Low level exp parties

[Anjou]

I'm seeing a lot less of these, even in gusgen mines and their book burning. Literally I only see 2 people in here at a time with the pages. Is there somewhere that recently became the hot spot, or are low level players going to be forced to solo all the way to 30 where...yup looks like Crawler's Nest is empty most of the time too.


Can something be thought up to fix this?

[Daemon]

Why does SE need to fix this? Because 18 people no longer there to burn pages? I mean every time I went at least 6-8 people were parked afk leeching maybe from falling asleep, or intentionally leeching because they know they could.

Anyone can solo up to 18 and then solo pages in gusgen mines. Then again anyone could level to 30 pretty fast if the person actually had the gear rather than expect to level up to 30 off level 10 gear.

Even with 3 people its fast.

[Siviard]

I'm seeing a lot less of these, even in gusgen mines and their book burning. Literally I only see 2 people in here at a time with the pages. Is there somewhere that recently became the hot spot, or are low level players going to be forced to solo all the way to 30 where...yup looks like Crawler's Nest is empty most of the time too.


Can something be thought up to fix this?

I see someone relies on Gusgen Mines book burning a bit too much.

Try learning how to play your jobs solo for a change. It will make you a better player. Trust me.

[detlef]

I see someone relies on Gusgen Mines book burning a bit too much.

Try learning how to play your jobs solo for a change. It will make you a better player. Trust me.Yes, spamming your single job ability and your one weapon skill while full timing gear will make you a better player.

[Siviard]

Yes, spamming your single job ability and your one weapon skill while full timing gear will make you a better player.

My response was for those who level up to 30+ solely in Gusgen Mines book burns. Obviously you got whooshed and it wasn't even intentional.

[Demon6324236]

No matter where you level to 30+ your not really going to learn anything...

[Siviard]

No matter where you level to 30+ your not really going to learn anything...

The biggest shock I think I ever got was when this 99 BST comes running past me with aggro asking me to save him (I'm on PUP) and I'm like, "dude, just Charm it!" The response was "wait, I can charm stuff? how?"

This is the kind of thing that is happening nowadays from people who book burn Gusgen to 30 then key whore to 99. It's rather sickening if you ask me.

So Demon, I ask you....Try saying what you said to someone who leveled any job solo and see what kind of reaction you get.

[Daemon]

Mages? How many WHM know how to be patient and spam lower level cures to conserve mp rather than use the highest tier all because it heals people faster?

Nukers trying to be a 1 man show depleting MP while drawing hate for nuking too hard when spamming lowest tier can build up to better damage over time?

Then you have DDs who don't know that if they are taking too much damage to begin with they shouldn't be eager to tank a mob especially if a War or Pld is in the party.

I could go on really...

[Daemon]

DJ is one of the very rare few highly skilled players I know but seriously I think you forget that people like you are rare lol..

[detlef]

The biggest shock I think I ever got was when this 99 BST comes running past me with aggro asking me to save him (I'm on PUP) and I'm like, "dude, just Charm it!" The response was "wait, I can charm stuff? how?"So you're saying that BST, the most traditional soloing job in the game, could learn a lot about the job by soloing? You're not exactly going out on a limb there.

The vast majority of jobs in the game will not learn anything about party mechanics from soloing. Unless your whole point was that if you solo a lot you get better at soloing, in which case I'm not sure it's possible to be wrong.

[Daemon]

So you're saying that BST, the most traditional soloing job in the game, could learn a lot about the job by soloing? You're not exactly going out on a limb there.

The vast majority of jobs in the game will not learn anything about party mechanics from soloing. Unless your whole point was that if you solo a lot you get better at soloing, in which case I'm not sure it's possible to be wrong.

Maybe so, but players are suppose to learn the basics of how to gear, carry meds and food, survival by checking/dodging mobs, earn Gil farming (because you cannot earn it off skeletons in gusgen mines), skilling up on your own, buying gear and playing around with new equipment, macros, weaponskills, crafting that can help while soloing, questing and making use of the items that help you advance faster.

Still to this very day people show up at end game events not even capped skills, no food and meds and poorly equipped.

Last /yell in Jeuno I saw "Delve plasm farm "please have AF3 minimum requirement."

[detlef]

We're not talking about new players. This discussion came about when somebody accused the OP of being overly reliant on book burns for XP. It's readily apparent that the OP has at least XPed a few jobs to level cap and "the basics" you're describing probably does not apply.

[Demon6324236]

The biggest shock I think I ever got was when this 99 BST comes running past me with aggro asking me to save him (I'm on PUP) and I'm like, "dude, just Charm it!" The response was "wait, I can charm stuff? how?".This kind of response comes from someone who is retarded. There is no other way someone could actually unlock a job, fail to know about its primary function which is using a pet, fail to look at any of its job abilities, ever, at all, and still manage to get to level 99. No matter if they did a party or did it solo or did it in Gusgen, they would be just as clueless I think. Someone stupid enough to not even look at their JAs & what they do is the kind of person in my opinion who is not going to learn no matter if they did it slow or if they simply skipped leveling entirely.

