How to get to the top (whm)Follow

...because that`s what games are all about! Ha!

Because wanting to accomplish a simple goal without going out of your way doing things that have nothing to do with that goal is the wrong way to play a video game.

Call,

Your best bet is to go to the Lodestone forums :o Less hecklers :o

Sorry Zam hecklers :o I love you guys too :o <3.

Sorry. It's just that the custom of blasting to the (non-existant) endgame in the fastest way possible is
one of the trends that harmed games (in my opinion) most. You can't be blamed for it, because that's
what everybody seems to be doing nowadays.

Basically the best way to level (which drives tears into my eyes) is getting yourself a powerleveller.
Doing it right, you'll be 50 in 3 jobs by the end of the week. And ready to face the endless repetition
of endgame dungeon speedruns. Because that's what SE has in store for those who are in danger
of finishing their game too quick. It's all connected; once you understand that basic truth, you'll possibly
understand why I am so allergic to high speed leveling.

I'm not really interested in power leveling. I just want to get to the point where I can party up with groups and be a productive member of the world. I want to run a healer or tank so i can build my own party easily as time goes on. The path for a75 PLD in FF XI: level your WAR to 18, get your sub job, level your MNK to 15, Level your WAR to 30, unlock PLD, level your PLD to 75.

I'd suggest this.

Level PGL to 6 for Second WInd and Featherfoot
Level CJN to 26 for Stoneskin, Protect, and Cure to use on your GLA. Keep going to 30 if you want to start WHM quests ahead of time.
Level GLA to 22 for Rampart and Sentinel
Level CJN/WHM to 50

Edited, May 30th 2012 2:37pm by Cthugga

Here's a response I recently got that seems helpfull:

'WHM is pretty simple. From the top of my head: Get PGL to 6, GLA to 22, then focus on CNJ until lvl30. Do all sidequests and main scenario quests that you can. You unlock new ones based on your highest class level. They will net you some exp, gil and starting gear. At lvl30, do the quest line to join a Grand Company and get a chocobo or goobbue. You can start the GC quests at lvl22 and to join a GC you need to be lvl25. At lvl30 you can do your first WHM job quest.

From there on, just keep leveling up CNJ while doing sidequests, main scenario and job quests as you reach high enough level to do them.'

Anything else to keep in mind?

That's pretty solid advice, but I'd stress leveling CJN to 26-30 before you level GLA. Protect, Stoneskin, and Cure will be invaluable for leveling GLA. Not to mention GLA/PLD have the highest enhancing magic in the game so your buffs would be stronger than if a CJN/WHM in the party is handing them out.

Also Filthy, Yoshida will never hit that reset button. The second he does is the second he loses every player that stuck by this game for a year and a half. It's not too hard for a new player to get a fully non-gimped 50, so there is really no need for it anyway.

And that's when the fun starts, right? Right!? The answer had better be in the affirmative, otherwise you'll just be heckling with truth again, and nobody wants to hear that.

A tune that may change come V2 when you realize, again assuming that a large influx of players comes to the game, that none of them are on your server. More likely than not there will be a lot of players who aren't playing their 50s wanting to try out what SE is doing for the new players.

No offense, but it's more important for them to bring in fresh meat than keep the old blood there. You guys playing now are probably considered to them as given. You're still paying and playing even though the game is horrible.

I'm going off what we know already. Who's to say what will be available at launch, but the fact will always be that new players won't be participating with the older capped ones at least for a while. At that point you'll still have people who dabble in everything instead of trying to rush one class to cap. Could be a matter of months before you see anyone new outside of running through town helplessly searching for some elusive NPC.

Not to mention that there are a ton of older, returning players who will come back to find that they were 'merged' to a server that none of their old friends are on. Why not reroll if there will be an overhauled experience anyway? Other than people playing for the wrong reason anyway(tied down to their progress or their unwillingness to let others progress ahead of them) I really don't see a reason not to. I heard you like to start fresh with your fresh start...

Speculation is just that, but we pretty confidently say that everyone who is playing now will probably have reached cap for their jobs 6 months from now. I doubt people would wait around for new players to level up so they can dig in to new content. It's not going to be easy to bring 3 year vets together with a lot of new players. These players will probably want to be on new servers so that there are a lot of people sharing the same experience they are. They're also more likely to get exp groups, help with group quests, ect.

Now let`s see whether I can dodge the heckler brand by being polite, and still state what I believe.

Ultknight, this:


is not the solution, but the source of the problem. I don`t want to blast through levels 1-49
just to reach the LV 50 "goal" and be greeted by a Garuda that`s giggling herself to death
everytime she is defeated because she knows that yet another batch of newbies has entered
the .01% drop attrition zone. And those droprates will never go away as long as new players
are able to reach "endgame" within a few weeks. Because SE has to stop all those players
from finishing the game somehow.

