Final Fantasy XI Leveling (was forum=22)Follow

FFXI is a completely different game than it was a couple years ago. It is entirely possible to reach lv50 in a day or two (especially if you know what you're doing). Ambitious players would have no trouble reaching lv99 within a week.


Also, there is an edit button, for future reference.

He's lying, alla does not actually have a FFXI forum.

Edited, May 3rd 2012 9:30pm by xypin

I played on and off (XI) for some time. Never really made it into the serious meat and potatoes of the game, most I did was lvl SAM to 65, WAR to 37, and a few other jobs to random lvls.

I noticed the edit option after I posted my fix, regardless, thank you for the info. As far as the existence of XI forums, I'm aware of that, but this was posted in the general discussions area, which if I'm not mistaken is free to anything.

Ahh. Just seems kind of silly for General Discussion to be open to everything except that. I'm probably sticking with XIV anyways, more or less just wanted some clarification on what my friend stated. Seemed odd to ding 50 in a day with no PL, or Burning. I remember spending 3 months just to hit 65 on a Sub Job, and for vets it was even longer (supposedly).

Gah. That doesn't really sound all that fun. I'd love to play a SAM again, but blowing through it doesn't seem that great. So the game truly is on easy mode?

A GoV alliance is actually more fun and less stressful than a six man party was. (If you have to go potty, no one will yell at you for breaking the chain.) And if you've got a level 99 friend in Bostineaux Oubliette, they can play with your level 60 with a negligible impact on exp.

The biggest difference now is that instead of waiting until level 10, there has been a bigger movement to get people into that social atmosphere from the very start.

We see dozens of "I'm new to this game" threads everyday and every single one contains at least one "Start on server X and join my linkshell!" reply.

IMO the game was better before Aby. all people want to do is take the easy way out and reach lvl 99 as quickly as they can.

Forum=22, which is the forum that you originally posted this in before it was moved, is for General Video Game Discussion, which is for the discussion of video games that don't have specific section. Each game that ZAM specifically covers (Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV, etc) has their own General Discussion section for topics specific to that game. Forum=10 for example is the General Discussion section for Final Fantasy XI, so all topics regarding FFXI that don't fall specifically under server or job related subjects would go here.

1-50 in a day is only possible through 'power levelling', as you call it. The majority of this is either done via Abyssea leeching, or more often done through GoV where you're almost invariably level-capped and thus cannot progress your skills beyond that level cap. Solo XP is still a very slow grind, with mobs giving 200xp for an even match, and "Fields of Valor" books offering 1-4k small bonuses for killing a certain number of various mobs.

The latter, Fields of Valor, also often requires players to traverse long distances to find their target mobs and then return to the book for renewing their missions because they're still rather few and far between. Anyone who can level to 50 in a day solo is either a Beastmaster or is spending their entire 24 hours grinding non-stop without rest. I don't doubt you can now race through the first few levels easily enough, I've done it myself, but it slows down at around level 20, with mobs getting progressively stronger than the players. Even with Grounds of Valor, it could take a while to hit 50.

Those are rare cases, and there are still some people who like to level 'vanilla' so to speak. The majority, however, seem to prefer GoV and thus the major team aspects are centred around going to a dungeon and going through pages like Johnny 5 in a library. I stand with my previous argument, you still level too quickly to keep most of that old equipment relevant, and if you truly can level as fast as you claim, you'd need 50 levels worth of equipment for your chosen job just to kick start the thing. Inventory space notwithstanding.

If there's one thing I've learned in my long days of playing various MMOs is that if there's a quicker and more efficient way of doing something, that's how it will be done by the majority. Skill ups can be done at higher levels, so people have little incentive to skill as they level, preferring to hit 99 and then work on building their skills afterwards. Mages can get around this slightly by using Scholar as a support job because it automatically raises your skill levels to a D-cap rating for your chosen Arts. allowing the majority of your spells to land with accuracy and potency.

While I certainly respect you for doing things the old fashioned way, you're very much in the minority. Anyone low levels not paying to do Abyssea FC's is likely in a GoV group somewhere, and it's very rare to see anyone soloing except at very low levels. Times change, and what a change it's been.

Is NIN still ungodly expensive??

