What's the fastest way to level?

Honestly, I have two characters who I'm debating about making my "main", but as awesome as some of the limited-time event rewards are, I'd like to try leveling both of them as quickly as possible -- at least, for their base Classes anyways. My Miqo'te has taken foooooreeeeverrrrr to make level 15, as I'm been playing as a bit of a completionist so far, doing every quest I come across. I feel like there might be a faster way to level, though, and if so, I'm curious how I might do it?

Also, of the base Classes, does any stand out as being noticeably faster or slower for leveling? I'm currently playing a Pugilist, and the other character is a Gladiator, but if there's another way to level faster, I'm fine with switching, as well. As much as I like following the story, I'd rather be prepared for whatever cool stuff Squeenix has in store for us :P

Do quests, especially from your guild, and do your hunting log. That's a fairly quick way to get up to 15.

Makes sense. Is there something particular that happens at 15, though? Should I just continue doing class-quests, or are there groups that I can join?

Main story quests also give a lot of exp as well, and importantly unlock certain gameplay and content elements (Inn rooms and levequests/guildhests by completing the level 10 story quest , airships and the Vlybrand-Aldenard ferry with the level 15 story quest, retainers with the level 17 quest, personal mounts at 20 etc). Main Story quests can be identified by a special Meteor icon above the relevant NPC instead of the usual exclamation mark in a speech bubble.

Before the the big patch the fastest and easiest way to level was to do fates in a fate group. While fates are still a good way to level on my server the amount of people doing them is lower than before and thus it takes longer to do them. My first class took quite some time to get it to 50 because i did many quest.
After the big patch i leveled a WAR to 50 in a few days going for 5 levels day after i hit level 30, getting a character to level 15 doesn't take much time, just do the Hunting Log and any Fate you can do.
After you hit 16 you should do your low level roulette everyday. Since the patch doing instances are good exps and tanks normally have zero wait times. Another good way of making exp is to do escort leves. For example i did the leve "we are missing one of our naturalist" about 60 times (level 45+). If you ignore the mobs and just run through it with a difficulity level 49 it took me under 2 minutes and i got around 18,760 exp each time (levelups to 49 is 500k exp).

Dungeons now give very good exp. For instance in Stone Vigil at lvl sync I was getting 1800 exp per kill. When waiting in duty finder do leves or fates. I personally save my leves for crafting as I notice that it is becoming more expensive the higher I get. Best advice, find a good Free Company that has EXP bonus up when your lvling, eat food 3% extra exp adds up over time, don't forget to rest, Have Fun!

Fastest way other then leves and fates would be chain kills, you can easily level this way.
Some enemies (usually same lvl or slightly higher) once killed starts a count down, the more enemies you kill within that amount the more xp you get. I always start off the different classes this way.
Hunting log as well but you level faster from the chain kills

i've found like the others have said is that questing and jumping into lowbie fates is the fastest way to hit 15. Then by that point your storyline should send you to the first dungeon and from there just quest and stay queued for dungeons as the exp in earned from them has been boosted a lot, post patch 2.1.

I would recommend getting one class to 50 first for 50% exp bonus on your other classes. Leveling 2 at a time will feel like forever.

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

I would recommend getting one class to 50 first for 50% exp bonus on your other classes. Leveling 2 at a time will feel like forever.

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You don't have to get to 50. You get a flat 50% as long as you're under your highest level, even by 1. The in-game help was wrong on release, don't know if it's been fixed.

Before 2.1, I grind fates for my 2 sub jobs, after 2.1, I refuse to grind fates. If i remember correctly, in dungeons, each mob kill would give you 1.5 - 2k exp, plus the boss and completion exp bonus.

What I did was the main story quest until lvl 35+, then fates to about 44. Then grinded Stone vigil from 44 to 50.

"FATE grinding" is a pretty fast way of getting it done, especially when you are in an area that have groups already making it happen. FATE pops, more often than not 2 - 5 minutes later you could score 2k - 15k experience depending on your level. Sometimes even more.

However, when it comes time to doing higher level dungeons for story line, getting your relic, earning myth and phil scrolls, higher level dungeons will be really difficult to run through if you are not already experienced with dungeon and pull mechanics for your class. Not to mention Titan (hard mode). I had only been a tank and hated the idea of FATE running, so did dungeons the whole time. You learn the particulars for your class, and it can be fun. Not learning them, dungeons can be a pain in the a**, frustrating and dreaded. Not to mention for the party.

Interspersing FATE grinding (with a lot of dungeon runs like baopee and Darlan_Ashwood above mentioned) would be best, as it gets you prepared for your higher level class when you get there, and the FATEs just makes it faster. But standing there in a FATE doing one thing over and over won't prepare you for dungeons later on, where you will have to truly know your class to get the most out of it. Like I am finding out with my WHM...

