Am I doing everything right?

[Avenger]

Oh yeah and your chocobo is your best friend. He can take a lot of heat off of you, especially in defender mode. Or he can attack or heal or do whatever he wants to do.

Parties are also good - especially with people on your server.

One thing I have hardly ever done is guildleve parties, but they are also a possibility.

don't be discouraged by people who tell you to skip cutscenes either - they will in df and it is lame but hopefully you can find some good people who won't try to bully you that way and your experience will be much better since you can experience the story in context.

[Estellios]

Something that might help with leves is that each different type of leve objective ("Kill all enemies", "Find the Necrologos pages", "Prevent the dude from escaping and calling reinforcements", etc) has specific artwork for its leve plate so if you hate leves because of one objective type, you can just take note of what the plate artwork is so you can avoid those leves in the future. For example, I hate the escort leves so I just avoid any leves with that artwork.

ExiledOne mentioned the main story gap... there is a point in the main story where you complete a level 46 quest and the next one requires you to be level 49 that a lot of people seem to get stuck on. I believe the quest in question is "Black Wolf's Ultimatum". Most people seem to miss it but there is a series of side quests that start in a side room in the Waking Sands once you hit the story gap that takes you to three different mid-40s areas. On top of that, you can unlock beastmen daily quests at all 3 grand companies, although keep in mind you have a shared daily quest allowance and the Ixal quests are crafters-only.

[Avenger]

Beast tribe quests! Some people find them tedious but I enjoyed them quite a bit. It seemed like there were a lot of quests between level 40 and 50, so I had use multiple jobs to avoid wasting xp! Finishing hunting log and GC log also added quite a bit of xp. And try to do every fate at least once - they are also fun. And treasure maps. And hunts even at some point. If you can make friends to avoid df, dungeons give a lot of xp.

BLM is awesome though you have to not mind being flattened occasionally - it is the price of ultimate power!

Other jobs can be a nice break too - they are fun and they have cool stories for the class and job quests. BLM is a good one though, and it's also Yoshi-P's favorite job!!

[wicked-one]

BLM is just as fine as everything else, i remember me struggling too, mainly because I didn´t read ^^

For Example, I really had hard times in the Mission in East Thanalan where you are supposed to sleep the Enemys, rather than kill them.
-- MainStory upto 50 is quite a tutorial, pay attention to everything they tell you.

The big Gargoyle with the Mage was also heavy stuff for me, back in Beta times. I tought, how the hell... then the Char was wiped and I started over, and when I came there second time, it was way easier
-- Gear is much more Weight than the Level, when you are stuck somewhere, try to get better gear to finish Monsters faster and stop being squishy ^^

HTH

[Chukkaque]

Answering only the original post:

First off I want to welcome you to the world of Eorzea! This place is amazing and wonderful, but I can be overwhelming. So I'm going to provide a couple tips and minor feed back, as well as my opinion.

I'm actually surprised to hear a newer player mention they're struggling to level up! When 2.0 first launched, myself and many others, leveled up just fine until about late 30's early 40's when you really had to FATE grind in Coerthas and run dungeons. So I am bit surprised by this!

Tips for leveling are take any side quests you find, continue plowing through main story, use the daily DF due to the fact they give you EXP and gil bonuses (when below 50). Dungeons now give a lot of EXP especially if you're the same level as the dungeon. They often give 1,000 EXP per kill if youre right at the same level of the dungeon down to about 700 IIRC. So you can easily gain a level from those. Running FATEs and Grand Company Leve's and Leve's is also a good way to get EXP, Bonus EXP, gil, and items. Also don't forget your Hunter's Log. You get reward EXP for just killing certain enemies, so its we'll worth doing if you're not 50 yet.

If you're over level 30 and playing solo its a good idea to go do the Chocobo Campion questline in Central Girdania. This will allow you to summon your bird and start leveling it as a healer, dps, or tank(kind of).

