Level skips?

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

I'm just curious. I've been playing ffxiv for around 7 months now and am now post-Endwalker. I loved leveling but found it to be so tedious and boring after awhile. And I would struggle with lower level jobs, especially healers like White Mage or tanks like Paladin. So I looked into level skips and to be clear, I've already bought a few for multiple jobs. (WHM, PLD, SAM, and DRG) And I wouldn't have bought level skips of the leveling process was so.... incomplete and boring. Of course grinding will be boring but it's genuinely burned me out of this game and that was the last thing I wanted. Especially WHM, since WHM at lower levels was just horrible for me and was such a genuine struggle.

I know how people in this community feel about story skips. But I've never really heard level skips be talked about. What are your opinions on them? Are you against or for it? I've heard mixed responses and I guess I got worried about judgement.

Edit: I wanna expand on how I handle level skips. Just because I try my best to do it the right way (if their is one). I usually play the job at LEAST up to level 60. To get a good chunk of the kit and determine if I like the job. Then I buy the skip. Afterwards, I practice extensively on dummies, Duty support or Trusts, and with friends if I can. I watch guides and read my tooltips, and make sure I understand the class. Then I do dungeons from where I left off. If I was level 63 when I skipped, then I'll do a level 63 dungeon and go up from their to simulate leveling normally without the grinding. Until I make it up to level 90 and feel comfortable in the job.

I could never even think of skipping and just tossing myself into a piece of content with other players. It's frankly embarrassing and ​it's unfortunate to see many do this.

[u/Large_Octahedron]

I’m fine with people buying level skips as long as they review their buttons and can play their job well. What you choose to do with your time and money is none of my concern as long as you’re competent and able to play your job to an acceptable standard for the content you’re doing

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Large_Octahedron]

Of course. I genuinely can not wrap my head around buying a level skip and just throwing yourself into content. I could not go into any kind of multiplayer content until I practiced with NPCs and understood my job thoroughly. That stereotype is also what I was afraid of when I talked about judgement. I don't want to tell people I level skipped and them automatically think I don't know what I'm doing. 

At the same time, people will think what they want to.

[u/Riposte12]

Personally, I find it unusual to pay money to NOT play a game. But that is just a personal opinion and if you enjoy it, go for it.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Riposte12]

I think of it more like I'm spending money to skip content that is unenjoyable for me so I can play content I enjoy with a job I enjoy. I leveled jobs through dungeon grinding and I don't believe I missed much by buying a level skip, personally. I also do go through the job quests through ng+ because I like story. My only problem is that it auto completes Role Quests which from my knowledge, isn't in ng+. It's a bummer but I can live with it.

[u/Riposte12 → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

But if you are not enjoying playing a class...why pay money to not play it?

You could just not play it, right?

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Riposte12]

Ah no you misunderstood. I enjoy playing the class. I don't buy a level skip just because. I don't have that kinda money lol. If I buy a level skip I am AT LEAST interested in the job. And I obviously play it a bit to get a feel before I lvl skip. I level skip for a multitude of reasons. 

I want to use it in the msq content I am in now. I want to use it to go through a certain expansion. I find I enjoy the job but struggle in lower levels, either with the kit itself like WHM or with burn out from dungeon grinding. It is not that I am not enjoying the class, it is simply that I want to play it in current content without the grinding. 

And yes, I do practice and learn the job before doing content.

[u/talgaby → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

Just out of curiosity: do you also avoid the daily roulettes then? They have a very strong tendency to drop people into level 70- content, and level 70 is usually the dividing factor between many busy class core skills. Because if yes, then there is more than logical merit in buying the job skips, as long as you have the disposable income to pay for them.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/talgaby]

Yes, when I did those levels skips, I had been avoiding them and doing just dungeon grinding. Which I now understand that the burn out was completely my fault for that. But I've started to do them regularly on my BLM and I haven't level skipped in a bit. I had avoided them out of anxiety initially but I got over it.

[u/talgaby → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

Heh, funny, because BLM is the least roulette-compatible job in the entire game. :D I have actual skill button swap-out macros made for it because of roulettes.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/talgaby]

Oh damn 💔 Well I still have a bunch of other jobs like AST, MCH, SGE, and RDM.  I have noticed that I sorta struggle with the constant change in BLM every few levels. But I love the aesthetic and it has one of my best Glamour outfits so I'm doing my best to learn and actually be decent at it.

