Eureka : take the NM train or ride your private car with a party ?

So you hear something along those lines almost everywhere : NM train is for noobs, party is for skilled people. NM train isn't exp efficient, at least not as much as playing in an organized party.

Well I gained nearly 100K exp in a run, with 40 min left till lockout (fresh lvl 8 to almost lvl 10), following a train yesterday, out of boredom after spending a couple unfruitful lockouts. I often read, by the time you pop a NM a good party can do as much as twice the exp you'll get from beating that NM.
Lvl 9 at that moment, I can't tell for further levels, but at my level, it does seem like the NM train is way more efficient. Til then, I played in some pretty decent small parties, we were killing mobs probably 2-3 levels higher, with 60-80 xp/kill, completing chains.
In the end, you probably get 8K to 10K farming an hour... while it takes around 5 to 10 minutes to pop a NM for the same amount of exp... I believe there's a trick to it as it seemed people somehow figured out how the respawn timers worked for the NM. We were just moving from one place to another, killing a couple dozen mobs, and bam, NM popped. I did try to ask, but nobody answered me. I have the NM and monster level map, but there isn't any indications concerning this on it.

Now for the fun factor... OK well, I won't deny I love grinding, but I understand that for some people, it might be a hassle. So whenever I would find a good party, we wouldn't do more than 3-4 chain before someone had to leave... I could do 10 more chain, but well, if people find it boring, I can't say they're exaggerating things. So if I don't get bored by it, I can feel that most people do - that's korean style grinding for you.
But the NM train is something else... it's messy, the DPS is very high (Death Per Second), half of the people is afk while the other is killing mobs to trigger the NM... but it is so fun :D Feels like alliance raid, just more messy, more people, more fun ! And the exp, if you group with people lvl 12+ is more than decent : I would get 8K per NM average. In that run, we probably popped almost 10 monsters, some taking less than 5 minutes to pop (only the monoeye boss took us around 15 minutes).
So, not only was it very exp efficient for me, it was way more fun than the regular party grinding.

So why all the hate with the NM train ?
Is it because it power levels people ? It goes againt how Eureka should be played ?

I read that when playing in a party, you should attack mobs 5 to 6 levels higher than you. This should normally yield the maximum exp, I read around 100 exp/kill (+5) up to 200 exp/kill (+6).
At my level is that actually possible ? Because as a lvl 6 tank, with 3 crystals on def, playing in a small party, those lvl 9 bombs near the camp where hitting me for something like 10-15k ! With potion and healer, it was quite tense, not even mentionning the time it was taking for the party to kill the monster... so now lvl 9, I should go for lvl 14-15 monsters... but I am pretty sure I am going to get killed !
I will try it tonight on PF. I'll try a 1T-2H-5D formation (or maybe a 1T-1H-6D) to farm the mobs near the north-west aetherite, see how it goes... Or should I wait till I get my 4th crystal for such pulls ? Or even wait for my 5th crystal to pull mobs 5-6 levels higher ?

I was in a party yesterday that did both. We followed the train around, but since so many people were kill the mobs to spawn the NM we went slightly out and killed a different mob while we waited for the NM to spawn. were able to get a decent chain going usually(along with decent exp and protean crystals) and got the xp from the NM and repeated. Unfortunately I think I was one of the last people to join that particular instance so by the time my timer was at roughly 60 minutes remaining the instance was fairly dead and the train wasn't big enough, but it got me all the way through lvl 7 and a good chunk into lvl 8 so that's roughly 60k exp.

I'd like to hear from the Dev team how Eureka is looking on their end. Are they seeing the numbers they expected, are players doing what was intended for them, how are servers handing things, are there some NM's we havent figured out how to spawn yet. I'd also like to hear what their plan is for future additions and tweaks are going to be scheduled. Dont need details on what they are adding, that can be vague but what does the update cycle look like in the patches. Every even/odd numbered patch, every .X5 patch, New zones to look forward to, more rewards?

FATE trains are all well and good until you can’t see the mob anymore...or your party members...or your dots...not to mention getting 0 exp from any non-fate mob because everyone is farming high level stuff so it melts quicker than butter sprayed with a flamethrower.
And then, of course, there’s actually spawning the FATE, which itself can be mind-numbing, especially if you’re lower level and can’t do any actual damage to the enemie. so you just have to sit around for X long, doing literally nothing, praying that a fate will spawn so you can finally press a button for the first time in forever. This moment lasts about 5 minuted before either the boss dies, or you die because of level discrepancy

Anyone who says private partying is more skillful is erroneous. The benefit is you get bonus experience while waiting on NM's, but it's not that much more difficult to do. At least if you know what a stun is.

