The recent “All battle classes at level 50” trend – Plans to adjust the EXP received?

[Onizuka]

Hello, adventurers.

This is a long post on the high amount of Experience Points we can get, but not simply about that. If you miss one line, you won't understand my real point, so please read it only if you're interested in Adventure.

Every now and then I check other Eorzeans' profiles on The Lodestone and recently (well, since last year actually... It's been a while since I wanted to post this.) I've been noticing this trend to have all the battle classes at level 50.

I know personally many good adventurers with every Disciple of War and Magic at 50, so this is not a post to judge your play style nor time spent in Eorzea!
This is a Topic about a concern I've been having since I noticed this trend and after personally experiencing this super fast way of leveling up.

In another Topic, I talked about possible predictions on the “Legatus Battle” content of patch 1.23, thinking that they might raise the level cap by then.
And if you think about it, with the current system, how much time will it take you to go from level 50 to 55? A couple of days?

My point is simply that. Is it really enjoyable to reach the max level so fast?

Let me illustrate my last own personal Adventure, relating to what I believe will become an issue in the long run.

Yesterday I needed to obtain some materials for crafting, so I went on an Adventure in three different areas of Eorzea.
Before starting, I had Pugilist at level 47 with 17.271 EXP (looking at the data and time on my screenshots); I went to the Twelveswood and fought level 40-42 Wild Hogs for around 20 minutes, getting a few Boar Hides.



Then, I moved to the west in Coerthas and battled level 40-42 Brutal Sheeps for 45 minutes, getting 25 Karakul Fleeces.



Later that evening, I went to Camp Iron Lake and, after some relaxing gathering, I slayed for 40 minutes the level 40-42 Young Raptors near Oakwood, obtaining 25 Raptor Skins.



And my total EXP was... what it is now, 62.913 EXP. That's over 45.000 EXP in less than 2 hours... and without me actually wanting them.
In my opinion, 10.000 EXP would have been enough for this time spent of farming materials against monsters 5-7 levels below mine.

This is the reason why I had already stopped doing Regional Levequests and Behests with my Pugilist; if I'd do them, I'd be level 50 before wanting it, and I want to be a level 50 Disciple of the Hand first and do my final Pugilist levels as a Monk. That is my Choice of Adventure.
One of the last times I did a Behest in Camp Bald Knoll I got over 8.000 as EXP Bonus (neglected Behest), so of course I stopped doing them as a Pugilist. Look, it's over 8.000!



At the same time, I'm leveling up Conjurer and Thaumaturge, currently at 23, and I can say that it's not that fast to level them up. It's not slow, either. I think it's just fair. It'll be easier, however, after level 30 (also thanks to Company Leves) and even more after 40.


Don't misunderstand my post into something it isn't, though.
The “problem” doesn't really concern me, as I've the control to decide what leveling up and what not, so I can just stop leveling Pugilist like I did now and focus on something else until patch 1.21.
But thinking about new adventurers... Will this system really make them enjoy the Adventure of leveling up? A system where you can go from level 45 to 50, the final and theoretically hardest levels to achieve (the end EXP needed for Disciples of the Hand & Land is just fair, for instance), in a single day?

In my opinion, leveling up should be an Adventure. Visit different places, trying out different monsters, no matter if they yield less EXP, but at least you vary and you create memories worth to be remembered.
This is what I always did. I moved from areas to areas and battled different fiends, experienced different challenges. I may not have a single battle class at level 50 yet, but I surely enjoyed my leveling up! [Until they increased the EXP gain so much, that is.]

Yesterday – that same day I was farming materials – while I was in Treespeak, just before starting to fight hogs, I wanted to pay a visit to the glowing tree and there I stumbled across a group of defeated adventurers: I raised one and then they invited me to join them in battling the Notorious Monster Haughtpox Bloatbelly. I was the only level 47, but I could do my part and we defeated him right after his minions.





Probably something most of you already did many moons ago, but it was my first High-level Notorious Monster and, even if I wasn't at max level or with ultimate equipments, I Greatly enjoyed it nonetheless.

