Abyssea XP: Worms?!?

[Yandaime]

Let me just say, that I have never been in a party that clocked xp as quickly as Dominion Ops: Altep but I am not against xping in old zones at all (running laps from camp to book gets very old very quickly lol)

But lately there has been this phenomenon of people making parties for Abyssea - La Thiene, which is great, I love La Thiene... But why in the name of Altana do they keep making parties for Worms?!?

Of all the monsters you could kill in this zone, you chose the one mob that:
* Does not Move (Cant pull it)
* Casts
* Links (which results in links when worms pop up near the one your fighting)
* Has that silly Acid Spit move that drops a person's Attack -25% (I REALLY Hate that move...)
* Has the NM worm Megamaw Mikey which spawns every 10-15 minutes right in the middle of camp just waiting to "/monkey wrench" your party

Man I'm honestly stumped by this... when I asked the party leaders why they chose these unusual mobs, all I could get was "These are squishy"... At this point we all know that anything in Visions is squishy once your 83+ lol but Ill leave that alone...

Why not Frogs?
*Super Squishy as well
*Uses no TP moves, making for easier healing
*Easy to pull
*Lots of them in the Area

Or How about Flies
*Low Defense
*Occasionally uses Cursed Sphere but it doesn't hurt much at all
*Easy to pull
*Lots of them in the Area

Or birds/Rabbits/Bees? lol but Worms? I'm honestly stumped, it's a move that makes 0 sense to me. Of all the things to fight, you pick one of the most annoying and I cant imagine there's a good reason lol. Can someone help me out here? I'm clearly missing something :(

[Zatias]

Squishy, BLM can Ga or Ja them to all hell, and that's the point that they don't move. Injured DD can run away from them, and the BLM have no fear of being interrupted.

The Accuracy and Attack down are close to nothing if your pt is good, because Stalwart's Tonic keeps them from happening at all. Meaning lots of temporary chests = no acc/atk down.

[Dfoley]

Personally I find altepa dolls to be very slow even in the best parties. There are far faster ways to exp then pull 5, kill, go get new page.

In the time you go get a new page, my exp group has already made 14k exp and is pulling the next batch of 15 mobs while the keyer gets us another 3-4k. The issue is it requires accepting that you arent doing pages which seems to be a hard book to sell to people.

Its like back in the day with 'no ruby!' parties.

[Tamoa]

If the DDs don't suck (unfortunately they usually do), Megamaw Mikey is a complete joke too.

[Korpg]

If the DDs don't suck (unfortunately they usually do), Megamaw Mikey is a complete joke too.

1 Emp DD and 1 WHM can kill Mikey, there shouldn't be any problems with a whole alliance killing Mikey.

[Tamoa]

1 Emp DD and 1 WHM can kill Mikey, there shouldn't be any problems with a whole alliance killing Mikey.

You would think so, lol. Unfortunately I have seen MM wiping out nearly all the DDs more than once.

[BorkBorkBork]

You would think so, lol. Unfortunately I have seen MM wiping out nearly all the DDs more than once.

Reason being is most are too lazy to skill up their new 90 jobs on their own to a decent number like 200. Spamming Iron tempest on MM can make it do pretty slow.

[Zatias]

Megamaw is my friend. He helps me rid the party of AFKers.

[Korpg]

Megamaw is my friend. He helps me rid the party of AFKers.

Bonus points in having a WHM friend curebomb you while Mikey is spamming -ga next to the afkers.

[Korpg]

On topic, however.

Frogs suck because even though they are faster to kill, they don't seem to go above T and you can't cap out 600+ per kill like you could with worms (last I checked with frogs at 90 however, was a long time ago). And they hit you like a truck, if you aren't evasive, and you pull, you will get your butt handed to you easy if there is no WHM curebombing you.

Sure, they don't have any TP moves, but they do still hurt. 15+ trucks on you and you will get run over.

But Puks next to 05 are better than frogs, and nobody exps on them either. Which is what my linkshell does when we are CW/FC burning.