Every minute you shave off from the leveling process is a minute more spent doing the same
speedrun. Over and over and over and over. Is this so hard to understand, and is it so hard to
understand why I hate the speedleveling mentality so much?

I believe Yoshi`s (cool) original vision was like this:
- People like to level at their own pace, so we provide a system that accomodates to
both the gemuetlich type (Shploshae, Levequests) and the endgame maniacs (PL).
- People will choose what fits their personal preferences, and everybody will be happy.
- Those who want to go to the extreme and complement their character with abilities
from other classes can do so at their leisure. With the additional benefit that they can
fill several roles in their group at once.

For a producer who claims to know how MMOs work, thats embarassingly naive; because
"options" that make leveling faster or your character more versatile or powerful are not
"options" at all. I still remember my first Ifrit pickup group: "No sentinel - no party."
"Hey," you say, "that`s the community, not Yoshi`s fault!"
"Ho," I say, "it`s the type of community Yoshi`s game breeds."

I would *love* to explore the mysteries of Shploshae with a pickup group. Fighting back
to back for our lifes, having fun and making a bunch of friends on the way. But know what?
It`s (rightfully) considered a waste of time since you can be 50 in 3 weeks. And then you`ll
be able to rape it`s mysteries solo. Not that anyone would do it, because what good is the
LV 21 platinum chest drop @50.

Yoshi is in big trouble. And the biggest trouble he has is his responsibility for a fair
treatment of the paying, patient, and remarkably (*) loyal 1.0 customer community.
Because with their all-50 characters, trillions of gil and hardcore mentality, they are
the subgroup that`s making really radical changes to how the game works (including
item and monetary balance, as well as the adequate allocation of development
resources to different levels of content) really, really complicated.
No, I don`t want to be him.

TL/DR:
Fast Leveling -> Endgame Focus -> Midlevel Content is Ignored -> Rinsui Unhappy.

(*) Arrrgh. It`s so hard not to use the word "blindly" here. Arrrrgh.

I started this thread just looking for some advice on leveling up.

Instead I got more of what I've seen over and over:

Moaning and groaning over how the game is designed, being played, etc.

I can't understand why people don't just stop playing and do something else, especially if they're this unhappy.

Life is too short to keep wasting time on something you don't enjoy.

A lot of people are upset about the game and feel the need to post about their frustration in every thread in existence.

As someone who's only been playing for a week; I'm oblivious of the game that was launched, all I know is what I've seen on the screen every night so far this week. I found a great linkshell by using the server forums. The last couple of nights I've been duo-ing leves with a lalafella (taru) and have really enjoyed that. Before we teamed up yesterday I did a quest that netted me 30k gil and included some cool cutscenes. Right now I'd rather play FF14 than any other game in my arsenol, and there are plenty.

I don't think he's poking anything. When a new player comes in and tells me he's having fun,
he might actually convince me, as his opinion is not yet tainted by years of investment in the
game. I sincerely hope he posts again in a week or two; if his opinion didn't change by then,
Yoshi's on the right track. ^.-/

Please, Callbeast, be sure to post again. I'll try to provide a useful answer first, and the sarcasm
later next time.

Edited, Jun 2nd 2012 6:02am by Rinsui

I don't doubt it, but why would you race to cap? There will be plenty of people(assuming it isn't fail V3) around in various level ranges to complete all types of content with so you can actually enjoy the game instead of trying to burn through it to get to and endgame we're not ever sure will exist. I like to progress through the game completing quests and missions when they are still challenging. It's no fun blazing to cap and mopping up all the content you missed along the way with little or no resistance.

This was actually one of the few things I liked about the seemingly endless grind of XI. When I ran into the choco license wall, I broke to complete Rank 2 missions. When I hit the Kazham key wall, I broke to complete Rank 3. I did up through Rank 5 when I hit the first limit break, so on..

Take a poll. Ultimately it will be the players choice, but the consensus in this thread so far is reroll. The option is there for self imposed reroll and I'm certain that if more players join or resub XIV than are currently playing now, the majority of players playing the game will be on new servers.

It's not even racing to cap. It's very easy to level in this game. I don't think you understand how quickly one can get levels with the rested bonus and simply doing 3-4 guildleves.

I didn't rush to get my six almost seven level 50 jobs. Before 1.20 or whatever patch introduced inns, I only had Gladiator, Conjurer, and Thaumaturge at level 50.

Edit: Actually, looking at my level history. I may have gotten Archer 50 right before the inns were introduced as well.

Edited, Jun 2nd 2012 9:49am by UltKnightGrover