Why are people calling the NM train "parasitic"?

[Granyala]

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.

Not sure how much they buffed the xp from chaining but the main problem is finding groups for this insanely boring activity.
You find a Train group pretty much instantly. No worrying about pathing needed, just follow the masses, they well pull any adds out of your way. Even easier if you go in with high level friends, just hop onto a tandem mount.

As for the contribution: in a group gold is guaranteed. No need to worry about it.
I found NM train to be superior once you pass lv 4 or so. At that point grinding gets painful and tiresome while fates throw 3-4K XP your way.

[alimdia]

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.

You're missing something, the difference in effort. Getting exp from high level NMs as a low elemental level player takes very little effort, just be in a party and hit the boss after it spawns. Your alternative is to spend 20+ minutes hitting mobs nonstop, which is a lot of work after you factor in the 3 hours you'll be in there.

So yeah, if you don't want carpal tunnel it's better to lose a bit of exp and stick to the NM train regardless of your level.

[Tridus]

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.

If you're very low, yeah. Once you get up to level 6, the train wins out. You'll get XP faster, you'll actually get lockboxes and crystals, and you'll get carried around past quest targets that are much harder to get to alone.

Eureka is such a PITA to move around in at low level that if something spawns and you're not already at it, you're not getting to it before it's dead. Callisto dies so fast now that if you're at Numbers spawning area next door, you're hard pressed to get there in time without a mount. If you're anywhere else, forget about it.

Frankly, 19 and 20s don't need the train. They can blow stuff up so fast alone that they don't need help, and the lowbies are of no help against higher level stuff anyway except to raise.

[ChocoFeru]

I don't think low level players are parasits. They don't affect high-level players in any negative way since they're just standing there avoiding stuff, and they migh even be useful raising people wich is cool.


The true parasits are the ones that MPK them on purpose.

[LineageRazor]

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

Let's be clear on something, here - healer is not my job of choice, but it's the job I come as in order to make myself more useful as a lowbie. I main Paladin in battle content, and once I get to the point where a Paladin has a little more utility, I'll be swapping over to that. I've definitely seen a trend for off-tanks to tunnel on the boss and ignore adds that romp around swatting DPS and healers, and I hope to contribute to preventing that once I can do so without getting one-shotted.

I think it's likely that most individuals who participate in Eureka have some flexibility as to what they can come as - and the thrust of my post was that very few jobs have NO contribution they can make. There's no reason for anyone to be completely idle/afk during this content, even as a level 1. I suppose a case could be made for a SAM who has nothing else leveled - but the population of SAM-only players can't possibly account for the large numbers of afk individuals at these events.

[Souljacker]

So, I've been doing a LOT of Eureka and the 'afk' problem just isn't as bad as some of you are making it out to be. Folks are contributing as they can and as their computers allow. Last night I was pulling analas as a blm, at one point I got a little too greedy and ate a series of smackdowns & hit the dirt. Someone else took my place and the pulls kept coming - so there wasn't any downtime.

I could see the salt if nothing was getting done and no one at ALL was contributing, but as it is the 19\20 players will burn through prep mobs (when we aren't prepping panini), and the lower levels hang about until they get to higher levels. This stuff just doesn't bother me and I don't get why other folks wad themselves up so much over it.

Very few people actually leveled through this content in the 'intended' way (and I'd argue probably NO ONE leveled to cap before the community realized the train method was best), so why even get mad over it? If you feel like taking a break, take a break. Someone else WILL take your place... and they probably won't whine about it.

[Vhailor]

I agree with many who are stating that low-level players aren't parasites - they do what they can, after all.

That said, I want to see balance adjustments made to Eureka. At the end of the day, while I'm not comfortable calling low-level players parasites, using the NM train for leveling purposes is by its very nature parasitic. If this was the intended style of play, SE made a fairly wretched decision. If it wasn't the intended style of play - as I suspect - then they just fucked up in regards to balance (surprise, surprise) and need to remedy it ASAP.

[Critical-Limit]

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 can tell you why, most likely.

They are low level, no mount no teleportation in most cases. If high levels start a fate on other side of map. Just about every time no one will wait and just kill it. While they spawn something their level, they sometimes need to wait for help.

So easiest way to make sure you don't miss out is stick to the train.

Fix that and you fix the problem.

[Tridus]

Let's be clear on something, here - healer is not my job of choice, but it's the job I come as in order to make myself more useful as a lowbie. I main Paladin in battle content, and once I get to the point where a Paladin has a little more utility, I'll be swapping over to that. I've definitely seen a trend for off-tanks to tunnel on the boss and ignore adds that romp around swatting DPS and healers, and I hope to contribute to preventing that once I can do so without getting one-shotted.

You don't get credit towards gold by dealing with adds. That's why so few people want to do it. The game actively disincentivizes good play unless you have Sleep or something and nobody will break the adds out.

[Ruincaster]

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

Yeah, it's not exactly rewarding gameplay. It's also frustrating to find your exp from regular mobs taken by high-level players. I was in a group of 5 friends around level 5 trying to spawn a NM by killing level 7 mobs and getting zero exp. A few higher-level players were also trying to spawn it and tagging the mobs we were attacking. They weren't trying to ruin things for us, but we had to leave to get any exp. If I want to make use of NM at all, I feel forced onto the train. It's good most people don't mind it much. Even if we were on the train, our little group of 5 wasn't getting gold, so... so much for that.

I like the spawn-NM-more-often idea. Maybe that would give an option to utilize NM without feeling like a leech.