Final Fantasy 14 is by far one of my favourite games to play as it provides players with endless hours of entertainment. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that players are able to freely switch between multiple jobs, each providing players with new tactics and abilities, keeping gameplay very fresh.
With the newest expansion of Endwalker, I simply had to go back and level up all of the jobs I missed in previous expansions, especially because I quickly leveled up my main and sub classes to level 90 within a few weeks.
As many of my viewers on Twitch know, I’m a bit of a completionist and am aiming to get as many mounts as possible and with the addition of the Wivre Mount, which requires players to collect 500 Bicolour Gemstone Vouchers, I’ve made my goal to be as efficient as possible and only grind the FATES that provide Bicolour Gemstones with level 80-90 jobs (with the occasional 70-80 FATE in Shadowbringers areas).
Unfortunately, for me that means that I have to level a good portion of classes from level 1 to 80 quick enough to take over when a sub class hits level 90.
Due to my obsessive nature, I simply cannot rationalize completing FATES on a level 90 class, especially when FATES of a high level realistically provide players with some very juicy experience, allowing players to completely ignore the levelling roulette so they can focus on getting their lower classes leveled up using the Levelling Roulette. The only problem with the Levelling Roulette and levelling up an original class is that you need your jobs up to level 16 in order to queue.
Being that my Pugilist (Monk) , Lancer (Dragoon), Gladiator (Paladin) and Rogue (Ninja) were all rotting at level 1 and getting them up to level 16 felt like it was going to be a time suck, but the reality was that it wasn’t all that bad.
It personally took me 2 hours maximum (with some side shenanigans/crafting breaks) to get all of my level 1 classes to level 16.
After conferring with my husband, who I like to call a FFXIV expert, I think I’ve come up with one of the easiest ways to level your sub classes up to 16 so you can quickly join the Levelling Roulette.
Note: If you have any questions about FFXIV that you want me to cover feel free to leave them in a comment below, you can also ask me while I am streaming on Twitch, YouTube or in our community discord.
HUNTING LOGS
Admittedly, I’m not a very patient person, often ignoring aspects of the game that I find tedious or not worth spending time on. One of these aspects is the Hunting Log.
As the Hunting Log doesn’t really unlock any new elements of the game, it has always been pretty low priority for me and has been a bit of a “do it if you see it” kind of task.
Due to years passing since I last completed Hunting Logs, I had completely forgotten how much experience they can actually give a player, especially when the player is currently low leveled or has just obtained a job.
Unlike some other aspects of the game, players will always receive a set amount of experience from completing a Hunting Log, ranging from as little as around 75 experience to as high as 1,700 experience in early game. So, if players are thinking that they’re being sneaky by completing Hunting Logs at a higher level, they’re really shooting themselves in the foot.
While there is no listed recommendation for levels a player should be while completing Hunting Logs, I would recommend trying to head back to Hunting Logs in the future before your job is too high leveled to reap the benefits of the Hunting Log as at max Rank players will be receiving between 17,000-21,500 experience for a log, which is nothing to scoff at.
Depending on what Job you’re currently levelling up, I would recommend heading into your Hunting Log (H) to ensure you know what area you are going to be spending your next few hours in.
The really nice thing about the Hunting Log UI is that players can hover over any of the creatures that are required to kill and players will be told the location they must search for.
It should be noted that each class has a different Hunting Log and while many of the areas hold the different mobs a player needs to slay in order to complete the logs. I recommend that players make a list of all the mobs and locations they need to peruse by as it’s going to be useful to rotate which job they are playing, especially if players have any duplicates on mobs.
I’ll be honest, I spent the majority of my time focussing on FATES instead of Hunts, switching to all four of the classes to ensure that there weren’t any mobs nearby that I needed to slay in order to complete my Hunt Log.
Completing a Hunt Log passively instead of the focus is still a very fast way to gain experience, so don’t look past this, especially if you’re willing to put in some time into FATES.
If you do choose to run FATES, I strongly recommend checking each of your classes to see if they have a Hunt Mark as many of the FATES include mobs that are from said logs. Might as well kill two birds with one stone, unless for whatever reason you are out leveled.
FATES
FATES aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I don’t really blame you. While admittedly, FATES in the early game aren’t the most exciting, leaving with longer periods of time where there are no mobs available to kill, they are pretty easy to complete as many of them include NPCs that will fight alongside you.
In many cases, players can complete FATES that are a higher level than they are, especially if they have leveled up their Chocobo a decent amount. Honestly, the secret to FATES is having a Chocobo no matter what job you are playing and no matter what level the Chocobo is.
