Revisiting the Early Level Experience

[Shurrikhan]

Earlier, I went back to the 1-50 experience for the first time since ~2.4 or so (i.e., since my second alt), alongside a friend playing for their truly first time. Though I at first aimed only to be a helpful presence while enjoying it primarily through her eyes, it was actually incredibly refreshing and a lot more fun, even in side-leveling other classes on my own, than I figured it would be, and gave me far more to note that I thought it would.

I'll add my own thoughts in that regard in time, but I wanted to first and foremost open up this thread to any others returning to the early experience with fresh eyes and who have some thoughts on said experience.

So, have at it, fellow returners. What came to mind for you? What would you most like to see improved, and (even if just very roughly speaking) how?

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Edit: To be clear, we're looking at the period following ARR's MSQ streamlining here.

[Shurrikhan]

I'm just going to reserve this space for now on the off-chance we end up with some well-liked posts on later pages that I could then link here to summarize the discussion thus far.

[SturmChurro]

I have one alt. I stopped at MSQ roulette. I got burned out skipping through ARR. Overleveled the majority of the time from MSQ and DF on it's main class, and leveling any alt classes on an alt is horrific. In short: the "early level" experience sucks.

I don't have the time or patience (or post count) right now to get into another same argument that I've gotten into for years about improving the new player experience, so I won't go there.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I've been doing ng+ over the past few weeks in my free time.

I haven't teleported once, been using chocobo porters and airships everywhere, except I've allowed myself to use my chocobo after I unlocked it. No flying though.

It hasn't really been that bad. I'm post Garuda in the msq now. I've rather enjoyed going back through the story. I don't really see the issues other people see, but then, I've never had a problem with arr.

[Cithaerias_pyropina]

Give Black Mage a trait at level 24 that makes Blizzard 1 act like Blizzard 3 and then have the level 40 job quest upgrade Blizzard 1 into Blizzard 3.

Give Dragoon an AoE at level 18 then have it upgrade to Doom Spike at level 40.

Give Ninja Death Blossom at level 18 instead of 38.

Give Samurari Fuga at level 18 instead of 26.

Give Summoner a spammable AoE WAY before level 40.

Have Red Mage learn Verthunder 2 and Veraero 2 at the same level instead of two different levels.

Give Monk Arm of the Destroyer at level 18 instead of 26.

Playing a job, like Summoner or Ninja, that don't get AoEs before level 20 sucks and feels awful especially when other jobs can and do.

Edit: I made another alt a while back and started as Arcanist. Worst feeling ever not getting your spammable AoE until level 40. You're just standing there casting Ruin on one enemy while the Archer/Bard (and every job I didn't mention above) can AoE trash in Sastasha on through all the other low level dungeons.

[Ayuhra]

I made this character just to see the new experience and he became my new main. Just getting to blitz through the story with no down time was nice and I could solo dungeons. It was maybe TOO fast for a new player but I was a returning one so it was perfect.

...I like making alts to see the story through a new character though. Only my main actually does anything particularly meaningful.

[Ariel_Valmont]

Give Black Mage a trait at level 24 that makes Blizzard 1 act like Blizzard 3 and then have the level 40 job quest upgrade Blizzard 1 into Blizzard 3.

Give Dragoon an AoE at level 18 then have it upgrade to Doom Spike at level 40.

Give Ninja Death Blossom at level 18 instead of 38.

Give Samurari Fuga at level 18 instead of 26.

Give Summoner a spammable AoE WAY before level 40.

Have Red Mage learn Verthunder 2 and Veraero 2 at the same level instead of two different levels.

Give Monk Arm of the Destroyer at level 18 instead of 26.

Playing a job, like Summoner or Ninja, that don't get AoEs before level 20 sucks and feels awful especially when other jobs can and do.

Edit: I made another alt a while back and started as Arcanist. Worst feeling ever not getting your spammable AoE until level 40. You're just standing there casting Ruin on one enemy while the Archer/Bard (and every job I didn't mention above) can AoE trash in Sastasha on through all the other low level dungeons.

SMN has AOE at level 10 with Garuda Egi (Egi Assault) it can AOE before any other job, it wrecks guildhests and sub 20 dungeon mobs when synced down.