Power-leveling is absolutely BROKEN

[Issac]

It's been on my mind lately how to adapt this thread, as everything has been discussed to death. Yet there's no indication that anything is going to change or that the problem is being considered. To see the original post, please click the spoiler at the bottom.

The thing is, the damage is already done. All the consequences many posters have warned about are here in full-swing. Traditional grind parties have taken a backseat to powerleveling to speed new players straight to the endgame content, by which in all respect, really isn't there yet. Storyline quests along the way, while admittedly weak, have become something so utterly unimportant that one stops to wonder if the acronym "RPG" belongs in this particular "MMORPG." They also have taken a backseat to rocketing to "endgame" as quickly as possible.

The economy has taken a hit as a consequence. There is low demand for mid-rank gear, and as such the prices reflect. Mid-rank gear is generally triple to quadruple the price of common high-rank gear, exasperated by the new demand to make materia. I'm not knocking on materia at all, I think it's a great element, but one must admit it makes the demand curve further skewed.

When you create a party for Lv45-50, the final stretch, you may notice players who are clueless about the role they're supposed to play. Some know their role, but don't know which abilities are most effective. Another group of players don't bother with gear until they're 49-50 because the market condition conveniently gives them an excuse.

Anyone who refutes these facts is in denial, I see it every single day I play. There's only a couple options to fix this, now.
1. Rollback.
2. Cap raise and do away with powerleveling.

#2 will probably happen along with PS3 release. If neither happen and powerleveling is truly here to stay, well, I don't even want to think about that.

Original post:

Okay, this seriously needs to be fixed immediately.

Now, before you all say, "Oh come on dude, why you gotta crap on something so awesome," honestly think about it. The consequences will be a domino effect that just might force SE to do a server rollback.

Here's an example: I just got 25,000EXP in less than five minutes. From level 24 to 25 with a friend killing and chaining crabs for me in my party.

The above is far far too extreme. Given these possibilities, and even more if she killed something at a higher level, everyone will exploit the crap out of this and no one will have a job below level 40 within a month. Do we really want this? Do we want to make the journey to cap so utterly pointless?

I'm really concerned for the future of this game if this is what SE intended in this patch! This is bad, really bad. Please, SE, let's get an emergency maintenance and fix this before it is too late!

Five times now people have tried to be clever and call me a hypocrite or somesuch. Let me make it exceedingly clear that I refuse to use this now that my friend and I have tested it out. Nor do I want to be complacent with it.

I just wanted to add the below really quick. These numbers are not exact, but an approximation until my friend and I do another test for accuracy.

Let's assume you got base exp of 100 per kill (lowballing it) for your lv50 friend killing lv30 mobs for you while you're level 10. In this, let's assume he killed 15 mobs at once.

(Second set of numbers is base exp 300, link bonus ends at the 5th mob.)

1st Mob:
100 + 100% LINK BONUS, 200 (300 + 100%, 600)
2nd Mob:
100 + 120% LINK BONUS CHAIN 1, 220 (300 + 120%, 660)
3rd Mob:
100 + 125% LINK CHAIN 2, 225 (300 + 125%, 675)
4th Mob:
100 + 130% LINK CHAIN 3, 230 (300 + 130%, 690)
5th Mob:
100 + 140% LINK CHAIN 4, 240 (300 + 140%, 720)
6th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 5, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
7th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 6, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
8th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 7, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
9th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 8, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
10th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 9, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
11th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 10, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
12th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 11, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
13th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 12, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
14th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 13, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)
15th mob:
100 + 150% LINK CHAIN 14, 250 (300 + 50%, 450)

Grand total:
3615XP (7845 XP)

Now, this is assuming all 15 link together, which generally isn't the case. However, the base would probably be closer to 300 in this example, so we would probably add 4000 to that number above. Keep in mind this happens within 2 seconds with one AoE spell. Oh, and let's not forget, repop is much faster now.

If the opinion stays 50/50 on this issue, I might be so bold to suggest separate servers. That way all us apparently elitist pricks can go play the game the way we enjoy it and others can go play the game the way they enjoy it. Sure the developmental overhead would be a bit greater, but it's a compromise. Choices, right?

And I say this before a rep even replies. I'm still eagerly awaiting their response.

This is an appeal, SquareEnix. It's time to tell us what your plans are for the long term on this split issue. You have the people that hate it, the people that embrace it, and the people that don't care.

Looking at this logically, the big question here is, "How many potential subs would you lose either way once making a firm, long-term statement of your plans with this?" If you announce that PL is here to stay, permanently, for the foreseeable future, how many people would leave? If you reverted and removed the possibility of PL, how many people would leave?

I strongly believe the prior will result in more lost subscribers, but I am no expert in these things. I do know that if you tell us that, for sure, powerleveing will remain and all cap raises will be easily gained just as 40-50, I will be leaving.

So, SE. Tell us. I'm tired of the second-guessing.

Hopefully the upcoming player's poll next year will touch on this subject.