Heavensward MSQ EXP/Level Gates

Has anyone else encountered EXP gaps in Heavensward?

One of my friends recently came back to the game after a bit of break, which he took because he disliked the pacing. In his experience, he was constantly having to grind EXP to get to the next level before he could continue. In his words, "I distinctly recall having it happen at 54, 55, and now at 56 it's worse than ever." In his description, he has always made sure to be 100% rested, doesn't have his chocobo out, does all the sidequests he can and the required dungeons, and still winds up short on EXP, locking his ability to keep enjoying the story (in this case, leaving him almost 2M EXP shy of the next level). He doesn't do his roulettes or PotD, but I am agreeing with him that he shouldn't have to do that, and that open-world questing should be sufficient.

The issue I've got with this is that I never encountered these difficulties. I have just finished leveling another new character, and in doing all of the sidequests and dungeons required, I only ever hit such a level gate at level 59. My first run through HW even followed his same format, not doing roulettes until I got to 60, and I still didn't hit any level gates until the very end.

So I ask: has anyone encountered difficulty like this in Heavensward, where you're constantly hitting the EXP/level gate before being able to progress the main story, and where you've run out of quests?

If I remember right it happened to me occasionally, but not as much as I remember from 2.0. If you get in the habit of doing every Heavensward dungeon twice when you unlock them (especially if you don't do every sidequest available to you), I think that might take care of most of it.

Didn't know you could grind EXP at the Golden Saucer.

You're also supposed to do all the Side Quest while leveling the first job. And some large Side Quest need one at ishgard to be unlocked (if I recall well, a big chunk of side quests at Churning Mists popped this way, doing all of them should level up from 56 to 57). At level 57-58 you could get away with the MSQ, Side Quests and The Vault, which give a good chunk of EXP. And at 59, after you do all MSQ at Azys Lla, you should be about halfway to 60. And FATE grinding will be necessary.

Do leveling and trial roulette each one a day, gives a nice chunk of experience. Otherwise with my alt haven't experienced a level gate.

Been awhile for me. From what I remember I leveled Bard through story quests, sidequests, and Clan Centurio daily hunt bills and did roulettes on my WHM instead.
I remember I had to stop doing sidequests partway through the Hinterlands because I was halfway through 59 and hadn't even done the Gubal Library yet and was worried that I would waste main quest exp.
The hunt bills are worth a ton of exp so I doubt I would have made it through quests alone.

Leveling should be easier now since new players will likely hit 51 going through the ARR patches.

Some possible differences:
-Do you do FATEs you encounter while your friend skips them?
-do the optional Dusk Vigil?
-have the daily Clan Hunts unlocked?
-do the Heavensward beast tribe daily quests?
-Have the Challenge Log unlocked? Lots of passive exp you can get from there while doing other activities
-Have the Sightseeing Log unlocked? Can get a small amount of exp from the Heavensward vistas

Daily leveling roulette is the easiest way to keep ahead of the leveling curve in this game. In my opinion it isn't a big deal to use it while progressing the story on your first class.

Raised 4 characters to 60, not had this problem on any of them, and that's without any non-questing stuff like PVP, only the odd FATE as/when I was in the vicinity nor doing any dungeon more than once. The only repeat content I did were Hunts to gather some tokens for the 200 gear ready for when they hit 60.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

Has anyone else encountered EXP gaps in Heavensward?
So I ask: has anyone encountered difficulty like this in Heavensward, where you're constantly hitting the EXP/level gate before being able to progress the main story, and where you've run out of quests?

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I have not encountered that, having leveled multiple alts the last couple of months, I find myself being extremely out leveled for the content. For example, my Ninja was already level 53 before even entering Ishgard and the HW expansion.

I've skipped nearly every side quest there is (ARR as well as HW content, unless you needed it too unlock something), now after a couple of days doing all daily roulette's (excluding level 50 roulette since I skipped mostly all level 50 dungeons), I've found myself at level 58 and only a couple exp away from being 59.

My MSQ on the other hand is still at level 54 even tho I kept up with it. Doing all the hunt bills (unlocked at level 53/56 & 59) a day, daily roulette's, unlocking and running the HW dungeons/trials that are mandatory for the MSQ and the weekly challenge log. You should not experience any delay or grinds.

