What's the best method to leveling Miner? With and Without Leves.

It's kind of hard for me to figure out what's the most productive use of my time. I consider the leve investment worthwhile, to a point. I don't want to spend all of my leves, or even most of them, on mining.

Regarding leves, too, is the fact that I hate the RNG nature of the +% leves. It's something worthy of 1.0s awfulness. Having to sit and wait for my GP to recover just so I can guarantee a +25% is a bummer.

If I'm just mining grinding, what's my best option? I'm currently using EXP manuals and going after stuff my level. Attempts are no longer guaranteed, and even HQ gathers are lower than the 15% chance I'm used to. Should I mine for stuff below my level for guaranteed XP/better HQ? Or should I mine things exactly my level? Stuff above?

Tips, please. :(

Hi there, i normally go for items that are around 80% chance of gaining without buffs. You will get roughly around 220 -300 xp per item so with a chain about 1000xp per node which soon adds up. im lv28 miner and have been grinding silver ore lv25 for now.

I made a AutoHotKey script to calculate average exp gain per hour base on %, HQ, and base exp per hit.

http://pastebin.com/AftyMijY

As for leves, there are usually 4 types generated randomly. 4 nodes no evaluation, 8 nodes no evaluation, 4 nodes with evaluation, and 8 nodes with evaluation. The best exp per leve is obviously the 8 nodes with evaluation, however those usually require +15% gathering rate to get the max score. The ones with no evaluation usually charges my GP back up to full. I usually do a evaluation leve with a no evaluation so I always have full GP for those evaluation leves.

Thanks for the tips guys. I just started on silver ore, but that leve tip actually sounds pretty useful.

Have done a fair bit of leves. Using the cordial potions for the 8 node evaluation ones and stacking up GP before hand as was mentioned. While they are good, in retrospect I would have saved my allowances for tradecraft leves where the HQ bonus is just massive (200% increased xp compared to 25% increased xp for a full evaluation mining one). Stopped doing them at around 40, mostly doing electrum then, I got just about enough of it for my goldsmithing by level 47 (I did however go for HQ crafts/leves, would have gotten away with less mining otherwise, though I'd had to grind more wind shards). Any more leves there and I would have had to backtrack anyway. I'd say just go easy on the leves and use one if you need a jump to a higher tier material for your crafts.

If you're just looking to get 50 as fast as you can to sell top end stuff or whatnot, I'd go full out on the leves though.

Also don't forget your buff food. Even the vendor stuff adds up with 3% xp and a bit of useful stats.

It's a rough grind in any case!

Using leves makes mining to 50 a breeze. As I leveled my other jobs I stacked up leve quests and burned through them on my Miner, hitting 50 was a joke and I will do the same thing to level Botanist.

I have the same issue. I am lv 34 miner and am currently at mythril ores. I tried the leve quest route, but it really didn't seem faster. Perhaps because I tried that at earlier levels.

I mine once a day to use up my rested XP. I Also add a survival manual bought with seals for from the GC Quartermaster and have a 100% bonus to xp until rested bonus/item buff wear. I'm still getting one level every day doing this and I'm up to 39 now.

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Originally Posted by TohruHonda

Using leves makes mining to 50 a breeze. As I leveled my other jobs I stacked up leve quests and burned through them on my Miner, hitting 50 was a joke and I will do the same thing to level Botanist.

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what kind of leves did you do?
Do you choose ones that were your level? Or ones that are a couple of levels below?
Did you only choose the ones with evaluation? And did you always get 25% ?

More details please :)

Early on, it's probably worth it to alternate between levels obtained via leve and levels obtained simply by mining items. It doesn't take too long to do the latter until you are about level 40. Use your gathering log to tell you some of what's available around your level, and then check these items against the marketboard to see which ones are worth investing time in. (Nothing pre-50 will sell for that much, but you can at least save things up for yourself to craft with later.) I leveled entirely with leves from 44-50 over the weekend, and it would have been a nightmare to do otherwise. Here's a few thoughts.

Leves:
Always stick only with evaluation leves; they're the best bang for your allowance buck. If you know what you're doing, you can consistently/always get the 25% bonus, which makes any other leve a waste of allowances.

This is how they work:
All evaluation leves require you to reach a score of 160 per 4 nodes (320 for the 8 node type). There are two items that you can mine, an easy and a hard item. The hard item will have a low % of success, and will always grant 9 evaluation points per success regardless of level. The easy item's score is dependent on the level difference between you and it. If your level is equal to the level you initiate the leve at, then you will receive 7 points per success. +1 gives you 8 points per success, and +2 9 points.

