Fate grinding is an awful thing to do for 50 levels..

[Furious]

Hunting log is fine to do while waiting for fates. Leves are a total waste to use on DoW/M, when they can be used on DoH/L and W/M can fate for MUCH more xp - they are also incredibly repetitive, moreso than fates. Guildhestes are very low xp after the first. Dungeons are ATTROCIOUS xp for time spent, less than half of fate hunting - sometimes a quarter.

Fates also give tokens you need to upgrade your rankings and that buy amazing gear for leveling that you don't have to rely on RNG for, making them universally by far the best option in all aspects, once you have done all the quests.

Here is the issue, in a nutshell:
Fates are disproportionately more efficient in leveling jobs to the point that doing any other route is essentially SIGNIFICANTLY nerfing your efficiency. They are too good compared to any other option.

[Kotoro_Shinoto]

Fates are disproportionately more efficient in leveling jobs to the point that doing any other route is essentially SIGNIFICANTLY nerfing your efficiency. They are too good compared to any other option.

this only matters if your entire aim is to hit level cap in as short a period of time as possible. Doing that is boring as sin no matter what system is in place and you're going to find fault in whatever leveling system is in place because you're brute forcing it.

[Alreya]

this only matters if your entire aim is to hit level cap in as short a period of time as possible. Doing that is boring as sin no matter what system is in place and you're going to find fault in whatever leveling system is in place because you're brute forcing it.

True, but in a game, players will find the optimal way to "game" the system.

A large part of MMOs is about progression, and so when players sense one mode of play is the most rewarding substantially for progression, it will be played and played and played again and again and again. If you've spent any time in South Shroud over the past few days, you'll know what I mean. If you don't balance the different kinds of play well, players *will* find the most efficient use of their time for progression and play the crap out of that while ignoring everything else.

[Virgal]

OMFG stop complaining about leveling being slow you don't even know the meaning of slow leveling / exp this game is if anything easy to level.

[Ivven]

This game has many many options for leveling. You want a grind? You should have played vanilla FFXI. Stop whining, I'm sick of games being dumbed down to suit the "OMG WANT LEVEL CAP RIGHT NOW SO I CAN GRIPE ABOUT HOW BORED I AM IN TWO WEEKS" crowd.

[Keagian]

I agree in that fate grinding is by far the most efficient way currently known, of grinding exp to get to the next level. However its also the most boring as your just zerging each fate and hoping that you either deal enough damage or collect enough materials to gain a gold medal and then move on to the next fate. If you do all the side quests in an area and the move on to the next town and do those side missions, what is left for you sub classes if you consumed all the exp for the main class. In which cause your options fall on to doing dungeons, leves, hunting logs, and fate grinding anyway. Some would even say its more efficient to grind your main class straight to lvl 50 with fates and then use the side missions to level up your sub classes.

[Xceriis]

Why does it matter if exp is slow? I don't get it. What exactly are you in a rush to get that you OCDed fate grinds because it had faster xp gains? Why would you grind? Are you ok? *mind explodes*

[Yumi_Hibiki]

ehm... then dont just grind FATES to 50?

[skillface]

I'd rather they nerf the hell out of FATEs before doing anything else. I've also heard reports of people grinding unimportant mobs in certain FATEs up until the last second before killing the important ones in order to maximize XP gains, and they'll even rage at people who run in and try to complete said FATEs as intended.

Easy solution? Remove XP for FATE mobs, at least the mobs in FATEs where killing the mobs doesn't help complete the FATE. Also consider reducing the amount of XP gained per FATE completion, but also make it a little easier for classes like Conjurer to get decent participation. At the moment the real way I've seen to get decent participation on a Conjurer is to spam Aero on fresh mobs to tag them before someone else does, which is obviously not ideal.

Also I'm not entirely sure why people are rushing to 50 so desperately. All that's going to do is burn you out. I learned that the hard way from WoW and other similar games. This is one game I'd rather take my time with, and I just don't see the appeal of rushing level 50.

[Herase]

*Snip*

Agree, i've been doing everything on this main up until now, but i realized im several levels above my story quests because of it, also i had to level a lancer to 15 and it was a bit long because i did most of the quests on my main. So i think level 30 on-wards (and i would suggest the same to you) ill just do story quests , fates, hunting log, Etc and leave all the side quests for alts. Tbh the side quests don't need to be done as you can level quite efficiently (hence why im leveling much quicker then my story) with all the other options, unless you need to rush to max level. So yeah like Keagian said, just leave the sub missions for alts and just go with everything else and maybe doing 1 or 2 side quests now and then.