Abyssea levelling grounds other than raptors?

[Zarchery]

I'm trying to level up everything to 99 for the sake of completing the Records of Eminence objectives. I have a secondary character who is BLU that does the killing while I soak up the XP. Currently I still have DNC SCH GEO RUN and NIN to go.

I've been doing a lot of this killing at the ever so popular raptor spot in Abyssea - Misareaux. It has some distinct advantages that I think pull me and others there:


It's a small area.
It's densely populated.
The mobs are all agressive so they're easy to pull.
No NMs spawn in the area.


But I'm getting bored with raptors. Firstly, they have that enhanced movement speed so I take more damage during the pull. Secondly, I'm tired of random strangers showing up and asking to leech for free XP while I do all the work. I want something less obvious. Lastly, I'm just plain sick of raptors.

I've seen people use chigoes in Attowha before. But... Tunga spawns right in the middle of them and he's a pain in the neck.

I did bugards near Misareaux conflux 8, and they were okay but the spawn area is larger and bugards are bigger so I didn't get as many per pull and the pulls took longer.

I tried the frogs at La-Theine but their spawn area is really big too so the pulls take longer.

Any recommendations?

[Shirai]

Basically anything that agros and/or links by sound is suitable for this.
Keep in mind however that the game only registers exp for 8 mobs at a time, so you'll be better off just pulling small batches anyway.

[Zarchery]

Basically anything that agros and/or links by sound is suitable for this.
Keep in mind however that the game only registers exp for 8 mobs at a time, so you'll be better off just pulling small batches anyway.

Are you sure? I only saw a limited number of XP rewards echoing to my screen but I'm pretty sure I registered XP totals for all. I need to test this. Luckily I'm in Abyssea with my alt (trying to get Abyssites) right now.

[Shirai]

Yep, I am.

[Zarchery]

I was skeptical but I just double checked for myself.

Started with 8723 limit points.
Pulled 12 Peak Pugils in Abyssea - Grauberg.
Killed all 12 at the same time with Subduction.
Chat log reported XP gains per pugil of the following amounts: 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. That adds up to 236 total.
Checked limit points. Now had 8959 limit points. 8959 - 8723 = 236.

So you're right. I did not get any XP for those last 4 pugils.

Conceivably, larger pulls can help your XP rate because you get more chests, which means more XP chests. But I think I'll stick to the 8 mob maximum instead of big pulls.

Thanks for the advice. I wish I had known sooner.

[bungiefanNA]

When I was on Ragnarok, mages would do Sandsweepers in Altepa (aggro to casting of magic, so cast a -ja spell and run around to aggro 8 mobs, then nuke them) and a mage in Hagondes+1 or better can kill them with a single AoE spell. You then also have the Dominion NPC nearby to give you credits and EXP while you are getting the chain started. I've also seen melees doing the mandragora in Altepa (Fear Dearg, IIRC) and Bluffalo in Uleguerand Range. Nearly every mob type before Adoulin has an instance in Abyssea, and can be good to level on, as long as they don't have annoying TP moves or an annoying NM that spawns or roams through their area.

[SickOfYou]

For the longest time I have been wondering what the allure of raptor parties was. I never asked anyone because it really wasn't important that I know.
But after reading this, wow. Is it really because people are too lazy to actually pull?
What the crap man. Too much effort to target something and /ra it?
/needsmemoryerased

[Shirai]

Not much changed, it's really similar to the fell cleave parties in the past.
Raptors is easy because they're pretty much right there but Abyssea has plenty of other camps viable for this.


Conceivably, larger pulls can help your XP rate because you get more chests, which means more XP chests. But I think I'll stick to the 8 mob maximum instead of big pulls.

To make that viable the extras need to drop one exp chest per 2 mobs extra killed at least.
It's faster just to do small pulls.

