Don't Leve Them Behind! - Battlecraft Leves in Stormblood

So, I love battlecraft leves, they were always a fun way to gather exp alone or with a small group when I didn't have the time or energy for roulettes. The rewards and random treasure chests were always fun, and the excitement upon finding a bounty was great too. Not just that, but I loved their lore in the game, the design of having these unique, stained-glass plates that represent a request from the townsfolk and whatnot helped keep those lore-friendly adventurer roots, and it was a nice change of pace from "Give these soldiers some soup" and other "Talk to NPC, then this one, then this one" quests.

When Stormblood released, I was excited to see what kinds of new levequests there would be from the new regions. Needless to say, I was disappointed on several levels that there were no battlecraft leves at the counter in Kugane. Levequests were so unique to FFXIV, and a great system as part of the myriad ways we can grow our characters (especially when there are no other quests to pick up). It pains me to see them gone, and I can only imagine why they were removed...

In Heavensward, there was only one place to get leves, and upon completion of a leve, the teleport option would not take you back to this counter. This odd change does a lot to kill the momentum and fun of levequesting, and if Square was seeing the lack of people taking battlecraft levequests as the reason to not implement them in Stormblood, they miscalculated. This playerbase has shown time and again that they want the least amount of inconvenience in their experience, and unfortunately Heavensward battlecraft leves posed an annoying problem in their use. This can easily be remedied by simply putting levemetes back into the towns in regions where levequests take us.

I don't want FFXIV to lose one its more unique leveling features, especially for it to just fall off the face of Hydaelyn halfway through a player's experience from 1-70. Hear me out Yoshi-P! Don't leave the Leves behind!

Unfortunately, I think this ship has sailed. I think people like you and I are in the minority. I played on Balmung up until last month, and I rarely saw other people doing leves at the same time as me.

I actually do miss leve quests as well, and this is coming from a someone who (along with 2 other RL friends) ran them exclusively to 50 during 1.0

I liked the small storylines they added (even though after the first few runs you completely skip them), and looking for the special monster to hunt, and the hidden treasure chests laying around per leve.

If they Upped the Xp or (preferably) got rid of the 99 limit, and maybe gave you HUNT seals for fighting random hidden mobs that were the same difficulty as hunt mobs, or heck just add some gearsets that they no longer give people and put them in the leve chests at random (like the old onion set) and I could see there being a much bigger draw to them again.


Would be cool if they put you into an instance or something if you were with a group where you could kind of run it like a dungeon. That was one thing I missed about 1.0 was the open world but dungeon-esque feel to some underground caves etc

As someone who despised Battlecraft leveling (but not necessarily the quests itself), let me tell you about some of the issues I had with it...

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- I wanted to saved my allowances for my crafters.

- Other means of leveling up are better and/or more fun. Palace of the Dead floor 51-100 is the fastest way for dps to level, and playing the highest lvl dungeon available as a tank or healer (because their ques are nearly instant) gives those classes the fastest exp possible. Both of these methods are faster leveling than levemetes unless one has an overpowered friend 1-2 shoting everything for them.

- Doing the same quest over and over again!?! Are you "freaking" kidding me!?! I already completed the endgame relic for ARR and HW! How much more repetitive "stuff" do you want me to do??? Why should I have to run back and forth and suffer through 2 loading screens + travel time, when I can que for 1 loading screen and get the exp right then and there??

- Dutys let you socialise and meet new people. Levemetes don't. I didn't log onto an mmo with the intention of playing with myself.

- The gil incentive even to this day is still too low. When it comes to battles; you get more cash nabbing materia from duties and transmuting them hoping they come out a crafter or gatherer, or something else really high priced on said server. There are other methods for battle-only players to make gil; this is just an example - a basic one that triumphs levemetes due to not being restricted by allowances.

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I honestly don't mind that they're gone. DPS leveling is a pain for SB players. But that's what having friends, C Rank clan hunts, and fates are for.

