Since XI. Duh!
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But when the fights play out completely differently than end-game battles (NM fights) how exactly does that allow you to learn your chosen class? I'd argue that in this game, you can only really learn your class after 50, or by fighting lots of mini NMs at or below r30.
When you use an ability or set of abilities over and over you get to learn exactly what they do and what situations they're good for, though, doing the endgame stuff will help you REFINE what you learned, you still learn a great deal actually leveling...except with this current system...button mashing is not something that helps you learn....unless you're playing a scrolling shooter...button spam ftl.
So how is grinding open world mobs that are incredibly easy any different from fighting leve mobs that are incredibly easy? In the current system (with leves as they are today) it takes 5 weeks to get to 50 if all you do is fail leves. That's plenty of time to learn what all of your abilities do. So again, how is grinding open world mobs any different than leve grinding?
I never said that grinding mobs should be extremely easy, I am referring to when they change everything, mashing buttons right now just teaches you how to mash buttons, there are no actual stable algorithms for the mechanics, the stats aren't where they should be, but when the game finally has all that fixed, then, the abilities, which will practically be new/redefined will need learning, and grinding on mobs that are harder than easy will help with that. Even the few NMs we have only offer any sort of learning through button mashing, and again, all you learn to do is mash buttons...
Sorry. That wasn't particularly aimed at you, it was a general question towards the community, since that seems to be the majority opinion. That people that get to 50 in 5 weeks by grinding leves somehow know less about their class than those that grind open world mobs.
IMO there are battles that require skill in this game outside of NM battles, it's just that the devs have squandered any possible challenging gameplay by limiting us (via a glass ceiling) to fighting mobs that are only 10 ranks above us. Case in point, go take a few friends and fight a wolf 20 ranks above your own. But that will never happen in an open world grind party because it takes too damn long to kill with absolutely no benefit for the extra effort. IMO that's the biggest problem with the 'battle system'. It's not so much that the system is broken, it's more that we don't have any reason to use the skills we earn until after r50, generally.