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Originally Posted by AlrikRouge

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FATE grinding has gotten a lot slower with the new 2.1 scaling difficulty changes. It takes about 7 minutes for a Quarrymill FATE to finish now, compared to 1 minute in 2.0.

WHM isn't very hard to play, if you have played with other WHM at a higher level, you can kind of pick up what they do, and just emulate them. For example, using Cure 1 as your bread and butter, Cure 2 when you have Freecure/need a little more oomph, Cure 3 when people are stacked together/have Overcure. For every group of trash mobs with 3 or more mobs in dungeons, I go in and use Holy 3 times. Stuff like that. This applies to all classes too - friends should be there to help you out with rotation problems!

1-51: Class Quests & Hunting Logs. (Kill things and do FATEs for missing exp in-between levels)
^Can be done in < 4hours (1 gaming session)

15-50:
The slow time...
#1 Queue up for Party Finder of Duty Finder and run dungeons. The best you can!
#2 Run FATEs while waiting for dungeons and parties.
#3 Hunting logs wherever possible
#4 Class quests
^In order of importance and experience p/hour

Some people will recommend leves.
Yes, they are fast, but if you're a serious gamer interested in ALL aspects of the game.
Save them for crafting.

FOR YOUR FIRST JOB, JUST RUN STORY QUESTS AND OCCASIONAL FATES FOR MISSING LEVELS. Experience the story and get carried to 50!

1-15:
Run your storyline quests and participate in occasional FATE's along the way. It's kind of boring, but you can get through it pretty quickly.

Regarding FATES: don't be afraid to pull out if the FATE is scaled all out of wack. There's no reason to spend 7-8 minutes on a FATE that is going to give you 2k exp... when you can spend 45 seconds running to the next town and pick up 5-6 quests that you can complete in 7 minutes that are going to give you 10-20k exp and gil/items.


16-50:
1) Every day, run your duty roulette. First thing you do, run those duty roulette's. That's your biggest bang for your buck.
2) Quests (storyline and sidequests), focusing on your hunting log in each area along the way
3) Dungeons
4) FATE's (I like to knock off easy FATE's en route to/from storyline quest objectives)


Regarding questing... pick up EVERY quest from an area, and knock them all off before returning back to the settlement. Many times, you'll get additional quests that will send you right back out into the world. It's better to knock 3-4 of these off at a time, as opposed to running back/forth over and over turning in individual quests.

Stay up-to-date with your Class-quest then your main-scenario quests.
2- You can spam leves of the appropriate level or group up to do harder ones. (srsly, I personaly want leve for full-party initiatives).
3- Local quest(any region)
4- Spam guildhest (stay up-to-date for appropriate level)

As a DPS i say Que for Randoms and do Leve's...also stay up to date with Class Quest, Hunting logs, and your Main Story Line (if you want to do it or haven't already done it on a previous Job).

The only problem I have with Side-quests, is I've found I get over-leveled for a zone, and I'm still doing quests there when sometimes it might be better to move on. Any tips on picking out when the best time to just leave an area is?

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Originally Posted by Terin

The only problem I have with Side-quests, is I've found I get over-leveled for a zone, and I'm still doing quests there when sometimes it might be better to move on. Any tips on picking out when the best time to just leave an area is?

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Whenever your story quests send you onward. If you've outleveled the side quests, you don't need them on your current class, and you can use them on future classes.

Whats your definition of "foooooreeeeverrrrr"?

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Originally Posted by Sapphic

Whats your definition of "foooooreeeeverrrrr"?

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I took me about four hours to hit lvl 3, and probably a solid fourteen hours to hit lvl 15. Granted, I wasn't very familiar with the areas before, and was still getting used to using a controller, but it still felt like an awfully long time. I think I made the mistake of purely following the city-quests, when I should have just ventured out.

Anyways, I've been slacking-off the past couple of days, but I'm hoping to really get back into it today and this weekend. I think I'm lvl 28 right now, hoping I can hit lvl 40 by Sunday night. From what I gather, I should just focus on the Story-quests until I get to an area with enemies the same level as me, and then also run Side-quests. I'm curious, though; is it worth queueing for Dungeons while I'm questing? Or *just* focus on questing?

I have easily reached up to lvl12 in less then 4 hours just by doing what i mentioned in an earlier page, which is to do chain kill, leves and fates in between as well. Side Quests u highly recommend you leave some of them in case you want to level other classes.
As for questing it depends, if you are in a leve and the window pops up for the dungeon i believe it gets cancelled.

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Originally Posted by Terin

I took me about four hours to hit lvl 3, and probably a solid fourteen hours to hit lvl 15. Granted, I wasn't very familiar with the areas before, and was still getting used to using a controller, but it still felt like an awfully long time.

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That felt like a long time??? True, it's possible to do it quicker, but only if you forego any exploration or investigation of the story. You'd miss out on the best part of the game if you rush past all the content without taking the time to talk to all the NPCs, for instance. Slow down and the game will be a million times better for it.