I'm sad to see them gone as well. As the OP said, I didn't really do them in HW simply because it took more time to teleport back and forth than actually doing the quest...

If Levequests are to make a comeback though I think they need to made more engaging (variety of objectives, bonus objectives), longer (possibility of several stages in a single leve) and more rewarding (good chance to drop gear, decent XP per hour compared to fates / PotD / etc.).

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Originally Posted by Ashett

As someone who despised Battlecraft leveling (but not necessarily the quests itself), let me tell you about some of the issues I had with it...

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While you personally may have not liked them, that's not really a valid reason for removing something from the game. More methods of gaining experience is always a good thing. They would have done better to make an attempt to improve the leves, as opposed to outright pulling them.

Now that you mention crafting leves in that same post, an interesting note is that now that my crafters and gatherers are all at 70, my leve allowances sit at 100, untouched. There's nothing for me to use them on.

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Originally Posted by Ashett

- I wanted to saved my allowances for my crafters.

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Well, then...do that. That's the beauty of choice. You don't have to use them on battlecrafts if you don't want to. Just in the same way I chose not to use my allowances for crafting.

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Originally Posted by Ashett

- Other means of leveling up are better and/or more fun. Palace of the Dead floor 51-100 is the fastest way for dps to level, and playing the highest lvl dungeon available as a tank or healer (because their ques are nearly instant) gives those classes the fastest exp possible. Both of these methods are faster leveling than levemetes unless one has an overpowered friend 1-2 shoting everything for them.

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Of course all those options exist, but the point is that battlecraft levequests were one of those, and were great for solo or more intimate playtime, especially if you were pressed for time but wanted to get some experience in without having to commit to and be depended upon by other players.

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Originally Posted by Ashett

- Doing the same quest over and over again!?! Are you "freaking" kidding me!?! I already completed the endgame relic for ARR and HW! How much more repetitive "stuff" do you want me to do??? Why should I have to run back and forth and suffer through 2 loading screens + travel time, when I can que for 1 loading screen and get the exp right then and there??

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Well, considering the repetitiveness, it's sorta moot when you just talked about running the same ten floors of Palace of the Dead, or constantly rerunning old content. Obviously more variety would be welcome, but the lack of battlecraft leves in 4.0 is made even more disappointing with 4.0's inclusion of new mechanics like Duty Actions and dart shooting. Another point to be made is that if you're spamming the same levequests enough to be frustrated at the repetition, you probably had the time to play something more engaging like an actual dungeon; unless of course, you don't want to play with others at the moment, in which case you probably accept what you're getting into anyway.

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Originally Posted by Ashett

- Dutys let you socialise and meet new people. Levemetes don't. I didn't log onto an mmo with the intention of playing with myself.

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And that's nice for you, but some people like to have some time for themselves while playing sometimes. Additionally, as mentioned above, battlecraft leves are a great way to get experience for short bits of work, without concerning yourself with having to spend time queuing or playing with others if you might not have that kind of time to spare.

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Originally Posted by Ashett

- The gil incentive even to this day is still too low. When it comes to battles; you get more cash nabbing materia from duties and transmuting them hoping they come out a crafter or gatherer, or something else really high priced on said server. There are other methods for battle-only players to make gil; this is just an example - a basic one that triumphs levemetes due to not being restricted by allowances.

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Obviously it'd be nice if rewards were better, but when it's something that you can easily spam, they can't make them too incredible.

All in all, your thoughts don't really do a whole lot to dissuade from wanting battlecraft leves to return. I mean, you don't like them, for your obvious reasons, but those feelings are yours, and only serve to explain why you shy away from them.

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Originally Posted by Ashett

I honestly don't mind that they're gone. DPS leveling is a pain for SB players. But that's what having friends, C Rank clan hunts, and fates are for.

