I like FATEs.. they add atmosphere, and are nice to jump into while you are travelling and notice them around. Occasionally, when in town I might notice an attack, and run to help. All pleasant, and the rewards quite nice.

However, it does seem odd that if someone chooses to focus on just this, that they can gain levels so very quickly. To the point, that it diminishes the value of other aspects of XP gaining. Getting XP from Hunting Logs, Quests, Dungeons now becomes a 'token' gesture for the effort, rather than a reasonable means of leveling. And as the logs empty and the quests disappear, the choices become fewer.

I think the issue is not that FATEs give too much XP. I think the issue is that by focusing on FATEs one can ignore all other means of XP gaining. And the question then really is, was this intentional or is it an error in design?

To me, it matters not one whit if someone wishes to focus on FATEs. It does matter to me that when it becomes my turn to level up a 3rd/4th job, I will have to repeat Dungeons a lot for small XP, or FATEs a lot for massive XP, rather than a happy medium.

I miss 'old school' XP camps ^.^;