New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Victor]

So, if I understand correctly, what we can expect in 1.18 is a reduction in SP from leve linking so that our #1 means of ranking up in the game is potentially severely lessened? Didn't they just state somewhere they wanted to keep leveling the same difficulty as it is now...? Unless there's a replacement in the patch, how can this be good for the short-term?

[Biggs]

So, if I understand correctly, what we can expect in 1.18 is a reduction in SP from leve linking so that our #1 means of ranking up in the game is potentially severely lessened? Didn't they just state somewhere they wanted to keep leveling the same difficulty as it is now...? Unless there's a replacement in the patch, how can this be good for the short-term?

I would just go ahead and brace yourself for the fact that the time inbetween patch 1.18 and patch 1.19 is going to suck ass for combat job leveling. Giving us half a combat system in 1.18 and not finishing it until 1.19 (which i understand) means you should prob focus on crafting for a while lol.
They said they plan to impliment a better party search function soon, so it looks like the new way to party in groups for a while besides doing dungeons will be to make an old school Xi party and go roaming.