View Full Version : Trying to do 65+ outside of Abyssea is making me want to quit
Yes, I know, y'all had it harder than us newbs, etc etc, and maybe I should go play WoW.
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I have to say this - I cannot stand playing right now... well that is not true. I love playing on my level 32 blue mage. Stuff dies fairly quickly, the exp is great, I'm doing pages, getting tabs and having a grand ole time.
But the thing is, I want to get my BST 66 (well it was 67 but I died and deleveled tonight - yay for negative progress!) to cap.
This is my first time being above 40, and I have to say that the only way I can exp without wanting to scrape my eyes out of my sockets is to sync down.
I would happily do Abyssea - but I am fairly sure the only thing I could do is leech, and well, I have nothing really to offer in return.
Anyway, long story short - something needs to be fixed about the levels past 65. It takes like 2 minutes to kill easy prey and it is boring as hell. It isn't like there is any real danger... nope... the only danger is that I will rage quit the game before I slowly, painfully, scrape each HP off of the ridiculous HP bar of the mob I am fighting.
It isn't fun. At all.
And yes, I can sync down, but honestly - if the best ways to level 65+ are to either sync down or to leech exp... then something is broken.
Akujima
05-19-2011, 03:04 PM
It isn't fun, at all.
Why don't you want to leech in Abyssea? Everyone else is doing it!
Well, I did once and it was really boring... but beyond that I don't have enough cruor for keys and I have nothing else to offer anyone, and my LS doesn't really do Abyssea events.
Akujima
05-19-2011, 03:07 PM
Well, I did once and it was really boring...
I hear ya there man.
Starcade
05-19-2011, 03:08 PM
Frankly, Olor, this game, in it's current state, may not be for you then.
Square-Enix is trying to enforce high-level group content on the rest of us.
I would love to join said high-level group content. I am just being bored to death by a wall of extremely slow exp.
Panthera
05-19-2011, 03:12 PM
Prior to level-sync, one simply went to where the best exp was for that level, toughed it out, and made the most of it.
For some time now, level-sync has made it possible to exp at easier, better camps.
Other than that, try MMM. The mobs sync to you, or to the lowest level member of the party. It's good exp and lots of fun. You can make the mobs anything from Easy Prey to Incredibly Tough, all without level syncing down.
Best of luck,
Panthera
Make friends with a War a Smn with Alex and an EVA job I find works best and make a fell cleave static. Once your Blu gets capped you can get a Charged Whisker setup and and "Fell Cleave" that way n let your war friend leech/key. Rinse and Repeat and start enjoying the endgame content^^
Hey thanks for the ideas and encouragement Sesh, Panthera.
I really wish SE would hurry up and fix campaign. If they boosted exp to where it was almost comparable with abyssea for people from 60-75, I would be SO FRIGGING HAPPY.
I want to play with other people... soloing was fine for the first 50 levels but man is it ever sucking now.
Ya campaign is silly nowadays SE does really need to revamp it badly
1HR Bastion = 50k+ xp
1HR Campaign = 10kish and only if you're at least 65 < Lame
Hey thanks for the ideas and encouragement Sesh, Panthera.
I really wish SE would hurry up and fix campaign. If they boosted exp to where it was almost comparable with abyssea for people from 60-75, I would be SO FRIGGING HAPPY.
I want to play with other people... soloing was fine for the first 50 levels but man is it ever sucking now.
yeah olor, those are exactly the levels where solo play was dieing for me. BST duo made it alot of fun for the levels it worked, however, I'm not surprised you would have a terrible time event getting a bst duo.
IMO, even w/ BST if you tagged along for a few atma first (which wouldn't be too terrible) you could solo normal mobs in visions areas at level 67 + good atma.
Yeah, I should try to get in on a couple shout groups for atma, for sure. Thanks for the encouragement.
Really this post is just me saying "I AM A NOOB AND I AM BORED HOW CAN I FIX?!?"
I dunno BST doesn't really have the power inside abby at 67 as it does outside since you can only use pets inside aby and really nazuna is your first actual good choice for pet for soloing. I think I spent alotta time in Wajoam around that level killing leeches if I remember correctly? Bst will be worth it once it hits 75 though it's a hella fun job.
Panthera
05-19-2011, 03:50 PM
Ya campaign is silly nowadays SE does really need to revamp it badly
1HR Bastion = 50k+ xp
1HR Campaign = 10kish and only if you're at least 65 < Lame
How do you go about doing Bastion to get that much? I mean right down to the nitty-gritty.
