I’ve been trying to get an alt character going in FFXIV since early 2.0, but I’ve never really had much success. Generally, I’ve always just preferred to work on my main—especially when there were classes I still needed to level on it and other things of that sort. About a year ago, prior to the launch of Heavensward, I had intended to give it another go: I wanted to get my alt to level 50 as Warrior, so that I’d be ready to level Dark Knight on her instead of Alahra (since the RP-nerd in me had no intention of doing so for her, but I ended up doing it anyway). I never got around to it, and Lynahra sat around at level 5 or so for much of the last year, mostly holding on to an old FC house (which I later relinquished and purchased for my Personal plot).

After posting about my current goals last time, I got kind of bored later that night, and out of nowhere, I had a really strong urge to try the whole alt thing again, though. I’ve long been curious about the post-HW leveling experience, with all the various additions and adjustments made to help newer folks get into the game. Leveling is also, outside of things like legendary weapon building, one of my favorite things to do in any MMO, and since I’ve hit 60 on all of the DoW/DoM classes on my main, I don’t have much left to do in that regard.

So, Lynahra got pulled out of retirement, and somewhat suprisingly, I’ve actually made some headway.

Last night, I hit 15 and went through the Hall of the Novice, which was great, since the Brand-New gear provides a nice, unified look. After that, it was time to get moving on the story and get access to Ul’dah and Gridania. If I need anything on my journey to level 50, it’s going to be Provoke, and I like to get cross-class stuff out of the way early, which means switching gears to Gladiator for a little while.

With the experience point bonuses from the Brand-New Ring and the increased Armory Bonus, getting Gladiator took very little time at all. Before long  I was on my Shield Lob quest and remembering how much I enjoyed the Gladiator storyline. After that, I picked up the storyline again, and I was actually quite happy to see that they modified things just a little bit—the story directly tells you to check out the Hall of the Novice, which I hadn’t realized before, which I think is pretty neat.

Of course, I had already done so, so for me, it was straight to Sastasha, where I ran into some NPCs I hadn’t thought much about in a long time. Knowing what’s coming later puts Avere berating Edda outside of the dungeon have quite a different impact now. I didn’t hop into Sastasha just yet, as there are some things I want to get done on Alahra. Plus, Far Harbor finally released for Fallout 4, which has had me spending some time with something other than FFXIV for once.

I’m planning to take this whole alternate business somewhat slow. I don’t want to burn myself out now that I’ve actually got some momentum going on this whole thing. I’ve still got about 35 levels to go before I’ll be able to glamour, but there’s also something charming about being stuck in low level gear and trying to make it work. I’ll post updates on my progress now and again, especially if I inadvertently fall into a look that I like.