Leveling Alt Jobs

[Frizze]

If you only have a few mins most days, soloing some fates with your chocobo will often be among your best options. And id definitely look into the squadron and their dungeons too. You have to deal with spotty AI at times, but theres no wait even as DPS and you might get a good rhythm with your team. If you havent unlocked squadrons yet, get your GC rank as high as you can and you will eventually be offered the quest for it.

[Squintina]

For people who dislike potd,this is what I use for maximum fun (not necessarily efficiency):

My definition of "fun" is not doing exactly the same thing over and over again, so I use a method that relies on variety. It actually goes pretty fast (I was leveling a lot until just recently where work and forum-addiction have been cutting into my ff14 time )

It goes:

Do I feel like ->

Roulettes first
* Doing Leveling Roulette?
* Doing alliance Roulette?
* Doing trial roulette?
* Doing MSQ roulette?
* Doing guidlhest roulette if I am < 30 and a DPS, or < 50 and a healer/tank? (there's a reason for this choice, I swear, it'll be below)
* 50/60 roulette
Yeah I'm placing that last in the roulette list. Exp-wise, this roulette kind of sucks for the amount of time and the frustration with pugs. I almost always skip. I'd much rather take the chill cutscenes of MSQ roulette than the frustration of the random skill gap that can happen here.

For all of the roulettes the following applies:
- If you have a long queue, try to do any of the methods below (that aren't instanced and that you know you can get out of battle within 45 seconds) while waiting


Command
* Doing a command mission if I am < 50?
super chill, can take a break whenever I feel like (as long as I don't take longer than 10 mins as there is a timeout) and no one will complain because it's AI.
Plus there's an exp bonus directly in the mob exp (gives more base mob exp than if you queued for the same dungeon directly via DF. So any multipliers you have also affect this - sweeeeet. I almost didn't notice this until someone pointed out completely different numbers even though we had the same % being added).

POTD
* Doing POTD
I typically don't because I hate POTD with a passion, but I keep it on the list just in case I happen to be in the mood for 1-2 runs.

Beast tribes and hunting bills
* Doing SB beast tribes if I am 60-69 (especially 60-65)
* Doing SB hunting bills If I am 60-69 (especially 60-65) http://www.ffxivhuntspath.com/sb/
* Doing HW beast tribes if I am 50-59 (especiall 50-55)
* Doing HW hunting bills if I am 50-59 (especiall 50-55) http://www.ffxivhuntspath.com/hw/
* ARR beast tribes aren't worth it for leveling, skip. ARR hunting bills give no exp, skip.
* Hunting log (only available for ARR jobs and for < 50)
While the numbers might look more impressive when doing it at-level, it's not necessarily more efficient.
Just do them all in one go when you're 50 and have upgraded your gear to ilvl 100+.

Leves
* Doing some leves if I'm < 50
Leves can still be a somewhat efficient method of leveling if you know your leve plates (I cannot stress that enough)
https://ffxiv.gamercorner.net/ffxiv/leve-styles/
Hover on the plate name in the link above to see what its plate looks like. Every leve you take has a plate and you can see it when you go to the NPC.
So don't take bad plates.

You want to avoid leves that are:
- Sympathy (escort mission)
- Resolve (pacifying targets)
- Promptitude (defeat an amount of targets in a fixed time) - only avoid if you want efficiency. It can still be alright if you just want something chill

If you're doing a leve for finding a specific mob using an item, you don't actually have to use the item. Just if you attack the wrong mob, it's an extra mob to kill.

The BEST time to use leve leveling is for 45-49. There are so many in one condensed area that a person can easily take all of them and just have a spree of doing 10 leves in about 15-20 mins and get half a level or more.

Challenge Log
There is an efficient way to make use of the challenge log if you are leveling multiple jobs.
All the way up until level 60, challenge logs that give experience do so on a % basis.
So a level 15 and a level 50 get different amounts, but they're the same % of their bar.
This means that it's best to complete it on whatever your highest <60.

So for example, there's the leve challenge log.
I'll do the leves on my level 30-50
But when I go to the NPC to hand in my leves, I'll switch to a 50-59 if I have one. That 50-59 gets a free easy %.

The challenge log is why you might also want to do guildhests roulette because if you do it 2x a day until you finish your log, that's a lot of easy fast experience, and it's faster on tanks/healer so they're the best ones to make use of this log to make it efficient. If you want to give the guildhest challenge log exp to a dps, the best way to do that is to do most of your guildhest roulettes on tank/heal, and then switch to dps when you're 1 guildhests away from completing one of its logs. If you're not planning on using the switching method for dps, then it's only recommended until level 30 because the added queue time isn't worth the log exp.

Similarly when I want to do the fate challenge log, I usually do them in 5 low level areas, 2 fates each, on my highest < 60 because it's super fast exp.