[Daemon]

We're not talking about new players. This discussion came about when somebody accused the OP of being overly reliant on book burns for XP. It's readily apparent that the OP has at least XPed a few jobs to level cap and "the basics" you're describing probably does not apply.

I came back to FFXI last year started a brand new account, no Gil and no LS. I solod to 30 the oldschool way because I did not know about Gusgen mines and burning pages. Wasn't hard at all in fact I was overwhelmed how much easier FFXI is now compared to before Abyssea.

Did my own Subjob quest solo and then met a friend who helped me out throughout the game catch up which did kill the time by a a lot having only 1 friend.

She did not give me Gil nor did I asked for it. And I did not even own abyssea and reached level 75+ before I bought the expansion.

[Anjou]

I actually solo'd my BLU all the way to 99 (Kinda have to if you wanna be up to snuff on the spells)

The reason I don't like soloing...TOO...QUIET.

[Daemon]

This kind of response comes from someone who is retarded. There is no other way someone could actually unlock a job, fail to know about its primary function which is using a pet, fail to look at any of its job abilities, ever, at all, and still manage to get to level 99. No matter if they did a party or did it solo or did it in Gusgen, they would be just as clueless I think. Someone stupid enough to not even look at their JAs & what they do is the kind of person in my opinion who is not going to learn no matter if they did it slow or if they simply skipped leveling entirely.

I can believe it thanks to FC. You could be a level 99 on another job do BST quest, then FC to 99 on BST and still not know to play the job.

[Daemon]

I actually solo'd my BLU all the way to 99 (Kinda have to if you wanna be up to snuff on the spells)

The reason I don't like soloing...TOO...QUIET.

True but leveling to 99 solo and leveling to 30 solo is a huge difference.

[Demon6324236]

I can believe it thanks to FC. You could be a level 99 on another job do BST quest, then FC to 99 on BST and still not know to play the job.If you even make it to level 10 without checking your Job Ability list a single time, your beyond hope in my opinion. So unless you get into Gusgen at level 1, get to 30 literally doing nothing but standing there afk, then join a FC and again get to 99 standing there afk, you have no excuse for not having looked at your JAs in my opinion. At that point, I doubt any amount of making you solo things or level slowly would create a competent and good player in all honesty, even if it sounds mean or rude, because you fail to understand the basics of exploring what a job can do. Without even the most simple level of exploring such a thing, such as looking at your Job Abilities you gain as you level, I doubt you can ever truly explore what your job is capable of and understand how to put it to effective use, which to me, means you will never be a good player. That, is why I say someone who could literally get to 99 BST without understanding the basic function that is Charm, or knowing that Charm is even existant, is beyond hope.

[Daemon]

If you even make it to level 10 without checking your Job Ability list a single time, your beyond hope in my opinion. So unless you get into Gusgen at level 1, get to 30 literally doing nothing but standing there afk, then join a FC and again get to 99 standing there afk, you have no excuse for not having looked at your JAs in my opinion. At that point, I doubt any amount of making you solo things or level slowly would create a competent and good player in all honesty, even if it sounds mean or rude, because you fail to understand the basics of exploring what a job can do. Without even the most simple level of exploring such a thing, such as looking at your Job Abilities you gain as you level, I doubt you can ever truly explore what your job is capable of and understand how to put it to effective use, which to me, means you will never be a good player. That, is why I say someone who could literally get to 99 BST without understanding the basic function that is Charm, or knowing that Charm is even existant, is beyond hope.

True but even I never used charm at lower levels. In fact I never used it til reaching 99. In gusgen mines the only thing to charm was Fungar and rather than risk the entire party I just chose to go all out on Axing stuff instead. And well Abby at 30? Keying til I could reach high enough level, go out and skill up axe, raise merits etc. save Gil.

The again could have been a duel boxers mule.

Look I'm not saying people shouldn't have common sense. Just there are people out there who don't have it. Sad huh...

[Hawklaser]

Mages? How many WHM know how to be patient and spam lower level cures to conserve mp rather than use the highest tier all because it heals people faster?

Nukers trying to be a 1 man show depleting MP while drawing hate for nuking too hard when spamming lowest tier can build up to better damage over time?

Then you have DDs who don't know that if they are taking too much damage to begin with they shouldn't be eager to tank a mob especially if a War or Pld is in the party.

I could go on really...

The difference here is mages and tanks function much differently in a party than solo. DD is actually pretty straight forward, and really if the DD is getting wailed on, and is not hate capped alongside several other players, would say the issue is more often the tanks fault than the DD. Not saying every time the fault is with the tank, sometimes the DD's do keep using abilities they should not.