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I'm sorry, so DPS leveling is a pain, but they should just not have access to another option that doesn't require them to depend on lengthy queues? Hunts are awesome, but you can only do a stack of bills per day. FATEs are nice, but there aren't always enough people doing them, and many can be too much for a single person. Leves were a low-tier, repeatable option for getting experience, it shouldn't be removed.

Honestly, I think that spend resources on that was a waste, but that's just my opinion.

It was never a good option to level any class, and I didn't find them fun. Of course, I'm not saying that because I don't find them fun, they shoun't exist, I'm just saying that if most people don't like it, spend resources in creating them is waste. What do most people think? I don't know.

I like battlecraft leves too!

Even if I don't use them every day, I like knowing that they're there if I'm not in the mood for anything more strenuous. When I'm just in the mood to chill by myself, leves & fates are just great!

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Originally Posted by Elvin

Honestly, I think that spend resources on that was a waste, but that's just my opinion.

It was never a good option to level any class, and I didn't find them fun. Of course, I'm not saying that because I don't find them fun, they shoun't exist, I'm just saying that if most people don't like it, spend resources in creating them is waste. What do most people think? I don't know.

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People didn't like them because it didn't feel like the pittance of experience and gil you got was worth the time and travel, and it only got worse with the teleport returning you to "the nearest settlement" instead of Ishgard - suddenly even your gil reward (and then some) is gone because you had to teleport to Ishgard to turn the thing in. They should have looked at improving the rewards, which would have encouraged people to do them.

Hated the things myself. Especially the stupid ones that required emotes like /beckon. Or smash a mob to within an inch of its life only to then /comfort it.

The only time I ever did battlecradt leves in 3.0 was when I was spamming and abandoning them form the resins

I am laughing at the fact that someone actually posted leves are not worth the time they take up because you're running the same content again and again - while suggesting dungeon/potd spam... which is like, also repeating content over and over again.

Except nowadays queuing up for dungeons take up an insane amount of time as DPS, potd post 60 is a waste of time as exp is little. You have frontlines, I guess, but that is ALSO spammable old content.

Personally I don't carw about leves specifically, but we do need something as alternative to dungeons to level DPSs.

A new deep dungeon would be most welcome, or FATE bigger exp reward, or leves, yes. Anything to counter the queue times. Leves were cool because you could do them WHILE queuing.

I did alot of battle leves on all my classes at levels 40+. Especially 45+ since Aurum Vale was just the worst.

That being said, the tuning in HW was so aggressive that it really removed any incentive to run them. I remember the first week where HW launched and levelling my Leatherworker off of the 45 leves because the heavenswards ones were so expensive to attempt and the xp was piddling in comparison. They did similar stuff with the levequests and hoped that forcing people to do them for accessories would actually make people run them. It did not.

That being said, I would love for them to bring back better leves (like they were in ARR). The only thing I would remove would be the annoying item rewards that they would add. They were always just inventory -1 and it was annoying to have to get rid of them. Just make all the rewards ventures or something.

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Originally Posted by Elamys

People didn't like them because it didn't feel like the pittance of experience and gil you got was worth the time and travel, and it only got worse with the teleport returning you to "the nearest settlement" instead of Ishgard - suddenly even your gil reward (and then some) is gone because you had to teleport to Ishgard to turn the thing in. They should have looked at improving the rewards, which would have encouraged people to do them.

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Yeah this is basically why no one did battlecraft leves until the anima weapon, because you had to get leves from ishgard then go to the zone they were in, then go back to ishgard to turn them in. That was the dumbest tedious system which sucked tons of gil unless you were flying which depending on when you wanted to do them wouldn't have been unlocked yet. Overall HW leve system is a complete joke and never should have been put into place. The ARR system was much better with leves available in main cities as well as in zone towns and you could turn them in anywhere.

My boyfriend and I are going around doing sidequests because we wanted something casual we can do a bit at a time. Not everyone wants to go 100% all the time so leves were kind of a nice way to do that.

