Honestly, I've done fine playing BST (these days, /BST) old-school, using charmed DC/EM vs. EM-T: I only use jugs in special fights and Campaign. I can chain about as well as I did in the gnarly days of yore, Chain 3 typically, and I still have a ton of fun with it. Every job is different, but /bst gives a lot of security even in dangerous areas.
With the sparks objectives and the field manuals, the exp is good enough that it's not frustrating, but **the point really should be to enjoy yourself and play the game, not get to 99 with only a tenuous grip on how to play the job**. It might not be the fastest way to level, using charmed mobs, but I think it would be great for a new player who needs to earn gil and get a feel for what s/he's doing. I might get to 99 in a month killing EPs for manual EXP, but will I know what to do then when things go south in a major fight, or how to recover from a quintuple link situation vs. mobs that are critting me to orange? Will I live and learn and buy a Vitality set to swap in on Fight, or will I buy one set of gear like a Warrior and be unprepared for a changing situation? BST used to be about dying a lot, but it was a hell of a learning experience.
As a new player, I say don't worry about hyper-exp, it seems like that will probably hurt you more than help and there's plenty of time for that when you have three jobs to cap and you're working with enough gil to gear everything.
Olorinus the Ludicrous wrote:
This is not true at endgame. These days I farm on other jobs so I can afford BST. Hello spending half a million on a stack of jugs...
See, this is why I say you should take it easy, be a packrat on the way up and level your crafts. I might spend a lot on mats for jugs (only if I can't farm them), but a stack of mats will make several stacks of jugs, and if I'm judicious with what I use where, it's not that expensive for me.