Is grinding efficient, or is questing the best?

bizzy2010

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twrule

It's not that straightforward really.

In the first couple levels, killing mobs is quick, but up to about level 10-12ish depending on zone, questing is best. After that, FATE grinding seems to really pull ahead - but those are even better if you stop to get quests, because they usually have you kill the same mobs.

So it's more like - keep the story and class quests up to date, follow your hunting log to show you the area you should be at that level - gather up all the nearby subquests, then go out doing FATEs and hunting log, completing those quests in the process.

You should almost never be just killing mobs without some form of bonus xp attached to them.

Digna

Questing usually. Go kill X bad guys at 150xp per with a quest reward of 3K. So you can go kill 30 bad guys or you can kill 10 to get the same XP.

That said, since you can only do a quest 1x per character you will be grinding some. This mitigated a lot by the dungeons, guild and levehests party runs, kill logs (hunting) and going to one of the other city states to get 'starter' quests (at least up to level 20 or so).

 

If you level a 3rd class (on the assumption that folks will level a main and a 2nd for a 'job') you'll see more grinding.

 

 

Edit: FATES....your leveling friend....

rojoArcueid

questing and doing other content is better. You wouldnt want to pay a subscription to grind mobs...... would you? That experience is much hardcore on F2P mmos. At least i personally expect the very least mob grind possible if i am being charged to play. FF14 offers lots of content to avoid mob grind. Still mob killing but not awful mob grind.

Sephiroso

Anyone telling you questing is best is just speaking from experience from other games. Questing is nowhere near better than grinding(in a party). Only time questing is better is if you're soloing. Best way to level in this game is first off, being in a party, second off doing fates with said party as soon as they pop, third off, killing mobs at least 1 level higher than you so as to start exp chains.

 

Getting and staying at high chains gives you insane amounts of exp compared to questing. And everyone should mostly be attacking the same few mobs. You don't want everyone burning down 1 but you do wanna make sure you burn mobs down quick with the aid of your party members at higher chains cause the time until it resets gets lower and lower higher you go.

Draemos

Originally posted by rojo6934
questing and doing other content is better. You wouldnt want to pay a subscription to grind mobs...... would you? That experience is much hardcore on F2P mmos. At least i personally expect the very least mob grind possible if i am being charged to play. FF14 offers lots of content to avoid mob grind. Still mob killing but not awful mob grind.

Actually questing is probably one of the slower leveling methods.  It's fast enough and varied enough that its probably a better time investment for enjoyment, but grinding FATES in a party & utilizing chain bonuses from grinding mobs is probably the fastest for just grinding levels.

Grinding instances is also pretty fast assuming you have a good group and instant queues.

Digna

Prehaps the OP should state whether he/she intends to solo PvE or is willing to run groups/LS etc since quest is corect for one and not (as much) for the other.

Syno23

I will be doing questing, my days of grinding are over unless it's in a party similar to FFXI's grinding system.

evianwater

Originally posted by rojo6934
questing and doing other content is better. You wouldnt want to pay a subscription to grind mobs...... would you? That experience is much hardcore on F2P mmos. At least i personally expect the very least mob grind possible if i am being charged to play. FF14 offers lots of content to avoid mob grind. Still mob killing but not awful mob grind.

We paid a subscription to grind mobs in Everquest!

Ilaya

The Best is what fit's your Playstyle most. The one you get the most Fun from. That's the one.....not what others tell/advise you.

AlBQuirky

May I ask, OP, "What's the rush?"

FFXIV:ARR has so much in the game you should really try to enjoy it. Read the story the devs created for you. Try some crafting and see what you think. Why do you want to "level efficiently?"

Shauneepeak

Simple monster grinding up until around level 8 is fine and is most likely faster than actual questing. After that no basic monster grinding is not efficient however leve and dungeon grinding most definitely are dungeon grinding with a good group at higher levels is probably faster than questing though we can not really say for certain right now because Phase 3 ended with the level 24 quests. But I can say at level 32+ dungeon grinding was the fastest option out of leves, guildhests, and monster grinding.

TwoThreeFour

Instead of maximizing your exp, you should focus on maximizing your fun. Just saying.

