I think the current levelling is fine.
Plenty of PLs got to PL10 with just plain old Athena voyages. No ashen variants. No emissaries. Just the long grind. With catching chickens involved!
If you want to pad your emissary, Thieves Haven runs still exist. One of those and an athena quest should be a grade 5 easily enough. Do it before or after an athena run and you'll be fine.
Veil voyages are higher risk for the faster level up. Raising an emissary is inherently accepting a risk for the multiplier so this shouldn't be an issue. Sure, you throw a tornado up in the sky, but if ou don't like it, take the long road.
Some people think doing the first two chapters of a veil voyage and cancelling is an exploit and justifies raising the emissary speed of other voyages. I might be convinced that some minor balancing could occur here. But I'd have to stress that I think it'd be minor...if at all...I'd still have to be convinced. My reasoning below:
- At the end of the day, emissary rank means almost nothing. It is a means to an end...the gold and reputation multiplier. The flag itself, even when successfully lowered, is minimal rep and gold.
So no matter how you get to grade 5, that only really means something if you get an athena chest. Trinket are all well and good, but again, not nearly the gold or rep of a single athena chest....or an ashen athena chest. So cancelling and voting up a veil voyage may get you to grade 5 without the "risk" of the tornado, but it doesn't get you the one piece of loot that makes the grade 5 emissary actually worth it. You'd be better off just pushing through and finishing the voyage.
If you are solo, the first two chapters carry a risk of your ship being spotted and set upon with a veil voyage. Shipwrecks have to be explored. Unless you've memorized every art item on every island, Sudd's bad clue maps take time. Belle's combat takes time. These are riskier solo than a Thieves Haven run in most cases. I'd argue that a solo looking for a lower risk Grade 5 should do a Thieves Haven then their non-veil athena voyage instead of looping the first two chapters of a veil voyage. TH far enough south that keeping an eye on the horizon north is easier and lower risk than diving even a single shipwreck.
And if you are in a crew, see above about just finishing the veil voyage. Or speedrunning a TH voyage. Leave someone on TH while the rest of the crew sails to the outlying islands and will get you that bump that an athena voyage gets you to 5.
Note that I'm not discouraging veil voyages. I think they are a great addition. And for me and my crew, haved made TH and traditional athena's almost obsolete including emissary quests. But different people have different risk tolerances or find the x-maps and skellie fights more fun...sure, they are still there for you. I'm only saying that the options, whether its doing the first 2 chapters of a veil voyage, or doing a TH run, or "other" provides any athena leveller options to tailor the voyages to their playstyle and time available. I question any need to rebalance emissary rank speed given those factors. Nothing has been introduced that is game breaking in that regard.
Do what you want. Play how you want. But easier grade 5's aren't needed and nobody is entitled to an easy grade 5. The risk/reward needs to be there. Try levelling up old-school like some of us did and then complain about only increasing half a level. That last level from PL9 to PL10 was real. You darn kids are getting off easy.
Now get off my lawn!
