Quote Originally Posted by Panthera View Post
Depending on what you fight, you learn the fundamentals on experience points mobs. Even Imps teach that life-saving cures comes first, using negative status removal spells comes second, and buffing and debuffing after that. It teaches you to stay out of AOE if you're a mage, and other core concepts.
Browsing quickly through the last pages of this thread, and I just have to comment on this.

Grinding exp in oldfashioned exp parties doesn't teach you the above. It's called common sense. If you know whichever mob you are fighting can use an AoE spell or move, you stay out of range when you're a mage. If you don't know - well you stay out of range anyway, just in case! And if you cast Blindna on the war when he's @ 25% hp instead of a cure, then you have no business being on whm or rdm. Funny thing is - I still see people do this today, people that I know have played whm or rdm since well before Abyssea. And coming across players on jobs that use some form of magic but don't carry something like echo drops, is almost a daily occurrence. Again, people that have been playing for a long time, maining something like pld (when that was still a relevant job).

Point is, grinding exp on pink birds and whatnot, doesn't teach you much if anything at all. Common sense and willingness to learn is what it's about.