[svengalis]

You answered your own question on the original post. You don't have to pull them and they are easy to run away from plus even gimped jobs can solo them. From what I have experience from domain ops and worm parties, the experience and cruor is faster at worm camp once you built up to 610 experience per kill. Seriously try it for yourself. The cruor rains in just like a FC or even faster if your party is good. I do nothing but worm parties now.

[Vold]

But why in the name of Altana do they keep making parties for Worms?!? No warrior to cleave them on better targets, obviously.

[Korpg]

I'm not sure about cruor though, exp yes, but not cruor.

Try a bird/bat cruor farm in the coast, you will not be disappointed.

[Shiyo]

Worms are the squishiest easiest to kill mobs in the game, that's why.

[scaevola]

Try a bird/bat cruor farm in the coast, you will not be disappointed.

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

In all seriousness, though, worms are easier to build azure lights on quickly, and are weaker than dominion targets. This is important because even if you can get more XP/hour in a dominion camp, it still caps quickly enough on worms that the XP itself becomes an afterthought.

It's a MUCH better environment for some mindless cruor farming (which is what gets the 90s to come out) and skilling up (since you can reliably hit and damage a worm by the low 200s, skill-wise), which are what really matter; the only thing Dominion really has to offer is a super-outside shot at a complete PITA body seal.

[Yandaime]

meh idk, my fastest party was in Altep vs Dolls and i ran through 20 merits in roughly 45 minutes, was one of the only parties I've had that had 7 Strong DDs in it at one time tho, so there was hardly any down time. And most Altep parties don't pull 5 mobs, we typically just camp close to the Dolls, its a small walk to the OP but your still in xp range most of the time. The xp note on the worms is notable, I would just find it tedious having to walk to every mob I'd want to swing at, especially if that mob aggros and binds me beforehand lol.

Dominion Ops have a few really good Advantages:
*The book doesnt care what Lights you have (PERFECT for dumping merits and coming right back without having to recharge lights all over again
*The book is largely better for Cruor as you'd keep a steady supply coming from the mobs and a large chunk with each page
*The book is also perfect for bringing in new jobs since you wont have to wait til *Capped* gold to see exp on a lowbie job when your keywhoring

Yea... when I actually wanna level, Dom Ops: Altepa is just too good lol.

Oh, and most people probably avoid Puks because of the Flashga/Super Blink they like to do. Its just annoiying is all (still remember puks from TAoU burning xD)

[Korpg]

It's a MUCH better environment for some mindless cruor farming (which is what gets the 90s to come out) and skilling up (since you can reliably hit and damage a worm by the low 200s, skill-wise), which are what really matter; the only thing Dominion really has to offer is a super-outside shot at a complete PITA body seal.

I guess you do have a point.

But skillups are fun in my opinion, but that is a matter of personal preference.

[scaevola]

I guess you do have a point.

But skillups are fun in my opinion, but that is a matter of personal preference.

Yeah, I actually enjoy it, too. I actually just finished taking MNK to 90 last weekend, though, and on the way up I was in an Uleg party with 250-ish base skill, punching bluffaloes with a 40% accuracy rate (C&D atma, lollers) for not-infrequently 0 damage on a non-crit. The reality is, if I'm going to hit Abyssea for my high-70s/low-80s, there's no question worms are a better choice even if they only give half as much XP/hour, because I'm getting skill-ups there and I'm going to cap XP in a decent Abyssea party in a few hours no matter what camp we pick.

Skill-ups are the new XP.

[svengalis]

I'm not sure about cruor though, exp yes, but not cruor.

Try a bird/bat cruor farm in the coast, you will not be disappointed.

I've tried that and I was disappointed why? Because we kept resetting the cruor! For me the time spent try to keep cruor at cap is outwayed by the Mon stop chest that rain in from a worm party. You just to make sure your Meyer is opening them all.

[Zagen]

I've tried that and I was disappointed why? Because we kept resetting the cruor! For me the time spent try to keep cruor at cap is outwayed by the Mon stop chest that rain in from a worm party. You just to make sure your Meyer is opening them all.

