Solo FOV Dancer 58

[Glamdring]

no, there's still a reason, I'm fighting it on my 80 pup right now. If you let your skill gap get too high you can hardly connect, at all. No connection=no chance at skill-up. That's why at/near cap is a good thing. Very little is as frustrating as whiffing on EP- when you try to skill (and in my case tank for my auto) on 2/3 swings. .5 skill-ups or not, closing that gap can take forever seemingly. I'm actually avoiding aby invites right now because even with food and atma at level 80 I'm only able to hit normal Aby mobs 1/3 and that usually for 1-20 damage. The same can easily happen to dancer, or anything else for that matter. The only ones with a chance of that never being an issue are thieves, if they rock at Sneak Attack, and Ranger using their Acc ability are almost as good, but that is 1 shot at a time, not exactly ideal for skilling up.

Couple that with getting better drops off higher level prey (generally) and it can be worth it. You need the XP, might as well take the $ in the process. Not to mention it's just a bit more fun if there's a bit of challenge to the game. Otherwise, I hear there's this game called Candyland that might appeal to your tastes more...

[Byrth]

Dancer can generally survive against anything EM to T. If you're afraid of the skill gap, spend an hour or two getting worse xp every 4-5 levels and go solo EMs instead. I'd do it just to keep attack up. The ~60 attack difference between "capped for EPs" and "capped for your level" at 58 is going to increase your damage a lot.

[scaevola]

no, there's still a reason, I'm fighting it on my 80 pup right now. If you let your skill gap get too high you can hardly connect, at all.

So fighting IT++ in a full Abyssea alliance is the exact same thing as fighting EPs, got it.

.5 skill-ups or not, closing that gap can take forever seemingly.

It's a good thing you saved all that time on the way up by leveling on EP trash!

I'm actually avoiding aby invites right now because even with food and atma at level 80 I'm only able to hit normal Aby mobs 1/3 and that usually for 1-20 damage.

If you are the kind of person who wants to throw countless unnecessary hours into a video game to quell your insecurity about the numbers that pop up when your avatar punches things despite these numbers having literally no impact on your ability to accomplish immediate goals, in the context you're describing (you are the only person who cares about or can even see this, because not putting filters up in an Abyssea alliance means not seeing anything anyway) you aren't leaving me much room to appeal to practicality here.

Couple that with getting better drops off higher level prey (generally) and it can be worth it.

give me an example of an EM mob you would solo grind for cash drops at any given level and i will give you an example of an EP you could kill three times as fast with cash drops worth at least half as much

naturally, this is before even considering the fact that crystals are still worth more than they had been at any point before Abyssea's release, so I'm beating you 3 to 1 right there

Not to mention it's just a bit more fun if there's a bit of challenge to the game.

In what way is structuring your preparations and strategy to maximize your XP/hour not a challenge?

Moreover, if maximizing the efficiency of time investment is not the kind of challenge you're looking for, there are many, many games out there with significantly faster paces that reward you for quick reflexes and on-the-spot decision-making more than an MMORPG.

Actually, pretty much all of them do.

If you're afraid of the skill gap, spend an hour or two getting worse xp every 4-5 levels and go solo EMs instead. I'd do it just to keep attack up.

Well, maybe. It's questionable whether the slowdown you're looking at in the time it takes you to level those skills will actually be offset by the marginal increase in killrate the rest of the time, but skillups are so random anyway that I wouldn't speculate.

[Glamdring]

So fighting IT++ in a full Abyssea alliance is the exact same thing as fighting EPs, got it.

No, you don't "got it". The point was, if you've allowed your skills to gap that much, then EP or IT++ doesn't matter, you're not hitting anything. And with the double XP that's very easy to do. I made the mistake of leeching my pup 67-80, I was whiffing even on EP- when doing my trial weap. I've closed some of that, but it's taken me the better part of 3 weeks of playtime, and I'm still about 28 off my HTH cap.

It's a good thing you saved all that time on the way up by leveling on EP trash!