Ralstlin

the best way to level up, is dungeon with Duty finder.

Sephiroso

Originally posted by Shauneepeak
Simple monster grinding up until around level 8 is fine and is most likely faster than actual questing. After that no basic monster grinding is not efficient however leve and dungeon grinding most definitely are dungeon grinding with a good group at higher levels is probably faster than questing though we can not really say for certain right now because Phase 3 ended with the level 24 quests. But I can say at level 32+ dungeon grinding was the fastest option out of leves, guildhests, and monster grinding.

chaining mobs + nearby fates >=  dungeon grinding. and dungeon grinding requires an actually good party with low to zero down time to be any use. chaining mobs don't really need a great party since they're just regular mobs. so for the majority of players, chaining mobs + nearby fates will be far better than dungeon farming.

Shauneepeak

Originally posted by Sephiroso

Originally posted by Shauneepeak
Simple monster grinding up until around level 8 is fine and is most likely faster than actual questing. After that no basic monster grinding is not efficient however leve and dungeon grinding most definitely are dungeon grinding with a good group at higher levels is probably faster than questing though we can not really say for certain right now because Phase 3 ended with the level 24 quests. But I can say at level 32+ dungeon grinding was the fastest option out of leves, guildhests, and monster grinding.

chaining mobs + nearby fates >=  dungeon grinding. and dungeon grinding requires an actually good party with low to zero down time to be any use. chaining mobs don't really need a great party since they're just regular mobs. so for the majority of players, chaining mobs + nearby fates will be far better than dungeon farming.

Oh yeah I forgot about that, crap I wish I could remember the region it was the region out side of the dungeon before Haukke was that Deepcroft? It was the poisonous one that is great for mid 20s to low 30s in phase 3 there were always at least 3 fates going on at once lol. But even in a fate hotzone I still found running Haukke with a good team far more exp I was raking in 70k+ exp per run in around half an hour with my party. This may have been with rested bonus I can't remember but it was still a good deal better than camping fates at least as an Archer.

 

Also big thing to consider Chainkilling+Fates= Only Gil/ingredients and Exp

Dung running= Huge amount of gil, probably similar amount of ingredients and the big thing Chest loot

Sephiroso

Originally posted by Shauneepeak

Originally posted by Sephiroso

Originally posted by Shauneepeak
Simple monster grinding up until around level 8 is fine and is most likely faster than actual questing. After that no basic monster grinding is not efficient however leve and dungeon grinding most definitely are dungeon grinding with a good group at higher levels is probably faster than questing though we can not really say for certain right now because Phase 3 ended with the level 24 quests. But I can say at level 32+ dungeon grinding was the fastest option out of leves, guildhests, and monster grinding.

chaining mobs + nearby fates >=  dungeon grinding. and dungeon grinding requires an actually good party with low to zero down time to be any use. chaining mobs don't really need a great party since they're just regular mobs. so for the majority of players, chaining mobs + nearby fates will be far better than dungeon farming.

Oh yeah I forgot about that crap I wish I could remember the region it was the region out side of the dungeon before Haukke was that Deepcroft? It was the poisonous one that is great for mid 20s to low 30s in phase 3 there were always at least 3 fates going on at once lol. But even in a fate hotzone I still find running Haukke with a good team far more exp I was raking in 70k+ exp per run in around half an hour with my party. This may have been with rested bonus I can't remember but it was still a good deal better than camping fates at least as an Archer.

Fates honestly don't even give you more exp than if you were to just stay put and continue chaining mobs. Chaining mobs gives more than the bulk exp fates give you. This is why i said nearby fates cause if you're already right there in the area of a fate might as well keep chaining while doing the fate.

 

Also you said doing the dungeon was better than camping fates as an archer...so were you not doing it as a group? When people say they grind fates, they're actually just chaining mobs 75% of the time and the other 25% doing fates. So its still really mostly just a chain mob group. And it has to be done in a group, not solo for it to be efficient.

BadSpock

Get a small party - maybe 3 people, tank/heal/dps.

Pick up as many Guildleves as you can, start them all at +4 level difficulty.

Grind them out with your group.

Tons of XP and money.

Also, the higher your highest class is, if you are leveling up a second class you get huge XP bonuses.

