Today I’ve found some time to write down some of my thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I’ve been playing the game since launch now and feel like I can publish my opinion on certain things and the first thing I want to topple is…. Levelling!
I’m currently level 37 on my highest class and I’ve noticed that I’ve done some stuff that I shouldn’t have and how I would do it differently if I were to start over and I would like to share my tips with players that are just beginning or don’t very well know how to level up.
1. Stick to your class
Assuming you’ve done some reading up on what you would like to play in the game I would advise anyone starting to stick to the initial class they pick when levelling up. It’s very easy to get distracted with trying other classes but if you want to see endgame you need to focus on just one class and stick to it. Ofcourse you will need to do the associated Job aswell since Jobs usually mean a boost in either DPS, Healing or Tanking skills which are very usefull in dungeons. I personally feel like my healing is much better/easier as White Mage than as Conjurer so I queue as White Mage for dungeons and/or Guildhests.
“But Sandrian” you might say “There’s so many things to do and so many classes to play, why should I stick to one at first?”
Well first off Square Enix has implemented a system where every additional class you level next to your first one will receive an experience boost based on the level difference between your highest class and the new class. As you can imagine you get a much bigger experience boost when the level difference is 30 levels than when it is 5 levels. This makes it much easier to level alternate classes and is also extra motivation to level your “main” class/job to max level, to make it easier to level other classes.
Secondly you lose a lot of time levelling other classes, making you reach endgame way after everyone else. If you don’t care about the endgame you can ofcourse do what you want, but honestly who doesn’t want to be in the fray seeing the last boss and obtaining the best gear? That’s why it’s better to stick to your initial class, get to endgame, get better gear and then start looking at other classes.
2. Everytime you log out, make sure you’re rested
This should really speak for itself. If you’re rested you get much more experience from killing monsters than when you’re not rested. This boosts the levelling experience a lot and makes it much easier to level up. You know when you’re rested when a little moon symbol appears underneath your experience bar as showed in the picture below.
There are two ways to be rested. The first is to return to your main city, this is either Gridania, Ul’dah or Limsa Lominsa, and talk to the innkeep to go into an innroom. If you click on the bed you can choose to log out or exit the game and when you do you’re immediatly rested.
If you don’t want to go back to your main city, search out a sanctuary. Sanctuaries are usually the towns that have Aetherytes. Once you enter a sanctuary you get rested and logging out in a sanctuary means you will remain rested.
3. Don’t be afraid to do everything
There are many ways to gain experience in Final Fantasy. Main story, Class quests, Sidequests, Levequests, Guildhests, Dungeons, FATE’s, Hunting logs. There’s an abundance of things to choose from and my advice is: do them all. At the start you might not need to do the Levequests but they are a great way to get that last bit of experience you’ll need to level up for your Mainstory to continue. New Guildhests should be done as soon as they’re available since the first time you get a huge bonus from doing them.
Sidequests not only give great experience, they also sometimes offer really nice gear rewards so keep your eyes open for them.
Hunting logs give an enormous amount of experience and can make the difference in a level up so make sure you keep to them!
Dungeons are a very nice way to level up aswell. They usually give about half a level of experience next to a chance on some nice gear. The queues might be long as DPS but you can just quest and do FATE’s while waiting for the queue to pop. Just make sure you’re able to switch class when needed!
4. Use your consumables
Something that is quite overlooked but are a huge contribution when levelling up are consumables. With consumables I mean potions, food and medicine. You sometimes get these as rewards from quests and it’s a really good idea to utilize them. When it comes to potions and ether I found it very handy to put them on a hotkey on my action bars, as you can see below, so they’re more readily available when I need them. Medicine (like antidote and eye drops) I keep in the first page of my bags so when it’s really needed I just have to press “I” and can immediatly use them.
Food is something special. Not all foods are usefull for the class you play, however the ones that are should be used a lot. Food gives a buff to your stats making it easier to level but almost all foods also give a +3% experience buff and any experience buff is one you want to have. So if you get food as quest reward and it is usefull for your particular class, use it! I can’t stress enough how nice it is to get that tiny little extra boost.
Well that was it for now. There is much more that I can tell about the game but these are the basis things that I think people should know when starting this game. Ofcourse it’s all up to you how you want to play, but keeping to this style of play has made me level up so much easier than I thought I would and it works really well for me personally. I’ll do some more posts in this fashion, probably talking about Dungeons and Crafting, but for now you’ll have to do with this one! Good luck and have fun in your journey through Eorzea!
