Written by: Ringabel Dim (DNC Mentor in The Balance)

On November 19th - Early Access of Endwalker, many players may be interested in leveling either Reaper or Sage as their first job in the new expansion. This guide provides info on what to prepare and how to optimize your time to level from 70 to 80 as quick as possible.

EXP Sources to Prepare Before Endwalker is Released:

• Wondrous Tails (roughly 50%): Pick up Wondrous Tails in Idyllshire on the week of Tuesday, November 9th. Complete nine seals but DO NOT turn it in. Make sure you have nine Second Chance points as well.
• The Hunt (roughly 33%): Pick up daily One-Star / Two-Star / Three-Star Veteran Clan Mark Bills from Crystarium / Eulmore. These can be picked up whenever since they do not expire. If playing a new job with someone else also playing a new job, you can coordinate and sync your first set of One-Star / Two-Star / Three-Star logs by checking daily the new Hunt Logs (there are only about 8-10 different combinations of hunt monsters for each hunt log level). You can also create a map for the path you want to travel to kill them all using a tool such as FFXIVHuntPaths. You can also prep the logs by killing all but one of the number of monsters you need to kill for each log prior to the release of Endwalker.
  
  If doing this, be careful not to accidentally pull more mobs than you need, and to be one short. I would strongly recommend you don’t participate in Shadowbringers Hunts once they are prepared, as some stray monsters can sometimes be tagged by party members which happen to be a monster needed for the Hunt Log.
• Challenge Logs (Depends on which ones you do, but roughly 30% total): Prepare Challenge Logs (i.e. Prepare 2/3 dungeons via Duty Roulette, 4/5 dungeons, 4/5 player commendations, complete 4/5 FATEs). These can be prepared starting Tuesday, November 16th. It is recommended to complete four FATEs in open world zones, queue for two dungeons via Duty Roulette (while commending people), then Normal Raid / Trial to give two more commendations, and complete two undersized dungeons to get to 4/5 dungeons so the first dungeon you queue will give you several Challenge Log bonuses and first FATE you do will give you a Challenge Log bonus on Friday, November 19th.
• Bloodsworn Pixie Beast Tribe (roughly 30%): While you will be unable to prepare a set to turn in ahead of time, being higher ranked gives you more EXP per quest so you should start ranking up now if you have not already. Bloodsworn takes 30 days worth of daily beast tribe quests to obtain from just starting the Pixie Beast Tribe.
• Menphina’s Earring (30% bonus EXP): Use the Menphina Earrings (Endwalker pre-order reward), which gives +30% extra experience up to level 80.
• The Heat of Battle (10% [II]/15% [III] bonus combat EXP): Make sure you have Heat of Battle III buffs prepared. If your FC does not have them, you can acquire them through the GC Squadron system.
• Leveling Food (3% bonus combat EXP): Any food will do! Ideally you will be using Shadowbringers food, as it has 10% VIT. (Smoked Chicken is the recommended food for both level 70 Reaper and Sage).

Gear Sources to Prepare Before Endwalker is Released:

• Ensure you are capped on Poetics, Allegory, and Revelation so you can buy level 70 Tomestone weapon from Rhalgr’s Reach (Augmented weapon is 600 Poetics). Allegory and Revelation will become obsolete when 6.0 launches, but they can be traded in for Poetics.

• NOTE: This step is somewhat optional if you plan on leveling mostly through Bozja content. You should still have a starting Level 70 set for leveling from 70-71 before you enter Bozja.

  Have all crafted gear made ahead of time and dungeon gear (from Qitana Ravel, Malikah’s Well, and Mt. Gulg) acquired for the best gear at each possible level between 70-80 with melds. Having all of the dungeon drops (including the earrings) in your inventory / armory chest will ensure the Reaper/Sage weapon will be guaranteed to drop into your inventory at the end of the dungeon. Have mats ready for the new craftable leveling weapons for the new jobs (i.e level 74/76/78 crafted weapons). Taking a look at current BSM/GSM/ALC crafts at these levels, here is a list of materials to stock up on in preparation for these new crafts.