[Daemon]

The difference here is mages and tanks function much differently in a party than solo. DD is actually pretty straight forward, and really if the DD is getting wailed on, and is not hate capped alongside several other players, would say the issue is more often the tanks fault than the DD. Not saying every time the fault is with the tank, sometimes the DD's do keep using abilities they should not.

BLM spells are pretty powerful at low level though. Especially BLM could out damage a DD through Spellcasting speed especially now that elemental adjustments have now made casting faster.

DD that does not have skills capped or does not have proper gear can still lose hate. Balance as a team is where strategy falls into play. Need to give tanker time to cause enough hate to keep mob under control and mages also need to help out by not casting too much to draw hate from mob onto them.

In which cases sometimes mages need to back off and wait for the tanker to recover control.

This cannot be learned or practiced effectively in gusgen mines when 17 other people are gang banging mobs.

[Hawklaser]

BLM spells are pretty powerful at low level though. Especially BLM could out damage a DD through Spellcasting speed especially now that elemental adjustments have now made casting faster.

DD that does not have skills capped or does not have proper gear can still lose hate. Balance as a team is where strategy falls into play. Need to give tanker time to cause enough hate to keep mob under control and mages also need to help out by not casting too much to draw hate from mob onto them.

In which cases sometimes mages need to back off and wait for the tanker to recover control.

This cannot be learned or practiced effectively in gusgen mines when 17 other people are gang banging mobs.

Well duh. There are certain dynamics of parties that can only really be learned in them. However, can still learn most of how most jobs work without them.

[Anjou]

Well if there was a way to make people interested in 6 man parties I'm pretty sure people would go to that. The problem however is how are we going to learn the whole scheme of things soloing/alliance burns? There no real way to learn teamwork mechanics that way, and due to Grounds of Valor, the old party days are over and therefore something needs to be done to make people see 6-man groups as feasible, otherwise new players who are forced to endure soloing will get bored of the grind (especially if they are a mage and cannot take a hit) and quit.

[Demon6324236]

Due to the speed of the game 6 man parties will never be good again. Its as simple as that. If you do not increase the speed of XP then people will go to other places that are faster, we have seen that from experience. If you make XP higher, you level to fast, in the Double XP campaigns for instance there were parties in Qufim killing Worms & such for 1k XP a kill before you even think of counting in the XP from chains, having to change camps every 5 kills. This does not make it fun or enjoyable, and the game itself simply does not have enough mobs nearby that do not aggro or link but also scale in level enough to support not having to move every 5 kills with an accelerated XP rate. So in the end you come to the fatal flaw that is FFXI's leveling today. Its impossible to truly fix in my opinion.

[Hawklaser]

Due to the speed of the game 6 man parties will never be good again. Its as simple as that. If you do not increase the speed of XP then people will go to other places that are faster, we have seen that from experience. If you make XP higher, you level to fast, in the Double XP campaigns for instance there were parties in Qufim killing Worms & such for 1k XP a kill before you even think of counting in the XP from chains, having to change camps every 5 kills. This does not make it fun or enjoyable, and the game itself simply does not have enough mobs nearby that do not aggro or link but also scale in level enough to support not having to move every 5 kills with an accelerated XP rate. So in the end you come to the fatal flaw that is FFXI's leveling today. Its impossible to truly fix in my opinion.

Parties are still do-able at later levels, unfortunately they either basically become book burns once mobs get weak enough, or have to skip books completely. However, prior to Garlaige Citadel's Bat/Beetle camp, I don't know of a spot that lasts long enough to even be worthwhile to party for due to the speed of leveling. Which used to be a common camp for level 32's.

[Daemon]

I practice all the time solo from participating in WoE to soloing NMs in abyssea. Can't even tell you how many times a day I kill Megamaw Mikey not just as 1 job but as several including WHM and Geomancer. Is it boring? Yeah but hey I'd rather do that than sit in town all day.

What I'm trying to say is that you do learn a lot solo. I've spent countless hours killing Grasshoppers in CB. From learning macros to figuring out different strategies. I'm not the best but practice does help.

Kinda like pro basketball players or any pro sportsman will still practice regardless.

Mainly quick reflexes at unexpected situations and moments. How to solve problems than just sit there and die.

[Demon6324236]

Parties are still do-able at later levels, unfortunately they either basically become book burns once mobs get weak enough, or have to skip books completely. However, prior to Garlaige Citadel's Bat/Beetle camp, I don't know of a spot that lasts long enough to even be worthwhile to party for due to the speed of leveling. Which used to be a common camp for level 32's.This is what I meant though, as you said, no spot lasts long enough due to the speed of leveling.

I mean even if you go by mid-50s, that's around 10k for a level, but with Double XP you get 1k a kill, possibly even 2k with Signet & Kill Chain as well as other things, so you are talking about 8~10 kills per level. In the end your talking about leveling at a very accelerated rate. But the problem is, if you do not make it that fast, people will simply level fast in other places like Abyssea, so you have to pick your poison, either make it to fast so everyone has to change camps so often and gain levels so fast that they change camps every 15~45 minutes, or leave it as it is and almost everyone will simply level faster in other, less engaging ways, such as FCs or Book Parties.

