Diary Of An Alt Paladin - Levels 30 to 40

I have to admit I'm still having trouble playing a paladin in Final Fantasy XIV. Perhaps the issue is I'm trying to just use the keyboard for the first time in my 16 years of playing MMORPGs. 

The journey from levels 30 to 40 took 5 days. I use the term "days" loosely, because I spent less than an hour a night playing as a paladin. What follows is my diary from the journey from level 30 to level 40.

Day 7.    I had a brief time to play due to downtime for a patch, so my goal for the day was to complete the level 30 guardian and first paladin job quests. I arrived at the Guardian's Guild and Mylla told me Aldis was arrested for plotting to kill the Sultana using poison. For those leveling an alt class, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? She sent me out to the Sepulchre in Southern Thanalan to find the evidence to clear Aldis' name. While going through the area, I discovered I wasn't tough enough to take on 4 NPCs at once. But I eventually found the evidence.

I then travelled to Highbridge in Eastern Thanalan with the evidence to prove Aldis' innocence. In another bit of foreshadowing, the priest in charge didn't care. So with Mylla arriving as backup, I entered the final duty and defeated the bad guys. At the end, the bad guy took a leap off a ledge.

For the first paladin quest, the Guardian's Guild receptionist sent me off to find Jenlyns on the Hustings Strip. He is the head paladin and a bit of a pretentious jerk. At least, that was my first impression. In order to prove my worth, I had to light a brazier and fight an undead mob. Afterwards I met a mysterious paladin who gave me a crystal to give to Jenlyns. Turns out he's a traitor and Jenlyns didn't take his involvement too well.

I ended the day still at level 30 needing 45,000 experience points to reach level 31.

Day 8.    I started the day by joining the leveling roulette. I wound up in the Bowl of Embers (Normal) and dinged level 31. I pretty much did all the new player things I should remember not to do like forget to turn on tank stance and not eat food. But I did manage to turn the boss away from the party once I had everything finally turned on.

I wanted to do another dungeon so I queued for the duty roulette again and wound up doing Haukke Manor. I didn't get a bonus for doing so but I not only achieved level 32, but was only 11,000 experience points from level 33. While I remembered to turn on tank stance at the beginning, I forgot where the Shield Lob ability was so wound up charging into mobs in order to gain aggro. I also tried to stun bosses when they were not interruptible.

Instead of entering the duty roulette again, I decided to work on my hunting log because I didn't need much experience to hit level 33. Plus, I could work on the Challenge Log. The first Bosom Buddies challenge only requires killing 20 enemies with my companion. The mobs on my list to kill were:

• 4 Floating Eyes in Central Shroud
• 3 Adamantoise in South Shroud
• 3 Mamool Ja Sophists & 3 Uragnites in Upper La Nosca

The Floating Eyes are found right outside Haukke Manor, the duty I had just finished. With that entry quickly checked off, I travelled to Camp Tranquil to kill Adamantoise. Since the Levemete in Camp Tranquil had a quest named Adamantoise Tears, I thought I could do the levequest and fulfill the Hunting Log entry at the same time. Turns out the Hunting Log doesn't work that way. However, the levequest led me straight to an area with a lot of Adamantoise, which made things a little easier.

As happens quite often, while working on the levequest, a FATE spawned on top of me. Completing the FATE saw me reach level 33. I wasn't paying attention, but when I turned in the levelquest, I earned the achievement "Uphill Battle II", which is earned for completing 50 unique battlecraft levequests.

I then travelled to Upper La Nosca to kill the mobs on my list there. Once again I stumbled across a FATE which helped with another 14,820 experience points. Since I reached level 33 during my journey, I went to the Sagolii Desert in Southern Thanalan to kill Sandworms to complete the level 33 entry in the Hunting Log. With the task complete, I returned to back home to gear up to take on the newest dungeon I unlocked, Brayflox's Longstop.

Day 9.    I didn't have a lot of time to play, but wanted to reach level 35. Instead of using the duty roulette, I decided to use my squadron and run command missions. I had two dungeons I still had not tanked, The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak and Brayflox's Longstop.

In The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak, I had issues getting initial aggro on the mobs, and then holding onto it once I had it. In the dungeon I learned that spamming my one AoE ability was necessary. I also reached level 34 and was more than halfway to level 35.

In Brayflox's Longstop, I really learned to love command missions. In command missions, I get all the loot. So in addition to reaching level 35, I received upgrades to level 34 for all my gear except for the belt.

• Longstop Sword
• Longstop Hoplon
• Cavalry Mask
• Cavalry Cuirass
• Cavalry Gauntlets
• Infantry Skirt
• Infantry Thighboots

Day 10.    I started out the night doing the level 35 paladin quest. Jenlyns sent me to Outer La Noscea to do the light the brazier and kill a few mobs thing. The quest didn't even have a proper cutscene. However, I received Oath Mastery and Sheltron. I figure if I learn how to read boss abilities better, Sheltron will make me a lot harder to kill.

Since I was only 18,000 experience away from level 36, I did a couple of entries in the Hunting Log to push me to the next level.

At this point, I was trying to not use the mouse to click on abilities, so I re-ran Brayflox's Longstop as a command mission as practice. I finished the dungeon at level 37.

Day 11.    I started off the session tired and just wanted to relax and get to level 38. Then I'd look for some better gear to do the next dungeon that opened up, Cutter's Cry. I was backsliding in my play, forgetting to turn tank stance on and not getting the mobs to face correctly for the melee DPS. But I did finish at level 38 with a new ability, Sentinel. Another damage mitigation spell was welcome.

I found myself 95,000 experience points from level 39 so decided to complete the level 4 entries in the Hunting Log. I ran into another FATE and wound up leveling due to the experience gain in the Completion Log for completing 5 FATEs. 

I completed the section of the Hunting Log in Outer La Noscea. The zone still had two quest givers so I did a little cleanup and finished up the last regular quests. I now was less than 200,000 experience points from level 40.

I should have logged off, but reaching a level with a round number was too tempting. I ran Brayflox's Longstop to end the night. I died to the last boss because I tried an experiment of starting off the fight by pulling the boss to one of the edges. Not a good idea, since the strategy is to kite the boss around the area. But I did finish the night at level 40.