  • Level 70 Starting Gear sets - best item options between 400 Scaevan / 400 Omega / 390 Yama Upgraded Crafted / 390 Hydatos gear pieces are highlighted with other suitable replacements also featured. If the Scaevan item is the best item for level 70, it will be the only option displayed.

    1. For ease of visibility, check the ‘Show Marked Items Only’ box at the top left corner of the Ariyala Gearset: 

    2. Reaper Level 70 Starter Set

    3. Sage Level 70 Starter Set

       • NOTE: if using solely the highlighted items, the only Piety you get is from the Pants and Menphina’s Earring. Consider trading items for items with Piety if you so choose.

    4. These gearsets do not include belts because of belt removal. They also don’t include earrings because you will be using the Menphina’s Earring.

• For level 80+ content, you’ll want to have a set of level 80 Maiming/Healing gear prepared (ideally the current 5.5 BiS for Dragoon / Healers, look in the Balance for lists) as well as either a weapon coffer from Eden’s Promise: Eternity (e12s) or 8 pages (ilvl 535 weapon) or enough Poetics for an Augmented Tomestone of Revelation Weapon (ilvl 530 weapon).

• Set up macros for setting new hotbars once skill names are known. 

  • Macro text is: /hotbar action “Feint” 1 2         

    • For each line where the “1” represents the hot bar and “2” represents the slot on that hot bar and “Feint” is an example of an action that would be placed there.

• Log off in Rhalgr’s Reach before maintenance so you can immediately buy a new ilvl 400 weapon with Poetics.

Things to do Once Servers Go Live When 6.0 Launches:

• Buy the tomestone weapon for the new job you wish to level at Rhalgr’s Reach.
• Teleport to whichever city the new job you want to play is in and unlock the job and complete any job quests that may involve a quest instance.

Reaper: Ul’dah
Sage: Limsa Lominsa

• QUEUE based on the “Order of things to queue” below (and while waiting for queue to pop:)**
• Travel to Idyllshire and turn in Wondrous Tails from the week of November 9th with x9 seals marked off. Pick up Wondrous Tails from the week of November 16th.
• Travel to Il Mheg - Lydha Lran and complete Daily Pixie Beast Tribe Quests**
• Kill all of the hunts in your One-Star / Two-Star / Three-Star Veteran Clan Mark Bills**
• Complete FATEs in the open world.

**Time sensitive: these must be completed before the daily reset - 10 AM EST (or 11 AM EST?) - in order to acquire the next set of Pixie Beast Tribe Quests and Hunt Bills and queue for refreshed Roulette rewards.

Order of Things to Queue:

1. Duty Roulette: Leveling (roughly 30% EXP, 1.93% / min)
2. Duty Roulette: Frontline (roughly 40% EXP, 2.44% / min)
3. Duty Roulette: Main Scenario (cringe, can skip if you want to actually enjoy the new job)
4. Duty Roulette: Trial (roughly 10% EXP, 1.71% / min)
5. Duty Roulette: Alliance Raid (gimp iLvl to that of > Syrcus Tower but < World of Darkness, currently this is between ilvls 70-89 but this could change in 6.0 if ilvls on gear changes and/or instances have different ilvl requirements) (roughly 20% EXP, 1.11% / min)
6. Queue for all leveling dungeons between level 71-79 that are available to you.

Wondrous Tails Double Dip

• Since the Wondrous Tails book (from week of Nov. 9th) was prepared before Endwalker early access begins, you can immediately turn that in for experience on Reaper / Sage and then immediately pick up a new book (from week of Nov. 16th).
• Look at the Duties that are available in your new Wondrous Tails book. Some of them you may naturally clear just by queueing for Duty Roulette: Leveling / Frontline / Alliance Raid. If “Dungeons (Lv. 71-79)” is featured as a Duty to complete, you can complete that as you queue for the Shadowbringers leveling dungeons and then you can use your Wondrous Tails second chance points to retry that specific type of Duty. Before doing this, you should clear any and all easily soloable / quickly clearable with a light party Extreme Trials (especially the ARR Extreme Trials). NOTE: You don’t have to be on Reaper/Sage when you are doing the Wondrous Tails duties, just be careful of your challenge logs if you are doing a Dungeon Duty.
• If the Duties in your new Wondrous Tails book look like they’ll be too out of the way or too time consuming, don’t sweat completing it and instead just focus on either dungeon queueing or Bozja grinding.

