Hello! I'm really impressed with you speed running all of your alts to get the Regalia! Would you mind sharing any tips or tricks that got you through so much ARR fast? - A fellow alt-happy Eorzean
Oh wow hey! Thanks for the ask!
One REALLY big help is doing stuff on the New and Prefered servers because the Road to 80 buff is just WAY TOO GOOD. I'm working on the story on some alts and by the end of ShB, only doing the story, I can get about 3 jobs to 80. If you have character on congested servers that you don't mind moving around you can move them to a new or preferred server for FREE and get the Road to 80 buff for 30 days (It lasts longer on characters made directly on those servers tho.)
There are some bits that I like to watch on every run through, but skipping the cutscenes is an obvious must. I play on PS4, and put on a show while I grind most of the time.
If you have the road buff, when you get to dungeons, instead of queueing in the Dutyfinder set up a Partyfinder for your dungeons. I always set them to one slot other that myself, and then set the minimum ILV to 500. This will ensure only higher level players will join.
Into the description type: "Unsynced for MSQ progression." or "Unsyned, help me get my alt through MSQ?"
Players are usually happy to help folks working through the MSQ. This works on every Datacenter.
If you don't speak Japanese and you have an alt on the JP servers and you want quick clears, use the auto translate feature for the phases "Unrestricted party" and "Main Scenario Quest". Also if you don't speak Japanese, Auto translation "Nice to meet you" at the start and "Thank you" at the end of duties.
Make sure you set your DF to Unrestricted before you queue so you don't accidentally queue up regularly instead and always \readycheck before you go in.
Most dungeons with a LV 90 player are less than five mins and a lot of the time they won't even roll on the gear so you get good upgrades along the way. If they rush through and you don't have time to grab all the chests you can always \return at the end to get the chests that were not grabbed. If there are mobs still in the dungeon, don't worry, if you sprint and kite them you can grab everything before they kill you, then respawn and leave through the exit at the start or the menu.
The ONLY duties I don't do Unsynced for is for Castrum Meridianum, Praetorium and Porta Decumana, because with they force cut scenes even if you do it unsynced I don't like to ask people to sit through them so I just do them normally.
IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS JUST AS THEM FOR HELP UNSYNCING. I love helping my friends unsync stuff. Hell, I love helping anyone unsync stuff. Takes very little time.
If you don't have the road buff, make sure you do your leveling roulette, and queue for the dungeons. Unfortunately, the end of ARR has a LV jump around the time you get to the Rhytahtyn solo instance and if you skip duties you'll likely be underleveled.
A few characters I ended up having to run through Aurum Vale to get to 50 just so I could get through the final strech of stuff. I love Aurum Vale personally, but I know it's not everyones jam.
Buy a stack of cheap food early on so you can keep your 3% exp buff going. My personal favorites are Eggs, Orange juice and Plums.
DON'T FORGET We get Vesperbay tickets on new characters now to returning to the waking sands is no issue. They recently updated it to you get 99 total over the course of ARR. If you made a character BEFORE they added the Vesperbay Teleportation Tickets, don't run from Horizon, Teleport to Limsa Lominsa, go to the Arcanist guild via the aethernet and then take the Ferry to Vesperbay. It's pretty quick on PS4, if you're on a Toaster it might be faster to go from Horizon because of less loading.
I recommend stopping by Camp Tranquil to get your Chocobo the ability to fight (My Fiestly little Chocobo) when you hit 30. Also grab a stack of 99 Gysahl greens when you're at Bent Branch doing that. You don't have to finish the quest to be able to summon you chocobo, so if you're in a rush there is that. I always level my chocobos in Healing first. IMO Choco cure is the most useful chocobo ability early on.
Don't forget to do your job quests, a lot of them will sync up with stuff you're doing in the MSQ, and when you get to 45 the gear boost is substantial even if it's only useful for those few levels to 50. DPS can probably get away with ignoring it, but for tanks and healers GEAR IS SO IMPORTANT, especially if you're not unsyncing stuff.
You get some upgrades from the story but the ARR stuff is all normal quality, it's not the greatest. There is a Jeweler NPC in Ul'dah that I recommend grabbing accessories from, cause I've had times where I'm 50 and still have dang LV5 ring cause the MSQ doesn't give any accessories and if your RNG is bad in dungeons it can be pretty bad. (you will get a acessory from unlocking AV though, that is nice!)
If you have some of the preorder earrings, make sure you visit your the mail moogle for that. If you've been playing a long time and have stuff like the Tidus and Yuna outfits from fanfest that get sent to every character, Grab those outfits too. They're good at the early levels and give a pretty good EXP boost to lvl 30. (Don't recommend wearing them in dungeons past like the first three though)
Of course, most important of all. Take care of yourself. I've been dealing with long-covid for years now and if causes me no end of issues, but I can get into the zone and focus hard with MSQ grinds. Self care is so important. I'm pretty good about getting up and stretching and getting myself what I need, but sometimes I'm in the zone and it gets bad. I am lucky I have a partner that helps me keep up with that stuff too. If he gets up to move around and go somewhere, I usually take that as my time to give myself a break.
Setting myself a little 3 hour timer for water breaks is something I'm working on and seems to be good. I try to not keep too much food around my gaming area because if I'm going to eat something I'd like to get up and move around too. If I do keep something nearby, I try to have fruit and not like snacks. Doesn't always work but trying is important.
I hope that in here somewhere you find something useful! HAPPY ALT-ing!!!