But I went from 12 - 17 3/4ths last night just doing the fate train. So, it's not bad exp in any way.

Can experience per hour be optimized, yeah, and that's normally what the private parties are trying to accomplish. Outside of trying to prep Pazuzu.

But normally I alt tab and watch something to wait for the fate to spawn, in fact I'm basically doing that right now.

The existence of spawnable FATEs lends the instance to be optimized in terms of how people optimized grinding in GW2 -- Get a zerg rolling.

Grinding mobs in a party is good exp.
Following the fate train is better exp.
Grinding mobs in a party while near the fate train and benefiting from the fate spawns is the best exp.

For bonus points: try to grind nearby mobs that are also able to spawn a notorious monster, even if it's already been spawned, because it's believed that the game counts those even when the fate is on cooldown.

Alternatively, you can solo at-level mobs near the train for decent exp as well.

Essentially what I'm saying is that the fate train is the best source of exp available, but there's no reason you can't benefit from other sources at the same time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Connor

FATE trains are all well and good until you can’t see the mob anymore...or your party members...or your dots...not to mention getting 0 exp from any non-fate mob because everyone is farming high level stuff so it melts quicker than butter sprayed with a flamethrower.

---

First thing you need to do when going in a FATE train, is to remove all sfx for PC other than you or your party - makes it less messy.
The exp loss while triggering the FATE is not a problem as the exp you get from completing the FATE largely compensate for that loss.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Connor

And then, of course, there’s actually spawning the FATE, which itself can be mind-numbing, especially if you’re lower level and can’t do any actual damage to the enemie. so you just have to sit around for X long, doing literally nothing, praying that a fate will spawn so you can finally press a button for the first time in forever. This moment lasts about 5 minuted before either the boss dies, or you die because of level discrepancy

---

As I said, it took our train around 5 minutes once we got on spot to kill enough mob to spawn the FATE. Again, I believe the people I was following actually figured out the spawning order or whatever algorithm it was, as we were just chain killing NM after NM. When we got to monoeye NM, and the boss wasn't spawning, they were saying in shout that it wasn't normal or stuffs like that... and after it eventually popped after 15 minutes, I do recall them saying it took longer than it should have.
As for sitting around... Though I know my contribution was next to nothing, I still actively participated in killing mobs to spawn the NM... or tried to as monsters were surviving for no more than 3 gcd ! I would say half of the people was afk, while the other half was killing mobs - in a train of maybe 50 people, that's more than enough to burn the mobs. So many people in fact, that I was having the phasing problems you're talking about, with mobs or PC dissapearing and reappearing... So in the end, contribution is up to anybody, but in such a large amount of people, you always have the dedicated ones... and the leeches ;)
As for when you die... you immediately get 3 instant rez so it isn't really a problem lol ! As a RDM, just yesterday I got around 20 rez for my Good Samaritan achievement, and I can't recall how many times I rezzed my partymates !! Anyway, I was able to participate, though I was having goosebumps each time I was returning alive from a corps-a-corps/displacement XD But in the end, the train was performing very well... maybe except for Pazuzu... that was a real slaughter... I recall the bodies lying on the ground after each aoe attack... Monoeye NM was fun in its respect too - his vacuum swing knocked me all the way inside the little room in that cavern next to his spot...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alaray

Anyone who says private partying is more skillful is erroneous.

---

reddit ;)

Optimized grinding is better exp, but it's a massive pain to set up.

Really though, if you're planning on getting more than one weapon, or even a single armor set, you might as well just ride the train. You need a lot of crystals.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alaray

At least if you know what a stun is.

---

This is why it is more skillful. 90% of the time, in any content, nobody knows what a stun is. And as a RDM, I can't stun something. Killing the Bhoots in Eureka is a pain when the party wants to mass pull them, and end up paralyzing the party(which, might I add, the healers 80% of the time don't have Esuna for) causing near wipes, if not outright wiping the party.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moogly

I read that when playing in a party, you should attack mobs 5 to 6 levels higher than you. This should normally yield the maximum exp, I read around 100 exp/kill (+5) up to 200 exp/kill (+6).

---

https://puu.sh/zIRgr/fd3209bba8.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Avatre

This is why it is more skillful. 90% of the time, in any content, nobody knows what a stun is. And as a RDM, I can't stun something. Killing the Bhoots in Eureka is a pain when the party wants to mass pull them, and end up paralyzing the party(which, might I add, the healers 80% of the time don't have Esuna for) causing near wipes, if not outright wiping the party.

---

Tell them to take esuna. It's useful all over Eureka. Nevermind the NM that casts Doom.