Soloing's a pain, but that's not my concern at the moment...

[Estellios]

This might be too late for you to use, but I made a chart with all the prerequisites for ranking up/chocobos:

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...NfewQOodmw.png

Basically you have to do all quests that don't involve a dungeon at all the companies.

[Kaijin]

-Sigh- Still, I just wish I didn't die as often. Don't get me wrong, I love that there's a huge amount of mobs near the aerthrytes now, but I find I'm somewhat handicapped compared to people who actually get around to power-leveling other players. Kashuan's population is low, to be sure, but regardless it's rather despicable for people to be aloof towards me while I'm huffing it all out on my own. I can only do so much as a Lancer, after all. I can't exactly heal myself or buff myself to take down mobs faster, and now that I'm at Camp Tranquil I find I have to rest more and more often since the levels of the mobs around there aren't very consistent. 18-20 I can handle about 7-8 consecutive mobs if I'm lucky. If it gets to 22 then I have to rest after each one. Kinda sucks, but since my Guardian's Aspect takes forever to resupply I'm at a loss of how to get my levels up even faster.

The upside though is that I'll have something to rub in the faces of those who rode the coattails to 50. Other than that, I got nothing. Ha ha ha.

I leveled my Lancer to 32 recently, some of it in party and some of it solo. (I did make a point to get cnj to level 4 first just for cure, which only took about 10-15 minutes really). I know it's harder to solo exp, and its definitely less fun. But in my experience, it's actually a lot faster to grind mobs lower level than you than to try and fight mobs your level.

Yeah, you miss out on the chains, and the slightly higher base exp. The upside is that you never rest or risk dieing, both of which will seriously reduce incoming exp. In addition, you might manage to get links occasionally too, (which if I had to choose, I'd choose linking over chaining) and on lancer using doomspike and skewer on lower level mobs can mean oneshotting 2-4 mobs at once.

That all being said, I get bored very quickly solo leveling. Regardless of what level mobs I'm fighting its just not as fun. Nor is it ever as quick, obviously. Was trio-ing with my wife and friend last night, when we came across another party and merged them. Managed to get a full party of ~20ish dudes, we were taking out level 27-29 crabs getting 3-4 links at a time. some of them were giving over 600 exp a kill, although most them were around 350. Either way, I went from 16-20 trioing in about 2 hours of casual grinding, and then 20-23 in about an hour of the 8-man party. And the important part wasn't the speed (I didn't notice my level till it was over) it was just more fun. Trying to a heal a group of people who are fighting mobs 4-9 levels higher than them at that level was "exciting."

[kensredemption]

This might be too late for you to use, but I made a chart with all the prerequisites for ranking up/chocobos:

http://static2.finalfantasyxiv.com/a...NfewQOodmw.png

Basically you have to do all quests that don't involve a dungeon at all the companies.

I know I'm going off in a tangent here, but was there supposed to be some sort of pop culture reference with the titles of two of those quests? xD Namely "Know Your Enemy" and "Appetite For Destruction".

[kensredemption]

Yeah, you miss out on the chains, and the slightly higher base exp. The upside is that you never rest or risk dieing, both of which will seriously reduce incoming exp. In addition, you might manage to get links occasionally too, (which if I had to choose, I'd choose linking over chaining) and on lancer using doomspike and skewer on lower level mobs can mean oneshotting 2-4 mobs at once.

Yeah...I guess I can just do that. I hit 31 the other night, so I guess I'll just either focus on the low-tier Antelopes or the mid-20 Ixals near Camp Tranquil. Better than what I'm doing at the moment, anyway.

[Estellios]

I know I'm going off in a tangent here, but was there supposed to be some sort of pop culture reference with the titles of two of those quests? xD Namely "Know Your Enemy" and "Appetite For Destruction".

Yeah, there's a lot of pop culture references/puns/jokes in the quest names and in dialogue =)

[Teth]

Bit late to this but soloing a single class all the way up is really not efficient and might be were allot of your difficulty comes from.

MRD is really helped out with a few abilities from Pugilist and conjuror for example. Leveling them both to 10 should only take you a couple of hours and the difference cure, stoneskin, and second wind or whatever the pugilist self heal is called will make a massive difference. If you keep going for protect and shell it's even better.

[kensredemption]

Bit late to this but soloing a single class all the way up is really not efficient and might be were allot of your difficulty comes from.

MRD is really helped out with a few abilities from Pugilist and conjuror for example. Leveling them both to 10 should only take you a couple of hours and the difference cure, stoneskin, and second wind or whatever the pugilist self heal is called will make a massive difference. If you keep going for protect and shell it's even better.

Thanks for this. I'll definitely look into it.