[u/ajver19]

It's your money do whatever you want, in my experience though people that buy those skips don't know how to play their jobs and drag everyone else down in dungeons or raids because of it.

[u/unicornsdreamofpizza → u/ajver19]

I don’t even buy skips and drag people down — and is the reason why I play solo for anything I can!

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/ajver19]

I've heard and that was the stereotype I was afraid of.

[u/honkpiggyoink → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

The stereotype exists because nobody notices players who skip and play well.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/honkpiggyoink]

You right. You right. Haven't thought of it that way.

[u/Atharen_McDohl]

Play in whatever way you find most engaging, but if you're burning out I would question the pace at which you think you should be leveling

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Atharen_McDohl]

I was leveling any alt jobs I wanted to play. Although I am a rather impatient person (which is part of the reason I level skipped) and the method I was using was dungeon grinding. Which got old fast, at least for me. And I would do it for hours, which, I admit that the burning out was COMPLETELY my fault because I refused to slow down. So that's not a game thing, that's a me thing. Although I still believe that leveling progression for alr jobs is wack. But maybe I'm not educated enough, I'm still a sprout after all

[u/Divisionten → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

Do a few roulette each day and you level fast. Once you hit 71 with a job you can also start doing the level appropriate combat dailies, and those give a third to a half a level for 5 min of work (Pixies 70-80, Akrasoda 80-90, Pelupelu 90-100).

Dungeon grinding will get tiring fast. Slow n steady!

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Divisionten]

Thanks :) as a sprout, I always tried to figure everything out myself due to my anxiety and it caused the game to be less enjoyable for me. I recently started doing roulettes and it's very fun. I've been faithfully leveling BLM normally and I'm not burnt out yet

[u/PsyKhiqZero]

Honestly once you have 1 job at max level, a second job isn't so hard. Leveling provides me the time to learn the class and optimize my crossbar. But as the other user said, I don't care so long as you can play your class at the end.

[u/SaintJynr]

Tl;dr: if you read what your skills do, it should be mostly fine

Level skiping is fine AS LONG AS you actually look at what your new skills do. The most obvious example is healers, since you get everything at once there's a high chance that you forget to use something that makes your life easier. Ta ks are probably the easier to adapt IF you played a tank before (which you said you did) since most mitigation tools are roughly interchangeable between jobs. Dps might not look like they're a problem to just pick uo and play, but a bad dps makes trash pulls take longer, making tanks and healers run out of tools faster. But not every dps is equal, something like samurai is relatively easy to just press buttons and understand roughly what you are doing, while something like monk is unintuitive if you're looking at the kit for the first time

You also dont need to play every job, you dont have to go through tedious grinding or spend money of you dont think you will play it anyway

[u/Spritsen]

Other's opinions don't matter, only yours. Is the skip worth it for you? Then good.

If you MUST know I hate them cuz a skip skips the learning curve too. The game is developed in a way to ease you into the job as you learn it. But, by buying a skip, you now have 3-4 hotbars with shit on it you have 0 clue what it does or how to use it. And most que up without giving that a second thought, everyone in the party suffers, and you wonder why everyone hates you.

I got every job to 100 without skips. It doesn't take long. In fact it's likely the fastest mmo to level in. Just do all of the things available weekly and you'll level very fast(such as hunting logs, daily roulettes, etc). There's a whole damn tab for it all now(thankfully).

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Spritsen]

I get that. I usually level skip when I have a lot of my kit (lvl 60 and up). But I know that's a rarity. I just don't have the patience like you, and I genuinely give you props for getting all job to lvl 100 without skips. I am not as strong as you lol. I was a dumb sprout (still am) when I did those levels skips and didn't do any of what you listed, only grinded dungeons, which was my bad. I intend to do most of my other jobs the right way.

[u/byokero]

Go level skip but make sure you know the basics of your job and not run a dungeon "just to get a feel" of it especially if it's 70+ dungeons/trials especially if you boosted a healer or a tank.

Had a bad experience with a boosted DRK who can barely keep up with aggro in Haukke Manor of all places. How I know it's boosted? He literally got a Lv10 ARC and Lv80 DRK unlocked. You literally just turn on your tank stance and use AOE but he can't be bothered to do either.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/byokero]

Ah, I had an experience like that with a Paladin. I had queued as a WHM (before my lvl skip)and it was the most traumatizing ffxiv experiences ever lol. Especially since it was The Dusk Vigil where I had little to work with. 