[Zarchery]

For the longest time I have been wondering what the allure of raptor parties was. I never asked anyone because it really wasn't important that I know.
But after reading this, wow. Is it really because people are too lazy to actually pull?
What the crap man. Too much effort to target something and /ra it?
/needsmemoryerased

It's not a lot of effort on an individual basis, like with the XP parties we did in the old days when you wanted 1 mob at a time and links were bad news. But when your goal is to pull a lot of mobs at once, kill them all at once, and do it over and over again hundreds of times, individual pulls get tiresome fast. When I was doing my testing, I tried testing on non-linking, non-agressive murexes and that got annoying fast trying to pull just 10 for a single test. I wouldn't dream of doing area of effect XP on anything that doesn't at least link.

Raptors probably got popular in part because someone else popularized it and a lot of us just followed. But I started to see the appeal of something you could mass pull easily. Raptors are aggressive, plus that camp is right at Conflux #7, plus there are a lot of them in a small area, plus there aren't any time-spawn NMs in there getting in your way.

[Zarchery]

When I was on Ragnarok, mages would do Sandsweepers in Altepa (aggro to casting of magic, so cast a -ja spell and run around to aggro 8 mobs, then nuke them) and a mage in Hagondes+1 or better can kill them with a single AoE spell. You then also have the Dominion NPC nearby to give you credits and EXP while you are getting the chain started. I've also seen melees doing the mandragora in Altepa (Fear Dearg, IIRC) and Bluffalo in Uleguerand Range. Nearly every mob type before Adoulin has an instance in Abyssea, and can be good to level on, as long as they don't have annoying TP moves or an annoying NM that spawns or roams through their area.

I've always hated Dominion. Running back to the NPCs every 5 kills is a major pain in the ass. Doing it while 2-boxing would be worse because now I also have to switch screens.

[bungiefanNA]

You can stop running to the Dominion NPC once your chain is going, but while you are building chain, it's a nice boost to EXP. Once your chain is giving you about 300-400 EXP each, you get more standing there than running back and forth. The zone is also nice because the augmented weapons that show up in chests are worth a decent amount of gil to NPCs, so for a player that's new leveling there, it's a nice way to get some money to spend on equipment. You can also trade the Dominion Notes in for those weapons.

Most of our EXP-gaining methods don't give much gil at the same time. This at least helps a player with not much gil, especially when new.

[Zarchery]

I did DNC 50-99 on Sunday/Monday. Scouted a few camps. I wanted to do puks in Vunkerl, but they absorb damage from Subduction, which is a total dealbreaker. Later I settled on the acroliths in Abyssea - Uleguerand. I think it was okay but I was still only clocking about 70k per hour. It's a good rate, but when you want to do 50-99 without leaving Abyssea that just feels agonizingly slow.

Eventually went back to raptors. I sort of like that I can park my main character on that small slope by the martello then take my BLU and basically kill in zones. Makes it much quicker. I think I got about 130k per hour that way.

I'm getting tired of total strangers showing up and sniffing around wanting to leech though. That's probably my biggest turnoff for raptors. Maybe I can try a different camp in Misareaux next time. I still have SCH, GEO, RUN, and NIN left.

[Shirai]

I'm getting tired of total strangers showing up and sniffing around wanting to leech though. That's probably my biggest turnoff for raptors.

Just put up a /seacom saying -NO LEECHES!-, that said; I'm afraid people will always bug you.
Apart from that, have you taken a look at the monitors in Uleguerand? They should be the camp before the Acrolith (If you're worried about the chariots there, both of them roam around the gears way in the back)

[Zarchery]

Just put up a /seacom saying -NO LEECHES!-, that said; I'm afraid people will always bug you.
Apart from that, have you taken a look at the monitors in Uleguerand? They should be the camp before the Acrolith (If you're worried about the chariots there, both of them roam around the gears way in the back)

I looked at them first. I thought they'd be good because I frequently go there for the "Spoils: Seals" Records of Eminence objective. For some reason there just weren't many and they were respawning very slowly. I didn't see anyone else gathering them so I dunno what was up.

[Sandmaste]

I think Raptors were popular also because the re-pop on them is 3mins. (I know thats the same at other camps, but like its been said, they are in a small area, next to a conflux, yadayada.