4 Node type:
This is the easiest. Always use Sharp Vision II (+15% to gathering rate) and select the easy item. Have your leves at +1 of your level for the easy 25% evaluation bonus. At six hits per node, and 4 nodes total, you have: 4 * 6 * 8 = 192, or a margin of 4 misses over the 4 nodes. Even when you hit the highest level for that leve, i.e. when your level is equivalent to the leve's +4 setting, you should be getting right around a 100% success rate with Sharp Vision II. At six hits per node, and 4 nodes total, we get: 4 * 6 * 7 = 168 (you have a one-failure leeway which you shouldn't need). Since there are only four nodes, you should have enough GP to do this for each node.

8 Node type:
This one requires a bit more strategy since you won't have enough GP to use Sharp Vision II on each node. As long as you are still below the max leve level, this should be easy enough to achieve. Use Sharp Vision II on normal nodes when possible and select the easy item (for 8 points), and Sharp Vision I on +10% to high-level item nodes, and again, select the easy item. You shouldn't have any problems getting the 25% evaluation bonus.
Once you reach the maximum leve level, your strategy needs to change (and will take a little luck). On +10% to high-level item nodes, now use Sharp Vision II and select the harder, 9-point item. On normal nodes, vary between Sharp Vision I and Sharp Vision II as your GP warrants. You should be able to get the 25% evaluation most of the time, though sometimes your luck can be terrible.

*: Make sure to be upgrading your gear as you go along, in order to keep your gathering up.
**: This uses a lot of GP, but it doesn't really take that long to recover. You gain back 5 on each successful hit as well as 5 GP every Eorzean minute, i.e. 3 seconds of real time. To recover 500 GP entirely from scratch takes (500 / 5) = 100 Eorzean minutes * 3 seconds real time/1 Eorzean minute = 300 seconds, or 6 minutes. Not terrible. Considering you get only 6 Leves per day, it's worth the extra wait I'd say.

I am curious since I have been unable to find any turn in miner leves at level 33, currently. Could someone point me in the direction please? If there are any that is.

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Originally Posted by LaxusLanverLais

I am curious since I have been unable to find any turn in miner leves at level 33, currently. Could someone point me in the direction please? If there are any that is.

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http://craftingasaservice.com/leve

There is no good way to level botany/mining there is only the best way with the options you have. Leves is best to use for crafting only. There is no leve comparable to the triple-turn ins. Imo the crafting leves need to be nerfed or the gathering leves need to be buffed. I used 20 leves to get 4 levels on my botanist. That same amount of leves would and had got me 8-12 levels in crafting regardless of level.

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Originally Posted by jcw005

All evaluation leves require you to reach a score of 160 per 4 nodes (320 for the 8 node type). There are two items that you can mine, an easy and a hard item. The hard item will have a low % of success, and will always grant 9 evaluation points per success regardless of level.

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This is not true. I needed to raise my MNR last night and did a couple of evaluation leves (lvl10 leve, lvl 18MNR) I only farmed the hard item with 100% success rate on every node, but only scored 6 for each one instead of 9, meaning I couldn't even get the 5% bonus. The higher your level is vs leve level does have an effect on the score of the 'hard' item.

I'm not going to bother with leve's anymore for my DoL's, I'd rather hit up high lvl nodes and go for HQ drops, the exp is comparable to doing an evaluation leve -at your level- without having to waste time running back and forth to hand in, you also get a ton of mats to use/sell.

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Originally Posted by KhalidTheGreat

what kind of leves did you do?
Do you choose ones that were your level? Or ones that are a couple of levels below?
Did you only choose the ones with evaluation? And did you always get 25% ?

More details please :)

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Do ONLY the evaluation leves.

They're the only fieldcraft leves that offer you a huge bonus for performing well (getting the 25% evaluation bonus).

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Originally Posted by KillyBamp

This is not true. I needed to raise my MNR last night and did a couple of evaluation leves (lvl10 leve, lvl 18MNR) I only farmed the hard item with 100% success rate on every node, but only scored 6 for each one instead of 9, meaning I couldn't even get the 5% bonus. The higher your level is vs leve level does have an effect on the score of the 'hard' item.

I'm not going to bother with leve's anymore for my DoL's, I'd rather hit up high lvl nodes and go for HQ drops, the exp is comparable to doing an evaluation leve -at your level- without having to waste time running back and forth to hand in, you also get a ton of mats to use/sell.

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Yes, I was rather assuming you'd be working within your 5-level range for Leves when I made that post. Not only are you already penalized for going beyond the level range, why would you waste your allowances on a Leve that gives less EXP than you could otherwise get? Such a circumstance as a level 18 Miner doing a level 10 Leve never occurred to me.

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Originally Posted by jcw005

This is how they work:
All evaluation leves require you to reach a score of 160 per 4 nodes (320 for the 8 node type).

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So are you saying that for a 4-node evaluation leve, there's no difference (in terms of turn-in reward) between a score of 161 and a score of 181?

What about time bonuses? How do they work?

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Originally Posted by Amnesia

So are you saying that for a 4-node evaluation leve, there's no difference (in terms of turn-in reward) between a score of 161 and a score of 181?

