Powerleveling Revisited

[Etienn]

Let people who want to Pl'er be it Pl'er, when my cousin plays I may have to do him, but only after he gains knowledge and, gets used to the game it's mechanics including/battle class mechanics. Do not whine, this is not going the way of WoW, you people realize there will be lowbie gear to sell in future patches right?

It has nothing to do with pl..

[Denmo]

I agree Aklarin, except for a couple things:

equipment still doesn't matter all that much

I'm in my mid 20's on GLA, and upgrading equipment made a huge difference. As a crafter, i switched from a weathered needle to a copper needle, and suddenly synths that I was having difficulty with became a breeze. Equipment DOES matter, even at low levels.

unique equipment (better than any equipment until about R45)

Materia. Materia materia materia. If you can't obtain the unique equipment right away, melding materia to your gear works just as well.

There IS demand for low-mid level gear. I restarted a character just for 1.19, and what I make is selling like hotcakes. I still don't have a craft passed 25 yet.



And again, about PLing. I'm ok with it so long as it's not abusive. I don't agree with the current exp rates, but such is the game as it is right now. I don't see the negative affects on crafting/demand that many people (myself included) had feared. Not yet anyway.

[Treach]

I don't see the pride in taking 2 hours of killing mobs to get from 25 to 26, to be honest it seems rather stupid to be proud of that. Another thing is you don't learn to play your jobs by soloing or partying, you can't just go and do raids cause you manually leveled to 50 with no higher level assistance, you still have to learn the ins and outs of whatever raid you are doing. I do agree it is kinda lame to just go from 1-50 in three days but hey, better to have that job at 50 then to not have it.

Overall I just don't understand the mindset of "power level is evil", all I see is a shortcut to the fun stuff.

[Quanta]

There IS demand for low-mid level gear. I restarted a character just for 1.19, and what I make is selling like hotcakes. I still don't have a craft passed 25 yet.

I imagine it sells because it menaces with spikes of turtleshell, and there's an engraved image of a lalafell and Ifrit. The lalafell is striking a menacing pose; Ifrit is cowering.

[Misteyes]

Powerleveling cannot be good. The best it can possibly be is a band-aid fix over something worse.

If being able to sit AFK while a high level friend runs back and forth killing mobs for fifteen hours is better than playing the pre-endgame game, then the pre-endgame game needs to suck less.

Personally, I don't mind the pre-endgame game, and I know I'm not alone. It could stand to be a bit shorter (specifically in the 15-30 range), but the solution to that is to tweak EXP gain rate, not to encourage low level players to sit AFK or watch someone else nuke things dead instead of playing the game.

[Leo_Hart]

I agree the PL but i just cant agree ppl AFK can get MASSIVE XP. Grind process should be fast to be reach to do end game content. As been said, just 3 days grinding to get L50, why not just doing it urself? PL is a plus but you need not ASK for it, you need not WAIT for it. Honestly, don't tell me you don't have the 3 days times to plays a MMO.

[Denmo]

I imagine it sells because it menaces with spikes of turtleshell, and there's an engraved image of a lalafell and Ifrit. The lalafell is striking a menacing pose; Ifrit is cowering.

Beware its poisonous spittle!

[Aleczan]

Back in FFXI, Powerleveling means a person would follow you around and cast buff+cure on you to keep you alive, so you can pick on stronger enemies. But in FFXIV, powerleveling is taken up to another level LOL. I have mixed feelings about PL in FFXIV.

I can't judge either Powerleveling is good or bad, but honestly getting PL'ed is less enjoyable for me in term of gameplay. It's boring to just stand there leeching EXP from monsters 10 or more levels above me. What? I have to hide in a safe place? I can't even run in to whack the enemy? Why? Oh yeah because I would either do 10 dmg, feeding unnecessary TP to the mob, or get my ass kicked from AoE. That is no fun.

I would rather duo, or make a proper 4-5 persons party and go kill mobs of 6-7 levels above up to keep the EXP grinding fun and let me have chance and time to practice my playing skill. With EXP chain and linking mobs EXP bonus implemented, it is easier to keep rolling in good EXP than ever. Sometimes we don't even have downtime.

I don't blame people if they prefer getting PL'ed, either. Hell, I have been PL'ed myself when I tried to level up my mages. I am a melee type of player. Playing mages bores me to hell. But I want the skills/abilities. I didn't specifically look for PL party, but just tag along with my LS friends when they go to EXP camp or LQ tour. That got my levels up faster than I would have done it myself (partly because I don't seek party, I prefer solo/duo/trio with BF and close friends).