When you log out for the day make sure its in outpost, inn, or your Free Company House. You'll get rested EXP and when you achieve maximum rest you get bonus EXP for battles for up to 2 levels! make sure to eat food, as this gives you an additional 3% bonus and if youre part of a FC see if they'll activate "Heat of Battle" which gives 5%, and if you're FC is rank 8 HoB2 offers 10%.

So there is a lot of ways to get extra EXP. Also when you start leveling a different job you'll automatically be taking advantage of the Armory System which constantly gives you an EXP bonus based on the level difference between your current job and your highest job.

For the groups of enemies you're running into just sleep the enemies and solo fight targets. You should also consider using Freeze which causes 8 seconds of Bind IIRC giving you ample time to start sleeping foes, or to flee from combat, or use an emergency X-Ether, or really any MP potion but its a bad idea to rely on this method since potions should be SOS items only due to the cool down.

Hope you find this helpful!

[Averax]

I have now hit the 46 gap (daily duty is already done). What should i do now, where do i start. People mentioned sidequests, where are they?

Edit: Okay, so i googled it, and it said just to run Aurum Vale and Dzemael Darkhold a few times.

[Belhi]

I have now hit the 46 gap (daily duty is already done). What should i do now, where do i start. People mentioned sidequests, where are they?

Things to do:

- Check the side room at the Waking Sands. There are three characters who will give a breedcrumb quest. One quest is at 46, one at 47 and one at 48. Each quest starts a quest chain.

- Your now high enough lvl to unlock all the Beast tribe dailies. These are available main city Grand Company bases usually.

- FATEs in Northern Thanalan and Mor Dhona will give quite a lot of EXP.

- Leves in Mor Dhona can net you 15k exp each.

- High lvl dungeons will give you a fair amount of exp.

- Keep an eye on your map when you zone into places as quests available will show up on the map. A lot of unlocks need you to pick up breadcrumb quests. While most are at 50 its worth keeping your eyes out for ones like the treasure hunting unlock which I believe is in Wineport if you haven't gotten it. Not a heap of Exp but if your up that way the treasure hunting can be a rewarding diversion.

- Now is also a good time to finish off your Hunting Log as finishing it will net you a ilvl 55 ring at 50 and a pretty decent chunk of exp.

[Averax]

Okay, i'm about 25% away from being 49, and i hear from there it's smooth sailing. I'm going to log in and get my daily roulette done, then resume the main story.

So thanks everyone. All of your advice helped me a bunch. All the way from level 30ish to 50.

I do have one final question. Is the main story (once i hit 50), at any point, going to require me to raid? I'm not ready for that commitment just yet.

[Belhi]

Okay, i'm about 25% away from being 49, and i hear from there it's smooth sailing. I'm going to log in and get my daily roulette done, then resume the main story.

So thanks everyone. All of your advice helped me a bunch. All the way from level 30ish to 50.

I do have one final question. Is the main story (once i hit 50), at any point, going to require me to raid? I'm not ready for that commitment just yet.

No.

The main scenario will expect you to do dungeons and trials and some of the content will be eight man but all is very pugable and accessible through the duty finder and none of it takes more than about half an hour to run.

Having said that the Crystal Tower raids are actually very easy, particularly now and a good way to get gear. Again most people pug them since they are 24 man raids and they usually don't take more than 30 to 40 mins to run. There is a attunement quest but its pretty easy. 24 man raids do work a little different to how raids in most other games do as players are actually organised into 3 8 man parties but its pretty intuitive.

The main thing you want for fights at end game is just knowing the mechanics. In some cases they are so minor they can be ignored or you can be carried but others can one shot. My advice is to use an online video guide so you at least know what to expect. Even then you will often find the fight a lot easier than it actually looks in the guides. Two I use are:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Xehanort1227/featured

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5B...Nvds5sgE-JI6KA

The Main Scenario continues after you hit 50 and finish the 2.0 quests. You'll find a lot open up at 50. If you enjoy the story there is a lot more of it to come.