[Daemon]

This is what I meant though, as you said, no spot lasts long enough due to the speed of leveling.

I mean even if you go by mid-50s, that's around 10k for a level, but with Double XP you get 1k a kill, possibly even 2k with Signet & Kill Chain as well as other things, so you are talking about 8~10 kills per level. In the end your talking about leveling at a very accelerated rate. But the problem is, if you do not make it that fast, people will simply level fast in other places like Abyssea, so you have to pick your poison, either make it to fast so everyone has to change camps so often and gain levels so fast that they change camps every 15~45 minutes, or leave it as it is and almost everyone will simply level faster in other, less engaging ways, such as FCs or Book Parties.

Does monstrosity give you any way to exp faster? Haven't been on the game this week to update my client.

[Demon6324236]

Does monstrosity give you any way to exp faster? Haven't been on the game this week to update my client.Depends on what you mean. Normal players, no, your monsters level fast. You can not use books or join parties right now, however your monster is so strong I find myself fighting ITs back to back without resting, keeping up a chain at almost all times if the mobs are around to do so, and its very rare for me to struggle with killing anything. I am right now a level 22 RDM Bee soloing level 29 Crabs, Gigas, and Weapons around Qufim getting about 400~500 a kill before counting my chain. So while monsters do not give you a real way to level faster like books, they are so strong that you can keep killing T, VT, and IT mobs so much it wont matter because your XP goes up so fast.

[Umichi]

There are only some things you can learn solo.. and that goes for being in parties with random strangers too.

[Anjou]

But what I mean is: I'm a social creature, I love talking to people during exp parties, if I'm sitting there by myself, I lose interest because I get bored.

[Umichi]

I do too, it's the main reason why I hate gathering xp from abyssea.... If i want to do that I can go solo in audolin now for my merit points ty.

[Umichi]

outside of that, until people have the drive to do normal parties again you will find that it's better to find like minded people and just do low man groups to get things done.

[Demon6324236]

But what I mean is: I'm a social creature, I love talking to people during exp parties, if I'm sitting there by myself, I lose interest because I get bored.
I do too, it's the main reason why I hate gathering xp from abyssea.... If i want to do that I can go solo in audolin now for my merit points ty.So you are saying you are similar to someone who loves talking to and partying with others while XPing but hates doing things alone because they get bored. But at the same time you say hate leveling in Abyssea, where many people are, like worm parties, and you rather solo in Adoulin, with no one around. That makes so much sense...

[Mirage]

Why does SE need to fix this? Because 18 people no longer there to burn pages? I mean every time I went at least 6-8 people were parked afk leeching maybe from falling asleep, or intentionally leeching because they know they could.

Anyone can solo up to 18 and then solo pages in gusgen mines. Then again anyone could level to 30 pretty fast if the person actually had the gear rather than expect to level up to 30 off level 10 gear.

Even with 3 people its fast.
And where would they get this lv 10-30 gear? The AH is often empty, people don't gain nearly enough CP for CP items to be a realistic alternative, NPCs generally only offer gear with just defense on, and not much else.

Oh, of course, people could take a break from their leveling and camp an NM for a few hours and get a 10% chance for a drop. Not to mention, if they're at the level where they can solo kill said NM, the gear it drops is probably for 10 levels lower than they are anyway. Lol.

[Daemon]

And where would they get this lv 10-30 gear? The AH is often empty, people don't gain nearly enough CP for CP items to be a realistic alternative, NPCs generally only offer gear with just defense on, and not much else.

Oh, of course, people could take a break from their leveling and camp an NM for a few hours and get a 10% chance for a drop. Not to mention, if they're at the level where they can solo kill said NM, the gear it drops is probably for 10 levels lower than they are anyway. Lol.

People can buy NQ gear from armor/weapon shops. As for HQ stuff, have to shout asking If anyone is selling, ask for a crafter or watch AH. Since these gears are low level, HQing them is easy.

Buying CP gear is not hard because asking someone to purchase it with CP and sell it is easy.

[Hawklaser]

And where would they get this lv 10-30 gear? The AH is often empty, people don't gain nearly enough CP for CP items to be a realistic alternative, NPCs generally only offer gear with just defense on, and not much else.

Oh, of course, people could take a break from their leveling and camp an NM for a few hours and get a 10% chance for a drop. Not to mention, if they're at the level where they can solo kill said NM, the gear it drops is probably for 10 levels lower than they are anyway. Lol.

On a fresh character, from soloing I had more than enough CP and gil from books and random casket drops to more than keep myself decently geared. Not to mention there is RSE if you quest it is very handy at those levels too, thats a little harder due to some fame requirements being a pain to increase now.

