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Pre-Dawntrail Preparations
How To Level To 90 Quickly
So, Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail is approaching fast and with it will come two new Jobs: Viper and Pictomancer. A melee DPS and a magical ranged DPS, these additions will likely make any DPS queues quite a pain for the next few months.
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Final Fantasy 14: How To Prepare For Dawntrail
Here's everything you can do to prepare for the release of Final Fantasy 14's fifth expansion, Dawntrail.
Upon unlocking these Jobs, they will be Level 80. This is quite high, but not high enough to partake in any of the new content that comes with Dawntrail, which will begin at Level 90. Obviously, this means you'll want to get through those ten levels as quickly as possible - it will require some significant grinding, but there are ways to speed this up, of course.
Pre-Dawntrail Preparations
For optimum levelling, there are a few steps you can take to speed up the process as soon as you unlock your job of choice.
From least to most tedious:
- Unlock the Arkasodara Beast Tribe quests. These are located in Thavnair - complete all the side quests here to unlock them.
- Unlock the Pixie Beast Tribe quests. These are located in Il Mheg - complete all the side quests here to unlock them.
- Take a full complement of daily hunts from the Shadowbringers and Dawntrail areas.
- Complete but do not hand in a Wondrous Tails journal. A handed-in journal will provide enough experience to fill 50 percent of your experience bar. Only use your Second Chance points on Retries, not Shuffling, so you can cherry pick the duties that you can complete solo and quickly.
- If you have the Wondrous Tails journal from June 18, you can save this until you unlock the job and then get an easy half-bar of experience. You can then pick up the June 25 journal and immediately complete that as quickly as possible to get the second half and level up to 81.
- You don't need to complete the individual duties with your chosen job - you only need to be that job when handing the journal in to Khloe.
- Secure a complete set of Augmented Cryptlurker armour for your chosen job. This equipment will have you set for the majority of the levelling process.
- These are purchased from Aymark in Eulmore (X:10.2, Y:11.8) or from the Mowen's Merchant in the Crystarium (X:10.1, Y:11.8).
- For Viper, purchase the Scouting set.
- For Pictomancer, purchase the Casting set.
- These jobs will not have weapons available for purchase yet: you will be able to buy these once Dawntrail launches, though. Save enough Tomestones to purchaseweapons right away.
- If you have the Azeyma's Earrings received by pre-ordering Dawntrail, you can forgo buying Earrings as these will be what you wear.
- Take and complete but do not hand in 29 Level Sync side quests from the Endwalker zones. Note that these must be Level Sync quests for you to be able to hand them in as your new job.
- Certain Weekly Challenges also reward you with significant chunks of experience. Keep a track of these and make sure you don't complete them until Dawntrail has launched and you can attribtue that experience to your new job.
How To Level To 90 Quickly
Once Dawntrail launches and you've picked up your shiny new job, you can begin the lengthy process of levelling up to 90 so you can start taking on the Dawntrail story with new toys!
The first goal is to reach Level 81 - this will allow you to access the first levelling dungeon of Endwalker. To do this very quickly, you can hand in two Wondrous Tails journals if you have them prepared correctly.
You may want to save your Wondrous Tails journals for the final level-up and instead reach 81 through alternative means.
Since journals will fill up your experience bar by 50 percent no matter what your level is, using them for 89 to 90 instead of 80 to 81 might save you a significant amount of time.
Remember to equip your shiny Augmented Cryptlurker armour (and pick up a Cryptlurker weapon as soon as you can) and start grinding your way through the levels. If you have the Azeyma's Earrings, definitely make sure they're equipped.
We recommend starting the process by completing your Shadowbringers hunts, then your Endwalker hunts (those that you can handle at your current level, at least). In addition to hunts, complete your daily supply of Arkasodara and Pixie Beast Tribe quests.
While you are doing this, queue up for some high-experience duty roulettes.
Check your map completions! Revealing new parts of a map will give you one percent of your experience bar, while completing an area's map will give you ten percent.
Though it's risky to do so while underlevelled, you can also get these small chunks of experience in Dawntrail regions.
You'll also get a small chunk of experience for Sightseeing areas.
Roulettes that will be worth the time spend queuing include:
- Levelling Roulette
- Main Scenario
- Alliance Raid
- Frontline
Avoid Trials, Normal Raids, and the Level 50/60/70/80/90 dungeons as they don't offer as much experience in comparison to the time they take.
Use this low-pressure time time to learn the basics of your new job!
If you decided to queue up 29 side quests to hand in before Dawntrail, this is the time to hand them in. The higher your level when you hand them in, the more experience you'll gain for doing so.
Once you're out of 'daily' sources of experience, such as Beast Tribe allowances and roulettes, it's time to start the dungeon grind. You have two viable options for this:
- Partner with very kind friends who are willing to level with you and be the Tank/Healer to shorten queue times.
- Use Duty Support to avoid all queues and suffer through slightly longer dungeons.
The key to success here is to avoid trying to match up with random players through the Duty Finder - the queues are going to be ridiculously long.
Don't forget to buy a stack of food and make sure you have the Well Fedbonus on at all times. The experience bonus is only three percent, but every little helps during such a long grind!
The dungeons you need to run through will depend on your current level:
Your Level | Dungeon |
|---|---|
81-82 | The Tower of Zot |
83-84 | The Tower of Babil |
85-86 | Vanaspati |
87-88 | Ktisis Hyperboreia |
89 | The Aitiascope |
Each level will take multiple runs of a dungeon, so this will be the most arduous part of the levelling process.
Make sure you know when daily timers reset so you can return to the daily sources of experience, such as hunts, Beast Tribes, and roulettes. This will break up the tedious dungeon grind and also speed up the levelling process.
Throughout this levelling process, start using Tomestones to purchase Level 90 gear for your chosen Job so you have a headstart for Dawntrail.
Next
When Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail Launches, Will You Be Playing Viper Or Pictomancer?
With the launch of its new Dawntrail expansion, Final Fantasy 14 will be getting two new DPS roles for players to grind away with: Viper and Pictomancer. Which of the two appeals to you most and why?
