Curious about leveling speed

[Chevrefoil]

If you grind out FATEs, you can probably level from 1-50 in a handful of days.

Not that most people will do this.

It took me from 10/15/2013 to 2/2/2014 to get my first job to 50...that was with trying out other jobs, doing storyline, crafting, etc. I think that's reasonable, if not a little slow for most new players. If you stick to one job, you can probably cut that down to 1-2 months. I was swapping between PGL/BLM/WHM before settling on WHM. Actually only took me 1 month to get from 1-50 on WHM...so most of that time was spent grinding out other jobs XD

[LunaHoshino]

The one thing that will slow you down is the initial 1-50 story quests as they do take a lot of time.

This. If you're just grinding to level 50 and not doing the story quests, it goes quite fast. When I first started playing, I didn't realize that I was supposed to be doing the story quests and so I hit the trial level cap in a couple of days of casual play from just killing mobs and doing FATEs and sidequests.

[Vespar]

I think this heavily depends on the class you are levelling, or whether or not you can get into dungeons really quickly. If you use everything available at your disposal its easy to hit 50 really quickly. Not sure about 2-3 days but definetly not much longer than that.

Dungeons are extremely good XP, especially if you have rested xp.
Your challenge log also provides alot of bonus experience. Something we didnt have when 2.0 first came out, so its become even faster to level now.
Hunting log!! Dont forget about it. Also alot of Bonus xp. If your not doing dungeons, work on your hunt log. You get a separate hunt log for each class.
Quests! I actually disagree with above post. Quests can take you quite far. Some of them may seem time consuming but it really is worth it.
If you are waiting to get into dungeons, do fates or do your hunt/challenge logs.

[Sleigh]

I think it took my alt three days of serious grinding in 2.1 to go from 1-50 but I had help. Even without the armory bonus it's not too bad, but you need to abuse a few things.

1-20 can be done in a couple hours if you have someone power leveling you out of party and then you do dungeons which give a level until 20.
20-30, you can get to 22 with hunt log boosts, then it takes probably 5-10 hours in Quarrymill to get to 30 without the armory bonus.
30-40 takes a while without armory bonuses or rested. 10-15 hours probably.
40-50 either takes a really really long time if you just play it straight, or it can be moderately fast if you abuse map completion bonuses at level 48 and do speedy DD first section spams in a premade party from 44-48.

Most of what I wrote is unnecessary or counter-productive to a fresh character though, since you have to do the story which is in combination with mandatory dungeons probably 70% of the experience you need to get to 50. It really helps while leveling beyond 20 if you have a buddy doing Leves for you while you do your story fetch quests. It can keep you constantly current and never have to actively stop doing the required story just to do FATEs or anything.

[Ultimatecalibur]

A couple things I've noticed as I've been working on leveling 7 classes in parallel.

• XP requirements per level have logarithmic growth, but most XP rewards outside of story quests and dungeons have linear growth.
• The XP rewards for turning in a level X levequest is barely 1k greater than those gained by turning in a level X - 5 levequest.
• The XP rewards for doing a standard FATE (not a Notorious Monster FATE which doubles rewards) that you meet the requirements for that you do not need to levelsync to participate in (i.e. you are no more than 5 levels over) will be greater than the rewards for participating in a FATE above your level.
• Dungeon mob XP increases logarithmicly. It will take the same amount of dungeon runs to go from 32 to 35 running Brayflox's Longstop as it would take to go from 47 to 50 running Aurum Vale. Biggest limiting factor is queue times which make timely leveling this way unfeasible for DpS. Both Healers and Tanks can take full advantage of this.

[aerialrave]

2 things

(1) leveling to 50 and completing the storyline passing Ultima are NOT the same thing
(2) many people "claim" the 2-3 day thing after already having another 50 first. there is a big EXP boost that helps out a lot with this

I personally don't believe it is humanly possible to pass Ultima in 3 days, even with hardcore play sessions of like 18 hours per day.
Took me about 5-6 weeks my first time casually playing, watching all the cutscenes, reading the storyline, and playing around on other classes.

Personally I think it is possible to do in one week if you skip all cutscenes and rush through everything.

[FoxyAreku]

The main scenario, however, I didn't finish until like month 3. I got to lvl 50 before even beating Titan. Unless you care about battle class endgame, the main scenario is relatively unneccesary.

There's so little to do without the main story....you can't even do any level 50 dungeons until you beat ultima. Don't spread lies like this, it'll confuse new players. Main story should be grinded out as quick as possible to at least that point, and if you care about getting ALL fights and dungeons you need to do all of it >.>

[Arkista]

I personally don't believe it is humanly possible to pass Ultima in 3 days, even with hardcore play sessions of like 18 hours per day.

It's possible and it's been done.

Back on page one I posted my dates from 1-50 when I 1st started to play, took about 50-60hrs. I'm pretty sure there are people who did it faster. Really not hard to grind to 50 If you have the time. 12-18hrs a day you'll be done in 3-4days faster if you do it smart. Its about knowing what areas to do fates, When to hit up dungeons and doing hunt logs. Even without rested exp you can do it.

Here
1-40 takes 3,608,200exp
41-50 takes 4,125,800exp
I did 41-50 in a day no rested, no armory exp, that's 517k more exp than 1-40. So its not impossible to do 1-50 no bonus in 3 days.

[tocsin]

There's so little to do without the main story....you can't even do any level 50 dungeons until you beat ultima. Don't spread lies like this, it'll confuse new players. Main story should be grinded out as quick as possible to at least that point, and if you care about getting ALL fights and dungeons you need to do all of it >.>

I don't spread any lies. I'm a crafter. I haven't even switched to a battle class in weeks. Think about how much of the main story is actually required for end-game crafting, end-game Gathering, or someone who just wants to grind the gold saucer all day. The ONLY reason to do the main story all the way through is if you are a fan of the ffxiv battle system. I'm not, and I know plenty of people who also aren't.

Don't accuse me of lying, unless you 100% can back up that NOTHING can be done without what I say. it looks bad on you.

[Vespar]

I don't spread any lies. I'm a crafter. I haven't even switched to a battle class in weeks. Think about how much of the main story is actually required for end-game crafting, end-game Gathering, or someone who just wants to grind the gold saucer all day. The ONLY reason to do the main story all the way through is if you are a fan of the ffxiv battle system. I'm not, and I know plenty of people who also aren't.

Don't accuse me of lying, unless you 100% can back up that NOTHING can be done without what I say. it looks bad on you.

I didnt even consider just being a craft/gatherer. I dont think most people on here even assumed that.I think most of us assumed that the information the OP was after was in regards to Battle classes. For DoL/DoH classes things might be different. But I have to ask, most people dont do the main scenario for the battle system, they do it for the story... so why play FFXIV if you have no interest in its story?