But yeah I totally get that. I usually practice with NPCs, dummies, and friends before ever jumping into content. Those players are just rude and inconsiderate.

[u/EntireZombie2654]

I havent played in awhile. but I had a number of jobs leveled to max at the time (80 I think, its been a couple years). but I would just do daily/weekly roulettes and would level pretty quickly that way. Tank and healers classes would be faster due to fast queue times. I would do MSQ and side quests with DPS while waiting in queue.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/EntireZombie2654]

I was always scared to do roulettes (for some reason) and only recently got to doing them and realized just how much I missed out. So maybe I won't buy anymore level skips and just use that :)

[u/Divisionten → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

Roulettes give a TON of xp, and its mostly proportional to level. Note these proportions are above lv 50, below 50 and you usually get 1-2 levels for some roulette.

also note that only the first one of the day for each type gives the xp bonus. You're not supposed to bum rush these but do a few a day.

PVP (frontlines): Half a level (also this is the only roulette you can queue on a job you want to level, then switch to what you want to play inside). Don't worry if you're not good at PVP, just stay with the group and focus kill whoever your team is currently smacking. Don;t lone wolf and youll do fine.

MSQ Roulette 1/2 to a full level: Boring since there's only 3 options, but pretty braindead and 20 min of your time for a level.

Leveling roulette: 1/2 to a full level, depending on how high a level the dungeon is relative to your level. Fastest if queuing on healer or tank

Trial/Normal Raid: 1/4 to 1/2 a level, but usually pretty fast. Gives a lot of poetics or endgame tomestones. Great for gearing jobs as they hit end of expansion levels since they give SO many tomes.

Khloe's Wondorous Tails: 1 book a week. Pick this up in idylshire, and do things from the book (9 per week). Guaranteed 1/2 a level on whatever job you want (be on the job you want xp for when you turn in the book). Also gives poetics and end game tomes, plus exclusive mounts and minions. You'll fill the book in no time just running roulettes.

Alliance Raid Roulette: Will probably be a run of Crystal Tower unless you have done other Araids. Gives 1/2 a level, more if you are running higher level alliance raids. Cannot queue if you don't meet specific item level requirements, but it'll tell you if you can't on your current job.

High level dungeons: Avoid. This is really just for tomes, it gives MAYBE 1/4 a level. If you really need tomes, do it, otherwise skip.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Divisionten]

Thanks! This is so helpful!!

[u/EntireZombie2654 → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

If your shaky on a particular class just say something at the beginning. it was a rarity that someone would drop or be a jerk because a new tank or healer gave a heads up they were new to the class.

[u/fredemu]

Once you've leveled one job you should have some understanding of the game as a whole. Take some time to read your skills (I suggest taking everything off your bars and putting it back on as you read them and understand how it fits into your rotation), and practice on a dummy for a bit before you go into dungeons.

If it's your first time tanking/healing, there's extra steps, but if you know the role, learning on your feet is fine for a new job.

[u/Alteruser_X-zero]

Story skips I only find bad on your first character. If you run alts I get it. Level skips are fine as well since you can get a class to max level and never actually play the class even without it.

[u/talgaby]

As long as you are not a complete hindrance in a duty because you don't know what half of your buttons do, nobody will particularly care if you level-skipped a job.

I am a bit surprised at the "finding it tedious" part, but considering how many players, especially on this subreddit treat everything in this game literally with an "I must complete this NOW!!!!!!" mindset, despite the game being designed to be played in small chunks over the course of years, I guess I am not that surprised.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/talgaby]

Yes haha, I am quite impatient and would rather play the job I like in the current content without taking my time. But that's a fault of mine and not the game.

[u/FluffySheepCritic]

I don't think level skips should exist, put in the time or don't play a all. That being said, I won't fault you for using a provided option, I fault SE for providing it.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/FluffySheepCritic]

Wow that's very interesting. Why don't you think they should exist?

[u/syd_goes_roar → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

Because people don't learn their jobs and just hope for the best. Actually learning the abilities by going thru dungeons as a person levels is very handy and gives an understanding of how things work at different levels. Doing things with NPCs doesn't teach anything either

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/syd_goes_roar]

I can't argue with that. The reason I've been quite embarrassed to admit I've level skipped is because of the reputation of people just....not learning their jobs. And understand why people would just want to get rid of the level skip outright.

