The terms "powerleveling" and "grinding" are somewhat emotionally loaded terms ... usually with a somewhat negative connotation. Arguments using those terms are bound to get heated, and also to miss the crux of the problem. That problem is the speed at which players can level in FFXIV.

The question that we as a community (along with the Development Team) needs to answer is, "How fast should any given player achieve any particular level?"

Should the speed be an absolute rate, no matter the circumstances (e.g. PL, grind party, solo, questing, easy mobs, hard mobs), or should the speed depend on the circumstances in which the player earns the level?

The answer to that question then allows us to intelligently, without emotion, determine the possible rates of leveling that we want.

For example, if we as a community decide that an absolute rate is best, we could ask the Development Team to have us ONLY earn xp based on how long a player's character is online. 1 second = 1 xp. Now this is an extreme example of an absolute rate, and I'm not in favor of this, but it illustrates the point well.

If we as a community prefer circumstances-based leveling speeds, we need to ask ourselves what circumstances should give a fastest rate of leveling, and which circumstances should give the slowest rate of leveling. We would also need to determine the leveling speed limit. What is the maximum number of levels we feel as a community any player in any circumstance should gain in 2 hours?

Producer/Director Yoshida has given us, the FFXIV community, a seat at the development table. He has demonstrated that if we voice our ideas and concerns loudly and coherently, they get addressed (e.g. zones, Ifrit drop rates, jumping). So I ask that we consider what we actually want, and state it as empirically as possible.