I want to explore. Please adjust monster cap.

[Xenor]

The node to the east of Camp Nine Ivies and the one to the west of Iron Lake were two of the hardest for me. I never had any issue with Snakemolt. But it's a different game now without Quickstride. Even Isles of Umbra were reachable fairly easy by blasting through with Quickstride, none of this walking stuff.

[Meleena]

Drake, Pig and Eft in front, (and a bit farther behind them sits a raptor)... army of malboros and flies behind you.
Drake and Malboro closing in... wat do?

Answer: Die.

It ain't always as simple as 'walk past these guys and you'll make it'.

Thats the hardest node to get, but the place youre describing is not the hardest part of the road.
You wait for the pig to move out of the way and then you get past by the Eft and Drake by walking (Sound aggro both of them) while makinh sure that the Raptor has it's back turned to you.

The area with the Gnats, the Smolenko and the Malboro is wide open, find a safe spot and wait for them to move out of the way, its gonna take time but you will pass them without ever taking aggro, it's easy to find safe spots and wait.

The hard part comes next because there are Drakes together with Raptors in very narrow passages.
You will have to use buffs and chocobo to run through them.

The whole process might even take an hour through retries but thats why we say that you need patience on some of the nodes.
If I have done it solo, anyone can do it.

The node to the east of Camp Nine Ivies and the one to the west of Iron Lake were two of the hardest for me.

I got through the one east of Iron lake very easily, pop Sentinel, Stoneskin and Decoy, hop on Choco and run past the Smolenkos till you reach the node.

[ToxicFox]

Dread Spikes, Feather Foot and Decoy use them. All nodes but Lichenweed near Crimson Bark can be solo'd without abilities but if ya wanna cheap out go ahead. I did it the hard way.

[Kio]

Getting one shotted by a level 80 or higher monster from afar is not fun. It feels disappointing to me that there are vast parts of the map gone completely untraversed and unused due to this. I hope they are adjusted so to be within a logical range ratio to what is our current player level cap.

[Charismatic]

Irrelevant stuff no one cres about

I don't need a walk through, I can tell you I've done them all in The Black Shroud (and lol @ lichenweed being anything but easy) but if you have malboro closing in on you, and you can't move fast (aka run) because the drake is coming for you... you can't do much of anything other than DIE. Don't forget that Malboros are true sound and Drakes are sound... if you're sandwiched between them closely and they are both moving toward you... you can't really walk fast enough to get to that drake and you don't have time to buff and do all the crap you're talking.
You're just gonna die.

It is luck of the draw which is what I am saying... and you AGREE with it by saying it can take an hour plus of retries. The fact of the matter is this whole blahblahitiseasyblah is straight up bunk. There's a lot of unavoidable deaths in getting some of these nodes.

[Masamune1004]

It feels disappointing to me that there are vast parts of the map gone completely untraversed and unused due to this.

[Francisco]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread amongst the repeated "walking works", "no it doesn't" arguing is - if you walk through a bush or some overgrowth, you will aggro anything that is close by.

I, myself, am 77/87 on these... haven't been playing all that long, and my highest is a Lv.35 PGL... I don't have Decoy and I don't have Stoneskin.

Currently missing...

Coerthas:

Wyrmking's Perch: Didn't attempt yet...

Twin Pools: Didn't attempt yet...

The Lance: Didn't attempt yet...

Feathegorge: Attempted a few times, can't get past the bats in the cave... I should probably try walking instead of choco-blitzing it, but I think Toads are sight... and it's not possible to see which way the toads in the tunnel are facing until you've committed to blitzing by.

Fellwood: Tried once, died to a Hippogryph hiding behind a bush. Put off further attempts due to low anima/distance.

Oakwood: Tried once, got cornered between aggro'd eyes and efts... didn't know what to expect... maybe I can get lucky with eyes facing the walls...

Lasthold: Horrible, horrible... The Pugot gauntlet just beyond the gnat/malboro clearing felt like a kick in the balls. I made it past the clearing with ease, but there was a Pugot right around the corner, I never saw coming.

Lichenweed: Even worse... the mob layout is just brutal... you have raptors, which you can avoid entirely if you're patient enough, but boars that are going to at best give chase. Once you have a boar chasing you, you take a few strides forward and see a Drake and an Eft... your only option is to get as close as possible to the drake, dismount and start walking - and pray the boar returns to it's territory, which it won't. All this while being only about halfway there. Oh, and there's the clearing of Level ~50 boars before you even get to the 70+ stuff, which are enough to kill a Lv.35... and like to all cluster at the corner exit to Lichenweed.

Lynxpelt Patch: Haven't tried it yet, but it looks downright awful.

Snakemolt: Tried it once, from the south, and died trying to walk past a Drake and a Pugot. Couldn't walk by fast enough without the Pugot turning and seeing me. Didn't get close, haven't reattempted since.

The majority of the other ones were all pretty easy... Verdant Drop was a pain because of 2 specific raptors (one hid inside a cluster of Diremites, and revealed itself once I got close - the other sat RIGHT ON TOP of the node, for about 5 minutes).... and Larkscall (didn't even die attempting Larkscall, but I was certain I was going to several times...)

[Soukyuu]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread amongst the repeated "walking works", "no it doesn't" arguing is - if you walk through a bush or some overgrowth, you will aggro anything that is close by.

I actually tested this one and I did NOT aggro anything. From what I saw it's a glitch, probably has something to do with server not getting your position correctly, usually happens if you're close to a wall/area boundary.

[Francisco]

I actually tested this one and I did NOT aggro anything. From what I saw it's a glitch, probably has something to do with server not getting your position correctly, usually happens if you're close to a wall/area boundary.

Might be certain mobs? Or certain bushes?

I had it happen twice... once on the first Doomvoid Guivre on the way to Lasthold (right before the malboros, after the first Lindwurm), and once going for Lichenweed (north path, first Salamander, right before the first bridge).

[Soukyuu]

Might be certain mobs? Or certain bushes?

I had it happen twice... once on the first Doomvoid Guivre on the way to Lasthold (right before the malboros, after the first Lindwurm), and once going for Lichenweed (north path, first Salamander, right before the first bridge).

Notice a pattern? I suspect it has something to do with crossing to a different area, the server lags behind loading the mobs and you might pull aggro because server-side you appear running.