An interesting post has appeared on the Lodestone about guildleves. Until now guildleves have been the main form of content that players would use to level up. This was almost always done in a party due to the bonuses for linking with other players. However from 1.18 Square Enix plans to change this and make then more oriented towards solo players with little time to play. The changes are outlined below.

Regional Levequests

The skill point bonus will be abolished for battlecraft leves. The amount of skill points awarded for slaying individual enemies will be reduced, but this will be offset by the inclusion of skill points as a reward for leve completion. To accommodate this change, factors such as recommended/actual rank disparity, completion time, and partial participation will be made to influence the amount of points yielded. In addition, leve linking and sharing bonuses will be reduced, while the maximum number of linkable leves will be raised.

Certain regional leves and faction leves will receive revisions to areas such as enemy numbers, spawn condition, and target item drop rate. Enemy rank variance as determined by leve difficulty will also be adjusted.

Leves that send adventurers scrambling unreasonably long distances will be revamped. A system will also be implemented which enables leves to assign different routes when undertaken by multiple groups simultaneously.

Local Levequests

Bonus skill points granted during synthesis will be abolished. Instead, skill points will appear as a reward for completing leve objectives.

Rewards

The gil and guild marks awarded for completing regional/local levequests will be adjusted. We will also revise the selection of items that may be earned as rewards, introducing those that better reflect the characteristics of each city-state. In addition, levequests yielding guild marks will be limited to city-states hosting the corresponding guild only. For example, Blacksmiths’ Guild marks can only be earned in Limsa Lominsa, while Conjurers’ Guild marks will be exclusive to Gridania. In compensation, adventurers will find that guild marks earned in the above fashion will be yielded at a higher rate.
* The skill point reward for local levequests will be issued to those of the corresponding class only. Similarly, completing a regional levequest as any class other than those recommended will yield no skill points.

Other Adjustments

The following adjustments will be made to improve guildleve usability.
Selecting cancel in the guildleve selection window will return you to the previous menu.
Levequest commencement and completion messages will be adjusted.
Minimap marker position will be made to update automatically.

Source: The Lodestone