For example, if you have Lancer at 30 and switch to Gladiator at 1, you'll get I think more than 50% bonus XP.

But as you level Gladiator closer to 30, that bonus XP % falls.

Dungeons are great XP.

Fates are great XP, but don't really worry about grinding fates till you do your Grand Company quests and can start farming Fate for seals.

Leveling up your first class though, you will get amazing XP and level very quickly just doing quests because of all the area quests + main story quests + class quests + hunting log + fates + dungeons for main story...

 

bizzy2010

Thanks for some of the responses. And to those trying to push their gaming agenda on what you think i "SHOULD" be doing? Please stop trying to control others on how you think the game should be played.

 

Now the question comes up.. If my friend plays a class that doesn't start in the same city. How do we join up? I mean... if being in party helps level faster, we can't do that , until we can meet up.Anyway to meet up before level 10 or 15?

 

 

And also... do mobs ever drop wearable loot or is questing the only way to get loot 1-10?

Sephastus

OP Question was "Is grinding efficient, or is questing the best?"

 

Layered answer:

 

1) If you are solo, questing is best, since you cannot chain monsters quick enough to keep a long exp chain going.

 

2) If you do not have friends, but still like to group, then dungeons, and particularly Guildhests early on, (up to level 30) is the quickest, and most rewarding way to get experience

 

3) If you have friends, then having a tank, heal and dps, and grinding mobs in an area with nearby Fates is your most efficient way of quickly leveling.

 

4) If by efficient, you really are referring to "fun", then there is no answer for you. I find that I have TONS of fun just going out and mining, gathering and crafting... but that is just me... I do not level up fast my adventuring classes, but I still have tons of fun.

Sephiroso

Originally posted by bizzy2010

Thanks for some of the responses. And to those trying to push their gaming agenda on what you think i "SHOULD" be doing? Please stop trying to control others on how you think the game should be played.

 

Now the question comes up.. If my friend plays a class that doesn't start in the same city. How do we join up? I mean... if being in party helps level faster, we can't do that , until we can meet up.Anyway to meet up before level 10 or 15?

you ask people to tell you if grinding or questing is better, then turn around and say some were trying to push their gaiming agenda on you telling you what you should be doing....i dont even

Lebros89

Questing seems to be faster experience for the long-haul.. but from levels 1-8 if you're a strong class (I did this on Marauder) you can burn through those in minutes by chaining mobs consecutively. The dungeons didn't give very good experience until the Manor (lvl 29), either. But however you like to level is the way you should do it, in my opinion. The areas are amazing looking and you can find some pretty funny/awesome FATEs if your timing is right in certain zones.

Digna

I don't think anyone was pushing thier gaming agenda, imho.

 

Some folks might have stated thier preferred methods more specifically than others of us who waffle around the edges a bit....but no one had an agenda that I could see.

 

Not sure what agenda they might have really....

 

GoldenArrow

Grinding by chain killing/fates/dungeons is the fastest way.

Quests give you another option if you aren't into grinding.

Digna

On the subject of grinding....did anyone get anything worth mentioning from humanoid mobs? I spent maybe an hour killing goblins just to see if ahything would drop and didnt see very much. XP for sure but I don't think anything else?

 

I realized after that those mobs might have been the wrong onesto test against as they were associated with an occasional toggleable FATE but was curious if anyone else saw the same or different?

 

(I know some of the leve humanoid mobs drop the occasional 1 gil and 'beast' type mobs dropped crafting mats pretty commonly)

Sephiroso

Originally posted by Digna

On the subject of grinding....did anyone get anything worth mentioning from humanoid mobs? I spent maybe an hour killing goblins just to see if ahything would drop and didnt see very much. XP for sure but I don't think anything else?

 

I realized after that those mobs might have been the wrong onesto test against as they were associated with an occasional toggleable FATE but was curious if anyone else saw the same or different?

 

(I know some of the leve humanoid mobs drop the occasional 1 gil and 'beast' type mobs dropped crafting mats pretty commonly)

nah just got crafting mats, didn't get 1 single weapon/armor/item drop aside from crafting mats. i think thats because of this games crafting system. i don't think armor/weapons/items will drop period outside of dungeons/raids.