I end up just standing around a lot, but hey, that's abyssea for you^^
Leonlionheart
05-19-2011, 03:59 PM
Lvl 66= Caedarva Mire till 71ish
Then the best choice is to shoot yourself in the eye, because between 71 through 74 there is crap for exp everywhere.
Eventually you can do the 75 meripo lolibri in bhaflau thickets if you are so set on staying outside of abyssea.
For more information on camps, google campsitarus. It'll have everything pre-75 for good exp camps, including some unorthodox camps and some solo camps.
Your problem will probably be finding enough members to make up a decent party (Tank, Refresh, Healer, DD DD DD) DD's might not be so hard, but refresh, tank, and healer probably will be. SCH WHM RDM should be able to heal fairly well, while SMN could probably handle a NIN tank. PLD and NIN are the only real tanks at that lvl too. Refresh is BRD RDM COR and to a lesser extent DNC if your healer has the prowess to engage a mob and heal a party at the same time (See BLU burns, which is the only real application of aspir samba)
If a normal party doesn't work, you could try "Burn" parties (BLU BLU BLU BLU RDM BRD is probably the best EXP and FUN I've ever had pre-abyssea (outside of lolibri WAR SAM SAM BRD COR RDM meripos), and they can tackle some of the harder camps with ease too) These only work well past 72 in my experience.
In my experience inside abyssea all anyone does other than healers, BLM, BLU and Crit Hit jobs do is leech as far as I'm concerned.
WAR DRG BLU BLM SCH NIN MNK can all 1 hit exp mobs, while everyone else whittles them away slowly so if you aren't one of those jobs you're kind of leeching anyway. If you don't have atma you're going to be a total leech almost independent of job (COR and BRD dont really need atma in exp settings), because Atma makes the abyssea go round.
In the end you will probably want to just leech so you can get to the juicy content; Abyssea NMs. Get your +1, find a good LS and get your +2 and eventually empyrean weapon. Then move on to leeching another job to 90.
P.S. Even if you hate it, you'll probably want to lvl more jobs than just BLU and BST. Even before Abyssea people were forced to level jobs for their LS (BLM, BRD, WHM, and RDM are most common, and never a bad idea to have at cap to be useful). I personally have had to level BLM and WHM for LS use. Luckily my mains were the new abyssea gods, MNK WAR and BLU. Even then I leveled BLM and WHM just to help out. Once you get leeching down (Fell Cleave, BLU Cleave or even BLM Cleave (need skilled BLM for that) are all incredibly fast ways to get to 90. Probably 150k exp/hour if you don't have competition.
I tend to AoE WS or AoE however I can as much as possible and then pop a fanatics. Usually if the dumb NPC mages don't get the martello killed in seconds you can walk away with about 8k on average per Bastion. After this last update I have noticed Bastion is coming about once every 5 minutes now. Before it would sometimes have 20-30 minute gaps. I'm enjoying it lately though for sure.
Well for what it's worth, when I was in your shoes my only option was to LFP for 8 hours straight. You couldn't even go solo stuff because if you weren't in town your chances of invite dropped by almost 100%. How did I make it through? I didn't have anything else better to do. Plain and simple. And I imagine the same holds true for 5+ year veterans still playing. If we had found something better to do, we probably would have done it. Shrug.
Exp these days is about 10 times faster as far as solo goes. It's pretty significant but I'm well aware that when you start reaching 20k+ TNLs it feels a lot slower. I solved some of that awhile back. I simply stopped looking at my TNL. I kill stuff I need to farm. I work on tabs from FoV for ports. So on. Anything besides killing monsters for the sole purpose of earning experience.
Leonlionheart
05-19-2011, 04:06 PM
Before anyone says anything about Abyssea ruining old exp, I think any veteran can tell you that MNK DRK DRG or any non WHM BLM BRD COR WAR SAM PLD NIN job had to wait, sometimes for as long as two weeks, for an exp party.
You should probably thank SE that you get to skip that.
Akujima
05-19-2011, 04:10 PM
Actually, I was a hardcore leveler back in the day.
Back when it took ages to get to 75, pre-CoP. I loved proving to people how fast I could EXP. Alot would complain how slow it was to LvUp, but I managed to make Lv's so fast, people would ask whether or not I bothered to sleep, lol... Ahh, the good ole' days.
