Fates and You: An Analysis From A L50

[EikoCeuracanth]

Ways to obtain xp:
1. Questing
2. Fates
3. Leves
4. Guildhests
5. Mob Chaining
6. Dungeons
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Dungeons

Let's face it dungeon queues as a Damage Dealer, DD can be a bit long. This means pretty much all other forms of xp are better if you're doing them right.*

For tanks and healers queue times are much more reasonable and they pull better xp.

Pros:*
Group based play taking into respect with the holy trinity of mmos.

Cons:
Way more DD than tanks and healers due to the number of tank and healer classes compared to the number of DD classes.*
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Questing

There really isn't much to say about questing other than quests will dry up after your second class hits 50 if not sooner.*
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Guildhests

I can't really comment on this one since I haven't touched Guildhests at all. I'd love if someone who has can give some insight into this.*
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Leves

Leves are decent xp for all classes, but let's face it. Leves don't stand up to the xp gains of fates and dungeons.*
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Fates

Currently fates are absurd xp for everyone involved assuming you join a Fate farming party. This is due to the sheer number of people rushing to leveling cap by farming these. The sheer number of people allows players to zerg Fates.*

I personally understand the fears and concerns of players, but I am of the belief that Fates will become much more reasonable as players hit 50 and the rush to end game slows down. This change should bring fates down to a much more reasonable xp/hour and we'll see players doing other methods of leveling.*
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Mob Chaining (Chain Bonus)

This feels very much like FFXI and FFXII. The chain bonus is definitely a good xp grinding system that plays well from a party standpoint. We already see people "exploiting" this mechanic in certain Fates.*
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Final comments: personally believe Fate xp is in a good place once the initial race to 50 slows and that we'll see more leveling using the other methods after that point.*

If anything we might see leveling dailies come in and xp slightly buffed to Leves and possibly Guildhests (not sure on how the xp gains on these are. If Fate xp farming does remain out of whack I'm certain Square Enix will nerf it, but for now they are waiting and observing. In regards to the "exploit" of certain fates to infinitely farm mobs for chain bonuses... Well I'll assume that's an intended mechanic until square says otherwise since chaining mobs is obviously an intended leveling mechanic.*

Hopefully my post starts some good discussion and doesn't turn into a flame war or a qq thread about fate farming.*

I also apologize for any grammatical and/or spelling errors due to typing this on a tablet.

[pandabearcat]

Leves are horrendous, just completely terrible for the fact that you're limited to ~8 a day (which btw, I STRONGLY suggest you use for crafting tradeleves).

Dungeons are, as you said, horrendous for DPS, terrible for the amount of time they take, and if you have a toxic group sometimes more trouble than they are worth.

Whats left? Chaining...maybe. But really this is even slower than doing a dungeon.

FATE - absolutely. The best way to get seals and exp ever.

Solution: buff dungeon exp, give healer/tank incentives (like WoW, which despite what you may or may not like about it=, is one of the most polished mmos in terms of promoting group content) to queue, buff monster drops for endgame, make them drop money, or better items, or possibly even 1 or 2 tomes.

Buff guildleves...massively. They should give rewards at least equal to a fate.

Don't nerf FATEs. As far as I'm concerned, everything else is just too slow.

[Tolmos]

Seeing two level 50s saying to buff other things and not nerf FATEs has returned some of my faith in humanity.

Square - listen to these two. They are awesome. =D

[herothing11]

I also agree with these two. Good posts!

[Moontide]

IMO these forums are talking about two sides of the same coin at the moment.
On one side we have almost everything sucking against FATEs in time, effort and skill vs. XP. On the other side we have FATE upsetting people because it renders so much of the other content impaired. Some balancing needs to be done.

I guess it relies mostly on what Square's vision is on FFXIV RR on how to deal with this situation.

- More challenge, more reward for skill and more crafting relevance would be for the FATE nerf. Not good for casuals.
- Raiding-for-Epix style stuff at max level would be to keep leveling speedy and to produce a ton of more content to max level.
- "Appealing to a wider audience" buffing everything up to FATE level. No crafters, no skill needed. Just quest & FATE your way to the top. Make quests and dungeons also easier.
Etc.

I'd personally like to see challenge and them providing various options on what to do with none being so overbearingly easier than the other.