Power-leveling is absolutely BROKEN

[Synfrag]

Seriously, Issac it may only be your server or dense servers. Trabia has absolutely 0 shouts for PLs, I rarely see anyone doing it out in the open world. Occasionally a LS member may offer to PL people but other than that it's not at all present at least on Trabia. I say this pointing to the fact that the problem is actually derivative of the server's culture and playerbase. SE has allowed for an environment that offers the ability but they have also made the content unfriendly to those who do not know how to play the game. This counteracts the effect of PLing, and soon people on the PL side of the fence will realize they lost the opportunity to learn their role and now are unwelcome in endgame content.

Remember the golden rule of XIV which is fun for casuals and hardcore alike and Yoshida has stated this countless times. 1-50 for a casual player even including some short PL sessions is still probably 1-2 Months if they are completing content as they go, spending time crafting, gathering and questing. Once you hit 50 on one class the rest more or less come for necessity of content requirements or out of sheer boredom. I personally have no great urge to spend more time than I need to getting to another 50 just to support one tiny piece of content. It's pretty absurd to assert that masochistic view on everyone else simply because it's your not style.

In my experience exp is perfect now. Party's with competent players can get a lot of XP through large chain pulls and managing themselves well. Lesser skilled players still get decent rates which are not over the top. Personally I have never been powerleveled but I see no problem with other people doing it if they are in a hurry to get 50. It will be their loss if they miss out on stuff. If they don't learn their role, the natural FF fanbase will reject them anyhow

True, you may enjoy a slow leveling experience but does that mean everyone else must? Maybe you only get a couple hours a day to play and you like to spend it doing numerous things. The fact that other people can focus on one thing and that they use the aid of a PL should have no impact on you unless they are clearing a known camp and directly causing you grief. It isn't a game wide trend and there will still be plenty of players like us who like to do things the legit way. I think people quickly get the idea with things like DH and Ifrit that they can't just walk in a spank them, skill is required and skill is gained through practice.