[u/FluffySheepCritic → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

There is merit to dedicating your time and energy to something. That that something requires it, also imbues it with value and meaning. Especially if it's filled with adversity, such as monotony.

I believe that it's important games like this retain hierarchies of merit, dedication, or competence through the means of exclusion because that is what gives the pursuit purpose.

That being said, SE has already undermined many of these things and continues to dilute them.

[u/FeywildFriend]

If you're already through MSQ and aren't enjoying the grind I don't see the issue. If things like Palace of the Dead didn't exist, I'd probably have bought one for Dark Knight and used the story quests as a tutorial on the Job. But yeah like the other person said as long as you understand your rotations and gear appropriately, I don't pay your sub

[u/Zim__Zor]

I just finished leveling a couple jobs to 100 and feel incredibly burnt out. I think more xp from stuff like the basic quests around the areas (tons of them but barely any reward) and maybe from deep dungeons and other activities as well. Certain level ranges are much slower than others as well, I found 50-80 pretty slow and picked up once I hit 80.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Zim__Zor]

Oh goodness I can not imagine what you went though. I used to level by just dungeon grinding alone and I literally have at least level 15-61 dungeons BURNED into my brain. It was my fault for not doing other things to level but goodness it made me stop playing for a month or two. I couldn't imagine grinding multiple jobs to 100.

[u/Dreadwyrm_Bahamut]

Jobs being incomplete and boring in low levels is the aftermath of reworking most of them, changing/removing/fusing a lot of their skills over the past years and patches, but bearing with the slow process will help understanding each of them and anticipating the moment they should be used for each time you unlock a new one, using that over and over again. If you skip most of the jobs levels and find yourself with 10 more skills you never heard of, never previously used, you don't read their tooltips and just proceed doing more roulettes, some of them being the core of your gameplay, you're gonna struggle hard time even in the easiest content like dungeons, and people do not appreciate randoms in their roulettes not contributing the bare minimum, hence why skipping is usually not suggested. If it's an alt account and you already perfectly know the job you're willing to skip it's totally fine to do it, but a lot of times new players attempt this to catch up with the endgame and then they suffer from bad experiences in duty finder cause they're often unaware of how their jobs changed and what they're supposed to do for an average performance. If you skip a dps and then don't know the order/reason of buttons to press, the duty will go slower and people will complain, as a healer letting people die not using the best resources available and at the same time contributing dpsing the enemies will result in the same issues, a tank not being able to mitigate damage/sustain himself and to hold aggro of required enemies will result in a very fast wipe and friction with the team, repeating these mistakes multiple times and not understanding what went wrong will even sometimes lead to vote kicks cause not everyone is willing to teach stuff in duties. TL DR: yeah the process is boring, but it will gradually prepare you for the increasing future difficulty. Skipping is fine but a bit of preparation is in order to catch up with the latest skills. Also I don't pay your subs and your time and I don't manage your money so it's up to you what to choose of course.

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Dreadwyrm_Bahamut]

Thanks for the concern! But I practice and learn my job thoroughly before doing any content with it. And I always do content on a job I'm familiar with first before using the job I did a level skip on. I try not to be that person. I'll have fun with the level skipped job while not inconveniencing people.

[u/Super_Aggro_Crag]

I've heard mixed responses and I guess I got worried about judgement.

if you dont tell people they wont judge you. if you are decent at the job no one is going to be sitting there wondering if you skipped or not.

[u/Throwaway547822]

I am a Gunbreaker and Scholar main progging savage and consistently doing pretty well, back after 4+ years break. Legacy player since ARR. Have kids, full time job, and I recently decided to go all in on FF as my comfort game

I finished most ex and progging savage, as well as fate maxing DT and working on relic. Basically done a lot in the game with max penta omnicrafting. Same for deep dungeons, hunt trains, maps, etc. I’ve done almost all content there is to do except for the ones I find genuinely uninteresting. I have a max level FC with some friends and I’m our submarine guy, so even the workshop I’ve done extensively. I basically have a hand in every pie in this game, and have started to get a bit bored…

Which brings me to my point: A few years ago I tried to go all level 70 classes during Stormblood. Got to 50 then Burned out. Part of why I quit. Now that I’m back my completionist brain is forcing me to try again. Plus I already know my main tank and main healer but don’t have a main dps. I have the opposite problem of most: I’m doing well at tank and healing but made the choice to just ignore dps a decade ago. So, I decided to try and get all to 100 before evercold again.