Just like when leveling up, before the huge increase in EXP that forced me to stop, with my pace and taking my time.
The last EXP party I had dates at the 1st of January: I accepted because it had passed some time since my last one, but when I reached Camp Broken Water I noticed the surprise of a Thaumaturge 4 (or was it 5?) levels above mine and in fact during the 5-stars levequest I couldn't do much with monsters being defeated incredibily quickly with AoE spells. When I said to the adventurer that invited me that “Maybe you're a bit too high for me...”, he answered: “The end reward is the same for everyone, though.”. This is when I smiled, replying: “You mean the EXP? I don't care about that, I'm interested in the challenge. ”, and I kindly left the party. What fun would have I had in that?

This is just an example of the type of adventurer that, unfortunately, craves only for reaching the max level as soon as possible, getting el suuuuper equip and that's it. If you're one of them, please don't be offended by this. I just don't understand how much “fun” there can be in participating in a party like the one I just mentioned and leveling up like this.

That said, I hope that when 2.0 is released this system will change, to allow new adventurers to enjoy their travel from level 1 to max, earning it rather than the couple of days it'd take now to go from 50 to 55: Yes, you'll be able to do almost immediately the new super endgame content, but after that...?

In the past, we remember there was a limit to the max Experience Points gained from a monster: even if it was 10 levels above yours, there was a set amount of EXP you could obtain. Now with EXP Chains you can easily get 1.000+ EXP from a single monster.
I'm not saying to return to that (clearly not a rewarding system), but a better balance is surely needed. Unless we really want everyone with a Paragon's Crown , supposedly one of hardest Achievements to get.

Like I said, the pace of leveling up until level 30 is fine, the adjustments should be made after that.
I think I read another thread in the past of another adventurer expressing his concerns on how quickly we can level up the battle classes now, but he wasn't understood. “WHAT? Are you asking to give us LESS EXP? How dare you! Did you smoke some of the Twelveswood funguars or what??”, that's what one might think if my point is misunderstood, too, but not if we look at the Eorzea on the long run like I'm doing. Luckily anyway, I've my Flame-proof Subligar equipped.


If other adventurers feel like answering and telling me if they sincerely enjoyed their journey in reaching level 50 in a few days (or in one), maybe with just the same monsters in Camp Broken Water or with raptors in La Noscea/Coerthas, and if that's fine for them, or would prefer a little slower pace in the leveling up process (that is, a bit less EXP gained) until more variety in the camps/monsters choices is introduced (most likely with 2.0), then please do so.

But I'd also like to ask the community reps, as I don't remember ever reading a response of the plans on this, if the dev team is aware of the situation and can recognize this fast way of leveling up as an issue to be adjusted, like I illustrated thinking about future adventurers, or not.
That's all.

Thanks for reading!

Cloudio Onizuka


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Update: Since my real point and purpose of this Topic was apparently by many (not so many, actually, which kinda surprised me!) misinterpreted even if I wrote a warning at the beginning, that is not simply asking “The EXP is too much, reduce it!” or “Give us a better journey (for grinding)”, I link my following two posts, together with a video that is perfect to give a better idea of what I tried to say in this thread:
- Post 1
- Post 2
- Video: A story of Adventurers of times past

[Antanias]

This game is also being built with a level 99 cap in mind, so we might end up seeing 10,000,000 exp to get from 98-99 when we reach that point

[Raldo]

Grinding monsters is neither a challenge, nor good content, so no, I don't want reduced exp. If leveling a job was actually fun? Sure, reduce it if you want, but sadly, after grinding for several hours, it is no longer fun.

[RemVye]

What is this...

?


Another amazing Lodestone forum suggestion.



SE listen to Cladio - we need to adjust this adjusted system for the 4th time. Make leveling a dead crawl and struggle so only the "good" players can hit 50. Leveling is the main part of the game and should take your entire life to work up to.

Forget that cross-class skills are needed to play as certain roles, we need to make this as hard as possible so there is no chance these lamer "casuals" can be near us.

Each mob should give 1 exp, and if you fight anything your level it should nearly kill you. Get on the ball here SE leveling IS THE WHOLE GAME!!!!!!!!!!

[Irana]

I dont mind the amount of time it takes to rank up at all...

But when you convert that experience and make it the same to rank up when you are a crafter or gatherer as when you are a battle class...UGHHH


I DO NOT WANT TO SPEND 7 FREAKING DAYS MASHING THE Normal Synthesis to get 200k exp points...

