Why are people calling the NM train "parasitic"?

[LineageRazor]

To be fair, even as a lowbie most jobs have SOMETHING they can do to contribute, even if it's just a single party buff on a two-minute timer, and other jobs have a lot they can contribute. I've been participating as AST, and while I can't do much to directly contribute to spawning or fighting higher-level NMs, Balance doesn't take Elemental Level into account and is just as effective when applied to a level 19 DPS as it would be if I was level 19 myself. Raises and heals work just fine, as well - anyone with a healing job can contribute a great deal.

Even so, I have to admit that I find the current system to be flawed. The fact that the lucrative exp encourages low-level characters to be in areas they really have NO business being seems off to me. I wouldn't complain if NMs were subject to the same diminishing exp rewards that regular mobs were - so long as the exp rewards were increased to accommodate the fact that so many of the FATEs in the zone were now ineligible. (So, for example, a level 19 would get little or no exp from FATEs of level 10 or less, but the exp rewards from the higher level FATEs would be greatly boosted to make up for it.) Additionally, boost exp from grinding regular mobs. By a lot.

[Elixirboy]

To be fair, even as a lowbie most jobs have SOMETHING they can do to contribute, even if it's just a single party buff on a two-minute timer, and other jobs have a lot they can contribute.

As a low level, I used to drop down to stun Monoeyes when they popped - many would be dead before they even got a swing off. I did Amarok at a very low level, and appeared to be the only person in the room who knew what ability to silence to prevent damage up stacks on the boss. Haz/Paz/Faf/Lamashtu placeholders all have dangerous abilities than can be interrupted, and I would do that to make myself useful.

[Airget]

The mobs needed to spawn NMs can be killed while the NM is on cd and yet you see low levels hanging around high level NMs instead of prepping low level NMs for the next spawn. Why do you think that is?

I say this is the flaw of respawns of NMs, the reason why lower levels just stick with high levels is because at a point it's not worth the effort to spawn lower levels when the respawn time is the same for all the Bosses.

If SE reduced the respawn of 1-5 and 6-10 there would be more worth in lower levels spamming those 10 but because they all have a similar cooldown people gravitate to a single train.

[Tridus]

I say this is the flaw of respawns of NMs, the reason why lower levels just stick with high levels is because at a point it's not worth the effort to spawn lower levels when the respawn time is the same for all the Bosses.

If SE reduced the respawn of 1-5 and 6-10 there would be more worth in lower levels spamming those 10 but because they all have a similar cooldown people gravitate to a single train.

Yep, this. When the train can clear nearly every NM in the spawn window, why go off on your own as a lowbie? You're missing out on thousands of XP per NM in areas you can't get to without the train and yours will wind up on cooldown anyway.

[Fynlar]

To be fair, even as a lowbie most jobs have SOMETHING they can do to contribute, even if it's just a single party buff on a two-minute timer, and other jobs have a lot they can contribute. I've been participating as AST,

Says the healer, the one role least affected by the elemental level system.

Literally the only thing that changes for an underleveled healer is that they have to make sure not to be hit by ANYTHING because even a brief graze by a trash mob will 1-shot.

And honestly, so many RDMs are present in Eureka that I've seen several healers complain of feeling useless with their once-per-minute Raises.

[Neophyte]

The fate train is pretty much working like hunts would do, if there was only one map.

On hunts it's ok to form temporary trains, but in Eureka it's a no-no, bad leechers. Sure.

The problem is you miss out on things if you leave the train and start things on your own.
And, especially regarding night-only mobs, you only need about 4-8 players to keep all mobs on any one fate on cooldown.

The train will probably die as soon as they implement the next step. I think of something like:
a) get an atma from specific fates with your relic equipped
b) books with specific fates/mobs to do

[Granyala]

Because it is. For 3/4 of your leveling experience the system does not allow you to make any meaningful contribution barring resurrecting the dead.
So yeah: we have to be a parasite until we get to a level where we can actually make a dent and help.

It's not a problem mechanics wise, but it feels shit standing there, being damned to AFK b/c you cannot help.

Literally the only thing that changes for an underleveled healer is that they have to make sure not to be hit by ANYTHING because even a brief graze by a trash mob will 1-shot.

Yup, and since no one can be arsed to tank adds or randomly pulled trash mobs YOU will get the aggro if you are stupid enough to heal. So while our healing is not affected, it's still useless most of the time because the moment we cast them, we get gangraped by adds.

[CosmicKirby]

I think what's worse is that this style of play stems very naturally.

One can easily see that NMs reward a lot of XP of course. But beyond that it's basically the only way a player who has already maxed their level and obtained their reward to help their lower elemental level friends. The game actively discourages and penalizes a higher level player helping with chain camps via odd xp sharing and chain rules. So the best way they can help is by taxiing their friends around and actually contributing to a NM kill with their lower level friends in the party.

[Pheryx]

So far all of my experience on the pain train has been really nice. I have been joining them for the past few days and went from 6 to lvl 13 and not once have I ever seen anyone say that people were parasites due to the fact that we understand people are just trying to lvl up and get their relics done before the next part of Eureka shows up.

[Rongway]

High level NMs aren't worth it for lowbies, though. In the time between NM camps and popping NMs, and pathing around mobs so you don't die on the way, you get no experience. Then, if you manage to get gold on the NM, you only get a couple thousand xp if you're severely underleveled. You can get more than this on a 10 or 15 chain, solo. The NM train does not benefit lowbies anywhere near as much as it benefits 19s and 20s.

In re: finding a group willing to grind
I specified solo.

In re: effort
I'm not missing anything. I simply don't care that other people think grinding mobs is too much effort. I find it much less boring than standing around and leeching xp for hours. I'm here to play the game, not sit back and do 200 total damage to a mob with 3 million HP, and RDM can get an NM's worth of xp in ten minutes of grind since they increased the solo xp.

In re: lockboxes and crystals
You don't get them if you're too low for the NM, so nothing lost there.