Just did a couple Leves on my Botanist at level 36. Each and every single one of them gives 20k experience, plus minor bonuses (Max of 23k exp.) Depending on the type of Leve (whether it's the accumulate points one, or the gather X of this item one) you'll get anywhere from 23k to 36k exp per leve. That's assuming you have gear good enough to allow you to get enough points while you're gathering the unique items. DoH leves you can buy and turn in, so that makes them even easier. You don't have to actually make anything (past level 5) to level a DoH class, but for DoL you're forced to somewhat keep your gear up to snuff so you at least have a chance of being able to gather the items.

Compare that to the Disciple of the Hand leves.. using Carpenter as a random example, the level 35 leves give anywhere from 18k to 61k exp BEFORE the HQ bonus. Factoring in the HQ bonus means anywhere from 36k to over 120k exp per leve. No HQ bonus could mean you'd still get 18k exp, which admittedly is less than the 20k from Gathering leves.. but the main difference is that you can very easily pick and choose the non-crappy (low exp) DoH leves, while for DoL there aren't nearly as many. Go to the Observatorium and you get 2 leves offered to you at one time. Compare that to the Observatorium for DoH and you can have a choice of 3, or go to whatever-main-city-hub-your-profession-is-from and you'll have the same 2 vs 3 choice for Leves. You're almost forced to do the crappy Leves and hope that better ones appear when you turn one of the 2 in.

How is that in ANY way balanced when compared to DoL leves? I know that all Leves were looked at in 2.1 and given a boost with some new ones added in, but I think they need another balancing pass.

This post was made with Mining/Botany being the "DoL" that I was talking about. Fishing leves appear to be fine/better, and that's largely due to the fact that you can buy the items for the Fishing leves and turn them in, AND they follow roughly the same experience curve as DoH leves. The level ~35 fishing leves give 19k-26k exp. Before HQ bonus.. so 38k-52k for HQ. Still higher than Mining/Botany. Those leves don't force you to go collect unique Fish that are ONLY part of those Leves, meaning they can only be gathered while that Leve is active.. you can stockpile the fish, or buy them beforehand, and turn them in.

Mining/Botany doesn't get that luxury, they have unique items you have to gather during that Leve. Maybe add new Mining/Botany leves, which allow you to turn in items you can normally gather from those classes, in addition to having the "go out and get these unique items" ones to give players a choice?

My apologies if this isn't the right forum to request something like this, or get other players' thoughts on it. I couldn't see anywhere else that fit better :\