[Mirage]

On a fresh character, from soloing I had more than enough CP and gil from books and random casket drops to more than keep myself decently geared. Not to mention there is RSE if you quest it is very handy at those levels too, thats a little harder due to some fame requirements being a pain to increase now.

After changing to Sandoria on my main (which left me with 0 CP), I didn't have enough CP for more than a single rank 1 when I had leveled a new job to 10. At level 20, I had enough for maybe half a rank 2 item, because book exp increases a lot more between 10 and 20, compared to 1-10. That's pretty bad, considering you have 16 more slots to fill (although it is closer to 10 slots realistically at those levels, still bad).

RSE gear is pretty situational. For some jobs on some races, it's good. For other jobs on other races, you might as well be wearing a paper apron.

Note that I'm not actually complaining about not having any CP to spend here. I already had the gear I wanted to use while leveling, I just checked these things to get an idea of how fast CP is acquired nowadays after booking became the thing.


People can buy NQ gear from armor/weapon shops. As for HQ stuff, have to shout asking If anyone is selling, ask for a crafter or watch AH. Since these gears are low level, HQing them is easy.

Buying CP gear is not hard because asking someone to purchase it with CP and sell it is easy.
Already covered NQ armor from shops. It is unrealistically priced compared to the stats the gear gives you. As for shouting for better gear, that can take hours. I've spent quite a while shouting for crafters as well, even when I have all the items and offer a reasonable crafting reward. It's all pretty convoluted, especially if you're relatively new to the game. "Watching" AH could also take forever. Who knows when the items you want pops up? Who knows if you're even awake when it's put up? Maybe someone buys it before you get home from work? Asking people to buy CP gear for you is a fair idea, as long as you know people with some spare CP. I dunno about you, but I spend a very large amount of my CP on voiddust back when VW was all the rage, and few lategame-players gain significant amounts of new CP nowadays.

It would have been much more player friendly (especially for newcomers) to just get CP for their page bonuses as well. It would pretty much solve everything.

[Hawklaser]

After changing to Sandoria on my main (which left me with 0 CP), I didn't have enough CP for more than a single rank 1 when I had leveled a new job to 10. At level 20, I had enough for maybe half a rank 2 item, because book exp increases a lot more between 10 and 20, compared to 1-10. That's pretty bad, considering you have 16 more slots to fill (although it is closer to 10 slots realistically at those levels, still bad).

RSE gear is pretty situational. For some jobs on some races, it's good. For other jobs on other races, you might as well be wearing a paper apron.

Note that I'm not actually complaining about not having any CP to spend here. I already had the gear I wanted to use while leveling, I just checked these things to get an idea of how fast CP is acquired nowadays after booking became the thing.

Though should not need a full suit of CP gear for a level, have to learn which pieces to prioritize for best effects when have limited resources. Usually that is the Weapon, Body and leg slots. Especially when can supplement those with the other slots from brown caskets and mob drops. Starter Zone brown caskets do have level 10 gear in them.


Already covered NQ armor from shops. It is unrealistically priced compared to the stats the gear gives you. As for shouting for better gear, that can take hours. I've spent quite a while shouting for crafters as well, even when I have all the items and offer a reasonable crafting reward. It's all pretty convoluted, especially if you're relatively new to the game. "Watching" AH could also take forever. Who knows when the items you want pops up? Who knows if you're even awake when it's put up? Maybe someone buys it before you get home from work? Asking people to buy CP gear for you is a fair idea, as long as you know people with some spare CP. I dunno about you, but I spend a very large amount of my CP on voiddust back when VW was all the rage, and few lategame-players gain significant amounts of new CP nowadays.

It would have been much more player friendly (especially for newcomers) to just get CP for their page bonuses as well. It would pretty much solve everything.

As to the armor being expensive, do you open brown caskets? Especially in the early GoV dungeons like Dangruf Wadi and King Ranpere's? Some of those items vendor for 6-10k, others can put up on the AH for 20k.(depending on server) A couple of either of those should more than cover armor needs up to 30 if invest well, and not buying new equip every other level. As do you really need to pay 5k for one more armor in a single slot? While I know there are some really nice pieces out there for lower levels(ie Battle Gloves) one does not really need them when dealing mostly with EP-DC mobs outside of alliances until get up into the higher levels. And if doing the EP-DC mobs for pages outside of alliances, get plenty of brown caskets to cover equipent costs, as well as more gil from page bonuses than alliance burning the pages.

[Umichi]

So you are saying you are similar to someone who loves talking to and partying with others while XPing but hates doing things alone because they get bored. But at the same time you say hate leveling in Abyssea, where many people are, like worm parties, and you rather solo in Adoulin, with no one around. That makes so much sense...

apparently you've never been in hours long abyssea xp parties with not a word spoken.

