Quote Originally Posted by rog View Post
Quests can be done at level 30.
Yeah but, for what? Seals and whatnot for gear that's level 80+? Let's face it, Abyssea is a 70+ zone meant for 70+ players. I'm not saying it'd be a good idea for them to reduce the level cap now, but it's hard to argue that there is much of a point to a level 30 being there other than to stand around and to leech exp. You can make the argument that they would make a good candidate for someone to pop chests, but honestly when I look to Abyssea pty and we need someone to pop chests I'd rather get someone who is 70+ and has the option of being otherwise useful than someone taking the fast route.

And I'm not saying the fast route is bad, but exp is pretty damn fast now outside of Abyssea, and you can nail some good skill-ups along the way. Taking the Abyssea burning route though you really need to be on top of your game: I've seen players getting their jobs burned and sure they know the strategy behind the job but it just isn't as automatic for them because they don't have the experience playing the job for so long. One of the positive things about grinding is that it kinda cements that stuff into you, and things come to you quickly and without having to think as much. The skill I worry about someone losing when they Abyssea burn a job isn't even the combat skills or their magic skills, but the skill of knowing how to play the job. I'll be the first to say that there are a lot of people who can learn the job fast, but there are plenty who can't.

But honestly what bothers me most about Abyssea burning is that it accelerates the population decline of the game. My LS is very newbie friendly and we bring new people in all the time but its very hard to get them into Abyssea groups and they usually end up quitting. I know people will snark and say that new people aren't joining this game, but there are many who are, but you never see them because there isn't a game infrastructure to reliably get them to the upper levels. Very few parties, no cruor so they can't get invited to Abyssea leech, and no gear for them to buy on the AH makes this game not quite worth it to push through, and no new people coming in pretty much ensures a perpetual population decline.