Nothing is wrong with leveling off EP, it's quick, it's easy (hence the con choice), and easy modeing the game while still feeling awesome about your character performance can make that grinding alot less arduous. You also make alot more $ on the way up than an Aby leech, although if you are continually upgrading gear and using consumables you may use a fair amount of it. TBH, the only barriers to you going 30-90 in abyssea in a single day are that you have to pause to do your limit break quests (and without keeping skills up Maat or the equivalent fights are gonna be a bitch) and that it might take about 14 hours in a dominion ops party. Your inventory will get a fair amount of stuff if you've got the light balance to get decent gold chests, which you probably will, but you can load up on salables grinding, too and alot more of them.

If you are the kind of person who wants to throw countless unnecessary hours into a video game to quell your insecurity about the numbers that pop up when your avatar punches things despite these numbers having literally no impact on your ability to accomplish immediate goals, in the context you're describing (you are the only person who cares about or can even see this, because not putting filters up in an Abyssea alliance means not seeing anything anyway) you aren't leaving me much room to appeal to practicality here.

I like to be doing my job, plain and simple. Dancer can certainly sit back and just heal-if they have a source of regain-but to really do their job they need hits since they run off TP. Moreover, end-game dnc is asked to tank quite a bit, you might wanna keep that EVA skill up, too. Dancer is also a frequent solo, because they can, but Skill helps there, too. Ultimately tho' that's not the point here; even if the entire group has filters up to know that I'm not getting it done, I KNOW. I can't find a way to take pride in that.

give me an example of an EM mob you would solo grind for cash drops at any given level and i will give you an example of an EP you could kill three times as fast with cash drops worth at least half as much

naturally, this is before even considering the fact that crystals are still worth more than they had been at any point before Abyssea's release, so I'm beating you 3 to 1 right there.

When I grind my way up, on most jobs I fight beastmen since they drop gil as well as "stuff", and dancer is certainly a job that is capable of taking them on solo. When their con rate drops, I try to move, although I can't always get more beastmen if I try to couple that with FoV as most XP grinders do. The higher the level of the beastman, the better the drops-in general, there are certainly exceptions. Yes, EP can have greater yields (again, not always, some mobs just have garbage drops-evil weapons anyone?); my point is, if you are trying to fight level appropriate stuff for skill then you'll get a bit more off the level 60 Ant than the level 58 ant. And I wasn't discussing farming, the question here is solo FoV for XP; I just think if you gotta kill stuff anyway you might as well walk away with something if you have a choice. I'm a big believer in "2 birds with 1 stone" when soloing.

In what way is structuring your preparations and strategy to maximize your XP/hour not a challenge?

Moreover, if maximizing the efficiency of time investment is not the kind of challenge you're looking for, there are many, many games out there with significantly faster paces that reward you for quick reflexes and on-the-spot decision-making more than an MMORPG.

Actually, pretty much all of them do.

Simple, the enjoyment of a game-at least for me-is the sense of accomplishment from acheiving some goal, in this case winning a fight. I don't feel a sense of accomplishment when I just pound easy stuff. It would be like taking pride in beating up a 10 year old kid... when you are 16. See, it's the possibility that you might lose that adds spice to the fight, that possibility is remote spamming EP, but a bit more likely doing DC-EM (and I wasn't advocating T+). And where is the challenge in picking the easiest mob you can beat that still yields XP at your level? The "sweet spot" for XP yield/time solo for most jobs including dancer seems to be at the DC mark, which just so happens to coincide with the level of mob needed to cap your skill to your level.

Well, maybe. It's questionable whether the slowdown you're looking at in the time it takes you to level those skills will actually be offset by the marginal increase in killrate the rest of the time, but skillups are so random anyway that I wouldn't speculate.

Doing the every 4-5 level thing is certainly viable, as long as you keep at it. Having ground 2 jobs to 75 solo, 1 before and 1 after the skill-up increase it is very noticable. SE has confirmed (and I can confirm by doing it myself) that while skill overall has increased the rate is still higher the higher the prey cons to you. So definately keep the DC-EM and even the occasional T on the menu if skill is important to you.