[Zarchery]

Folks will figure out their jobs somehow, eventually. I dunno that there's much to learn in melee jobs anyway. The actual hazard of speeding through levels is when your weapon and magic skills are way too low and you miss most of your attacks.

There's nothing SE can do to fix this anyway. They can't force players to level jobs. You don't really need big parties to level up anyway. I levelled 15 jobs to 30 solo, and it didn't take all that long. Later I levelled them to 50 for the AF quests, some solo and some in groups. Still didn't take too long. And that was solo. Team up with 1 other guy and it goes real fast. Maybe not lightning fast, but insanely fast compared to pre-2010 levelling.

[Mirage]

Though should not need a full suit of CP gear for a level, have to learn which pieces to prioritize for best effects when have limited resources. Usually that is the Weapon, Body and leg slots. Especially when can supplement those with the other slots from brown caskets and mob drops. Starter Zone brown caskets do have level 10 gear in them.



As to the armor being expensive, do you open brown caskets? Especially in the early GoV dungeons like Dangruf Wadi and King Ranpere's? Some of those items vendor for 6-10k, others can put up on the AH for 20k.(depending on server) A couple of either of those should more than cover armor needs up to 30 if invest well, and not buying new equip every other level. As do you really need to pay 5k for one more armor in a single slot? While I know there are some really nice pieces out there for lower levels(ie Battle Gloves) one does not really need them when dealing mostly with EP-DC mobs outside of alliances until get up into the higher levels. And if doing the EP-DC mobs for pages outside of alliances, get plenty of brown caskets to cover equipent costs, as well as more gil from page bonuses than alliance burning the pages.

I've never had any good luck with brown caskets. I stopped popping them after the 50th potion.

[Demon6324236]

apparently you've never been in hours long abyssea xp parties with not a word spoken.I have, and a the same time I have been in very talkative parties, someone simply has to start a conversation. The thing is though, if you have no one beside yourself, 0 possibility at a conversation in your party, if you have 17 other people, there is a possibility, no matter who the people are, or where they are.

[Glodean]

apparently you've never been in hours long abyssea xp parties with not a word spoken.

This is the norm at Abyssea too correct?
Folks rarely even say hi/cya unless they met before.
I mean, actually being made welcome &/or comfortable enough to become involved in an ongoing conversation is actually rather unusual in Aby, no? Can't be getting better.

I understand your point about "may as well solo the xp" rather than stay for hours in such groups & with the consistant lack of social graces from other players in Aby parties you may as well solo & would most likely have more fun.

From a few of the more "persistant" posters here I get a good sense of what their own opinion of a good xp party conversation would consist of & frankly I'd rather pass, since there is little sign of any compassion or humour.

As for no low xp parties, sure, it's not going to help new players but if they are up to investing the time to research the FOV pages they can progress quite nicely once they know where to go & when.
Gusgen Mines mobs are DC @17 if one is reasonably equipped & careful at the start, with a few tabs in the bank it's fun.

In my opinion, if they wanted to promote new growth they would have revamped the starting areas years ago.
I'm sure you or I could think up a few dozen things to get new people hooked fast & none of them would have to make things easier, just fun, with presents but, so could Square, with bells on, so I would suggest not worrying about how new players will cope because I see no sign that the game is promoting new growth but then, at least we kinda know why.

I would love some fresh starter zone content, some new mobs, some new games, some new(crafted from zone mobs drops) weapons, some new luck based finds some new rewards for opening a brown chest(for Petes sake), some querky new NPCs quest givers, list is endless "but we have that in 14" yeah yeah.

Cya.

[Rustic]

Yes, spamming your single job ability and your one weapon skill while full timing gear will make you a better player.

Fun fact: I had someone die repeatedly in their 50's while I was helping them with their level cap quest in Eld. Necropolis.

They still hadn't realized undead aggro on low HP. After going 1-40 in Gusgen.

In any case, most people don't even think to look around. You could have easily gone 1-24 in Dangruf Wadi solo in the time it takes most people to whine about how Gusgen is dead, sitting in Gusgen, waiting for a Gusgen PT...that's what those books were really meant for. So you didn't -have- to PT and still could get reasonable exp, even while soloing.

[Rustic]

And where would they get this lv 10-30 gear? The AH is often empty, people don't gain nearly enough CP for CP items to be a realistic alternative, NPCs generally only offer gear with just defense on, and not much else.

Oh, of course, people could take a break from their leveling and camp an NM for a few hours and get a 10% chance for a drop. Not to mention, if they're at the level where they can solo kill said NM, the gear it drops is probably for 10 levels lower than they are anyway. Lol.

At 10-30, if you need gear with that +1 to RAcc to solo, you're doing it wrong. I walked out of Dangruf, plunked down my loot on the AH, and had myself enough money to pick up a set of beetle armor. Off the vendors. That's another thing that people don't learn burning pages in Gusgen. How to actually make money. When I see folks coming out of Crawler's Nest with barely 10K to their names...and leaving brown chests to rot in lines. I laugh and laugh and glut my inventory on armor bits and crafting mats and elixirs and hi-elixirs and cheerfully empty it out on the nearest NPC for enough cash to afford the basics. Is it best-in-slot for my level? Often heck no. But it's quite serviceable.

