The importance of job points

[Alhanelem]

Which only perpetuated bad job balance, since it wasn't critical that they make the less popular jobs able to compete in parties. Now that we have job points job balance is more important and they are, to some degree, taking steps to improve it.

Also you're forgetting that merit points aren't all job specific, the bulk of your merit points are spent on boosts that apply regardless of job.

Job points, in combination with ilvl gear, are intended as "leveling up past 99". You couldn't earn EXP on one job to level up another now, could you? How did those jobs you say can't get job points level up? If you can get to level 99 on the job, you can earn job points on the job. I see no problem here.

[Metaking]

@Camiie
more than likely he is talking about one of the 3 butterfly camps, but unless your a drg or a thf with a really boss acc set and nearly full 119 gear you should not go there, but for where it is, just enter woh gates from bev 4 in Marjami, head ummm i think north past the frog camp(which is actually a great camp if you can sleep them) tell you run into a big room full of acrux(great blm and smn camp) and wide scan one of the rooms joined to that one should be full of efts and butterflys, stretched over 3 rooms, that is the camp you would be looking for. Now if you have a party tho, there is a great camp in woh gates basement near the highwing helm nms spawn point, room full of big bats that have oddly low evasion for there level a bit of def tho, and its kinda funny there cp chain duration is waaaay longer than exp chain duration, and it can build quite high i can rember but i think it was double cp at the time, and was getting 2.5k a kill once the chain got a rolling so i guess normal they would be 1.2k, throw a cor in there and wait for another double cp tho, and yea....

On the issues of gaining cp tho, i would prefer more events like incursion were you get alot of CP simply doing the event, i do think nms in incursion and any new events should probably give half a point at least, and the megaboss like a full point.

[Malithar]

You could go on an optimal job and get merit points for any job, there was only ever a limited scope of jobs that got invited to merit point parties back in the day but because the merit points you got carried across jobs, it didn't matter.

How many jobs are we honestly left with anymore that aren't capable of performing suitably well on essentially trash mobs? I've found myself surprised by most jobs as of late really. They don't all have to perform at a Sam-SC-machine level, if anything, having such a perfected setup hurts you as you end up clearing rooms before respawns roll around, killing your CP chain.

[Alhanelem]

Even club and staff wielding jobs can put on a 119 weapon, and use their merit or other good WS and do sufficient damage to chain mobs that any average person would consider soloing. offensive trusts may not be great but they can still help.

[Camiie]

JP are not as hard to get as the naysayers here are making out; job point bonuses are not as great as they're making out either. You can farm JPs in your spare time if you're not a hardcore player.

The funny part is merit points weren't that easy when they were new and i never saw people complain about it like this (for these reasons at least).

So you really don't see any differences in the way the two systems work that would cause people to not mind merits while despising JPs?

Even club and staff wielding jobs can put on a 119 weapon, and use their merit or other good WS and do sufficient damage to chain mobs that any average person would consider soloing. offensive trusts may not be great but they can still help.

Where would you recommend a SMN go solo for safe max JP/hr?

[Malithar]

Where would you recommend a SMN go solo for safe max JP/hr?

Woh Gates western side where the Umbrils are. I'd be surprised if Flaming Crush from a geared Smn didn't one shot them.

[Byrth]

Summoners get resisted to shit in Woh Gates without a god tier MAcc build. Either way, it's certainly not a safe place for them to solo.

Go to Outer Ra' South quadrant on the first floor. There's a mix of DC Leeches and Acuex. Sub Scholar (with a nuking build) and nuke things to death with Fire and Ice. It's not as good as other magic DDs there, but it's the best easy camp I've found for SMN.

[Malithar]

Focus + Malaise spoils me on soloing Umbrils, tend to forget the issues with MAcc besides in BCs. MAcc really that harsh without a strict build, to the point you'd be forfeiting to much damage to kill? Agree with that Acuex room in Outer though, it's very nice and casual. No aggro from any of the mobs, but still gotta watch for links.

[Camiie]

I appreciate the advice. That sure doesn't sound like the smooth and easy JP some people on here are describing though. I mean it's not like the average SMN probably has a nuking set even if they should. Not an attack on you Byrth. I'm not hating the player, just the game.

[Byrth]

Well, Flaming Crush is hybrid damage so it's going to do crap damage to Umbrils even if it hits because Avatar Ratio will be really low.

I did try to do Shiva/Ifrit on Acuex in Woh Gates, though, and typically I couldn't one-shot them even if I didn't resist. IIRC Acuex are weaker to Fire than Ice, and I think I could land Meteor Strike pretty regularly for full damage but not Heavenly Strike. Also, they sound link so they're kind of a pain in the ass. I know that parties of summoners do the Acuex camps there, but if Camiie is looking for easy then that's really not the way to go.

Edit:
Without nuking, SMN is left going /SAM and trying to melee + BP things to death. They would probably be best off targeting some low tier camp (like Stryx south of Waypoint #4 in Marjami), because Flaming Crush damage drops off pretty fast against higher level monsters. Summoner's damage output has always been horrible, but I bet they can still get 1 JP/hr with meleeing, which isn't that unusual for a melee job. In comparison, I can get 2-3 JPs/hr with nuking without bonuses, but I do have a full set of Hagondes +1 with pretty good MAB augments.