Do I like the freebies EXP and the shortcut? Yeah! Did I learn to play my mage classes? No! I feel incompetent because it's like I suddenly jumped into the healer role at level 30 without having enough practice in the lowbies. I even let my party (consisted of me, a friend, my bro, and bro's GF) wipe because I didn't know how to react when shit hits the fan. Good thing they were forgiving and were willing to spend anima teleporting back to the camp again to try for more. Can't imagine if it were a party full of strangers. LOL.

Experiencing this makes me regret taking the shortcut. For it takes more time and effort, for me at least, to adjust to suddenly play a healer at 30 than to adjust early since below 10. It's like I skipped the toddler stage and tried to run right away. Falling down is guaranteed. I am now THM 44, through duo and LQ spamming. I just feel like I'm becoming a real THM now.

Nevertheless, I am still damn happy that I skipped level 25-30. That range of level is just shitty. I couldn't find decent camp to EXP grind. Mobs camps I found were either too low or too high. I remember my ARC and LNC being stuck there like forever and had to depend solely on LQ+GA. It was seriously the shittiest and slowest range of levels for me.

But, if the class is what I love with a passion, then PL is evil. I want to play my class and enjoy it. I can't imagine how pissed off I would be if I were to miss out on the fun of leveling up my PGL on my own or with my skills.

I understand how the OP felt. And hey, I don't think you did anything wrong. You just happened to be with the wrong people. It's not your fault they prefer the easy way. Sorry you got kicked off some of the parties though. I personally think it's rude to suddenly bring a PL into a normal party. If you wanted to be PL, dude, why haven't you just gone and joined with your PL friend since the beginning? Why did you have to join me and ruin my party? How disrespectful.

[Fensfield]

Overall I just don't understand the mindset of "power level is evil", all I see is a shortcut to the fun stuff.

If being able to sit AFK while a high level friend runs back and forth killing mobs for fifteen hours is better than playing the pre-endgame game, then the pre-endgame game needs to suck less.

Just going to quote these because... well.

If the parts of the game you'd be experiencing on your way to level 50 are not fun, then something is very, very wrong.

Now, me? I enjoy the progression aspect and have little to no interest in endgame. I take play slow, I level with friends or just hang out with them.. but I cannot understand how people can possibly justify the 'rush through levelling to get the fun stuff' mindset.

Powerlevelling, I do not disagree with, but in my opinion? It should be a conscious choice to miss out on the fun in what should be the vast majority of the game to get to a particular aspect faster, not because everything mid-game isn't fun. Now, maybe it's not fun for you, and that's fine, but there is very little more poisonous than when this mindset infects the developers and they start building their content with 'The game starts at cap' in mind.

There always, always needs just as much to be implemented for pre-endgame as there is for endgame. Because you know what a game is that only has endgame players? It's a game that's either has no new players and is desperately trying to retain those it still has, or whose ongoing development is ignoring new players, and either way it'll soon be dead in the water.

That aside, it's not EVE's classless Skill Point system, with its ability to involve new players in most any aspect of the game inside a few weeks (to a degree) and simply flesh out from there, but Final Fantasy XIV's Armoury System still has the advantage of enabling players to experience varied-challenge content because they can become low level again (I believe that was also an advantage of XI's level syncing? I've never really played it). Anyway, one way or another that's certainly one reason why there should be just as much expansion at all tiers of progression throughout the game's ongoing development.

So.. well, yeah. That's my angle; PL shouldn't be closely restricted but people that use it ought be really missing out, significantly more than those who don't, and that's achieved fairly easily by adding just as much content for all progression tiers rather than focusing on adding 'end-game' stuff. Meanwhile any harm that outlook could do should be mitigated by the advantages of the Armoury System and/or something like Level Sync should such a system be added at some point in the future.

[Murugan]

I have a hard time believing that the OP is on Selbina and every group he has formed or joined ends up being power leveled. I've power leveled people before on occasion, there is nothing wrong with it. If people choose to play that way and help others do something faster or more easily that is their choice, there is nothing sinister about it.

Now if this had a real impact on the number of legitimate groups I'd say you had a point. I love grouping and if everyone just stopped grouping because they would rather get power leveled I'd be disappointed. That isn't happening though. It seems you are just an anti-powerleveling zealot who demanded that everyone in your group conform to your strict standards of fair leveling.

No one forces you to power level, and you can certainly find enough other people looking for regular groups too. I'm on Selbina I know this is true.