Bozjan Alternative (No Queues or Pre-Made Group):

• If you are not interested in waiting for dungeon queues and farming FATEs, you can also do The Bozjan Southern Front or Zadnor zones. It may be more efficient to switch to Bozja once you have completed all of the Hunt Bills and Pixie Beast Tribes and done at the very least Duty Roulette: Leveling and Duty Roulette: Frontline.

• These zones have the added benefit of not consuming rested EXP, allowing you to save it for the Endwalker MSQ.

• You can queue for either The Bozjan Southern Front OR Zadnor since they both will give the same amount of character experience for different sections of the zone per this chart (NOTE: actual experience numbers are based off of old Shadowbringers EXP values and will be different in Endwalker). Table courtesy of Veisper!

  

• Only do Skirmishes and Critical Engagements while in the zone since Castrum and Dalriada do not give enough experience to be worth the time to complete those battles.

• Do Skirmishes and CEs in a party to help ensure full credit on FATEs. Try to prioritize Skirmishes in Zone 3 if possible since they give slightly more experience, otherwise if there is no Skirmish up in that Zone you can move to Zone 2 > Zone 1.

• Ensure everyone in your party has Bozjan Clusters for Priority Deployment buffs to help ensure your party’s spot in Critical Engagements.

• It is recommended that you cap on as many of the Proof of Mettle buffs (i.e. Ray of Fortitude / Valor / Succor) before the start of Endwalker to increase the damage you do and your survivability in the Skirmishes and CEs.

• It is recommended to bring the following Lost Actions and Essences to help with the speed at which you complete these FATEs and CEs:

  • Both:

    • Have plenty of Potion/Ether Kits, Reraisers, and Elixirs holstered.
    • Get plenty of Forgotten Fragment of History (Lodestone) - this teleports you to starting camp in the instance.

  • Sage:

    • Deep Essence of the Aetherweaver OR Deep Essence of the Profane.
    • Lost Chainspell, Lost Font of Magic, and Lost Seraph Strike are the strongest DPS actions.
    • Have plenty of Ether Kits, Reraisers, and Elixirs holstered.
    • Lost Full Cure may be helpful for survivability.

  • Reaper:

    • Deep Essence of the Skirmisher / Deep Essence of the Beast.
    • If using Deep Essence of the Beast, make sure you have Lost Assassinate. It is recommended to use Beast due to higher survivability compared to Skirmisher.
    • Lost Font of Power, Banner of Noble Ends, and Banner of Honored Sacrifice are the strongest DPS actions.
    • Lost Excellence may be helpful for survivability.

Dungeon Queue Method vs. Bozja Method

When comparing these two methods for leveling, several assumptions had to be made with regard to the rate of experience gain.

Dungeon Queue Method

• While waiting for the queue for a leveling dungeon, you can complete open world FATEs in the Shadowbringers zones. FATE completion rate was estimated to be approximately 1 Fate every 3 minutes. You do not get rewards from FATE completion if you go inside your duty.
• The rate of the completion of the dungeon itself was variable and based on the skill of the people in your duty finder queue (or your pre-made party).

Bozja Method

• Skirmishes in Bozja are estimated to take approximately three minutes per Skirmish and CEs are estimated to take approximately 5 minutes (this includes travel time etc.)
• In terms of how much experience you would get per fate, it was estimated that you would be completing 60% of your Skirmishes in Zone 3, 30% in Zone 2, and 10% in Zone 1 if prioritizing Zone 3 > Zone 2 > Zone 1. These percentages were included in the experience rate estimates.
• Estimates in terms of rate of Experience can also be affected by what percent of the time you are actively participating in a Critical Engagement vs. Skirmishes.

Estimate experience rates for both these methods was calculated using this experience rate calculator. Some example results of the table calculator can be seen below.

(NOTE: This table comes from some crude estimates from the information stated above).