GoV can be soloed, and thus doesn't involve any form of level capping, especially at 60+, but it's true at all levels... (Unless you're alliance book burning in Gusgen, CN, which is not what I actually suggest)


Solo xp for 200 xp even matches is terrible. The page XP, even solo, is where the bulk of your XP/hour comes from, and for that you don't need even matches, you just need XP-granting mobs (so easy prey or above). Don't forget the stacking +4% xp per page every page you complete (ending up at +100% XP after 25 pages)

Also, the haste, attack, accuracy and WS bonus from doing pages is extremly helpful, as are the free buffs offered by the books. Grounds of Valor is insane, and 4k bonus is far from "small". The Oubliettes pages (that you can start actively fighting at 60+) is 4100 xp for 9 mobs. That's 455 xp per mob...


Nobody should use Fields of Valor anymore, unless it's combined with farming or magian trials. Fields is just so terrible compared to Grounds of Valor, even solo.
In any case, both Fields and Grounss don't require you to return to the book anymore, it happens instantly after you get the XP, so you can get a book, and go murder every easy prey in the map.

Also, nobody should consider grinding on Fields of Valor. Really, I mean it.


It takes between 10 and 12 hours at a casualish pace if you know where to go, and it doesn't involve Beastmaster or even /Bst, although when I did it on BST, it was fairly safer and I think faster than on ninja. I'm not talking out of my ***, I'm not getting PLed or leeching, so I don't know how you claim it can't be done...


No need to prepack all that gear, you return to town often enough that you can simply buy what you need on the AH or pick up scraps in your moghouse...

Perhaps I should detail the "journey" of a level 1-50 in-a-day business from a casualish player, so I'll go ahead and do that:

Bastok has been my home on most characters, so you can try to translate this to other towns, but here goes:
1-7 in Zeruhn mines, page 1 (because there's not enough crabs really, even if the page 2 is better). In anyway, you'll be done in no time. Suggested to use XP ring here, because it's one of the rare time you fight even matches.
7-21 in Dangruf Wadi. You start with Page1 and move up to Page2 and Page3 as the former start going {Too Weak}. Page 3 is the most dangerous and exciting one as it usually involves dodging agro from goblins. Best is to farm Page2 as long as humanly possible before moving on. You should hit the 25 pages XP chain bonus on Page 3, which gives something like 980 XP a pop at that point.
21-42 in Korroloka Tunnel (Page 1 at first, move to Page2 then Page 4 all the way). It's a rough start at 21, though, so optionally you may want to hit Gusgen for a jump start. BST or my RDM duo were fine at 21 (yay familiar!) but my ninja had a bit more of a problem (possibly because I only quest Utsu:Ichi at level 70).
42-50 in Sea Serpent Grotto. (Page 1 all the way). This involves dealing with some wandering Sahags, but they are fun enough to kill. Bards are a PITA as they often dispel your book buffs (Regen, Reraise, whatever)

So if you follow my above journey, you need:
-A level 1 weapon to start off. I suggest using your bare hands unless you can't. Level 1 RSE is fine until 7-8
-Level 7 armor and weapon for the Wadi. You can bring some level 15 gear if you have it and upgrade there.
-Level 21 armor for Korroloka. You can bring your level 27-33 RSE and maybe even a couple of level 30 and 40 CP gear if it's good for your job. Level 21 and 30 weapon is more than enough here.
-AF weapon and some key level 40+ items (Walkures mask, Headlong belt, Brigandine armor, accuracy rings, etc.) for SSG.

/DNC helps a lot, having conquest warps obviously makes going to SSG faster. All other areas I level are within 2 zones of Bastok Mines.
Killing LOTS of bats and leeches in there, so get used to the idea of fighting with Attack Down debuff, unless you're DNC or WHM main.

And as I said in my other post, doing all that in a perma Duo or trio, or with random strangers? Infinitely more fun, but totally not required.

Also note: if you follow this path to 50, you won't end up with capped skills quite, but the sahagins are 41-45, so should con as decent challenge even at 49~50, meaning you could go and purposely agro more of them for skill ups. I suggest doing the same to Gigas while in Korro, for the same reasons.


Unless you work in B.I. or analytics, you don't know if that's the majority. You're guessing, but your guesses are limited to your point of view, which means you look at your friends, the forum posters, the LS you're in, and the server you're on.

There are plenty of people outside your scope who probably don't play by the rules you're familiar with. It's also very easy to stop seeing the bigger picture and focus on things that annoy us.

Edited, May 5th 2012 11:25am by Docent42

Edited, May 5th 2012 2:21pm by Docent42