Faster Leveling Strategies?

[Hidavi]

I started playing 2 days ago and have spent 75% of my time in the game lvling to lvl 10. Now my lvl 37 mentor is telling me I should lvl another job to lvl 10 too. I'm paying $13/month to have fun, not to be bored. Anyone got any faster lvling startegies?

[Kuro]

Get good equipment, and don't sleep. Thats it for newbie leveling.

First time you go 1-75 is slow as hell (1-20 can take ages). But some people who has played for ages can do about 3 jobs 1-10 in a day easy.

[Kafeen]

level 10 in 2 days isn't bad for a first job. Keep going to 18 to unlock the sub job quest, then worry about starting another job.

[Luthric]

yea after lvl 10 is the stage where you meet ppl, get ls, and actually have ppl to talk to. So my advice is go to the dunes now becuz u will be bored if u lvl another new 10 lvls. Also at round lvl 18 u'll miss (or at least i was ^^; heh heh) BGM and being close to town.

[Ameroth]

I'm paying $13/month to have fun, not to be bored.

Well you don't have to play. Anyway, you're right, as a newb it can seem like it takes a while to level to 10, it'll be worth it. Depending on your job, you may find it easier to target easy prey mobs and kill them quickly instead of targeting decent challenge or even match mobs.

Also, make sure you always have signet up, and buy an Empress Band when you get 1000 conquest points. Makes leveling much easier when the enchant is in effect.

[Hidavi]

^Yeah, I just got the band, so much better!!!

[Malacite]

What job are you playing, and how recently did you join? We just had a 5th anniversary celebration where everyone could get an Anniversary Ring (10 charges, +100% EXP, Max Bonus of 3000 EXP lasts 12 hours takes 1 hour to re-use). It's too bad really that it was only available for such a short time.


But yeah, the lower levels are hell the first time around. Any info on what job you are, race, and what city you started in would be good so we can offer advice based on that knowledge.

[Hidavi]

^I joined 3 days ago. I'm a lvl 11 monk.

[Hidavi]

Wow, that ring really helps! I got to lvl 12 in no-time!

[wrongfeifong]

You will soon see you will level several job because their sub are quite lock into today's people expectation and standard.

Like corsair (i hope you AREN't planning to play this as main job) You need to level rng to 37, whm to 37, and nin to 37. BRD is optional but it really helps getting a party.

[Achaicus]

As Ameroth's said - you level faster with easy stuff.

I also mix in greater difficulty to enhance the increasing of skills. You might even find that KOing may be a "time effective" thing to get evasion &/or shield skills (for example) to increase more readily when leveling your 1st job(s).

Also, I use lower level jobs to farm crystals for crafting. I reccommend that every new player place as much emphasis as possible to such things as farming to raise gil along with leveling your 1st two jobs to level ten.

Although this is inaccessible until someone gets a job to level 30, I like to sub Bard with jobs that primarily meelee at lower levels. Songs don't require MP so I spend even less time sitting to heal. In fact, zero time healing once I get to level ten and bard sub gets the 1st paeon at level 5 (that's a HP regen song). That is how I farm with the thf job, btw - no sitting at all! :D

[little ninja]

Quit life, you will get to 75 allot faster... =)

[Feba]

I'm paying $13/month to have fun, not to be bored.

If you don't enjoy leveling, you might as well quit FFXI. That's about all you'll do for the first three months at least, except for maybe two-four hours of missions (maximum)

I disagree with your mentor though, unless you're short on cash, level your first job to 18 ASAP, other jobs level so much easier afterwards when you have a subjob. Even MNK/WHM is better (solo) than a MNK.

[emeraldpearl]

as feba said, once you aquire level 18, and have done your sub job quest, leveling from there is abit more faster and alot more fun. if you still find leveling boring after 18 then quit...

[Jarre]

The thing is FFXI isn't a game where you get instant results of gratification. You have to work at it to do the things you want later on. Alot of teh rewards are in the higher elvels, but to get there you need to learn the game to do that well. Yes it can be frustrating, boring to get those first 18 levels on your first character, then do it again to get a subjob leveled, but after the first 2 jobs to 20 it gets more interesting, you go to jeuno, do chocobo quest which opens up riding and raising chocobos. There are many milestones, non enjoyable things to do, but to get to that goal you need to grin and bear it, it does get better.

FFXI is not an easy game, you need to work at it, if you just want an easy way to teh top, this is not a game for you.

[hongman]

Find a friend.

I almost stopped playing early on due to said frustrations, but found its a lot more enjoyable in the beginning exploring with a friend, doing quests and missions, etc.

[Saren]

Like other people have said here, ffxi isn’t big on instant or even moderately speedy gratification, it’s fairly hardcore and there is some graft involved. Also like other people said, get 18 first and then go back and start on subjobs, levelling 1-10 with pretty much any subjob is easier than levelling without a sub.

That being said, try and cap your skills (and keep them there), try some cheap food and listen to hongman, friends help a lot.

Grilled Hare (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Grilled_Hare) – check out the cooking guild if you are in Windurst, else you can try the AH or make it yourself if you want, it’s only a level 6 cooking recipy. It lasts 3 hours, poeple level cooking on it so even if you aren’t in Windurst you might be able to get it cheap on the AH and it should up your kill speed. Made a noticable difference when I was doing bard and rdm to 10.

Selbina Milk (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Selbina_Milk) – hp regen food, you can use this along with the grilled hare if you want. Could be handy for emergencies if you don’t have any type of self cure but it would be relatively expensive for a newbie to use many of these (thought they are still a lot cheaper than potions etc), not to mention filling your inventory.

skill caps by job (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Skill_Caps) – if you scroll down there is a list of links at the bottom that will give you your skills and there caps for each level for your job.

I have to in part agree with Achaicus on the skill front, keeping your main skills capped is very important, especially once you start partying. If your skills are behind it might be worth taking a drop in exp rate and take on harder monsters for a while to get your skills up even though the exp is slower (more per kill but more resting). Your weapon skill level has a direct effect on your accuracy and you will find it much easier when you start to party if your skill is at or close to cap. The mobs you will fight with parties will be higher level and consequently harder to hit so if your skill is significantly under cap you will be looking at a lot of misses. Also the more you hit the mob the more chances you have to skill up and the easier it will be to keep your skill capped.

[Malacite]

You've joined in what I deem to be the worst period for new players. Ever. It's not your fault of course, but the average count for say Valkurm Dunes, the first area you'll start partying in (on my server anyway) is 50 people at best.

Back when I joined in 2003, it wasn't unusual to see almost (if not more than) 200. A lot of people are at or near the top now, so leveling and partying at the lower levels is much more of challenge now. Don't let that discourage you though; you haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg yet in terms of the game's real content.