How am I meant to level with a friend now?

[LuxLex]

Of course the exp needed, NOW, is lower. You should have seen Xi when the level cap was 50. Now, let's say...in XI, you need..what..40k to reach a level? Before the cap increase, that 40k was around 60k.

Once again, I don't care what XI was like a decade ago. I play the XI of today.