Akujima
05-19-2011, 04:13 PM
Before anyone says anything about Abyssea ruining old exp, I think any veteran can tell you that MNK DRK DRG or any non WHM BLM BRD COR WAR SAM PLD NIN job had to wait, sometimes for as long as two weeks, for an exp party.
You should probably thank SE that you get to skip that.
Dude, I Leveled THF 1-75 in about 2~ months. And I still had to do Genkai, and was doing other quests, leveled subjobs(for utsusemi for /nin and telepo scrolls to sell for extra gil) and sometimes crafting on the side.
How? I made my own PT's.
Leonlionheart
05-19-2011, 04:15 PM
Dude, I Leveled THF 1-75 in about 2~ months. And I still had to do Genkai, and was doing other quests, leveled subjobs(for utsusemi and telep-scrolls to sell) and sometimes crafting on the side.
How? I made my own PT's.
So did I, but then again if every 6 people make their own parties everyone will end up with 1 person in their party.
I leveled MNK WAR and BLU making my own parties, but right now it's harder than ever when you can just fork up 500k to get a job to 90.
BLU took me probably 40 hours.
1-10 wherever,
10-20 dunes,
20-37 qufim,
37-54 E Ronf [S]
54-67 Wajaom
67-74 Caedarva
74-fully merited Bhaflau
The others were done pre-level sync.
Dekoda
05-19-2011, 04:25 PM
Before anyone says anything about Abyssea ruining old exp, I think any veteran can tell you that MNK DRK DRG or any non WHM BLM BRD COR WAR SAM PLD NIN job had to wait, sometimes for as long as two weeks, for an exp party.
You should probably thank SE that you get to skip that.
Maybe pre-ToAU (I'm assuming you're talking post ToAU 'cuz you mentioned COR), but NIN PLD & BLM (and WHM sometimes had competition with RDM) definitely had hard times getting into a meripo >.>
But yeah, people are spoiled and they don't know what SE has done for the EXP system! They reduced the EXP needed to like 60+ (or something around there) a ton and ToAU was the best thing to ever happen. I remember doing Bibiki Bay, moon gate, and Sky mobs and being happy to hit 8k exp an hour lol (and this was before EXP rings). Eventually unlocking Lufaise Meadows made things easier.
Old EXP is not even comparable to today, but it was always fun. I don't think the game delivers that kind of experience anymore so I hear the OP on 65~ being terrible.
Leonlionheart
05-19-2011, 04:28 PM
Meripos are a different story @_@ if you're not WAR, SAM, RDM, BRD, or COR you're not doing it right.
Akujima
05-19-2011, 04:37 PM
I remember doing Bibiki Bay, moon gate, and Sky mobs and being happy to hit 8k exp an hour lol (and this was before EXP rings).
Im not attacking your post or anything. But I just want to touch on this little point.
If people were already happy with getting 8~10k EXP an hour... Why would SE go and take that happiness away, by adding ways to make 15k+ an hour? It seems like they just turned that happiness into frustration...
Zyeriis
05-19-2011, 04:43 PM
I had such a hard time getting lolibri (merit or otherwise) parties on DRG /sarcasm. You're list is quite skewed. BLMs didn't have it easy, least not until WotG, party wise (post ToAU). WHMs got party invites after level 41 (post ToAU)? Thats news to me.
You're right about MNK and DRK though.
Leonlionheart
05-19-2011, 04:52 PM
Im not attacking your post or anything. But I just want to touch on this little point.
If people were already happy with getting 8~10k EXP an hour... Why would SE go and take that happiness away, by adding ways to make 15k+ an hour? It seems like they just turned that happiness into frustration...
It's not that people were happy with it, but rather that they had no other options. It was just playing the game, and now you can play the game the same way you did then or you can rush it and get to end game as fast as you want.
I had such a hard time getting lolibri (merit or otherwise) parties on DRG /sarcasm. You're list is quite skewed. BLMs didn't have it easy, least not until WotG, party wise (post ToAU). WHMs got party invites after level 41 (post ToAU)? Thats news to me.
You're right about MNK and DRK though.
As for BLMs, just level sync Qufim to 75. I had a hard time not accepting invites there, BLM burns were better exp than anything as far as I'm concerned.
DRG still couldn't get close to what SAM could do in meripos. If a SAM or WAR was available, who in their right mind would invite a DRG?
WHM has the same deal as BLM, except with East Ronf [S] parties. RDM cant main heal there, and generally don't accept parties there because no refresh/convert.
