Just came back from a few months off, how does leveling work best now?

So I played this game at release and stopped for a variety of reasons. I recently started playing again and am having fun. Before when I played though basically you could power level by fate grinding and there were constant parties going on. I have still been able to find fate groups from time to time, but it isn't like it was at release. Not saying that's a bad thing, it was insane at launch just a constant button smashing AOE fest from fate to fate. My question is, what is the most efficient way to level now? I leveled a Thaumaturge to level 25 in a couple of days mainly just doing class quests, hunting log, fates, and leves. Before when I played dungeons weren't really worth running, especially as a DPS because the queues were super long and the xp wasn't as good as fate farming. Is this still true? I don't fully understand leves, isn't there some negative to doing them? Or some cap or something? Any insight is much appreciated, thanks!

duty roulette once per day, then the dungeon closest to your level gives good exp. duty roulette will usually get you a full level, until you get to the higher levels

So did they increase xp from dungeons now?

If you're on a lesser populated server (aka Malboro), it'll take twice as long to level your characters... Since the Duty system was "improved", not many people on our server run FATEs anymore, and if you're a DPS, have fun waiting 30-40 mins for a queue :(

TL;DR: Duty Finder exp increased - queue is longer; FATEs are useless on some servers now.

yes, dungeon experience was increased. As of now, it seems the best way to level alt jobs.

Yes they increased it significantly

the queue time is a lot shorter too, especially with roulette
there are some times it is long, but usually around 5-10 minutes for me as a dragoon or bard

I always run fates while im que'd for the dungeons... Most of them you can do the fates yourself... Guildheist are also a good way to get some quick experience as well...

I used to run escortleves, but they buffed those and made your escort into a slow moving, paper butterfly.

Besides doing daily duty roulettes . Fates still the best way for steady exp. Leves are ok to do if not planning on using them for craft jobs. Guild heists can work some what. Will be a grind, but works. Dungeons give a lot more EXP then used to and on some dungeons like AV it can be great.,but you never know the type of people you will be with during the dungeons so it can be slow, or really good exp, that is better then fate grinding. Can also do were you get a friend lv50 and you low level tag everything at your level and they aoe the mobs so you get the exp in the right camps that got increase spawn rates.

Daily dungeon roulette, FATE grind solo while you wait for dungeon pops that are at your lvl

FATE areas

10-28ish Aleport
28ish-40 Coasta Del Sol
40-50 Dragonhead
43-50 at power plant (if people are there running FATEs) You get better exp here, but its hard to find peeps running this area.

When doing Duty Finder as a DD, make sure to check the other languages.. It SIGNIFICANTLY decreases your wait time. If you just choose English, expect 30'ish+ minutes. If you select them all, i'm usually around 10. This is considering you don't mind playing with a language barrier.