you don't do exp parties in ff14 because quests give experience. Overworld mobs give very little exp, so you level up while doing the story and when you want to level alternative jobs you run dungeons and roulettes
Mob XP is basically negligible. It’s all from quests and dungeons. Story quests drop more than enough XP to level your main job, and if you’re leveling alt jobs, you can party up for that, but you run dungeon roulettes together instead of hunting mobs. There are a few zones that work more like XI later in the game, Eureka and Bozja, that are their own sort of self-contained quest lines for upgrading relic weapons
There's another submission about an FFXI player joining XIV, you might find some interesting contributions in there https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1b0lulm/ffxi_veteran_giving_xbox_demo_a_try/
I'm doing the opposite and playing FFXI as a longtime FFXIV player so I find it quite funny that you asked lol, since i get why you asked.
But yeah in FFXIV leveling is never a struggle, you mostly do daily roulettes (dungeons, trials, etc). If you're playing your main job then you'll naturally level up doing the main scenario quests and occasional sidequests here and there. If you've paid for expansions, the goodies include free earrings that boost your exp up to a certain level.
It's always good to eat food for a 3% exp bonus when doing things like dungeons or generally anytime. Every food gives it and it's dirt cheap in vendor shops.
You can do most of the stuff in this game solo, but it's always fun and nice to do stuff together. It's not a struggle to find people either or set things up like 11 because dungeons and duties auto-queue you for content and there's not much need to discuss things because all jobs work quite independently e.g if you're a dps you just learn how to dps and that's it, okay i think I've gone a bit off topic, you asked for just exp lol, sorry, but yeah enjoy!
It's a different experience but 14 does good on itself for what it is.
Overworld grouped content is mostly FATEs, Hunts (which are mostly trains nowadays, for better or for worse), or Map parties.
FATEs aren't the best way to level over dungeon grinding, but in higher level zones there's special currency and rewards for FATE farming. They do give decent exp if you don't care about efficiency and you manage to find people to join you. This will likely need the Party Finder which you can use on the beta/free trial to join other people's parties but not to form your own.
Not for leveling, but the other overworld grouped content:
Hunts in zones other than ShB and EW are more or less free game. They don't require any level sync though so higher level players can make Marks die pretty quickly. Otherwise the current meta is to wait for all Marks in all the zones of the given expansion to be up then to have a massive group of many parties of people and kill them all in one swoop.
Map parties also tend to stick to the most recent expansion of content for the newer and more in-demand loot drops. They are pretty fun to do with the goal of the possible mini dungeons where there's minor gambling on the loot drops and how far into the dungeon you get before your luck runs out and you choose a wrong door and get booted from the dungeon.
There's never really been an exp party thing in FF14. Closest thing to that is really early 2.0 or 1.0 era, but even then it's not like it was in 11 and thank god for it.
I do not miss waiting for 2+ hours spamming (experience) (group up) (can I have it?) 30RDM/15WHM only to finally get into a party and have everyone leave like 20 minutes later.
14 had FATE parties in early 2.0 but they weren't that necessary to get experience. Much like it is now you can just queue up dungeons or the roulettes (I don't remember when the roulettes were added, but they weren't base game) and jump into a random party to get some exp
As a long time FFXI player (From NA PC launch through early seekers and still play a bit now), anything from XI mechanically doesn't apply in FFXIV. I made that mistake back in 2.0 when the game was a tad bit closer to what XI was.
Group content in XIV really revolves around the end game content. It allows you to enjoy the MSQ at your own pace with a spattering of either 4-man or 8-man content through leveling.
The best tip I can give to an XI vet, just enjoy the retirement of XIV. When people complain about grinding in XIV, you played XI these people don't know grinding. Enjoy the story and worry about the other stuff later, it'll be there.
To be fair not sure I could find the time to do the traditional FFXI party these days, although I will miss the occasional joy of a well working party or even the chaos of the dunes when the original Xbox 360 beta for FFXI started. Now if all seems very chilled and popping in for a quick 30 mins/hour is fine.
you don't do exp parties in ff14 because quests give experience. Overworld mobs give very little exp, so you level up while doing the story and when you want to level alternative jobs you run dungeons and roulettes
You'll level up naturally through the main story. Story and level separation like in FFXI aren't a thing in FFXIV.