With this in mind, I think the question would more be, when did your friend stop playing? Because the ARR as well as the HW MSQ have been buffed exp wise, however if he ran a good chunk before that was implemented, I could see that he could be running in some issues.

I don't use PotD for leveling or it would even be faster, but I would highly suggest him doing the daily roulette's since they are great exp and tome source. Same for the clan hunt bills (good source of allied seals he needs anyways. Some people underestimate the exp you're getting from them, all they see is kill 3 mobs for 34k/43k/49k exp, however if you add them together there's at least 1.5 mil exp every day without going out of your way.

If he then still needs dungeons like Sohm Al, Aery, Vault that's good exp too, make sure too use some exp food and fc buff.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

One of my friends recently came back to the game after a bit of break, which he took because he disliked the pacing. In his experience, he was constantly having to grind EXP to get to the next level before he could continue. In his words, "I distinctly recall having it happen at 54, 55, and now at 56 it's worse than ever." In his description, he has always made sure to be 100% rested, doesn't have his chocobo out, does all the sidequests he can and the required dungeons, and still winds up short on EXP, locking his ability to keep enjoying the story (in this case, leaving him almost 2M EXP shy of the next level). He doesn't do his roulettes or PotD, but I am agreeing with him that he shouldn't have to do that, and that open-world questing should be sufficient.

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Is he doing any FATEs, Leves, Sightseeing Logs and daily hunt marks? Those were actually used by SE in the formula for XP rewards.

The first thought that comes to mind is he isn't going the side quests or daily hunts. Those really add up along with the daily roulettes. I think all that is factored into heavensward xp calculations. Also keep in mind some side quests open up after you leave a zone.

When it came to Heavensward... and ARR for that matter...

I was usually at least a good 2-3 levels ahead of the levels for the Main Story Quest. But then again... I did do Dungeon Roulettes and did pretty much every Fate I ran into... which was a surprising amount as they were always in my way.

By the time I started Heavensward... after the full ARR and its extended stories after the Main Quest culminates in the defeat of the Garleans... I was level 54 and the quests were at level 50... when I made it finally to the Heavensward after the Betrayal which ends the ARR campaign.

I think the reason why msq doesn't take you straight from 50-60 is because they intentionally designed that way due to multiple lvling venues.

Whether you want to debate if they're wrong or right for doing so is not the point, as its speculation. Thing is currently, people can reach 50 and 60 just by doing a little bit of everything. I don't know if your friend feels like msq should be the only avenue to cap for a first time class but there's just way too much exp routes to take in the game to say there's difficulty capping. If anything, that's the problem right now: too many people capping too fast and not being able to participate further into the story and what it unlocks because they have to play msq catch up.

But really though, your friend should be doing his roulettes before feeling like its hard to cap. At the very least, lvling roulette should be a staple in his exp hunting.

I'm pretty sure I hit 60 with quests to spare without having ever run out, but I was level 60 within a couple days of HW release and already working on a second class, so I don't really remember. It's possible I ran short in Azys Lla or something and used fates, as terrible as they were, or a dungeon to fix it.

This is something that should be changed in stormblood in my opinion. Just doing the main story quests and nothing else (no side quests, no fates, no hunts, no dungeons or trials outside of main story required ones etc.) should be enough by itself to get you from 60 to 70.

nope, but I typically do all side quests.

I only received 1 exp gap, and that was at 59.

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Originally Posted by Khalithar

This is something that should be changed in stormblood in my opinion. Just doing the main story quests and nothing else (no side quests, no fates, no hunts, no dungeons or trials outside of main story required ones etc.) should be enough by itself to get you from 60 to 70.

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So we will be lv 70 in the lv 65 msq?

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Originally Posted by Felis

So we will be lv 70 in the lv 65 msq?

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No. To put it in more concrete terms, let's pretend that there are four main story quests at level 61 and once you complete them, the next quest requires you to be level 62. You with me so far? My point was, those four main story quests should provide enough exp for completing them to take you from 61 to 62 by themselves.

You level so fast in this game that I never felt a level locked content as a gate, as long as you can get to it in a couple HOURS on worst case.