This is a quick guide on ways to level up your character fairly quickly when entering the ShadowBringers expansion and to get to the new level cap of level 80. Though this is for adventures looking to get to level 80, this can also work for adventurers at level 50, looking to level up. This is also aimed at those who may not have the time to invest a night of gaming on FFXIV, so if you are looking to level up and only have a couple of hours to play on the game, this guide may help you Kupo!
Introduction
All credit goes to ReRe 9000!
Hello Fellow Adventurers!
Thank you for coming and looking at this guide on how to level up for ShadowBringers.
This guide is not aimed at experienced players or those who will be inputting loads of hours (say around 5+ hours) on a single night of playing. If you are like me and can only put in around 2 or 3 hours every two or three days or maybe just 2 hours every night, then this guide may help you on reaching level 80 and help you enjoy the brilliant story of ShadowBringers without running into the barrier of level requirement when doing quests and story quests.
Lets get to it Kupo!
Before Attempting
Before trying this method of leveling and/or reading on throughout this guide, it is important to read this section so you are aware of what is the structure of leveling up.
The structure of this leveling guide will need to be repeated every day as it involves daily roulettes and weekly challenges. It is a GRIND in every sense of the word. It may seem boring to some players and a pain and to some even a waste of time, but the outcome and results of doing this method are well worth the time and effort, even more so if you want to enjoy the story of ShadowBringers without hitting barriers in story quests due to not being a high or the required level.
If you have around 2 or 3 hours to input into a session of FFXIV, then this method will be what you will be doing for around 4 or 5 days to hit the later levels of 70 and closer to later game levels.
As with anything in the game, if you have friends or FC members that will party up with you, the better as it will shorten queue times, likely encounter less toxic players and playing with friends is fun anyways.
Also, regarding Jobs and roles.
This guide does not work in favour with any specific job. You can follow this playing as any job or role. Personally, I used this method when playing Samurai, a melee DPS, so I encountered the longest of queue times when looking for duties without friends, but in the end, it was worth it.
Leveling Guide
If you have read the section before this one and know what is needed then………
Welcome to the Guide on the Leveling!
After a reaching level 70, you are welcomed with an exp requirement of around 15 million exp to hit 71. 15 million may seem like a lot of exp needed to level up and the levels after will steadily increase on the amount of exp needed to reach the next level. From level 79-80, the exp needed to level up is around 35 million exp.
It looks terrifying but it is actually not that bad.
There are three things which you will need to do every time you log in at least to gain loads of exp. You may have done this when leveling up for HeavensWard and StormBlood. This is to do the daily roulettes.
The first one you should do is the MS Roulette (The main scenario roulette). Yes I know this is horrible and very time consuming, even more so with The Praetorium. BUT you will want to do this as the exp you get from completing these is enough to fill up to a third of the exp bar. It is even BETTER if you DO GET PRAETORIUM as the exp for that roulette seems to be much higher than Castrum Meriadum (I think that is how you spell it). The higher you are, the more exp you can get. From level 79, I got around 18 million exp from completing the roulette, almost hitting the halfway point of the exp bar.
Queues for Roulettes seem to have gotten shorter as when registering as a DPS i was getting queues that lasted around 5 minutes with the longest being around 9.
Once you have done this, the next step is to do the Alliance Raids. This will last 20 minutes (With mine as I kept getting ARR raids) and will grant you around 3-5 million exp at level 70. The lower the Raid Dungeon, the more exp you will likely get, so the lower the better.
Finally, once completing the Alliance Raid, you will want to do the Leveling Roulette to get that easy exp boost for completing it. This exp can range from around 4 -8 million exp depending on the dungeon you get.
Doing all of these three duties will net you around 9-12 million exp at level 70, making level 71 only a short walk. If you have time, then the trials should be the next duty to attempt, then level 60 duty then the 8 man alliance raid. This will get you enough exp to level up.
Doing this for will take around 2.5 to 3.5 hours per session and doing this for around 4 or 5 working days will get you to around level 74 or 75. This will help you breeze through the start of ShadowBringers and making you reach the first and second dungeon of the expansion.
The first dungeons will net you a lot of exp as common enemies will give you around 35,000 exp per kill.
By doing this for 4 or 5 days you can spend a weekend playing the story comfortably, doing level 71-74 quests at level 75.
Then rinse and repeat for the next sessions you are on.
A few things to note is that when unlocking the first dungeon, you can use the Trust system to avoid queues and enter the dungeon quickly. This will give you rights over loot but it may take longer to complete as NPC’s take control of the other roles and pulls are not as big as when players play.
Repeating the first Dungeon with friends is fine and will net you some exp and result in you completing it quicker as pulls can be larger.
It is not recommended to do Heaven on High now as the time it takes and the amount of exp you earn will be the same as you get when you are level 69.
So if you have a couple of hours to play, this guide may help you get some quick levels in and enjoy the story when you have time you sit and relax and enjoy the game.
/playtime will show how long you have played for
For the amount of classes this game let you play at the same time and character, I still think the leveling is painfully slow; almost all the the time I give up around level 45 from level 1.