FFXIV: Leveling to 100 in Dawntrail
Posted on July 22, 2024 by Aywren
Enough time has passed since the release of Dawntrail, and I feel it’s time enough to start talking about my post-MSQ experiences with the expansion. At the beginning of the month, I set down a few goals that I’ve been steadily making my way towards, just a little each day.
Dawntrail Progress
First, I’ve been turning in daily Grand Company gathering trade-ins for that easy chunk of XP every day. As of this past weekend, both my Miner and Botanist are now level 100! I haven’t started on fishing, but will be picking up the Ocean Fishing Voyages soon enough to start leveling my fisher now that these two are out of the way.
With this week’s Custom Delivery turn-ins, I should also hit level 100 Culinarian, which will be my first crafter. Unlike some folks, I’m not in a rush to level my crafters, so I don’t hit up the new leves. I take my time with weekly turn-ins, and eventually get where I want to go.
Also, once I get a crafter to 100, I think I should be able to reinstate my crafting Mentorship status. This isn’t a huge deal for me, but it’s just something to pick up along the way.
It’s so strange how almost trivial leveling crafters and gatherers has become now days, compared to back in ARR. When you had an omnicrafter in ARR, you really had to put the effort into it. Now days, it’s only a matter of deciding how much time you want to put into it, but leveling to 100 is almost a given.
I’m not particularly in a rush to level battle classes. For Picto and Viper, I am doing Frontlines as often as I feel up to it, and supplementing with Beast Tribe quests (sorry, I know there’s a new name for those, but they have been “Beast Tribe quests” in my mind for so many years now, it’s just going to be that way). Picto is at level 90, and I’m slowly nudging Viper up day by day.
I’ve geared what I could from roulettes on my Red Mage, and I’ve been using alliance for leveling jobs I feel somewhat comfortable playing group content with – starting with Bard. There’s lots of jobs, especially tanks and healers, that will either get the Frontlines treatment, or will wait until the new battle Beast Tribe quests come out, which is standard progress for me.
There’s been enough going on IRL for me to not stress myself with Dawntrail. Especially since it’ll be another two and a half years or so until a new expansion. That’s plenty of time to get things done.
The Alt Question
The real question is whether I’ll have the energy to push more than one alt through the MSQ content or not. Right now, while I’m still on level, I don’t see that happening. I am moving Amon through content very slowly, but I’m not looking forward to doing the final trial fight of this expansion over again.
My alts are also comfortably still making gil in Sharyalan with daily crafting turn-ins, with no real need to press on to the new stuff yet. Maps have been dismal for making money since Dawntrail dropped, so my focus has been 100% on CUL crafting turn-ins at level 90 to hold steady on my income.
From what I hear, the level 100 crafting leves don’t give that much more gil to be worth the effort. So, while I’ll do weekly custom deliveries to get their crafters and gatherers to 100, I don’t imagine I’ll be moving my alts into Dawntrail content for a very long time.
And that’s fine!