Slightly frustrated new player, BFA refugee lol.

So I've been leveling up in this game for a bit now, and throughout the entire process I've tried doing as little quests as possible because I've been outleveling the MSQ by 10+ levels throughout most of the game (currently outleveling by 6 levels, I'm level 47),
the question is when i get to 50 will i be stuck doing ARR quests that'll barely give me anything for ages, before i can move on to the first expansion? And if that's the case, what is the point of the road to 60 buff? Doesn't it just worsen the new player experience?

ARR's story so far has been pretty bad overall (with some good moments though) and has had horrible pacing, but I've been told it gets better once i get into Heavensward.

1. Yes you will have to finish the ARR quests before moving on.

2. The purpose is, as you see, to level faster.

3. I am not sure that many (never mind most) new players are hung up on their level vs the level of the quests. The story is going to be the same regardless if you are at level or 10 levels above... just makes the quests a bit quicker to get through.

1. ARR is 80% boring until you get to a few patches before Heavensward.
2. The voice acting is much better in Japanese. After a while I even stopped being bothered by the cringe-y wannabe-Game of Thrones dialog, because at some level my brain knows that the characters don't actually talk like that.
3. You can use the Road to 60 buff to level alt classes. If you alternate between two classes in story missions and dungeons, you should be able to get two to 60 just off of the MSQ.

I only started to pay real attention when the first "uninvited visitor" popped in (which was at the end of the endless ARR quests in case someone misunderstands^^).

Yes, except you buy the skip-quest item from the cash shop (which I don´t recommend because you miss out on some items you might want) you got to go through the whole story quest to unlock everything. I´m level 67 on my white mage and still at the end of HW story line (Lv 60).

Good news: for dungeons/trials and solo instances you get level synced, makes it more fun. The run and fetch quests on the other hand.........

What kept the game fun was the daily roulette as a healer (at later levels especially *cough) and especially running stuff with my guildies.

Remember when all we did was Fate, Fate, Fate? I do...and it sucked. Stick to MSQ, don worry about out leveling it. As others have noted...that's by design, and it never used to be...bask in the glory of SE's vast (collective) intellect. Oh! And HW story is awesome! Well...I liked it <.<

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Originally Posted by Aramina

1. Yes you will have to finish the ARR quests before moving on.

2. The purpose is, as you see, to level faster.

3. I am not sure that many (never mind most) new players are hung up on their level vs the level of the quests. The story is going to be the same regardless if you are at level or 10 levels above... just makes the quests a bit quicker to get through.

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i know it's for leveling faster, but what I'm saying is, what is the point in leveling faster if i can't progress past the worthless ARR content before I've done 50 levels worth of story quests (with no boost) anyway? The nature of an MMORPG, as well as the road to 60 buff itself communicated to me that level is something i should care about, but i guess they're largely pointless until certain thresholds for certain late game content and unlocks, so i guess it's just for alt classes.

The reason why i'm hung up on levels is because thus far, ARR has been overall really bad with 90% of the story, most of the quests and the gameplay (which of course gets better late-game when more spells are unlocked), so there's nothing else to hang on to rather than look forward to when the game allegedly gets good, and i was under the impression that the level boost would get me there faster. I see that isn't really the case now though.

Idk, the new player experience is rough as hell. When a game is so story focused, but doesn't have a good story until a good portion into the game, makes it hard to get through. Being a raider in WoW, I'm still looking forward to the end-game though.

I guess i'll try to power through for now, maybe level something that's not arcanist just to mix it up.

The way I look at it, Road to 60 allows you to go through the MSQs faster without having to grind to reach the level required to start the next MSQ. Since Shadowbringers arrives in like 5 months, you don't want to grind+MSQ and compress that 6 year backlog in these few months right?

The road buff helps quite a bit. If you level without it, you'll hit many points in the main story where you aren't high enough level to accept the quest, which to me, was much worse. It's also very handy for alts, that don't have the exp benefit of the main questline. Think the MSQ is a slog? Do it while having to do other stuff to catch your level up.

