Leveling is stupid.

[Brynne]

Okay, im slightly confused. What are squadron and alliancde raid? I have not unlocked either of those yet.

Definitely check out Edax's links. You'll need to level up a squad in order to rank up further in your grand company regardless, so I recommend unlocking it either way and starting to play around with it (it can seem complex at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad). Once you get your squad to rank 2, you can take them into dungeons with you and level up that way. It may take a bit of time, but it's worth it, I think. As long as you have at least one tank, one healer, and two dps, you can level any job with them if you want to, starting from level 20 (which is when Halatali unlocks).

Alliance raids are level 50+ content. Unlocking at least two of them will allow you to do the alliance roulette, which can be done daily and will provide a good chunk of exp for jobs level 50 and above (and the dps queue is usually not bad). The quest for the level 50 alliance content starts in Mor Dhona after you've finished the ARR main story (ie, completed Praetorium). I believe it's called Legacy of Allag, and you just follow the questline until you unlock Labyrinth of the Ancients (your first alliance raid). After you complete it, keep following the questline to unlock Syrcus Tower. At that point, alliance roulette will be good to go.

It's worth it to wait out the queue and do your leveling roulette daily too, if you're not already. That's a good chunk of exp per day. Challenge logs can also help you out, and you can work on the FATE and levequest challenge logs while waiting for your leveling roulette queue.

[Vespar]

It is so profoundly stupid that I can only level one class by questing, and that's if I do the MSQ with it. Side quests do not give enough experience to level, even when combined with hunting logs, which also give a pointless about of experience.

What are you talking about!? I made an alt because I wanted to replay through the story and I've been doing nothing but the MSQ and ignoring ALL side quests so I can focus on the story alone and other than a handful of leves so I could rank up enough for turn ins in my Grand Company I'm already level 49 and haven't even hit Castrum meridianum yet and that was with someone running me through dungeons unsynced, so I lost all the exp from the mobs in those dungeons.... I also haven't completed the 2nd tier of Hunt logs.

You are CLEARLY doing something wrong if you cant level up enough from quests alone. I probably have enough side quests to level a full other class and maybe then some... If you're on a server with the Road to 60 buff it should be even easier! Also, did you do the Hall of the Novice final trial? It gives a 30% exp boost ring that lasts until level 30. And if you got the SB collectors edition items, the Ala Mhigan Earrings last until 50 and also give an exp boost.

Have you used food? Are you taking advantage of Duty Roulette bonuses? Duty Roullette Levlling and Alliance raids give a metric ton of experience once PER DAY! There are a ton of other ways to level too besides just quests. Fates, Guildhests, leves and guildleves, challenge log, hunt log,etc. You cant possibly tell me your struggling to level up....
But if you're just griping because your not 70 now, You could always take the lazy route and pay $25 per job and buy your way to atleast 60. But with how easy and quick it is to level this would be a serious waste of money.

[Annah]

It is so profoundly stupid that I can only level one class by questing, and that's if I do the MSQ with it. Side quests do not give enough experience to level, even when combined with hunting logs, which also give a pointless about of experience.

The fact I am FORCED to use palace of the dead to level any class other than my first is just stupid. To get to level 50, it's over a hundred runs of palace. How do you expect people to do that and not get burnt out?

There are a ton of ways to level than just quests. Others have stated them so no sense in rehashing them. You've been here since 2013...im curious to what spurred this on now?

[whiskeybravo]

You can also get from 45-50 in about 2 hours by doing levequests in Mor Dhona. I did that for a lot of my DPS jobs mostly because I'm not a fan of FATE grinding. But, yea, as others have mentioned you're gonna have to kill time doing something while you wait on Duty Finder to pop. Either that or try to find a tank/healer friend to level with for faster dungeon queues.

[LineageRazor]

I noticed that folks in this thread haven't mentioned the Armory Bonus. Basically, this is the primary thing that was implemented to ease leveling additional classes - it's a replacement for MSQ quest exp. As long as you have a combat class higher level than the combat class you're trying to level, you get a 100% bonus to exp from most sources (50% after level 60). So, if you have a level 50 class/job, and are leveling a job at level 36, you're getting double the exp from most of the things that grant exp.

Another source of easy exp you should not overlook: Whenever you log for the day, make sure you're earning Rested Bonus. Anytime you're in an area, whether online or offline, and there is a moon symbol next to your exp bar, you're earning Rested Bonus (this will turn your exp bar blue). It will increase exp earned by 50% until the blue bar is exhausted. Any area that has a large Aethercite that you can teleport to will provide the moon symbol, as well as any player housing area.

Sidequests earn as much exp for their level as Main Scenario Quests do, and there are typically a lot more sidequests than MSQs.

Daily Roulettes, ESPECIALLY Leveling Roulette, are an extremely good source of exp. Even if you decide to spend most of your time earning "optimized" exp in Palace of the Dead, be sure to do Roulettes on top of that.

While I don't know for certain whether it's the case for ARR Beast Tribe quests, Beast Tribe Quests in Heavensward and Stormblood gain a huge exp bonus once you have completed all of the Beast Tribe storyline quests for a given tribe. If the exp for them seems iffy at first, it becomes impressive once you've maxed out your fame with that tribe.

[TitaniaZero]

If you think Palace of the Dead was bad, before that it was Fates... all the Fates, every fate all the time every time!

Ya first timers through have it rough. I've gotten used to my Armory Bonus for years now, it makes leveling all the other classes far easier. But there are many ways, may not be the efficiently fast method of PotD, but at least you will level.

[Magnedeus]

That's because most of the playerbase plays dps jobs mainly because they're either scared of tanking/healing or they just don't like playing them period. Unless you got a friend who's a tank or a healer to join up with you to get you insta queues, you're gonna be waiting awhile just to do dungeons. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

[Tyla_Esmeraude]

I introduced a friend to the game like... 2ish weeks ago? They already have 2 level 50's, one of them being 56 and DPS. So... I don't know what to say other than... leveling is fast enough in this game. And it's not like he played the game all day everyday either, he only played after he got back from work. He was never "forced" to do POTD... what is this thread even?

[Ilyrian]

How can you play a game for 5 years and still have little to no grasp of how the basic systems work, OP?

[Fredco191]

it’s okay.