[Estellios]

Paragon's crown is not hard at all to get. If XPing took more time it would just take longer to get it but still be easy since it's just grinding.

XP methods should be up to the player IMO. I really would like level sync but I wouldn't denounce anyone for PLs because that's their decision on how they want to progress through the game. We just need more avenues of xp/more different things to do so that taking it slow isn't repetitive and rewarding for a larger variety of players. As it is now, you may love randomly wandering around and farming enemies for XP but a large amount of people won't.

Also, reducing XP received affects everyone, especially people that don't have much time to play and have to rely on soloing for XP and/or prefer playing solo for their XP. These people still need to be able to make reasonable progress with their playtime.

[Nullie]

In my opinion, leveling up should be an Adventure. Visit different places, trying out different monsters, no matter if they yield less EXP, but at least you vary and you create memories worth to be remembered.

I understand how you would think that leveling would be capped so fast, but you say it yourself there. "In my opinion," Because you have fun playing the way you do does not mean other people would have fun playing your way. Some people can't stand the grind. As it is now you're leveling at the pace you want to go and you're enjoying it. If you were to take that away everyone would be forced to level at your pace. So there would be people unhappy about leveling at your pace. As it is now you can level at the speed you want to go and other people can level at the speed they want to go.

Other people see it as different things. Some people hate grinding cause you're just doing the same thing over. Can you really say it is fun to some people doing the same thing every day? Next day same thing, next day same thing, next day same thing. It does not matter to them if the background is different or if the mob looks different. It is the same thing to them. Other people want to get to the current end game content because eventually it will be pointless to do or will be hard to find people doing it because its pointless at that time to do so. Look at the way Darkhold is handled now. I hardly ever find anyone doing it. This is just how people see things and people will always have to disagree or feel a different way on a subject. To me it is fine as it is now. Everyone can play the way they want to right now, but that is my opinion.

[Soukyuu]

I sometimes catch myself realising "oh crap, i'm already in mid thirties with this class too!". 1-20 is pretty slow if you level in a small party, but it speeds up after that and you land at lv40 pretty fast. Hitting lv50 after that is a matter of a day, maybe 2.

I do enjoy leveling in a party and I don't know what I am going to do when I end up maxing everything, but people who enjoy the journey rather than maxing everything ASAP are a rare, dying breed. People will burn through the content and complain there is nothing to do.

[Brigandier]

The issues involving Slower Exp has been a popular topic amongst scholars for many years. There are many factors which influenced the development of Slower Exp. While much has been written on its influence on contemporary living, it is important to remember that ‘what goes up must come down.’ Inevitably Slower Exp is often misunderstood by those most reliant on technology, obviously. Though I would rather be in bed I will now examine the primary causes of Slower Exp.

Social Factors

Society begins and ends with Slower Exp. When Sir Bernard Chivilary said 'hounds will feast on society' [1] he saw clearly into the human heart. A society without Slower Exp is like a society without knowledge, in that it bravely illustrates what we are most afraid of, what we all know deep down in our hearts.

Our post-literate society, more than ever before, relies upon Slower Exp. Just as a dog will return to its own sick, society will return to Slower Exp, again and again.

Economic Factors

In spite of the best efforts of The World Bank the market value of gold, ultimately decided by politicians, will always be heavily influenced by Slower Exp due to its consistently high profile in the portfolio of investors. What it all comes down to is money. Capitalists love Slower Exp.

Political Factors

Much of the writings of historians display the conquests of the most powerful nations over less powerful ones. Comparing international relations since the end of the century can be like observing Slower Exp and former Wolves striker Steve Bull.

Consider this, spoken at the tender age of 14 by style icon Bartholomew Bootlegger 'People in glass houses shouldn't throw parties.' [2] I argue that his insight into Slower Exp provided the inspiration for these great words. If Slower Exp be the food of politics, play on.
The question which we must each ask ourselves is, will we allow Slower Exp to win our vote?

Conclusion

In my opinion Slower Exp deserves all of the attention it gets. It collaborates successfully, provides financial security and it brings the best out in people.

I'll leave you with this quote from Wyclef Zeta-Jones 'I demand Slower Exp, nothing more nothing less.' [3]

[Nullie]

The issues involving Slower Exp has been a popular topic amongst scholars for many years...

Not sure if serious.