While admittedly, having a level 20 Chocobo is the most ideal, this merely cannot be a possibility for newer players. This is your wakeup call though new players, get a Chocobo Companion immediately, it will help you on any job you’re playing.
Although players can leave their Chocobo on “Free Stance” depending on their level, I would recommend changing its stance based on what class you’re playing. Typically my recommendation is Free or Tank Stance for DPS (favouring Free-Stance), Free or Healer Stance for Tanks and Attack or Tank Stance for Healers.
Players can also apply the different stances onto their hotbar so they can rapidly change what stance their Chocobo is in order to maximize it’s efficiency, though this can be annoying and feel unnecessary, especially if both the player and the Chocobo can stay up when in Free Stance (which will do all three jobs an average amount).
FATES at a low level will provide players with between 1,000 to 2,000 experience, which may not feel like much, but realistically players will only need to complete a maximum of 5 FATES in order to level up.
As I mentioned, it’s a good idea to look out for Hunting Logs while you’re doing FATES as this can really help supplement you experience so you get to level 16 faster.
As mentioned, players aren’t going to need much assistance when it comes to FATES of a low level as many of them include NPCs that will deal damage, the only issue is, you’re going to want to make sure that those NPCs survive, either by healing them or trying to steal enmity from them as some of them are very squishy.
GETTING CHAINS
Newer players may not know what the chain system is in FFXIV as they may simply focus on mobs that are the same level or lower than them.
The reality is, players are going to want to kill mobs that are equal to or higher than the player in order to start a chain.
While I’ll probably write a longer article about chains, the simple way to describe it is, players will get bonus experience if they are able to kill mobs within the time frame.
Players will be able to get 50% extra experience per mob killed if they are able to chain 5 or more mobs, making simply grinding mobs in the overworld a great way to gain experience.
Admittedly, simply attacking random mobs in the world isn’t the best way to get experience as players will get more experience if they do so in a FATE, both receiving the experience for killing mobs and for completing FATES.
I would strongly recommend that players try to get chains by joining FATES who’s level is a bit higher than the player so they can guarantee a chain and also reap the benefit of the FATE.
Players should note, chains are best done solo at this level, unless the player is in a party, the reason being: sometimes if you don’t deal enough damage to a mob it doesn’t count towards your chain, essentially breaking it and leaving you with 0 experience.
Chains in combination with items that boost your experience (such as food or special equipment that provides a bonus in experience) can help ensure that you get well over 200% experience, especially if you have some of your daily bonus experience still available.
Speaking of bonus daily experience, I would always try to use this, but it isn’t a big enough topic to make it’s own header.
GUILDHESTS
Guildhests are honestly a massive nuisance, leaving most players to completely ignore them.
While I’d be with you on that, if I wasn’t an oddball, I actually think they can really help a player boost their experience, especially in the early game.
Admittedly, I wouldn’t recommend running Guildhests in the mid-to-late game, unless you’re trying to complete them all for any reason, completing a total of 5 a week is going to provide you with a good amount of experience.
Not only that, but Guildhests will provide players some bonus experience for completing them the first time on a Class.
The main method behind my madness is the experience boost that players will get simply for completing their first Guildhest of the day. Players can either do these daily to get their bonus, or can simply do a single Guildhest to top up a level.
The biggest benefit to completing a Guildhest is their extreme ease and the fact that there isn’t a big threshold for what level you need to be to participate in one. Due to their low skill cap, players can use this time to test out their newly acquired classes.
The only issue, I’d say, with a Guildhest is that they are often a very low level, which is why it is really not ideal to continue completing them in the mid-to-late game. The absolute biggest benefit of running Guildhests is the first time completion as they can give you up to 1,000 experience in the early game, which is really good for the time it takes to complete a Guildhest.
A great thing to note about Guildhests is that their queues pop very quickly, at least they do on my data center. Even while queuing as a DPS, queues are about 30 seconds to 2 minutes maximum. So although this may not give you the most experience, it may be one of the faster ways to get into a group.
CONCLUSION
Although in my opinion my favourite way to level up classes to level 16 so they can join the Leveling Roulette is through FATES, the reality is that there are many methods a player can partake in to help them level up quickly.
I’m also surprised how much Guildhests helped me early on, especially due to their fast queue and having completed them with my 4 classes for the first time. I wouldn’t be shocked if the majority of the comments on this post are “uGhHhHhH Guildhests.” Trust me, I hear you… I just don’t mind them.
I am curious though, what are your favourite ways of leveling up your jobs to help them reach level 16?
Let me know in the comments below!
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