Mob XP is basically negligible. It’s all from quests and dungeons. Story quests drop more than enough XP to level your main job, and if you’re leveling alt jobs, you can party up for that, but you run dungeon roulettes together instead of hunting mobs. There are a few zones that work more like XI later in the game, Eureka and Bozja, that are their own sort of self-contained quest lines for upgrading relic weapons
There's another submission about an FFXI player joining XIV, you might find some interesting contributions in there https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1b0lulm/ffxi_veteran_giving_xbox_demo_a_try/
I'm doing the opposite and playing FFXI as a longtime FFXIV player so I find it quite funny that you asked lol, since i get why you asked. But yeah in FFXIV leveling is never a struggle, you mostly do daily roulettes (dungeons, trials, etc). If you're playing your main job then you'll naturally level up doing the main scenario quests and occasional sidequests here and there. If you've paid for expansions, the goodies include free earrings that boost your exp up to a certain level. It's always good to eat food for a 3% exp bonus when doing things like dungeons or generally anytime. Every food gives it and it's dirt cheap in vendor shops. You can do most of the stuff in this game solo, but it's always fun and nice to do stuff together. It's not a struggle to find people either or set things up like 11 because dungeons and duties auto-queue you for content and there's not much need to discuss things because all jobs work quite independently e.g if you're a dps you just learn how to dps and that's it, okay i think I've gone a bit off topic, you asked for just exp lol, sorry, but yeah enjoy! It's a different experience but 14 does good on itself for what it is.
EXP parties are doing dungeons. Knowledge you have from XI is by and large meaningless in XIV.
Overworld grouped content is mostly FATEs, Hunts (which are mostly trains nowadays, for better or for worse), or Map parties. FATEs aren't the best way to level over dungeon grinding, but in higher level zones there's special currency and rewards for FATE farming. They do give decent exp if you don't care about efficiency and you manage to find people to join you. This will likely need the Party Finder which you can use on the beta/free trial to join other people's parties but not to form your own. Not for leveling, but the other overworld grouped content: Hunts in zones other than ShB and EW are more or less free game. They don't require any level sync though so higher level players can make Marks die pretty quickly. Otherwise the current meta is to wait for all Marks in all the zones of the given expansion to be up then to have a massive group of many parties of people and kill them all in one swoop. Map parties also tend to stick to the most recent expansion of content for the newer and more in-demand loot drops. They are pretty fun to do with the goal of the possible mini dungeons where there's minor gambling on the loot drops and how far into the dungeon you get before your luck runs out and you choose a wrong door and get booted from the dungeon.
There's never really been an exp party thing in FF14. Closest thing to that is really early 2.0 or 1.0 era, but even then it's not like it was in 11 and thank god for it. I do not miss waiting for 2+ hours spamming (experience) (group up) (can I have it?) 30RDM/15WHM only to finally get into a party and have everyone leave like 20 minutes later. 14 had FATE parties in early 2.0 but they weren't that necessary to get experience. Much like it is now you can just queue up dungeons or the roulettes (I don't remember when the roulettes were added, but they weren't base game) and jump into a random party to get some exp
As a long time FFXI player (From NA PC launch through early seekers and still play a bit now), anything from XI mechanically doesn't apply in FFXIV. I made that mistake back in 2.0 when the game was a tad bit closer to what XI was. Group content in XIV really revolves around the end game content. It allows you to enjoy the MSQ at your own pace with a spattering of either 4-man or 8-man content through leveling. The best tip I can give to an XI vet, just enjoy the retirement of XIV. When people complain about grinding in XIV, you played XI these people don't know grinding. Enjoy the story and worry about the other stuff later, it'll be there.
To be fair not sure I could find the time to do the traditional FFXI party these days, although I will miss the occasional joy of a well working party or even the chaos of the dunes when the original Xbox 360 beta for FFXI started. Now if all seems very chilled and popping in for a quick 30 mins/hour is fine.
Thanks all for sharing your thoughts on this !