Class Hunting Logs are inefficient EXP gains. Amongst other issues..

After seeing the recent response from SE earlier that said they would be fixing the EXP/difficulty of FATEs, I decided I'm going to take a shot at some of the other EXP income sources that aren't pulling their wait... first up; Hunting Logs!

Simply put, they are not worth doing if you are looking for experience. This becomes more obvious when you get past the 1st/2nd rank, and the accumulated experience for traveling around the world to kill various mobs nets you less than half of a single level by the time you are able to successfully down all of the listed monsters.

It is then amplified much worse when you consider how easy it is post-30 to grind FATEs in Coerthas/N.Than and get insanely higher amounts of exp. (1-2 FATEs is worth more than that entire rank in the hunting log!). This is in part due to the wonderful 100% armory bonus as well.

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The hunting log was designed to familiarize the player with the various maps and give them something to do that was more interesting/rewarding than side quests. It is fulfilling neither of these roles right now, because people have no need of doing them as a result of poor rewards.

Furthermore, the new jobs don't even have a hunting log. Pretty much a big sign that the governing body has said "What are hunting logs? Who even does those?..."

We are just a few weeks into a new expansion, where one of the largest complaints is the lack of EXP from new content. Another large complaint is that new people are trying to complete old content and catch up with us storywise, but are running into EXP wastelands between MSQ between 1-50 (I know the 46-49 MSQ storyline gap is a bit taxing if you don't grind N. Than for an hour or so).

What is my proposal for a fix? Simple. Add hunting logs to the new jobs for levels 30-60. Add hunting logs for the old jobs from 50-60. Scale the EXP for the hunting logs from 1-50 in such a way that for each successful rank completed, the player will get anywhere from 2-3 levels. Scale the EXP for 50-60 in such a way that successful completion will grant 2 million experience flat.

I have to agree I just hit 45 last night and haven't even finished the level 10 section because the time invested vs reward just isn't worth it

I think people are not grasping the concept that they don't want this to be another " from 1 to cap in a week" game.

Hunt logs are fine for filler exp, it's all they were ever intended to be.

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Originally Posted by Havenae

I think people are not grasping the concept that they don't want this to be another " from 1 to cap in a week" game.

Hunt logs are fine for filler exp, it's all they were ever intended to be.

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Except they are not fine for filler exp. There is literally no reason to choose hunting logs over other forms of experience gain if thats what the player wants to do. FATEs, dungeons, roulettes, challenge logs - all of these things are worth exponentially more exp. Some of them are also significantly easier to do than hunting logs (which can be tedious).

The idea of "Hunting Log" is that you complete while traveling from one quest to another. The first 2 ranks monsters they ask the same path of the quest of each class; rank 3+ ask you to more distant mobs, but I think the game will not require anything where you have not gone before.

The idea is not to hunt directly, but must make the journey to explore a little (not require a lot) and meet more monsters. I think the game needs no reward a bunch of exp by every step you take, if you're interested only in exp there are other ways, but this is not for that.

You want Exp, make FATE's; but if you want to explore the world, make hunting log

Sorry for my english :P

Hunting Log Exp is fine. It was amazing filler EXP and you could complete a log level in 30 mins to an hour. I used it for exp on all the classes.

Class hunting logs are for classes, not jobs - hence the new jobs wouldn't have class hunting logs, since they don't have base classes. Also, if you do the marks at or close to level appropriate, you'll notice it's a decent chunk of XP at lower levels, though it might not scale as well post 45. These were also implemented in the days prior to the duty roulettes so the rewards might pale in comparison to those, but hey - any bit helps.

It's all about da achievement

No DRK/AST/MCH achievement

Sadness

I think there are people here responding about how good hunting log exp is and they haven't actually used it in a long time. As the state of the game is CURRENTLY - there is no reason to do hunting logs. They are not good EXP, they are not "noticeable chunks" anymore. A singular FATE in N.Than that takes 2 minutes to complete is worth more accumulated EXP than the entirety of the Rank 4 hunting log - and takes about 1/80th the time to do.

