Leveling up makes me want to quit.

[Voltyblast]

The real strategy to power level with FATEs and dungeons as a DPS is that you find a zone with FATEs at your level, populated or not (you still get decent EXP for most FATEs even when they fail as long as you get gold) then you queue for a dungeon and grind the FATEs while you wait on the queue.

You forgot that you can't get in groups while queueing, so you also have to choose: you want to gain LOTS more of exp within a group (enemies do give exp as well and getting a gold is basically lazy work, which is what we want), or queue for the dungeon and do nothing else (you can't even get your chocobo out while queueing: that's bad programming there).

And the part that it's not supposed to be fun because it's a grind...then what is this? A job? Games are supposed to be fun last I checked: in rpgs levelling is usually the fun part of the game, not the annoying part. Yes this is an MMOrpg but I never found levelling frustrating in OTHER MMOs because you always had different ways to level up ALONGSIDE grinding the usual (questing, dungeons, dailies, you name it).

In addition to that, I always loved levelling and getting new skills and stuff for my characters. In here you don't really get a whole lot to begin with: sometimes you gain a passive (hooray!) sometimes it's a skill (Yaaaay...finally) and now at 50, you can get some of the most useless/badly designed skills ever made (Tornado Kick, Sheltron and last but not least, Wanderer's Minuet/Gauss Barrel). Sure not all jobs get bad skills, but since I play monk as second main job It's really boring to level up with basically no real new skills.

So not only the levelling in this game is annoying and sometimes frustrating (always depending on the situation), but it's also not really rewarding: It's long and tedious and you still get FAR more experience from fates regardless of which dungeon you get in: in the Churming Mists a fate can give more or less 40k exp (Azys Ila give more, but it's deserted and I don't see people grinding there at all). A dungeon (WITHOUT ROULETTE) can only give 100k or 200k at best and in the span of 30-40 minutes of run. Fates only take 2 minutes max and gives half of that amount, and more if you do a boss fate PLUS the armory boost.

FATEs still win. Sadly.

[Malzian]

You forgot that you can't get in groups while queueing, so you also have to choose: you want to gain LOTS more of exp within a group (enemies do give exp as well and getting a gold is basically lazy work, which is what we want), or queue for the dungeon and do nothing else (you can't even get your chocobo out while queueing: that's bad programming there).

And the part that it's not fun...then what is this? A job? Games are supposed to be fun: in rpgs levelling is usually the fun part of the game, not the annoying part. Yes this is an MMOrpg but I never found levelling frustrating in OTHER MMOs because you always had different ways to level up ALONGSIDE grinding the usual (questing, dungeons, dailies, you name it).

In addition to that, I always loved levelling and getting new skills and stuff for my characters. In here you don't really get a whole lot to begin with: sometimes you gain a passive (hooray!) sometimes it's a skill (Yaaaay...finally) and now at 50, you can get some of the most useless/badly designed skills ever made (Tornado Kick, Sheltron and last but not least, Wanderer's Minuet/Gauss Barrel). Sure not all jobs get bad skills, but since I play monk as second main job It's really boring to level up with basically no real new skills.

So not only the levelling in this game is annoying and sometimes frustrating (always depending on the situation), but it's also not really rewarding: It's long and tedious and you still get FAR more experience from fates regardless of which dungeon you get in: in the Churming Mists a fate can give more or less 40k exp (Azys Ila give more, but it's deserted and I don't see people grinding there at all). A dungeon (WITHOUT ROULETTE) can only give 100k or 200k at best and in the span of 30-40 minutes of run. Fates only take 2 minutes max and gives half of that amount, and more if you do a boss fate PLUS the armory boost.

FATEs still win. Sadly.

No, I didn't forget that point, believe me that I well know and understand how the systems work. If you can find a FATE group in an area grinding them out to get your 'lazy' gold (and believe me, I find your choice of calling it lazy and saying that's what is desired a rather telling statement in itself), then you really don't need to queue for dungeons since that would be a waste of time.

However, if you're stuck in a zone where there are no people you're not going to get those 'lazy' golds, and I don't personally see any FATE on-level taking '2 minutes max', then you're best bet is to queue while you FATE. A dungeon will net you a decent amount of EXP, and at this point unless you end up with a totally new group, there's no reason a dungeon should take 30-40 min. Most of my dungeon runs clock in at around 20 min given that no major issues come up, plus you also can get gear out of it.

The fact is that mostly you only see people grinding FATEs in Northern Thanalan and the Hinterlands anymore, and has been that way for a while, and mostly because it's really not worth it anywhere else. If the rest of the community isn't doing something as a means to level, then there's probably a reason they're not doing it and that should be a sign to you.

Now you may think I'm crazy, and want to dispute all of this, but allow me to point out that at the current moment I am 3 battle classes off of fully capping them to 60. I should think that at that point I really should know what does and does not work logistically for leveling. Add on that I am and always have been a solo player, and I might dare well to think that I can speak from a certain point of expertise on the matter of solo leveling strategies and their efficacy.

Lastly, as far as leveling not being 'rewarding', that ultimately depends on what you consider a reward, and the fact that you find a class boring may not be because leveling it is bad but rather just the fact that that particular class/job might not be for you. I personally level them all, but I only play a select few, because I more enjoy how one handles versus the others (I don't care for casters, really, though I actually like BRD). This is more a personal thing then a systematic thing and all it really means is that you need to decide whether or not that class is rewarding to you overall.