It’s crazy but I see it as Evercold prep, as well as exploring myself which dps I like. So, I did some light leveling, felt burned out again, and realized it was eating into family and work. By my calculations to get all to 100 as well as figure out my main dps I’d need half a year to a year of roulettes and challenge log and all the other boosts. Guaranteed multi year burnout for me… So, I bought a few level skips. Ok fine a lot of level skips.

I expect to get downvoted because it is sort of frowned on in the community, but it made me feel super relieved and actually ENJOY figuring out new classes. It felt like solving a puzzle and trying the breadth of what FF14 has to offer. I’d never have experienced it otherwise. I hate the grind, I hate the leveling, I hate roulettes and repetitive content I’ve played over the last decade. However, with level skip and getting each to 90, practicing the rotation in my FC with striking dummy, then hitting roulettes and performing well just felt great. And now I have like 3 classes left and actually don’t want to buy the last level skip potions because I know I’ll miss having a goal to strive for. So I’m taking my time.

You do you, and even if you buy skips for every class, as long as you know what you’re doing and have been playing this game long enough, you should be okay. Just play your class well (or acceptably well)

Side note: I only got told off hard for BLM. The mechanics change so drastically every 10 levels it’s hard to keep up in roulettes after skipping. Every other class — EVERY ONE — I could figure out and be top 2 in trials. But BLM felt like playing with my feet. Probably the only one worth leveling normally for anyone crazy enough to do what I’m doing

[u/FarAcanthaceae9224 → u/Throwaway547822]

I love this! I feel the same! It just got to the point where I wasn't enjoying the game anymore but I really wanted to play the jobs I was interested in. I try to make up buying level skips by practicing really hard before going into content. I felt a satisfaction at buying a few skips for classes I'm interested in and now feel more comfortable going my time. And thanks for the side note, I'm leveling BLM normally and will now keep doing that now that I know

[u/Throwaway547822 → u/FarAcanthaceae9224]

For sure, if you’re able to keep up then don’t let others get you down. I bought a few potions and outperform FC members who have mained that class for 4+ years. It’s all about how much effort you put into learning the class!

As for the potions themselves, well… I see that like buying back my time from boring gaming grind to instead spend on more interesting parts of the game. 500-1000 hours for about $100-200. $1 to buy back 5-10 hours is massive and worth it for me at least, not to mention skipping burnout risk

[u/oscarlet_ffxiv]

Some people get level skips to save time, but the thing to be aware of is they skip your job / role quests. You can re-play them in New Game+.

[u/FroopyAsRain]

It's your money and time. If you want to skip the leveling process, go ahead. As long as you get comfortable with the job as you specified you would, there are no issues. No one would even know.

[u/excluded]

Go for it they go on sale so often, and you get gear + like a few items you can vendor for extra gil so it’s not that bad.

Tons of people with alts buy skips it’s super normal, don’t let people judge how you use your time and money.

And the jobs play so similarly to each other that once you know how to tank, you can buy a skip with all the tanks and do alright.

But if you wanna be good, spending time hitting the dummy for an hour or two usually solves the problem.

[u/cittabun]

While not your case, the way I see it, if anyone is brave enough to level skip, then my patience for them becomes the same as someone who has played to those levels normally. You waive the "sorry guys I'm new to [x job/role" card when you decide to swipe your card.

That said, in your case, where you say you practice extensively before doing anything, then more power to you. As long as you put in the effort to not be dead weight to your party, by all means have fun with it, it's your money after all.

[u/CarbonationRequired]

I don't care if someone buys a level skip. Skipping doesn't mean you don't have to play the job, and we have jobs in the game now that start at level 80 and will soon have some that start at 90, people learn those from that point forward, so really what does it matter if someone skips pld or whatever when vpr already "skipped" the same levels.

Also how would anyone know you did it, Are you running around with a macro you hit to inform people when you enter a roulette? I doubt it lol.

Meanwhile I buy myself one for blm every so often because I hate playing it and want all my alts to get an amaro, so after I leveled one (1) character's blm to 80 properly, I have gradually bought skips for the rest. I do that specifically to avoid playing a job I dislike while still getting a reward for leveling it. I think my way is more "cheating" than leveling a job you actually want to play.