Soloing/duoing trades slower exp for more money. I'll go up to the top of Delfkutt's and laugh as I'm leveling with one guy or solo for the 40's, and we end up with a few 100K in loot each stabbing our way through the 10th floor mobs and elementals. What, can't make decent gear choices at 40ish for 200K? :)

Page burn parties are junk food. You get levels. You still need money, you still need gear, or you have to live on junk food and don't have the strength to do anything else. NM hunting is for farming, when the NM is 10 levels lower anyway and you're there to kill, kill, kill the real money makers anyway. I don't make that 200K in the Tower camping NM Gigas. I make it smashing lightning elementals, bashing pots for shards, a steady stream of 100-200G off the dead Gigas I chop, the bits I vendor from brown chests.

I used to hang out on the 11th-12th floors as a 75 back in the day. I'd make more money from selling stacks of wool thread/cloth and doll/pot shards than I ever did off of Ixtab/Alky/Pallas. Still would.

Get off the junk food diet and go oldschool. The exp rate is still far superior (and solid) and the smart player has the money roll in anyway.

[Anjou]

Good point, but I want to at least go with -someone- instead of soloing. I need someone to talk to during the time (Not talking to people in ls, because half the time I don't think they wanna talk)

[Jorik]

I noticed someone was asking how you'd manage to even get level 10-30 gear these days. I've geared two characters simultaneously from the AH in that level range, even with some of the cheap stuff. Recently. Of course, after coming back with 100,000 gil from selling off loot from getting the characters to 20s in the new unlocked ones, we could afford some stuff with stat bonuses.

People really don't know how to make money? Do they not know how to get the guard to cast signet? Sheesh. My wife and I have been playing the old way of it. Haven't touched a book page yet. Still been having a great deal of fun, able to afford all the spells and gear we want.

[Anjou]

Well yes I know how to do all of that (I have 2.4 mil saved up from the campaign alone, and roughly another 3mil+ since I won't be buying relic pieces this time, got all I want so eh...might as well splurge the shanks to the peeps who want that ring so badly.)

In either case, I think that aside from Phalanx/Refreshes, I'll be able to fund most of my jobs on 5mil, considering I have 99 BLU on one of my characters and all, not to mention I do this mercenary-type work for farming ADL pops in dyna xarc.

[Daemon]

After changing to Sandoria on my main (which left me with 0 CP), I didn't have enough CP for more than a single rank 1 when I had leveled a new job to 10. At level 20, I had enough for maybe half a rank 2 item, because book exp increases a lot more between 10 and 20, compared to 1-10. That's pretty bad, considering you have 16 more slots to fill (although it is closer to 10 slots realistically at those levels, still bad).

RSE gear is pretty situational. For some jobs on some races, it's good. For other jobs on other races, you might as well be wearing a paper apron.

Note that I'm not actually complaining about not having any CP to spend here. I already had the gear I wanted to use while leveling, I just checked these things to get an idea of how fast CP is acquired nowadays after booking became the thing.


Already covered NQ armor from shops. It is unrealistically priced compared to the stats the gear gives you. As for shouting for better gear, that can take hours. I've spent quite a while shouting for crafters as well, even when I have all the items and offer a reasonable crafting reward. It's all pretty convoluted, especially if you're relatively new to the game. "Watching" AH could also take forever. Who knows when the items you want pops up? Who knows if you're even awake when it's put up? Maybe someone buys it before you get home from work? Asking people to buy CP gear for you is a fair idea, as long as you know people with some spare CP. I dunno about you, but I spend a very large amount of my CP on voiddust back when VW was all the rage, and few lategame-players gain significant amounts of new CP nowadays.

It would have been much more player friendly (especially for newcomers) to just get CP for their page bonuses as well. It would pretty much solve everything.

I use to scroll in AH to see the names of people selling armor, then /sea to see if that person was online. Usually you can weed out the difference between crafter or just someone selling off gear by seeing if only 1 person sold or if a person sold more than 1.

I've also asked friends or people in LS if anyone crafts or if anyone knew any crafters. Or I'd check In the weavers guild to see if anyone was there. However at 99 I always try to add people to my friends list that I can pay for craft services.

One thing I noticed, anyone will respond if its worth their time so I use to offer like 50k. At level 10, anyone can earn that Gil pretty easy. At level 15 thief, can hunt it fast.

