Confessions of a Leech

[Seyrena]

After getting RDM to 90, I set about leveling several subjobs and other main job interests. In doing so, I have found a way to provide a symbiotic service to my Gusgen Mines GoV party. I level sync for them while I go to work. So long as they don't let me become the leader so that I have to be phased out, I sit there gaining 10~15 EXP per kill while they make upwards of 1300 every six kills. I act as a perpetual sync that doesn't need to be changed. As I leech my way up through the upper 10's and lower 20's, my party can vault themselves upwards into the 40s and 50s. It's no problem for me, as around 25, I become active again and fight up to around 35 at which point I can go to Crawler's Nest.

I understand that some are opposed to this style of play, but I hate levelling through the 15~25 range, so it is mutually beneficial. Everybody wins.

What do you think? For? Against? Why?

[Korpg]

More power to you.

[Aurara]

I hate 1-30 personally.

[Vold]

I have no problem playing shady on mage jobs, assuming I ever get the chance. I refuse to level them except I was sort of forced to with the whm sub for brd. Assuming I ever bother with another one for sub I will absolutely do everything I can to leech them but I don't plan on it simply because it would suck to skill up magic post leeching. Melee-ish jobs on the other hand I quite enjoy playing at low levels as I treat it as a break from capped jobs, up until it's not very practical anymore to do so due to increasingly large TNLs.

To date I have never leeched any of my jobs unless you count BRD opening chests and giving up BRDing eventually because your songs never hit anyone anyway. If I ever get the opportunity I probably will leech my sam and bst just to finish them already as they have been stuck at 66 and 60 for years. Everything else is pretty far down that I'll probably never get around to playing because I don't like the idea of retiring jobs to play other jobs because of space limitations.

Ultimately I have no problem with leechers. I've thrown 7 years of my life away on this game. As far as I am concerned I earned my right to Abyssea style content. Yeah, sure, it used to mean something to be capped level. It meant you sacrificed RL to some extent to achieve it. As a 75 you were even respected by players below you that felt it was a massive accomplishment. I look back on that and it's not something to be proud of. I sacrificed too much to accomplish my goals. What's done is done and I have to play catch up now in the real world. But as far as this game is concerned, I'm set for life now, and if I feel like leeching my ass off one day in an Abyssea group then by God I am going to fricking do it because of the countless hours, days, and weeks of my life that were lost trying to get groups that at best would be 4-6k per hour and last only a hour or two at best before it started to fall apart and reps would be called in and so on.

I do get tired of hearing about leech complaints and such. I'll bet anything that if this game's standard was still 4-6k exp per hour, it would have less than 50k players. Yeah good luck with your hardcore FFXI experience with those kinds of numbers to motivate anyone at SE to be serious about game additions. The challenge of a MMO should always be in the content and not the level grind. When the biggest accomplishment you do in a MMO is not beating end game content but reaching the level cap, there are problems with the game. Granted they went too far with Abyssea. ToAU exp was pretty well off and seemed almost the perfect match for a MMO grind experience. We just needed more options because the camps just weren't enough for everyone. But it's like when they decided to do the level cap raise they were basically giving up on this game with the idea that FFXI players are probably going to play the so called "FFXI-2" that people outside of beta thought it was going to be, so the only logical course of action to take was to make the game easier and more fun to keep people playing over the accomplishment ideals that stood in place for years.

But you know what? It's okay. At this point most of us have accepted that FFXI is stuck between a rock and a hard place because of it's PS2 origins. So long as the devs can come up with some kind of content for us to play with I'm sure there will be many years to come for the game. We may never see another expansion ever again. We may never see a PC graphical update. We will probably never again have a full year of hype and speculation before a major update to the game where everyday could be THE day you learn new information on that new expansion. Once you accept that you can move on and enjoy the game for what it is in the now.

In short: The exp leeching is a necessary evil at this point in the game's lifespan. Get over it, do it or don't do it, and move on.

[Leonlionheart]

I'd leach 1~90 if i could in one sitting

Then I'd gear and play better than 90% of the playerbase

[Aurara]

I'd leach 1~90 if i could in one sitting

Then I'd gear and play better than 90% of the playerbase

I did this with: brd whm blu mnk rng

[Leonlionheart]

Only bad players complain about leeches in my experience.

It's incredibly easy to gear a job now days, I myself just got 90 drg and drk and already have most of the best gear possible for them.

[Panthera]

I think it cheapens the value of having max level jobs, or jobs of any level really, for everyone. Every notice how people used to say "grats!" when people got their levels or merit points, and now they don't? It's because 1) exp is hyper inflated and 2) you don't have to work for it.

No offense, but I don't support this kind of thing.

[Korpg]

I think it cheapens the value of having max level jobs, or jobs of any level really, for everyone. Every notice how people used to say "grats!" when people got their levels or merit points, and now they don't? It's because 1) exp is hyper inflated and 2) you don't have to work for it.

No offense, but I don't support this kind of thing.

Does it really matter anymore? Or are you and Aku going to have a tirade about abyssea leeching again?

[Leonlionheart]

I think it cheapens the value of having max level jobs, or jobs of any level really, for everyone. Every notice how people used to say "grats!" when people got their levels or merit points, and now they don't? It's because 1) exp is hyper inflated and 2) you don't have to work for it.

No offense, but I don't support this kind of thing.

I had worked 1 year to get MNK 75, had it there for 5 before abyssea.

I had my time, I'm fine with this and not having to invest entire days into 2 levels