What's the fastest way to level?

[baopee]

Before 2.1, I grind fates for my 2 sub jobs, after 2.1, I refuse to grind fates. If i remember correctly, in dungeons, each mob kill would give you 1.5 - 2k exp, plus the boss and completion exp bonus.

[Darlan_Ashwood]

What I did was the main story quest until lvl 35+, then fates to about 44. Then grinded Stone vigil from 44 to 50.

[AlrikRouge]

"FATE grinding" is a pretty fast way of getting it done, especially when you are in an area that have groups already making it happen. FATE pops, more often than not 2 - 5 minutes later you could score 2k - 15k experience depending on your level. Sometimes even more.

However, when it comes time to doing higher level dungeons for story line, getting your relic, earning myth and phil scrolls, higher level dungeons will be really difficult to run through if you are not already experienced with dungeon and pull mechanics for your class. Not to mention Titan (hard mode). I had only been a tank and hated the idea of FATE running, so did dungeons the whole time. You learn the particulars for your class, and it can be fun. Not learning them, dungeons can be a pain in the a**, frustrating and dreaded. Not to mention for the party.

Interspersing FATE grinding (with a lot of dungeon runs like baopee and Darlan_Ashwood above mentioned) would be best, as it gets you prepared for your higher level class when you get there, and the FATEs just makes it faster. But standing there in a FATE doing one thing over and over won't prepare you for dungeons later on, where you will have to truly know your class to get the most out of it. Like I am finding out with my WHM...

[juniglee]

snip

FATE grinding has gotten a lot slower with the new 2.1 scaling difficulty changes. It takes about 7 minutes for a Quarrymill FATE to finish now, compared to 1 minute in 2.0.

WHM isn't very hard to play, if you have played with other WHM at a higher level, you can kind of pick up what they do, and just emulate them. For example, using Cure 1 as your bread and butter, Cure 2 when you have Freecure/need a little more oomph, Cure 3 when people are stacked together/have Overcure. For every group of trash mobs with 3 or more mobs in dungeons, I go in and use Holy 3 times. Stuff like that. This applies to all classes too - friends should be there to help you out with rotation problems!

[UlricCraft]

1-51: Class Quests & Hunting Logs. (Kill things and do FATEs for missing exp in-between levels)
^Can be done in < 4hours (1 gaming session)

15-50:
The slow time...
#1 Queue up for Party Finder of Duty Finder and run dungeons. The best you can!
#2 Run FATEs while waiting for dungeons and parties.
#3 Hunting logs wherever possible
#4 Class quests
^In order of importance and experience p/hour

Some people will recommend leves.
Yes, they are fast, but if you're a serious gamer interested in ALL aspects of the game.
Save them for crafting.

FOR YOUR FIRST JOB, JUST RUN STORY QUESTS AND OCCASIONAL FATES FOR MISSING LEVELS. Experience the story and get carried to 50!

[OSUBuckeye4]

1-15:
Run your storyline quests and participate in occasional FATE's along the way. It's kind of boring, but you can get through it pretty quickly.

Regarding FATES: don't be afraid to pull out if the FATE is scaled all out of wack. There's no reason to spend 7-8 minutes on a FATE that is going to give you 2k exp... when you can spend 45 seconds running to the next town and pick up 5-6 quests that you can complete in 7 minutes that are going to give you 10-20k exp and gil/items.


16-50:
1) Every day, run your duty roulette. First thing you do, run those duty roulette's. That's your biggest bang for your buck.
2) Quests (storyline and sidequests), focusing on your hunting log in each area along the way
3) Dungeons
4) FATE's (I like to knock off easy FATE's en route to/from storyline quest objectives)


Regarding questing... pick up EVERY quest from an area, and knock them all off before returning back to the settlement. Many times, you'll get additional quests that will send you right back out into the world. It's better to knock 3-4 of these off at a time, as opposed to running back/forth over and over turning in individual quests.

[PSxpert2011]

Stay up-to-date with your Class-quest then your main-scenario quests.
2- You can spam leves of the appropriate level or group up to do harder ones. (srsly, I personaly want leve for full-party initiatives).
3- Local quest(any region)
4- Spam guildhest (stay up-to-date for appropriate level)

[it3fergie]

As a DPS i say Que for Randoms and do Leve's...also stay up to date with Class Quest, Hunting logs, and your Main Story Line (if you want to do it or haven't already done it on a previous Job).

[Terin]

The only problem I have with Side-quests, is I've found I get over-leveled for a zone, and I'm still doing quests there when sometimes it might be better to move on. Any tips on picking out when the best time to just leave an area is?

[Bixby]

The only problem I have with Side-quests, is I've found I get over-leveled for a zone, and I'm still doing quests there when sometimes it might be better to move on. Any tips on picking out when the best time to just leave an area is?

Whenever your story quests send you onward. If you've outleveled the side quests, you don't need them on your current class, and you can use them on future classes.