Get in a group that does it right and you won't be disappointed is how Korpg should have worded it.

[Meyi]

Megamaw is my friend. He helps me rid the party of AFKers.

I like him because his milkshakes bring all the worms to the yard... and I aja them down.

[Mirage]

I like them because they're pretty laid back. No real threat of death, they die stupidly fast, even to lower level DDs. When I come up to lv 70-75 on a new job, I usually go for worms, cause i won't need to exit and recap lights in a long time anyway, and also because I at level 75 actually can contribute a bit in terms of damage on worms, something that's a bit harder to do on dom ops mobs. I dislike not being able to contribute. I've seen 220k/hour in a good worms party, and that's fast enough for me.

If I'm just after merits, I go for dom ops cause they're faster right from the start, regardless of lights.

[Alhanelem]

I honestly like Bluffaloes better than dolls.

[Mirage]

At least they don't occasionally blow up and kill the lower leveled characters in the alliance :p.

[Zagen]

At least they don't occasionally blow up and kill the lower leveled characters in the alliance :p.
Or the Mages who don't seem to bother with -PDT sets when they get magic aggro >.>

[Shiyo]

ITT: PDT helps vs magic damage.

[Zagen]

ITT: PDT helps vs magic damage.

ITT: Melee hits from magic aggroed dolls are magic damage.

[wish12oz]

ITT: Melee hits from magic aggroed dolls are magic damage.

Maybe you should of specified what you meant then, when I read your original statement it's pretty obvious to me as well that you mean PDT sets reduce the damage from meltdown.

[Zagen]

Maybe you should of specified what you meant then, when I read your original statement it's pretty obvious to me as well that you mean PDT sets reduce the damage from meltdown.

Edited for clarity because it seems taking a post for face value and then assuming its wrong and then be an ass about it is the way to go instead of analyzing it. Yes my response to them was asinine but hopefully you get why.

Yes I should have said from melee damage (forgot when I posted the comment) but you'd think how I mentioned specifically "mages" needing a "-PDT set" and not all jobs there would have been a moment where you'd (anyone not wish12oz specifically) think "hmm bad wording but I see he means magic aggro since he only mentioned mages needing the -PDT set and Meltdown is magical".

[Shiyo]

Nice editing your posts to not make yourself look dumb.

[Zagen]

Nice editing your posts to not make yourself look dumb.

Learn to read... I explained what happened but kudos on being an ass you seem quite good at it ^^

[wish12oz]

Yes I should have said from melee damage, but you'd think how I mentioned specifically "mages" needing a "-PDT set" and not all jobs there would have been a moment where people think "hmm bad wording but I see he means magic aggro since he only mentioned mages needing the -PDT set and Meltdown is magical".

So you want people to assume you mean dolls are physically attacking your mages because they got magic aggro, when you didn't say either of those things, rather then reading your post for what it says and assuming you're just dumb and think meltdown is physical damage?

You quoted something about meltdown, and only meltdown, then said "Mages without PDT gear are dumb" and nothing else. How in the world is anyone going to assume that means "Mages magic aggro stuff and get attacked and need PDT sets." ?

Originally I wasn't attacking you or thinking you were dumb, just that you poorly worded your idea. But with the amount of rage and butthurt you just exhibited, I have changed my mind.

[Zagen]

You quoted something about meltdown, and only meltdown, then said "Mages without PDT gear are dumb" and nothing else. How in the world is anyone going to assume that means "Mages magic aggro stuff and get attacked and need PDT sets." ?

Originally I wasn't attacking you or thinking you were dumb, just that you poorly worded your idea. But with the amount of rage and butthurt you just exhibited, I have changed my mind.
Because it happens way more often than leeches/key people getting blown up? Maybe not when you do dolls but generally that's how it goes down when I join doll groups.

What amount of rage that took 30 seconds to write.

My mistake for assuming on a forum where many people posting English isn't their first language people would read a post and think about it before going off with the "you must be dumb" attitude. Anyways you two have a good day, feel free to have the last word.