Tamoa
05-19-2011, 05:23 PM
Bst has never been a job that got flooded with party invites anyway, and I don't think it was any easier for those lvling bst pre-abyssea. Everyone I know with bst, soloed/duoed their way to 75, so if you don't want to leech in abyssea then I guess you're just going to have to grin and bear it as far as soloing goes.
RAIST
05-19-2011, 11:08 PM
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Field_Manual
(one example, you could be tearing up Cape Teriggan atm... when it isn't overcrowded, probly make 10k an hour with little effort--more with xp band)
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Grounds_Tome
This has some potential--Sandy Sewer, CN, etc look good on paper, but it all depends on placement of the books and the mobs. I did some tinkiering in Zeruhn for skillups (which came nicely), but it was a lot of running around to get to the mobs whcih resulted in rather slow xp potential.
as for Bastion....sub WHM so you can buff/cure NPC's and the structures (if you buff them while they countdown is going, you get a chunk of xp when first mob dies). Bastion does have strong potential for quick chunks of xp. I was hitting 6-13k in one wave as a DRK/WHM....forget just what level I was at the time--dread spikes and AOE's ftw. DRG is another good one (pet jobs in general can do well). I ran DRG/WHM from 65-66 one afternoon just hitting Bastion while spamming quests in Vunkerl. Wasn't a partial ding either... I dinged 65 (was close to it) AND dinged 66 in there.
Check the state of the resistance before you warp out there. When it's getting close, head to zone and check with sergeant for the status of each front. You may see multiple waves are on the way. If there will be a wait after the pending wave---run a resistance op and then zone and wait a bit before checking in with the seargent again. eventually, you get a feel for how long it takes for a front to hit 100% and advance. When the day changes--RUN ANOTHER OP. Running these ops ramp up either the offensive/defensive state of the NPC's/structures, thus resulting in more mobs killed and more xp per wave. Ops also net you cruor and resistance points you need as well (some ops will nab you 1k cruor a pop). Completeing successful Bastions also increase various features of the zone making normal xp and farming better--it can increase cruor yields per kill, raise the stat boosts from cruor buffs, speed up xp progression, reduce cost of confluxes, raise frequency of chest pops, and enhances treasure yields.
Glamdring
05-19-2011, 11:44 PM
You're a beast at that level? I did campaign 65-72, although you can TRY to do pages in Terrigan. It was always so crowded that I had trouble finding pets when I was that level, and we didn't have FoV at the time. Once you hit 72 you want to be in sky, there's a page with flamingos and magic pots that is easy, makes $ (pot fragments sell well), keeps skill up (helpful if you campaigned) and will get you a truckload of tabs.
Campaign is a pain for beast, there aren't many zones with decent pets, near the stronghold at least. Jugner, I almost lived there. Tigers, although ladybugs are better they are also a longer walk to get.
Panthera
05-20-2011, 10:47 AM
Sesh gives good advice
thx for reply man^^
blowfin
05-20-2011, 11:03 AM
Your best bet for BST at around 65 is the Puk camp.
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Beastmaster_Viable_Hunting_Grounds#65-68:_Wajaom_Woodlands
Then at 67 you can move onto the legendary Red Kisser camp.
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Beastmaster_Viable_Hunting_Grounds#61-65:_Caedarva_Mire
There are some dead spots, but as soon as you get to 67 you'll start to burn through it at that second camp.
Mirage
05-20-2011, 02:41 PM
maybe exp mobs between level 50 and 75 should just have lower HP values. I mean I was on thf66 yesterday fighting some DCs in vollbow. They could barely hit me so i was never in any real damage, but still, it takes forever to grind them down. Especially when you can't SATA properly.
But the thing is, I want to get my BST 66 (well it was 67 but I died and deleveled tonight - yay for negative progress!) to cap.
This is my first time being above 40, and I have to say that the only way I can exp without wanting to scrape my eyes out of my sockets is to sync down.
(...)
And yes, I can sync down, but honestly - if the best ways to level 65+ are to either sync down or to leech exp... then something is broken.
Wait, what? You do realize that beastmaster is one of the best soloers in the game, right? Back in the day the majority of beastmasters soloed, duoed, or trioed with other beastmasters.
I realize now that jugs have ruled most of the lessons taught by soloing worthless, but, there is a lot about the job you can still learn by soloing out there. Do you need a link to the oldschool camp sites?
