Quote Originally Posted by GeminiReed View Post
Like new players?

Deep leveling grinds are a significant barrier to entry especially when a game does not offer a reasonable catch-up mechanic. XIV has the double whammy of layering a mandatory story grind on top of a leveling grind that's getting too close to triple digits. Just the story requirement alone garners a "lol, nope" when trying to convince friends to join, having to tell them they'll need to burn through 80+ levels is a deal killer.
The thing is, they've altered the EXP gain upwards instead of the level requirements downwards. You can get through the story faster than you did previously, even if the levels haven't changed.

Personally I'd like to see a further boost to low-level battle EXP (rather than one-time-only quest EXP) so you can get over those dull early levels quicker - possibly implemented as a further armoury bonus for secondary classes.