For reference the challenge logs for battle exp are:
* Dungeon
* Fates
* Leves
* Commendation

Fates
Fates can still be ok exp.
For < 10, fates are probably the best way to level outside of potd, especially if you have a good (10+) chocobo.

It's good for completing the challenge log (use low level fates to get it over with if you don't feel like really doing fates)

It's good for 50+ if you can find an area where at least 2 other people are doing fates. Even if you're not in their party, follow them around. SKIP fates that have bosses.

For < 50 and > 10 you're probably better off doing leves (as long as you use good plates) if you can't find other people to do fates with you (like if the area is deserted), but it's still an option if you're in the mood to do some fates.

PVP
Hey it gives exp win or lose.
Just don't be one of those people who AFK to get the easy exp. Actually try, k? It's ok to not be good at pvp, it's not ok to not try at all.
Besides, if your team loses you get half the exp. Why settle for half when you can try to win the whole thing?

How I keep it fun
I start from the top and just keep going down the list until I find something I feel like actually doing.
So maybe on day 1 I'll do a leveling roulete, and a command mission, then skip straight to my challenge log fates.
And on day 2 maybe I won't do any roulettes, I'll just do some beast tribes and hunting bills.

This method, of knowing all the available things that reward exp and which ones have tricks (like taking advantage of the challenge log % exp and knowing leve plates) is also a good way of leveling multiple jobs over time. This is how I leveled my BLM, AST, and WHM to 70, RDM to 62, SAM to 58, MCH to 46, and the rest of the jobs to 37. By having them spread a bit, it gives me more choices on what content can be used for them.

Using this method is also how I work on my achievements. Those leves/fates/pvp matches aren't gonna get themselves done, and if I want those achievements, I might as well do them while there's the added benefit of getting exp. I don't know if you care about achievement gathering, but if you do, that's a reason to diversify.

Other things that give exp if you just want exp and not efficiency, just for fun
* Side quests, but most of them give so little exp for the time spent that they're even less efficient than soloing level-appropriate fates.
* Discover all your map area: yeah, that gives exp
* Do your HW and SB sightseeing log: yeah, that gives exp too. ARR sightseeing log does NOT give exp.

[Rokal]

Thank you all so much for taking time to answer me.

Especially Squintina... superb write up and help.

If this is the biggest problem in my life... then I'm doing pretty well

[savageink]

you could try some battlegrounds and get some fancy garo armor and mounts in the meantime.

[SarenyiaSarenyia]

The problem, for me, with DPS queues isn't the wait in and of itself... it's that I only have about 30 min to play on weekdays, so I have to wait for weekend mornings... I play 8am - 11am. Most people are still drooling on their pillows at that time on a Sat or Sun, LOL.

I do think finding a good PATIENT FC will help a lot. Going to start looking after having another week under my belt. I just want to get a bit more acclimated to the game, UI, and controller use first before burdening an FC with my stumbling about

Thanks again all... it'll work out I'm sure.

What I would do is ask in Novice network or make a party finder group looking for a tank or healer buddy to que with. Also that those tank/healer horror threads with salt because those are only like 1% of their dungeons. A good fc makes the difference, in my old fc id hop on my tank and just que with new players all day to help them.

[Zidaryn]

My issue with dungeons/grouping is this:
Due to Dbag players spewing vitriol on healers/tanks when a death/wipe is the DPS’ fault, is killing me.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. I've rarely had issues with people being mean in pugs. And I've maned WHM, with some dabbling in other jobs. I've had a few experiences. Some were when I didn't know how to use some of my abilities when I did some tanking. And the other time was WAY long time ago. But most of the time, if I make a mistake, I say "sorry, my bad" or "oops, I made a wrong turn there" or l let them know I'm new to a dungeon. And for the most part people have been great. Lol, some of the times when the tank doesn't know what he's doing have made for some pretty fun times. (embarassing when it's me, fun and hilarious when I'm healing/dps the lol tank.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is... I hope you find more good pug groups and have fun.

[GeorgiaB]

Pardon me, but i see PoTD meantioned so much but i have no idea what that means. Can someone tell me?

[K1tt]

Palace of the dead, the starter quest for it is from a lalla near mother miounne in gridania (after 4 years I still forget its name). Its a randomly generated dungeon system for up to four players, you complete floors (10 in total at each stage) and get a big chunk of exp at the end. Most people rerun floors 51-60 on repeat to maximise their time. Its great to get exp for alt jobs especially at levels 50 to 60.

I believe Squadrons are great for 1-50, Potd is good for 50-60 and soon heaven on high (the new expansions potd equivalent) will likely be good for 60-70.

[Araminta]

To level my alt jobs I do their hunting log. I also add into the mix when they are of level, Roulettes, Beast Tribes, GC Hunt board. If I need more exp my level of dungeon and leves.

Hope that this helps and good luck with the leveling