The beastmaster bible:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?fjob=8&mid=1146951284124507219&page=1
The page you should examine:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=8&mid=112456215629954818&num=11
Really, the exp isn't too slow if you do it right. It can be about 3k~8k an hour depending on your level, the camp, and your abilities. It's slow compared to Abyssea but it was how all of us beastmasters made it to 75. :)
Happy hunting!
I dunno BST doesn't really have the power inside abby at 67 as it does outside since you can only use pets inside aby and really nazuna is your first actual good choice for pet for soloing. I think I spent alotta time in Wajoam around that level killing leeches if I remember correctly? Bst will be worth it once it hits 75 though it's a hella fun job.
Atma allows you to take on IT's. If you have 2x good atma on bst, RR & MC, you can solo kill something 7~9 level's above you in abyssea, 1 after another. In Visions zones, normal mobs start around level 72.
Saefinn
05-20-2011, 07:48 PM
Have you tried running your own 67+ party? You never know, there might be folk around facing the same dilemma. When I LFP on my COR or SCH I get invites outside of Aby from 55 to 70 level sync, though the 70 party I accepted soon died because half the players were JP and disappeared to go to the land of nod. Running higher level parties is just a case of finding people who aren't going to leech Aby, but I think the biggest difficulty will be finding a healer, they're useful in Abyssea 65+, but you never know until you try really. Just because people keep saying Aby has killed the game doesn't mean it's 100% true, when you think about it, a lot of people complain that they can't level outside of Aby, they are probably LFP for non-Aby areas, team up with them :). Heck start a linkshell for such people and collect members, I know a couple of people who did the same.
When I run a party I will always look for the tank and healer first, if I am unsuccessful then I know to wait until another time without being 4/6 with people ready to party. Also, bear in mind 60+ DNC/SAM works as a main healer (meditate + Curing Waltz), a guy in my LS runs colibri parties as DNC/SAM healer and it rocks. A good Colibri party will have the exp rolling - at least 20k/hr, so it's worth trying to get one going, they're usually 55+, considering you have Lesser Colibri and Colibri mobs, you can just move from one to the other when your sync hits 61. I know you'd prefer to be the sync, but you're looking at least level 67 for imps in Caederva Mire, but even at 70, imps can be a pain, but if your tank can keep hate then it's a lot easier - at least I am talking from the perspective of a healer. It might be worth a shot.
But I can understand your plight about Aby leeching being boring when you're useless (I hate being useless), so I've been pretty much the same, but am going to compromise on a couple of subjobs. I think sometimes you have to be willing to compromise on level sync because you're not always going to get the party you want, but even then, 55+ isn't much of a compromise IMO.
if you have access to a plvl and a sync. Worm in qufim or East Ron(S) you can burn 20k/hour with a good puller. Capping skills is easy as so you can just do that later, or on another job. Really why are you "grinding"? Some of the new grounds of valor give ridiculous exp/page but there isn't a database for it yet. Do a little research around on it. (Reports of getting up to 20k/hour from pages for grounds of valor).
wish12oz
05-20-2011, 09:09 PM
I want to play with other people... soloing was fine for the first 50 levels but man is it ever sucking now.
I dunno if anyone pointed this out, but I grow tired of reading this thread since its just the same thing over and over.
BST is THE solo job of FFXI. It always has been. If you don't like to solo, play a useful job people like to invite, like WHM or BRD, you will get lots of quick invites. Also, you should charm even match mobs and fight toughs~ That's the beast way.
Solutions:
1) Do the BST solo thing. I know little about the job, so I cannot recommend any camps.
2) Build your own Level Sync party. Qufim Island, East Ron {S}, or MMM (syncee level 40ish or above) should all work fairly well.
3) Sub WHM and do Bastion in Misareaux Coast. Call your cheapest pet and throw it at a mob. Engage said mob or a different one. Toss Dia and Banish on random, nearby mobs. Cure and buff yourself. Realize that you'll die all the time and keep RR up as best you can. Bastion happens often enough that you'll earn about 10k to 20k exp per hour at minimum (unless the mob waves take an extended break).
get some money, find a paying leech pos in cleave. most often you can get more gil back npcing cruor purchase(chocobo blinkers)
And yes, I can sync down, but honestly - if the best ways to level 65+ are to either sync down or to leech exp... then something is broken.
XP reward should be greatly increase so that people won't suffer when xp'ing outside AND may even stop the leeching crab inside abyssea or at lease bring the number down a little.