Create an item that decrease the xp recieved

[CNitsah]

I recently started an alt, and I'm redoing ARR, and kinda and I have a lot of fun with re-experiencing the early game (more than I had in DT, actually), but there is one thing that annoys me : you get so much xp from the msq, that it makes every content irrelevant, despite not using the rings/earrings to get more xp, and creating the character on a server without the xp bonus. I get so much xp, that at msq lvl 21, I was 9 lvl over the msq lvl, while I only did the msq, the job classes, the hunting log for the job, 1 FATES, and maybe a dozen lvl 1 to 7 side quests (quest that give like 120 xp and some shard for craft). It's ridiculous.

Part of the pleasure of early game is trying everything, unlocking the side activities, doing a some fates to get GC seal to buy retainer money, etc. This fast leveling also makes the vast number of gear irrelevant, since you get lvl up so fast, it's not worth anymore.

I get it, to make it easier for the players that are there only for the story, something like that had to be done, but honestly, there are people like those kind of side activities and a slower pace (I began at a time when I could do unlock side dungeons, do fates, and still not getting overleveled) , especially on a reroll. Without needing to lvl up several job without largely overlvling by far the msq (I'm currently at 3 jobs on parallels that all overlvl the msq, and I'm pondering.

That's why I suggest an item (a ring maybe?) that reduce the xp given by quests (by half, maybe by 2/3?), so those who want it can enjoy the game in a way that is closer to what it was designed to be at the beginning, while leaving the people that want to rush the early game continue as it is now.

(Overall, I think the Msq giving enough xp kinda helped to make the overworld more shallow, but that's a question for another time).

[Tahli]

This! As someone who takes her sweet, SWEET time with the game and does an ungodly amount of side questing, being overleveled is a constant struggle. I'm very slow with doing MSQ, but I still want to feel like there's a challenge when exploring new places on my preferred jobs. It also makes me have to hold back on playing certain jobs so I don't accidentally max out my level and lose the ability to do Khloe journals, because then it'll require me to do duties that I haven't yet unlocked...

Would especially love the option to do PvP without gaining exp.

[Jeeqbit]

You don't overlevel the MSQ that much unless you joined a server with the "Road to 90" buff which doubles quest experience, or did all side quests or did roulettes. If you do just MSQ and no sidequests, you can find yourself short of exp for the last 2.0 MSQ quest.

It does confuse new players at the patches, because they do not understand that 2.0 to 2.5 was once endgame content. So they can't understand why their progress came to a halt and they get 100 exp per quest.

In Endwalker, they changed it to not expect some FATEs and Sidequests to be done, so that if you do just MSQ you more or less have all the exp (they slightly undercalculated it, so do need to get a bit of extra experience). Due to this, you can level an alt job alongside it in Endwalker. But as far as I know, older expansions still need some extra exp than MSQ like they originally did.

An item to reduce exp gain wouldn't make sense. I've seen it suggested before by new players, but I just tell them that being overleveled does not matter, because their real level is the level of the MSQ quest. They cannot do any content that is higher than the level of their MSQ, nor access areas and duties higher than the level of the MSQ, except maybe Unreal. And they sync down to near the level of their MSQ.

[Eyrilona]

I support this idea.

My thoughts on overleveling as a problem are that I think some of it can be mitigated by undergearing yourself, since that's really where the stats come from -- but the issue we can't really work around now is that for a large chunk of HW though EW, your level is going to be at least ten over the zones your quests send you to, so there is no thrill to first-time exploring new zones when you've only just gotten to them in the story but you already know nothing is going to try to attack you unless you attack first.

[innis31]

I had that level issue on an alt to the point where I was being followed but I was also doing every side quest for the deeper story. It was also a server joining exp boost thing my point being I was like 20-25 levels higher than Msq before the following got to me and deleted the alt.

[CNitsah]

You don't overlevel the MSQ that much unless you joined a server with the "Road to 90" buff which doubles quest experience, or did all side quests or did roulettes. If you do just MSQ and no sidequests, you can find yourself short of exp for the last 2.0 MSQ quest.

Yet I did. Over the past 2 week, And I clearly said exactly what I did with that job. It's fairly well calculated for later extension but not so much in ARR (because ho surprise, quest mob is a hunting log mob, here is 7k more xp at lvl 15). And even then, I'm part of the people that liked the old slower progression system.

I also don't get why some people feel the need to go "no don't do that" when we propose something that wouldn't change anything for them. Are you so against people enjoying the game as they like.

I support this idea.

My thoughts on overleveling as a problem are that I think some of it can be mitigated by undergearing yourself, since that's really where the stats come from -- but the issue we can't really work around now is that for a large chunk of HW though EW, your level is going to be at least ten over the zones your quests send you to, so there is no thrill to first-time exploring new zones when you've only just gotten to them in the story but you already know nothing is going to try to attack you unless you attack first.

Yeah, but to me, gear progression is part of the fun.

[Shougun]

I don't see anything wrong with some sort of buff you can obtain that reduces exp, allow the player to choose the amount too cause why not. Maybe some custom options too, like story mode exp which prevents exp leveling you past the MSQ you have (so like you can't level past 11 unless you finish the level 11 msq, it can store the exp you've earned so far too, just so it gates you, by your choice, at the MSQ level).

[Iscah]

You can pick up multiple jobs and spread the EXP around.

ARR will even let you complete story quests as a crafter or gatherer so you can channel some extra EXP that way.

[BigCheez]

What content are you worried about gaining too much EXP for and outleveling?

Everything meaningful has level and ilvl sync.

[Kaurhz]

I am inclined to agree, but honestly the side quests and FATEs generally speaking need to be more engaging or enjoyable.

I don't expressly put the dead open world down to situations like this... It doesn't help, but I mean they're in the open world anyway. Much of the issue with open world is just lent to how generally pointless and unengaging it is. Open world started to get put into a coffin when we had things like deep dungeon which you could do, and queues were super fast due to no restriction on role/class composition, then that steadily got put in a coffin when dungeons became absurdly efficient, and once squadrons and duty support took over. I do miss the days where you would always find swathes of people in Northern Thanalan, South Shroud, and Eastern La Noscea, all going around, trouncing FATE after FATE, even without things like Gemstones to incentivize. Seeing people routinely get trounced by Lupus, Gorgimera, all that good stuff, and they spawned really regularly too. You have new content added which makes older content redundant.

The biggest problem that this game will have as far as open world is concerned, is literally everything is an instanced duty.. Dungeons, trials, raids, etc., and it is something you can queue to, from wherever you like.