I should probably mention to you that you can't do dlc content if you havn't done ARR MSQs. this isn't like wow where you can just level and skip any expansion you don't like.

Take it from us who played in the 2.X days. About every 5 levels you spent a day to get 2 more to continue the MSQ. At least now the only thing holding you back is the MSQ itself. And if you hit say 52-54 during the 2.X MSQ more smooth sailing thru HW, get to 62-63 from HW MSQ smooth sailing into SB, and you wont have to worry about grinding til probably around 67-68.

Edit: I'd say 2.X grinding sessions started around lvl 23-27. Let's be fair, Road to 60 does nothing substantial to the 1-19 leveling process.

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Originally Posted by OcieKo

Take it from us who played in the 2.X days. About every 5 levels you spent a day to get 2 more to continue the MSQ.

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Back during 2.X that was true, but there have been quite a few updates giving pretty huge buffs to XP since then. Even without the road to 60, leveling has gotten pretty fast and can easily outpace MSQ progress at least up through 50 or a bit above if you're not alternating between a couple classes to spread the XP out, or limiting yourself to the bare minimum of MSQ + job quests only and avoiding all optional content.

The road to 60 buff can still be nice for people who want to level all the jobs anyway, but it seems to just cause more frustration for people who want to focus on just one (or at least start with just one).

Are you doing every single quest that pops up? You should save those for your alt classes/jobs. Just focus on the MSQ to power-level through. And why it may feel a bit grindy with the ARR storyline, just remember, there are a lot more games that are way more grindy. What I like about this game is that it's not P2W or P2P.

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Originally Posted by RaeynaGG

[...]What I like about this game is that it's not P2W or P2P.

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We are P2P though? Outside of your free month or the trial you'll have to pay for a subscription to continue playing.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

Back during 2.X that was true, but there have been quite a few updates giving pretty huge buffs to XP since then. Even without the road to 60, leveling has gotten pretty fast and can easily outpace MSQ progress at least up through 50 or a bit above if you're not alternating between a couple classes to spread the XP out, or limiting yourself to the bare minimum of MSQ + job quests only and avoiding all optional content.

The road to 60 buff can still be nice for people who want to level all the jobs anyway, but it seems to just cause more frustration for people who want to focus on just one (or at least start with just one).

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Oh, I'm well aware, since I'm an altaholic. Leveling now is soooooooo much easier. And the gradually increasing less than your highest job xp bonuses now on top of everything else is ridiculous. Then if you pick up a full set of +XP Gear (Head, Mog Station Armor Set w/o Head, Earrings, Ring), while rested with newb food, fc xp bonus, and knowing what your doing... vrooom DING.

Just stick with it :) If you're endgame / raiding focused I'm inclined to think that you're a little less interested in the leveling process and just eager to cap. That certainly was the case for me. The story does get better towards the end of the horrible ARR>HW 100 quest grind and you'll genuinely find yourself wanting to know what happens next. With that said there will still be a fair amount of running around for nothing. Just skip any dialogue that isn't a cutscene to keep your sanity. See you on the other side

If you're currently Lv47 and at story Lv41, that's not too bad for now. The MSQ actually jumps from Lv46 to 49 (with optional quests covering the gap) so you're not quite as out-of-synch as you might think you are.

That said, there are a lot of Lv50 quests to get through between the ARR credits and the start of Heavensward - originally several months of "patch quests" between expansions - so it's definitely worthwhile picking up a second class to share some EXP around.

That doesn't mean you have to grind a class up from level 1 if you don't want to, because once you hit Lv50 you'll immediately be able to pick up Red Mage and/or Samurai - both quests start in Ul'dah (in the market near the eastern gate, and in the main street near the aetheryte plaza, respectively) and the jobs are already at Lv50 when you unlock them.

There are also the Ishgardian jobs (dark knight, astrologian and machinist), once you get there, that start at Lv30.

But it's also not that much work to get a Lv1 class up to Lv16, at which point you can start running leveling roulette with them each day until you catch up to your main class.