Won't anyone think of all the poor achievement hunters? We need 5000 Battlecraft leves completed. That's 834 days of using all allowances on Battle leves. Now, we're limited to a max of level 60 for them? Obviously ach. hunters will do them regardless, but not having them as a good option for leveling 15 jobs from 60-70 and receiving less gil from them towards the 20,000,000 gil from levequest achievement (I swear to the Twelve, SE hired a sadist to design achievements) really puts a damper on an otherwise mindless, soul-sucking grind.

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Originally Posted by Elamys

While you personally may have not liked them, that's not really a valid reason for removing something from the game. More methods of gaining experience is always a good thing. They would have done better to make an attempt to improve the leves, as opposed to outright pulling them.

Now that you mention crafting leves in that same post, an interesting note is that now that my crafters and gatherers are all at 70, my leve allowances sit at 100, untouched. There's nothing for me to use them on.

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There's always achievements related to levequests. Like do 100 unique tradecraft leves as Blacksmith or something. Also the honest Gilionaire. That's just optional though.1

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Originally Posted by TWOxACROSS

When Stormblood released, I was excited to see what kinds of new levequests there would be from the new regions. Needless to say, I was disappointed on several levels that there were no battlecraft leves at the counter in Kugane. Levequests were so unique to FFXIV, and a great system as part of the myriad ways we can grow our characters (especially when there are no other quests to pick up). It pains me to see them gone, and I can only imagine why they were removed...

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Hold your horses people, they weren't removed, they just haven't been added and wont be added till 4.1, it was in the patch notes during early access and launch....

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Originally Posted by blindfoldedkaos

Hold your horses people, they weren't removed, they just haven't been added and wont be added till 4.1, it was in the patch notes during early access and launch....

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If this is real I now have reason to fire all the fireworks I obtained in The Rising 2017!

Was not looking forward to spending half my online time in queue...

EDIT: Ok, I will still be spending a lot of time in queue, I will just have something else as an additional means to gain exp and also to work toward achievements...

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Hated the things myself. Especially the stupid ones that required emotes like /beckon. Or smash a mob to within an inch of its life only to then /comfort it.

The only time I ever did battlecradt leves in 3.0 was when I was spamming and abandoning them form the resins

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I hated those ones too lol.
I didn't mind using leves for leveling but not knowing which leves had the emote/capture weakened beast was somewhat annoying for me.
I like to use my chocobo during open world content but my darn chocobo would always kill the captured beast so I'd have to unsummon it for those leves alone. :/

I like battle leves. Nice tidbit of lore plus a small fun objective.
I'd be in favour of them returning.

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Originally Posted by Strywin

I hated those ones too lol.
I didn't mind using leves for leveling but not knowing which leves had the emote/capture weakened beast was somewhat annoying for me.
I like to use my chocobo during open world content but my darn chocobo would always kill the captured beast so I'd have to unsummon it for those leves alone. :/

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If you set your chocobo to healer or order it to follow you it won'r kill those targets.

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Originally Posted by blindfoldedkaos

Hold your horses people, they weren't removed, they just haven't been added and wont be added till 4.1, it was in the patch notes during early access and launch....

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Woah woah woah. I'd love to believe that, but I just checked the full patch notes for 4.0 and it says nothing about them. Closest thing is "Please note that battlecraft leves are not available in the new areas introduced in patch 4.0.".

Do you have any other proof about them coming in 4.1?

I was reading another thread discussing FATEs and how to change them to make open world more lively. I thought about the open world and was inspired with an alternative to FATEs: leves geared toward max-level classes.

One of the concerns about making FATEs too attractive is server stress (like Ixion). levequests don't have that problem because only the people in the team can fight.

My thought was basically turn B/A/S rank hunts into levequests. They could be retuned for teams of 1/4/8 and item levels of 90/200/290 (bases on expansion). Make different ranks cost different allowances... say 1/2/4, and give out better rewards.

I'd say more, but I'm on my phone trying to type this out.