[nyheen]

the problem is people think gusgen mines is the only xp camp.:(, no one does any kinda exploring. all these camps (http://campsitarus.blogspot.com/) and no one even know about it. sure the site is a bit old but you get the idea. it pages there and also great for low man pts.
todays camp are now.
lvl 4-30 gusgen, 30-99 "that place" 85%+ of the people.
some. 5-30 gusgen, 40-60, CN, 60-75++ Bostaunieux 15% of the people.

sad thing is even with double xp many still was in the book burning with 18/18 Gusgen wondering why the xp not that great.

:edit also to add that not only you getting xp but skill ups from them other camps lvls too., cant skill up if you cap at 20 the whole time

[Daemon]

the problem is people think gusgen mines is the only xp camp.:(, no one does any kinda exploring. all these camps (http://campsitarus.blogspot.com/) and no one even know about it. sure the site is a bit old but you get the idea. it pages there and also great for low man pts.
todays camp are now.
lvl 4-30 gusgen, 30-99 "that place" 85%+ of the people.
some. 5-30 gusgen, 40-60, CN, 60-75++ Bostaunieux 15% of the people.

sad thing is even with double xp many still was in the book burning with 18/18 Gusgen wondering why the xp not that great.

:edit also to add that not only you getting xp but skill ups from them other camps lvls too., cant skill up if you cap at 20 the whole time

I think people stick with Gusgen Mines because its easier, can stay there from 10-50+ if the flow of people available, just keep resyncing to a level 15+.

Old school I use to level in dunes, buburimu, Maze of Shakarami til 20 then level up in Qifim/Kahzam. But Kahzam is only good if you take the time to do airship quest.

Qifim is good til 30, you also had Delkfutta tower. Just the Gov pages in Qifim is annoying than have a straight skeleton only objective.

Also there is Crawlers nest, Batallia Downs, Sauramogue Champaigne, Garlaige citadel, Gustav Tunnel, Labrinth of Onzonzo, Altepa Caves, Altepa Desert, Yhoater Jungle, Yutunga Jungle, Sea Serpent Grotto, Kuftal Tunnel, Cape Terrigan.

[Spectreman]

Yes, spamming your single job ability and your one weapon skill while full timing gear will make you a better player.

Hey, learning to select 2-3 magic spells is vital to your skills!!

[Hawklaser]

Lets just put out some really simple alternatives to Gusgen then. Dangruf Wadi to 23ish, Korroloka Tunnel to 43ish, and Delkfuts to 50. All easy to do, and I often run into another person to team up with in Korroloka and Delkufts. After those its easy to go to Garlaige until 56ish, then from there it starts depending on job. But at that point lots of places can roam to if not afraid of traveling.

[Xantavia]

There are only some things you can learn solo.. and that goes for being in parties with random strangers too.
When I leveled BST years ago, doing it solo taught me so much about the mobs around the world. What type of mobs typically aggro, which link, what tp moves to watch out for. How to traverse a zone without snk/inv (which sounds like a forgotten skill based on complaints of true sight/sound mobs in Adoulin). I learned how to read my maps. I get extremely frustrated if I am going somewhere in an older area with another person and they have no map or any idea how to get from point A to point B. I'm sorry, but if you are on a level 99 job, I shouldn't have to hold your hand through Beaudicine Glacier.

I'm proud to say that I have never completed a page in Gusgen Mines. Granted most of my jobs were already at 50 before GoV was implemented but ones that weren't I found other places to level. Recently on RUN, I think I followed this path. Gustaberg - Horotoru Ruins - Delkfutt Tower - Garlaige Citadel - Quicksand Caves - Labyrinth of Onozo - Abyssea. In the past I've played around in Fei'yin, Kuftal Tunnel, Korroloka Tunnel and Gustav Tunnel. There are options out there if you aren't just looking for the quickest xp or bust.

[Anjou]

I use to scroll in AH to see the names of people selling armor, then /sea to see if that person was online. Usually you can weed out the difference between crafter or just someone selling off gear by seeing if only 1 person sold or if a person sold more than 1.

I've also asked friends or people in LS if anyone crafts or if anyone knew any crafters. Or I'd check In the weavers guild to see if anyone was there. However at 99 I always try to add people to my friends list that I can pay for craft services.

One thing I noticed, anyone will respond if its worth their time so I use to offer like 50k.

I did this for when I was hunting down weapons, I typically got lucky on the boxes (Hence I wear Gothic Sabatons/Mufflers on some of my mid-range jobs.) but other than that I like to browse the ah and spend money on stuff so I have it for jobs.

[Annalise]

Yes, spamming your single job ability and your one weapon skill while full timing gear will make you a better player.

Depends on the job. Puppetmaster, for example, can have a lot more to play with than that. Even at level 10. There are many things to learn to play PUP well.

[Rustic]

Good point, but I want to at least go with -someone- instead of soloing. I need someone to talk to during the time (Not talking to people in ls, because half the time I don't think they wanna talk)

I frequently duo/trio with folks. Conversation happens!

(If it's not and you're on Ragnarok, look me up. My linkshell's not only full of talkers, it's in multiple languages to boot.)