Returned to Game, Insane Fast Leveling?

[Balbanes]

So, having played the beta and launch of both 1.0 & 2.0, and recently returning after a several year hiatus, I've noticed that you level up now at an INSANE rate.

As in, way too fast. I'm leveling my character to now 50 just by doing the main story quests and the occasional dungeon pickup group.

Am I the only one that thinks it's TOO fast? Does it slow down after a certain level, or is it just a rocket ship to level cap now?

[Imora]

You can level to cap solely on the msq now.

And I like it.

[Elkanah]

So, having played the beta and launch of both 1.0 & 2.0, and recently returning after a several year hiatus, I've noticed that you level up now at an INSANE rate.

As in, way too fast. I'm leveling my character to now 50 just by doing the main story quests and the occasional dungeon pickup group.

Am I the only one that thinks it's TOO fast? Does it slow down after a certain level, or is it just a rocket ship to level cap now?

A lot of the bulk of MSQ was removed (after the complaints about how grindy it was, and also with how many players dropped ARR because it was such a slog to get through). To make up for bulk removal of MSQ story, they added XP in its place. So a character on a normal server (and not an XP bonus server), should be able to level up to 80 by just MSQ alone. XP bonus servers would get you to 80 well before you finish stormblood

[Jeeqbit]

If you joined a Preferred world, you get a "Road to 70" buff that doubles your quest experience, and causes you to be a much higher level than your quests. If you do anything other than the main quests with a fireball icon, such as daily roulettes, you may overlevel as well.

Don't worry about overleveling. Your level doesn't matter. Only the level of your main quest with a fireball icon matters, because it gates content and areas above that level.

The other quests you should do are the blue quests because they unlock things, unless they appear at a guild because these ones unlock classes you may not want to play yet and fill your armory chest with gear.

[Balbanes]

A lot of the bulk of MSQ was removed (after the complaints about how grindy it was, and also with how many players dropped ARR because it was such a slog to get through). To make up for bulk removal of MSQ story, they added XP in its place. So a character on a normal server (and not an XP bonus server), should be able to level up to 80 by just MSQ alone. XP bonus servers would get you to 80 well before you finish stormblood

But... Why? And my God, there exists a server where leveling is FASTER? Does the pre-endgame content just suck that badly that they want you to ignore it and rush you to the level cap? Where's the fun supposed to be in that?

I'm not saying it should be like old school FFXI level grinding (which I did...for years) but geez, there's got to be some sort of happy medium?

[KageTokage]

Leveling fast isn't really an issue when you have a plethora of different jobs to try out,

You might want to use some of the excess EXP to level one of the jobs like RDM/SAM or DNC/GNB that start at the current level cap for an expansion so you don't end up level-capping and overflowing on EXP in Shadowbringers.

[Elkanah]

But... Why? And my God, there exists a server where leveling is FASTER? Does the pre-endgame content just suck that badly that they want you to ignore it and rush you to the level cap? Where's the fun supposed to be in that?

I'm not saying it should be like old school FFXI level grinding (which I did...for years) but geez, there's got to be some sort of happy medium?

I'm still both subbed to FFXI and FFXIV (and have been since basically NA release on PS2 lol). Just didn't do ambuscade this month cause it wasn't as good.

If you joined a Preferred world, you get a "Road to 70" buff that doubles your quest experience, and causes you to be a much higher level than your quests. If you do anything other than the main quests with a fireball icon, such as daily roulettes, you may overlevel as well.

[Jojoya]

So, having played the beta and launch of both 1.0 & 2.0, and recently returning after a several year hiatus, I've noticed that you level up now at an INSANE rate.

As in, way too fast. I'm leveling my character to now 50 just by doing the main story quests and the occasional dungeon pickup group.

Am I the only one that thinks it's TOO fast? Does it slow down after a certain level, or is it just a rocket ship to level cap now?

It will start slowing down as you get toward the end of 4.0 MSQ and then go at a normal rate for 4.1 onward.

I highly recommend leveling 2 jobs at the same time if you feel you're going too fast, especially if you have the Road to 70 buff. Roulettes are handy for extra XP if one job starts falling behind.

But... Why? And my God, there exists a server where leveling is FASTER? Does the pre-endgame content just suck that badly that they want you to ignore it and rush you to the level cap? Where's the fun supposed to be in that?

I'm not saying it should be like old school FFXI level grinding (which I did...for years) but geez, there's got to be some sort of happy medium?

The old pacing definitely had problems. There were several gaps where you had to resort to FATEs/leves/dungeon grinding to get enough XP to continue the MSQ.

Preferred world status had compensated for that before the leveling changes this expansion. Now it's rather excessive unless you're leveling multiple jobs at the same time (which veteran players tend to do with new characters).

[Tlamila]

But... Why? And my God, there exists a server where leveling is FASTER? Does the pre-endgame content just suck that badly that they want you to ignore it and rush you to the level cap? Where's the fun supposed to be in that?

I'm not saying it should be like old school FFXI level grinding (which I did...for years) but geez, there's got to be some sort of happy medium?

Consider that all the relevant content in this game is instanced. In instances you'll be level synced. So in a way, the fact that you overlevel doesn't really impact your progress negatively, since you'll still be experiencing stuff the same way. But at the same time, not having to grind xp outside of msq on your first class means you can just enjoy the story rather than having to stop in between to go grind some xp to get your next story chunk.
And as others have said, you can ust level multiple classes at once if you want, after all it's a game that expects you to eventually level all classes.

It's not so much "rushing to cap" as much as "not letting grind take out the enjoyement of story progression" since story is the main focus rather than grind. In any case you won't get to endgame any faster, since everything is locked behind msq and that's very long.

[Jeeqbit]

Leveling just isn't hard. It does take some work, but you could get to level 30 in a few hours. It doesn't work like you kill mobs and gain 1 level a day because that's history, although that was a thing in Eureka which has its own leveling system.