Hunting logs were relevant *slightly* for the FIRST class you get to cap, even then this was before the updated Armory Bonus. The time/money it takes, even with teleporting and mounting everywhere, is simply not worth it. Even for world exploration, the way MSQ pre-50 works now, the idea should be to do MSQ exclusively and ignore things that are "time traps" like hunting logs.

I think those of you whom are claiming it to be a good source of EXP, should start on that low level job you have, and make a real/up-to-date comparison between hunting log EXP now and all other forms of EXP (outside of Combo Bonus Grinding which is just pitiful on its own). You'll see that Hunting Logs are a waste of time and resources.

Also, to those of you saying; "They were for CLASSES not jobs!" - really? You did your rank 4 and 5 as an ARC/MRD/GLA and not as BRD/WAR/PLD? No, you didn't. You did them as a job as soon as it was possible. Oh by the way, Traits and pre-30 skills are also "for classes" yet they managed to fit them all into the new Jobs didn't they?

There is no point at the current state of the game to prolong the amount of time it takes to get to 50. The MSQ is still the threshold that needs to be passed for first-time 50's. After that is complete there is no reason to make leveling take significantly longer or neuter EXP income sources just because it used to have value. It does not anymore, and should be updated to be relevant. We don't need more outdated systems that get left in the dirt.

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Originally Posted by LoreChief

Also, to those of you saying; "They were for CLASSES not jobs!" - really? You did your rank 4 and 5 as an ARC/MRD/GLA and not as BRD/WAR/PLD? No, you didn't. You did them as a job as soon as it was possible. Oh by the way, Traits and pre-30 skills are also "for classes" yet they managed to fit them all into the new Jobs didn't they?

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Actually, I did all of my hunting logs as my classes, not my jobs. There was no reason to push to the job when I wanted the extra challenge. In addition, the hunting logs are for small chunks of exp while you wait or while you explore. You are waiting for a dungeon pop, hit up a few log mobs, exp while you wait. It's not likely to level you, but it still makes a difference.
It was designed so that there is more than one way to level based on how you play, you want to grind to level by doing leveling parties with mobs? you CAN do it, it's not efficient, but you can. You want to quest grind, you can do that too! You want to run dungeons? That's there too! The exp system is fine for what it is, you can't look at any of these as a replacement for the other, they are another layer to enjoy, or not, all based on how you play the game.

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Originally Posted by LoreChief

There is no point at the current state of the game to prolong the amount of time it takes to get to 50. The MSQ is still the threshold that needs to be passed for first-time 50's. After that is complete there is no reason to make leveling take significantly longer or neuter EXP income sources just because it used to have value. It does not anymore, and should be updated to be relevant. We don't need more outdated systems that get left in the dirt.

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if you take longer leveling a class to 50 after you got your first class to 50, then there's something seriously wrong with you. Especially now that the armoury bonus has been increased etc. There are people that have 6 level 60's by now and you're still crying about not getting a 2nd or 3rd class to 50, blaming the hunting log exp for it? Maybe this game is after all not made for you. Sorry. Move on.

Took me less than a week to level my MNK to 50... I used the hunting log to rush 15 then ran dungeons. The hunting log supplemented my XP as I went and it helped push me along.

The log was never meant to give a lot of XP... was meant as a small boost. Sometimes it is easier than hoping a level-appropriate fate is up in your area. And after the Atma grind pre-buff... I'm bloody sick of fates, so it serves as an alternative.

The Hunting Log is amazing for lower levels, boosting your way to 15 as swiftly as possible, and it's very easy to complete the first two logs. The experience it yields does fall off hard later on, but it's still good filler if you're in queue or something

Can it not not be EXP : entertainment instead of EXP : time sometimes?

Not that hunting is the absolute pinnacle of fun, but it is more of a monotony breaker than fates and dungeons, and made fairly easy to ignore if wished. A slower but more sane way to fill some of the gaps that sidequests can't fill. You get reminded of a wider variety of content in a shorter time. Sometimes efficiency needs to be put aside for the possibility of difference or we'll never be able to climb out of the robotic "same time, same reward, same difficulty" trend that kills MMOs and the spirit of their playerbase even in PvE, turning every activity into the same activity, offering no gratification to the player besides those that can be quantified numerically.

