Diary Of An Alt Paladin - Levels 40 to 50

I finished levelling an alt job, Paladin, to from level 40 to level 50 and managed to reach level 51 in four play sessions. As I approached level 50 I spent a little more time playing as a paladin and less doing other things. Still, none of my sessions lasted more than 2 hours.

If the journey from level 30 to 40 was an adventure figuring out the new paladin skills, levels 40 to 50 pretty much involved doing the same thing each day. As the days passed, I started writing less and less as I didn't really do anything special or interesting. The new features for leveling, such as The Hunt, came into play in Heavensward. I stopped at the first paladin job quest which started at level 50. Below is my record of achieving the last 10 levels in A Realm Reborn.

Day 12.    I started off the session buying a set of armor off the market board before I headed off to do the level 40 paladin job quest. I figured the level 34 armor I was wearing might wind up being a little undergeared going forward.

The level 40 quest wound up with Jenlyns sending me to Eastern Thanalan to light another brazier and kill some NPCs. An unmemorable quest but I did receive Prominence, giving me an AoE damage rotation as well as a single target rotation.

I was tired so I figured I would just do command missions with my squadron. Turns out I was a bit more tired than I thought. First, I accidentally selected Halatali and ran the low level dungeon. I recovered a bit, running Brayflox's Longstop one last time. I fumbled around a bit, but left the dungeon at level 41.

At level 41 I could finally run The Stone Vigil. The dungeon is located in the Coerthas Central Highlands and drops Isgardian items. In addition to the upgrades, I wanted the Vigil armor set as a glamour set. Veterans might understand why.

Posing with my squadron in The Stone Vigil

On my first run, I handled the bosses well but died to mobs along the way. I jumped from level 41 to level 43 and decided to run The Stone Vigil one more time. I finished at level 44 but died to two of the three bosses. I only needed the Vigil Vambraces to complete the armor set, but logged out for the night.

Day 13.    I started off with a dilemma. I could do Dzemael Darkhold, but just needed the Vigil Vambraces to complete my glamour set. I decided instead to just work on the Hunting Log so I didn't fall too far behind.

Completing the log through level 45 took me to Western La Noscea, East Shroud, and Revenant's Toll. While in Western La Noscea I had to visit the Isles of Umbra. I had left one quest unfinished on the island, so I completed that also.

I had two entries to complete in Mor Dhona and ran across a rather large FATE boss I couldn't solo. A black mage was also in the area and looked like he wanted to kill the boss also. I decided to just see what happened and started tanking the boss. The black mage joined in and the boss went down.

At that point I was only 80,000 experience points away from level 45 and decided to run The Stone Vigil one more time. A night's rest did me good as my third run through the dungeon resulted in no deaths. The last piece of armor from the set also dropped. Not only did I reach level 46, but my squadron NPC conjurer reached level 52 and archanist hit 53.

I ended the night travelling to Ul'dah and talking with Jenlyns. He gave me the level 45 paladin quest which required traveling around to four braziers, killing 2 mobs at each one, and retrieving a piece of armor.

With that task done, Jenlyns arranged a parley with Solkzagyl the bad guy of our story in the Sagolii Desert. Of course, Jenlyns then turns on me, accuses me of evil things, and a party attempts to kill me. That didn't work and I defeated the party, including Jenlyns. At that point, an archer tried to kill Jenlyns who was saved by Solkzagyl. Turns out Solkzagyl wasn't the bad guy after all. 

I wound up getting four level 50 armor pieces wearable by level 45s.

1. Gallant Coronet
2. Gallant Gauntlets
3. Gallant Cuisses
4. Gallant Sollerets

In addition, I received the ability Cover, which allows paladins to take all damage intended for another party member for 12 seconds.

Day 14.    I started off the day looking for a piece of glamour that drops in Dzemael Darkhold. I entered the dungeon with my squadron and, as it turns out, not wearing my best armor. I left the dungeon with my ego bruised, no glamour item, but level 47. I equipped myself properly and emerged without dying ... and the glamour item. I really didn't want to run the dungeon a third time so I checked the market board to see if the item was available. Not only was it available, but only cost 159 gil.

I decided to do one more command mission in the newly unlocked dungeon The Aurum Vale. New players usually have difficulty with the first room getting to the first boss, and I was no different. I managed not to die to any of the bosses, but did die 4 times along the way. I need more practice pulling mobs packed together.

With the last dungeon run, I dinged 49 and logged out for the night.

Day 15.    Only needing 300 thousand experience points to reach level 50, the smart ways to start out the night would have involved either joining the duty roulette or running The Aurum Vale again as a command mission with my squadron. Instead, I chose to complete my Hunting Log.

Now, this may sound a little crazy, but doing the level 46-50 entries requires going to 6 separate regions. One of the benefits to so much travel was the opportunity to stumble across FATEs. Completing four FATEs and receiving the Challenge Log bonus helped me reach level 50.

With level 50 achieved, I only needed to complete the paladin quest to unlock my level 50 abilities. Off to Ul'dah I went. I met Jenlyns in his usual place and he described a crazy idea to face down Monetarist assassins alone outside Snowcloak in Coerthas Central Highlands. Solkzagyl and I help out Jenlyns and the Monetarists were defeated. The story ends with Jenlyns still in charge of the paladins in Ul'dah. And I wound up with my final ability, Hallowed Ground. I also received the Gallant Surcoat to complete that set, and the Valor Armor Coffer, which is a iLevel 90 set.

The Paladin's Valor Set

I wound up doing The Aurum Vale to level to 51 and then the Heavensward level 50 paladin quest. I also bought a better set of armor to adventure in the expansion. But the ARR leveling experience was over.