Edit: I'm not sure how to reword the last thought of mine to make it clearer but hopefully you get the point :/

[Greatguardian]

People do worms because typical exp gimps can't "time Azure Killshots" for jack shit and they're the only mobs around that total crap gimp Black Mages can solo without having their collective asses beaten in.

Fin.

[Mirage]

Why bother with that if you can get good exp anyway?

[Alhanelem]

Edited for clarity because it seems taking a post for face value and then assuming its wrong and then be an ass about it is the way to go instead of analyzing it.This happens way too much around here.


People do worms because typical exp gimps can't "time Azure Killshots" for jack shit and they're the only mobs around that total crap gimp Black Mages can solo without having their collective asses beaten in.Pretty much this. Why does no one do the worms in Ulegurand though? They don't move either.

[Khiinroye]

People don't do Uleguerand worms because they don't like the run back to the book for their dominion ops, which people think are necessary to level in Heroes zones (yes, we know they aren't). Also, those worms are ~10 levels higher than the ones in La Theine, so are slightly harder to kill.

The worms in Attohwa don't give azure light, so they aren't a good target.

[Alhanelem]

The worms in Attohwa don't give azure light, so they aren't a good target. OK, well that would be the biggest reason then. :p *feels stupid* Of course, you could still just nuke down some ephemerals.

[Greatguardian]

OK, well that would be the biggest reason then. :p *feels stupid* Of course, you could still just nuke down some ephemerals.

Dude those, like, move. And cast spells. And, like, have TP moves. And attack people.

You can't, like, expect exp BLMs to be able to kill those, man.

[Economizer]

Tell me about it, my server doesn't seem to do anything but worms, buffalo, and dolls.


But why in the name of Altana do they keep making parties for Worms?!?

Its this "settle on one play style" syndrome. Even if the numbers are the best (best in this game usually means something like 1% better) there, it is terribly boring. It is like people who dictate that only certain jobs should melee "because they are the best" even in chill settings where people are just trying to have fun. At what point is this a game and at what point is this a number contest?


Why not Frogs?

I think frogs take like half damage to magic. That said, I really wish someone would fight them more often, I need like 700 aquans for a trail.


1 Emp DD and 1 WHM can kill Mikey, there shouldn't be any problems with a whole alliance killing Mikey.

TP Feed might factor in a fair bit with mobs if you have twelve people smacking something. I don't know about Mikey in particular though, I haven't fought that in ages.


Dude those, like, move. And cast spells. And, like, have TP moves. And attack people.

You can't, like, expect exp BLMs to be able to kill those, man.

The sad thing is, given enough time, I can usually kill those with a White Mage... and my best atma for nuking equipped while doing it is Minikin Monstrosity (no Allure or anything that boosts Mind or light magic on). They make you really appreciate a Black Mage when you get ambushed by one when curing though.

[Siiri]

It is going to be funny after the update to see all the bad players crammed in at buffalo, dolls and worms. I plan on taking a small group of non afk-ers and finding a good relatively peaceful spot.

[Alhanelem]

Dude those, like, move. And cast spells. And, like, have TP moves. And attack people.

You can't, like, expect exp BLMs to be able to kill those, man.
You're right. It was wrong of me to expect BLMs to lift more than one finger. :p

[noodles355]

My favourite blms are the ones who even when azure is well and truely capped, think they are super awesome and continue to killshot every damn mob, and then complain because no chests are dropping because you're still sitting at like 10 pearl.

Also I wouldn't advise Flies in La Thiene because quite often you get people killing those for the PIs to one of Carabosses's KI NMs.

[Mayoyama]

My favourite blms are the ones who even when azure is well and truely capped, think they are super awesome and continue to killshot every damn mob, and then complain because no chests are dropping because you're still sitting at like 10 pearl.

A respectable BLM would be off soloing/duoing their own groups of worms while the melees work on pearl lights, not waiting around to killshot mobs the DDs have been whacking on....

Then again, I guess all those n00b BLM need to skill up with their Stone I somewhere.... (oh, how many times have I seen BLMs spam earth magic on worms... ; ; )