Expansion Jumpstart Guide

[StouterTaru]

There are several little things you can do to get a head start with the expansion:

• Leves - Accept 16 different leves. This lets you get beyond the limit of 100. Complete up to turn in for DoW/DoM, and don't forget GC leves.
• Beast tribe quests - Accept six before the servers go down and complete them up to turn in. Turn them in at patch and get 6 more before the daily reset.
• Challenge Log - Don't complete anything that gives exp before early access. Complete 2 roulettes and 2 additional dungeons, giving out commendations on all, then do a roulette during early access, give that 5th commendation, and boom 35% of a level exp. Likewise do 9 FATEs in 4 different zones, and first FATE in new zone gives a bonus 30% of level.

Feel free to add any more tips.

[aerialrave]

There's been no mention of anything, but how do you know the Weekly stuff will remain intact throughout maintenance?
It's possible that when the servers come up it will be counted as a weekly reset, and maybe we'll have 2-shortened half weeks.
Personally I'm going to cap Poetics before maintenance just to be sure.
It's possible things like the Challenge Log progress will be lost during maintenance.

[Duuude007]

There's been no mention of anything, but how do you know the Weekly stuff will remain intact throughout maintenance?.

Because since an accidental reset at the launch of ARR, such a thing has never happened again.

And they have left many opportunities to do stuff after patch 'but' before reset.

[StouterTaru]

There's been no mention of a mid-week reset, and I'd rather not risk losing out on a combined 1.6 levels on jobs that are capped at 50. Poetics will almost certainly be uncapped at early access, so it's just busy work to cap them in advance.

[Espritduo]

I'd suggest maxing out your GC and Allied Seals as well. I can't remember if they said we'd be getting new GC ranks or not, but if we do, it's gonna costs seals, and it'd be nice to just fork em over as soon as you log in day one of 3.0.

[Ultimatecalibur]

I feel bad pointing this out, but nothing you are suggesting will really be very much of a "jumpstart" save getting 16 level 30 leves for your choice of Dark Knight/Astrologian/Mechanist and not completing the Challenge log.

Frontloading the Challenge log will actually decrease the amount of XP you get from completing challenges. As the XP granted by the Challenge Log scales based on level, completing it at level 50 will give you less than completing them at level 51 or 52.

Leve quests grant far worse XP rewards if you over level them. The current highest level leve quests (those at Saint Coinach's Find) are level 49 max.

[StouterTaru]

Frontloading the Challenge log will actually decrease the amount of XP you get from completing challenges. As the XP granted by the Challenge Log scales based on level, completing it at level 50 will give you less than completing them at level 51 or 52.

Leve quests grant far worse XP rewards if you over level them. The current highest level leve quests (those at Saint Coinach's Find) are level 49 max.

Frontloading or not, completing the challenge log before EA gives zero bonus. 10% of 51 vs 10% of 52 is a small difference, and having that extra level gives more exp for new dungeon mobs, FATEs, etc. Holding off for a higher level is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I currently have 16 DoH leves set up with the stuff already made, along with the mats for 8 more at St Coin. Those 24 combined will get me roughly 480k exp on all 8 DoH jobs. 16 free leves > 0 free leves, regardless of how much exp they give.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Frontloading or not, completing the challenge log before EA gives zero bonus. 10% of 51 vs 10% of 52 is a small difference, and having that extra level gives more exp for new dungeon mobs, FATEs, etc. Holding off for a higher level is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I wasn't advising against leaving the Challenge Log challenges unfinished before the 19th, I was advising against leaving them nearly complete and then using a roulette to finish them off.

You've got your gains backwards, holding off on the percentage based rewards will mean a faster trip to 60 not slower as much of the initial Combat Class XP will come from completing the new Main Story quests.

I currently have 16 DoH leves set up with the stuff already made, along with the mats for 8 more at St Coin. Those 24 combined will get me roughly 480k exp on all 8 DoH jobs. 16 free leves > 0 free leves, regardless of how much exp they give.

The 16 leves that you have already prepped? They will give you a slight jumpstart on leveling the DoH classes, but it is likely to be far less than the 480k you are expecting as the "easy job" penalty kicks in.
Those 8 Leves that you've already prepped Mats for? Those 8 will likely be giving 4 times as much XP/Gil/Seals if spent on level 50 Ishguard leves instead of level 45 St. Coin leves.

The best gains from prepping will likely be from prepping 16 level 30 to level 45 Combat leves if you want to get the 3 new class to 60 asap.

[StouterTaru]

You've got your gains backwards, holding off on the percentage based rewards will mean a faster trip to 60 not slower as much of the initial Combat Class XP will come from completing the new Main Story quests.

For the main story quests, yes.

For enemies, FATEs, and dungeons, no. The amount of exp you get from them increases with your level until they are the same level as you, then starts going down after a few levels. That plus higher level = hitting harder = dungeon ends faster.

The 16 leves that you have already prepped? They will give you a slight jumpstart on leveling the DoH classes, but it is likely to be far less than the 480k you are expecting as the "easy job" penalty kicks in.
Those 8 Leves that you've already prepped Mats for? Those 8 will likely be giving 4 times as much XP/Gil/Seals if spent on level 50 Ishguard leves instead of level 45 St. Coin leves.

DoH leves don't change exp reward based on your level, they are listed as ~100k and ~70k, with repeats for the ~70k ones (because they are the ones in St Coin). Double that for HQ items, ~480k per DoH class. The Ishgard leves will likely only give about 25-30% more exp, based on scaling so far.

The triple turn-ins would be more, as will the new Ishgard leves, but I'm planning on doing other things at the start of EA. I work on Friday, so I'll have enough time to hop online in the morning and turn in my leves, refresh my beastman quests, and do GC supply/provision. By the time I get home I'll be up to 95 leve allowances, a couple hours away from 98.