With some down time today, I decided to submit this bug report with some detailed instructions of how to 100% grief and hold claim to any mob you want for nearly an infinite amount of time.
It's ultimately your decision (SE) whether you remove this thread or hot-fix it or whatever, but seeing as it hasn't been fixed yet, you guys don't seem to care or deem it important enough to fix.
1. http://notedls.com/yellow.jpg
- Seeing yellow claimed mobs when they should be purple.
- I'm not exactly sure what is causing this, my LS was fighting Uraeus (I'm out of PT) and it just changes from purple to yellow for me, however remained red to them.
2. http://notedls.com/grief.jpg
- Infinite claim.
- This is how it works, if you're a part of a party of at least 2 and both of you are in the same zone-vicinity you can claim a mob and die. If you don't release, the mobs will remain red to you. Many LS's on my server do this to grief other linkshells out of claiming the mob.
- Basically this allows the griefing party to take their time and form up while they have a guarenteed claim. Then when they're ready to engage, they do so and then the person dead ports back to the aetheryte to join with the rest of their linkshell killing the said NM.
- This DOES NOT work solo, like I mentioned, it requires 2+ members in the same area as one another, but only one person needs to claim and die.
- Incidentally this causes the mob to show up yellow (as you can see in the screenshot), but unable to be claimed (read the chat log).
- This also opens up MPKing from the griefing party. If you stand close to the said NM while the person who is attempting the grief, it will agro onto you and start killing you. You are unable to fight back, only able to heal yourself or run them away. If you notice the combat log, it's hitting a member in my party named Indrael Tirel.
3. http://notedls.com/grief_test.jpg
- Testing to see exactly how it works, this is the confirmation that although my party is running from the east side of Emerald Moss, I'm able to claim while dead.
4. http://notedls.com/grief_test2.jpg
- 38 game minutes later they arrive and are able to claim. That's roughly 2 minutes of grief holding.
These tests were to verify and validate exactly how the mechanic works, but was not done versus any other players that were also desiring the claim. Holding claim to mobs this way has been seen done for nearly a full 5 minutes by other LS's on Cornelia. The JP's are notorious for using such conduct.
To me (and some others) it's a game exploit; denying others from seeking out a desired drop or encounter, while at the same time causing physical harm to their game characters through the form of MPK.
There's not much the player can do, I've only attempted to remedy the situation twice with a GM call, but getting an automated message 5 seconds after the ticket is submitted doesn't do anything, so I don't even bother anymore.
EDIT: Also to note, you can hold these NMs beyond their "pop conditions". For instance, after pink weather is gone you can keep Dodore claimed into non-pink weather and INTO the next pink weather so you can run off its enrage.
You can hold Great Buffalo, Haughtpox, Mosshorn beyond 20:00 and 21:00 into the next 8:00 to keep it from depopping. As well you can keep Uraeus up with this method.