a very weird discrepancy between how the game was back then vs how it is now.
Why is exp so abundant now? It's like they reduced the amount of exp required to level up but not the amount you get for a given activity or quest. Before EW it used to be that if you wanted to do every extracurricular activity alongside the story like side quests and hunting logs you'd need to use a secondary class in order to not get too far ahead of where the game expects you to be, however now you're essentially forced to level 2-3 different classes just to get through the MSQ by itself.
How is it acceptable that a single dungeon which you enter at the lowest possible level will finish you 3-4 levels ahead? It just feels like there was no thought put into how exp is distributed but because it's a surplus and doesn't lock the player out of progression it went ignored, even if it does diminish the quality of gameplay.
Maybe this is just a me thing, but I really don't enjoy being 10 to 20 levels ahead of the story with high level gear and all my cool new abilities unlocked only to get synced down back to the point I should be for the story dungeons or instances that I'm doing. Ideally the game should be balanced so that if I'm only doing the story with a single class I should always have barely enough to make it through the level checks, so that it's possible to experience the progression of the narrative and the progression of your character in conjunction.

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So there's a couple of major factors at play. One I personally dont mind nor care for the early leveling for your main job is much quicker and I wholefully welcome it.

Anyway Factor 1: Did you make a fresh alt at a preferred world? You get a 90 day triple bonus exp buff that seriously nets you chunk of levels through which is probably why you're noticing the huge level discrepancy between where you're at in levels in relation to your progress with MSQ.

2. The dungeon exp slowly starts to dwindle down once you start hitting around lv.30 content. Even if you have the buff, you wont be gaining 3-4 levels within a run anymore but you'll still probably gain one or 2 levels a piece. Its not that they buffed the early dungeon boss exp gain but more so that the exp needed isnt as much to get you to within early level ranges. This quickly slowly widens the gap the further you go through the content and without the server bonus exp buff you'll be hitting that stop fairly soon.

Honestly though, this really only applies to your main job as you'll still earn good amount of exp just doing msq unless you spread the gain amongst multiple jobs in which case is a decent solution if you want to avoid overleveling.

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Originally Posted by Ameela

So I don't know how many of you have decided to replay A Realm Reborn on a fresh character ... but I think anyone who has may have noticed a very weird discrepancy between how the game was back then vs how it is now. Why is exp so abundant now?

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My theory? Because everything through Heavensward is part of the free trial, and SE wants people playing the free trial to have an easy fun time getting to the point where they need to make the decision to subscribe.

It's even more pronounced on preferred worlds where you get the Road to 80 buff, BTW.
My spouse and I cope by leveling at least two classes at once until level 60: me CNJ+WAR, her CNJ+PLD.
Then at 60 we both pick up Dancer and start leveling three classes at once.
Even with that, I'm doing L67 MSQs in Stormblood now with all three classes at 72 or better.

There are a multitude of things to complain about in this game's design, but MSQ exp is not one of them.
MSQ combat pits you against a lot of trash enemies that are a repetitive bore to fight. Whether you kill them in 1 or 20 casts really doesn't matter. Being overveled for the MSQ is a blessing, not a curse.