What about time bonuses? How do they work?

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160 or 181 doesn't make a difference. Time bonuses is also fairly negligible.

Related question: Are there any higher level leves available for mining in any of the cities? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you need to unlock the levemates through a DoW or DoM for the appropriate level, right? Will it be impossible to do level 30 leves for Miner because my DoW is only level 22? Or am I mistaken?

EDIT: Disregard. I found my answer here: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...1800-DOL-leves

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Originally Posted by jcw005

Yes, I was rather assuming you'd be working within your 5-level range for Leves when I made that post. Not only are you already penalized for going beyond the level range, why would you waste your allowances on a Leve that gives less EXP than you could otherwise get? Such a circumstance as a level 18 Miner doing a level 10 Leve never occurred to me.

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Yeah, the reason I was doing the lvl10 leve at 18 was because for some reason that was the highest lvl available, I'm not even sure how to unlock the higher lvl leve's for DoL? My DoH and DoW all have appropriate lvl leve's for me at adventurers guild. Up until that point I'd only done a few leves at lvl5 I think and the rest of my exp was gained purely through farming mats.

Levequests are fastest.

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Originally Posted by Curcio

It's kind of hard for me to figure out what's the most productive use of my time. I consider the leve investment worthwhile, to a point. I don't want to spend all of my leves, or even most of them, on mining.

Regarding leves, too, is the fact that I hate the RNG nature of the +% leves. It's something worthy of 1.0s awfulness. Having to sit and wait for my GP to recover just so I can guarantee a +25% is a bummer.

If I'm just mining grinding, what's my best option? I'm currently using EXP manuals and going after stuff my level. Attempts are no longer guaranteed, and even HQ gathers are lower than the 15% chance I'm used to. Should I mine for stuff below my level for guaranteed XP/better HQ? Or should I mine things exactly my level? Stuff above?

Tips, please. :(

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You can do the +25% leves pretty consistently, and you shouldn't *ever* wait for GPs to recover. You can make more XP in the time you waste than getting the full bonus would get you. If you can't do it, just accept that you won't get the full bonus and move on. Use Sharp Vision II, which if you're geared and eating correctly should put you around 95% for the standard item. Your GPs should last you to the end of even the eight-node ones (Piety; the four-node ones are Benevolence). Chain #4 on the standard item and then use Deep Vigor to get the advanced item. This will get you the +25% bonus even if you miss a couple of the standard items. Make sure the leve level is equal to your own or you'll only get six points on the standard items instead of seven. If you do fall behind, you can do a Sharp Vision III to get all advanced items at one node. In a Piety leve, this will run you out of GPs, so you'll need to use a Cordial. After a +25% leve, do another kind of leve; the get 40 items on a single respawning point leve (Munificence) doesn't require any GPs at all and the get 32 items on eight nodes leve (Candor) can usually be done without using GPs as well; even if you do, you'll only need it once or twice. This recharges you for the next +25% leve. Leves are the way to go; it's how I got to 50.

I'm a 37 botanist, but I imagine it isn't much different for miner. I've been farming the 4 node eval leves. Use sharp Vision/Field Mastery III skill for 50% bonus and get the 9 eval items 100% of the time on two of the nodes and increase difficulty rating by 1 or 2 levels to get the unbuffed gather percentage around 50%. Get all 7 eval items on the other 2 and if you can use the ability to increase gathering rate to 100% after chain 4 then go for the 9 eval. I'm able to get the +25% bonus every time.

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Originally Posted by RafeMacleod

I'm a 37 botanist, but I imagine it isn't much different for miner. I've been farming the 4 node eval leves. Use sharp Vision/Field Mastery III skill for 50% bonus and get the 9 eval items 100% of the time on two of the nodes and increase difficulty rating by 1 or 2 levels to get the unbuffed gather percentage around 50%. Get all 7 eval items on the other 2 and if you can use the ability to increase gathering rate to 100% after chain 4 then go for the 9 eval. I'm able to get the +25% bonus every time.

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I'm asuming you are using Cordials, aren't you? Never occurred to me to attempt leves with +2 difficulty. Will try this later :)

whats wrong with just using buff food, using the GC 50% buff and just grinding the nodes? I find a level every 27 minutes is fast enough for me. Being just passed level 30. and I make nice money from the items I sell on the board

I agree about grinding the nodes. I've done it to 25 so far. I assume I may need leves later, but as a crafter, getting one stack of everything certainly won't hurt a thing and I hate mining/foraging without getting anything but exp and a litte bit of gil.

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Originally Posted by TohruHonda

Using leves makes mining to 50 a breeze. As I leveled my other jobs I stacked up leve quests and burned through them on my Miner, hitting 50 was a joke and I will do the same thing to level Botanist.

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Breeze yeah right. People are burning through 70-80 leves and still hit about low 40s.