Quote Originally Posted by Asiaine View Post
Hello,

First off: I'm not a fan of PLing. Although I would not choose it myself, nor do it for others, I would not hold it against others if they wish to do it. It is a free world.

That being said, there are some serious downsides to being power levelled:

1) You do not get to spend much time learning party dynamics.

You end up going into level 50 dungeons and not actually know enough about how to party/co-operate with others to do well. You end up using the dungeon/primal fights as the means of 'learning' (aka levelling) your job and getting good at it. This is unfair to others who expect someone at level 50 to have at least the basics of their job understood.

It can also be frustrating to the person who got PLed as they start to think they are not good (when in reality, they are just inexperienced).

2) You do not get to meet people and make friends.

The majority of people and LSs I'm in I met through XP parties. Sometimes I'm tempted to go out and XP just for the sake of meeting new friends (especially after this server merge). Being PLed, you will miss out on this.


3) Untempered personallity.

Not sure how else to put it. If one feels that to level from 0 to 45 is so painful and slow that they need to be PLed, then one will not be ready for the vigours that are yet to come. The XP route right now is by no means slow. 1-2 weeks of casual to moderate time will get one from 0-45. Then one nite in Natalan from 45-50 ^.^; If an adventurer does not have the patience to do this, then they may be in for dissapointment later on when there is no 'PL to get all Iffy/Moogy weapons' and they have to start sinking time in.

The 'slow' (non-PL) path helps ready people for the time they will need to invest in the future to get their tasks done.


The journey to 50 is just as imporant (and memorable) as reaching level 50.
I'd argue the validness of some of these points...

Party dynamics. People don't really need to 'tank' to exp party atm. Exp parties are mostly TP burns (to use FFXI yet again) where hate just bounces around and you kill the mobs as soon as possible. Also we already kinda mentioned that the dynamics of an exp party don't really come close to raids or primals. Raids and primals use pretty specific strats. Although I can see some reasoning behind "how to use your job" however, this is so easy to pick up after you've leveled with like one or two leves. This isn't FFXI, jobs aren't overly complicated and skills have in game help explaining pretty extensively what they do and how they work.

Meeting people. I've 'legit'-ly leveled all 4 of the current jobs I have at 50. I'm a member of the social ls I made myself (just me and some RL friends) and the only other LS I'm part of invited me when I was just stood around in Gridinia. Also even with PL, you're still going to meet people since you're still in a party with 7 other people.

Untempered personality. I netflixed (other movie streaming services are available!) while leveling because it's just dull after a while and exping dynamics (hi tp/mana burn) mean you don't really need to be that focused in all honesty. All it really does is braces you for tedium although given Primal's terrible drop mechanics you may have a point here...though nothing is going to 'prepare' people to see the same dupe 10 times or to see someone toss the weapon they need for the 20th time. The path itself was just leveing, mites, raptors, more raptors, even more raptors, and finally Natalan...maaaaaaaybe broken water before Natalan if you're feeling fancy.

Currently it's a choice and nothing more. I don't mean to hate on grind parties but to suggest they're inherently better than PLing isn't logical at this point. If grind parties actually prepared you for endgame and required mastery of your job, or if they made you encounter a vast range of mobs that all have to be learned how to deal with then sure there might be a point in grinding rather than PLing.

Just do what you want because either way you're going to have to learn how to play your job for each endgame situation. P.S. youtube helps for this (other video streaming/sharing sites are available~)