It's the efficiency mindset why we don't have anything interesting happen during the trash phase of dungeons. It's upsetting that there are few players who wish to experience an emotional return from a game until all other avenues of progress are dried up, even at the top level. If efficiency was the most important thing in the case of hunting, they'd probably end up making all hunting logs identical past level 20 too.

It takes like 10minutes to do Rank 1 or Rank 2 hunting log, maybe 15-20min to do a Rank 4 or 5. With teleports and mounts and companion, it's very quick filler, especially between queues. It's also great for when you're within 25-15% of leveling up, completing a rank also gives a large noticeable chunk of EXP. Less noticeable 35+, but not insignificant.

What? I literally just started playing this game a month or so ago and I do all the hunting logs for classes and jobs. Part of that is because filling my log out is extremely satisfying to me, but at lower levels, they were worth quite a bit of experience for killing 3-4 mobs on my way to a quest. They're meant to be a supplement to what you're doing. Not to be the entire way you level.

If you (like I did) simply level up, then stop and say "Hey, I need to do the Hunting Log" then went out and bust through a bunch of levels in the thing ... then you are missing the point.

The point is a minor bump as you go about doing your normal stuff. Find that you're in an area with Hunting Log mobs? Take a few minutes and kill them. You're not supposed to stop at level 25 and go back to do the level 20 through 30 logs all at once.

Granted, going and knocking a bunch out all at once is how most people do the things, because they're not very well thought out in terms of where people are going to be at a given level ... but just up and taking an hour or two out of your time to go focus solely upon porting here to kill a few mobs, then porting there to kill a few mobs, and so on, to knock them out was not the intent nor the idea behind them. All you're doing, TC, is complaining that the way most people do (or think to do and decide is too much work and choose not to do) is not the way that they were intended to be done.

BTW, 2 mil for all ten levels worth, is only 200k exp per level. That's around half what a good exp dungeon run gives. If people are not interested in doing them now because FATEs are so much better, and people are not interested in dungeon runs because FATEs are better, what incentive is there for people to do these even under those conditions?

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Originally Posted by LoreChief

This becomes more obvious when you get past the 1st/2nd rank, and the accumulated experience for traveling around the world to kill various mobs nets you less than half of a single level by the time you are able to successfully down all of the listed monsters.

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Are you just exaggerating, or did you get up into your mid 40's or so, realize you were behind, and then go back and do the 3rd and 4th ranks of hunting logs when you were way overleveled for them? Because on-level, they do much better than that. I just did the 4th rank of my CNJ hunting log the last couple days (at levels 38 and 39, so above the level of at least most of the mobs in that tier), and got a full level out of it, from near the beginning of 38 up to 40% of the way through 39.

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Originally Posted by LoreChief

The hunting log was designed to familiarize the player with the various maps and give them something to do that was more interesting/rewarding than side quests.

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I'd agree with the first of those, but it was never intended to be more interesting or rewarding than sidequests. It's filler for when you don't have enough sidequests for your level, since there's very few sidequests in this game and they can only be done once, whereas you get a separate hunting log for every class you advance.

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Originally Posted by stuscott

Class hunting logs are for classes, not jobs - hence the new jobs wouldn't have class hunting logs, since they don't have base classes.

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By that logic, there would be no way to level the new jobs either, since jobs in this game do not earn XP. Only classes do. Of course, that really doesn't apply because the new "jobs" are in fact classes. SE decided they no longer liked separating them out, so they made this new hybrid version that's both a class and a job rolled into one.

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Originally Posted by FallenVanguard

The Hunting Log is amazing for lower levels, boosting your way to 15 as swiftly as possible, and it's very easy to complete the first two logs. The experience it yields does fall off hard later on, but it's still good filler if you're in queue or something

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If I want a class to 15, I ask a FC mate and 20 min later it's done.