Rewards gained from elite mark prior to level 50

ISP: Comcast

Connection type: DSL, wired to modem

Date & Time: 7/14/2014, ~12:30 AM server time

Frequency: Once (have not attempted to reproduce)

Character Name: Yoseko Ryogane

Race: Hyur F

World: Excalibur

Class/Level: Arcanist 18

Area & Coordinates: Middle La Noscea, around x23 y25

Party (2 members including self)

NPC: None

Monster Name: Skogs Fru

In-Game Time: unsure, between noon and 9 PM Eorzean time

Steps: While looking for a hunting log monster, stumbled upon B-rank elite mark Skogs Fru.

After sending a shout that the elite mark had spawned, a level 50 player arrived and invited me to his party. After some hesitation I accepted it.

Shortly after, a large number of players approached, so the other party member pulled the mob to ensure he received credit. I assisted by using a few DoT spells.

Following the elite mark's death I was rewarded with 30 tomestones of mythology, 10 tomestones of soldiery, and 5 elite marks. I have not reached level 50 on any class with this character and have not completed the Hunt initiation quest.



While it's entirely possible this is a situation where things are Working As Intended, I worry about the other possibility: that this is an oversight and would be considered an exploit. I feel therefore I should at least bring this to the attention of Square so that if they do not know about it, they can at least choose whether to correct it or not. (I also don't want to be potentially seen as taking advantage of an exploit if it is indeed not an intended situation; while I did find the mark it's a little silly for a level 18 ACN to be getting their hands on tomestones...)

You got tomes and seals due to being in the party, and party contribution counts for all party members that did something (possibly even without doing anything?) to the mob.
You don't have to have completed any quest in order to get credits from hunting elite marks either.

This is working as intended, the rewards are issued to any player who has contributed to the take down of an Elite Mark. My alt character is only level 42 and has also not done the quest which allows you to take bills from the notice board but I came across a mob and shouted for people to know it was up. A group came along and invited me to their party where to be honest I didn't do a great deal a damage but received 20 allied seals for my effort! I think that's a nice reward for helping out another group of players complete their hunt :)

While I agree that makes sense normally, this is a case of a player whose highest class is 18 and who can't do any appreciable damage to a level 50 mob (I probably only got him with the Bio, which can't miss anyway, and maybe the Energy Drain I used) getting full marks for an elite mob, so I dunno if you could really call it "helping" a party to down an elite mob. Still, if it's working as intended then I shall -quite- happily regard the rewards I got as a reward for discovering it first.