Leveling & Player Skill in PotD - am I the odd one out?

[SilkaN]

PotD has become the subject of many rants and jokes, you see posts like

OH LORD THESE STUPID SCRUBLORDS PROBABLY LEVELED USING POTD AND THAT'S WHY THEY SUCK, I'M UNSUBBING BECAUSE OF THE AVERAGE PLAYER SKILL LEVEL NOW!!11!!

almost every day (and yes, I am exaggerating).

This got me thinking... How do people level in PotD?
In my case, whenever I decide to level something new, I always start with floors 1-10 and work my way up (or down, in this case).
Once I hit level 30 on my class outside of PotD and unlock my job, I start again at floors 1-10. Then, after I got all my skills, I try to organize my hotbars a bit so that playing with and getting used to a job's unique features feels comfortable.
At that point I only use floors 50+ to level.

I simply dislike being thrown into something as chaotic as PotD and being confronted with a sh*tload of new skills without having the time to get used to them.
Learning them step by step gives you a general gist of your options, helping you to play more efficiently and therefore making your runs go smoother.

How do you level in PotD? Do you just unlock stuff and jump right into 50+ to be the next reason someone rants in the Duty Finder thread or do you take your time to get used to your new class / job?
I've seen several people complaining about features like PotD and how they would lower the average player skill level, but as always, the fault lies with the players and not with the tools they are given.

if you find any typos, you can keep them. still getting used to my new keyboard

[MistakeNot]

Problem is that within PotD things usually happen so fast that there is no time to actually learn the skills while inside. This is especially true for the early floors where everything dies as soon as you look at them, and levels are gained equally quick.

PotD is fine for gaining levels. It is not fine for learning a class/job - except perhaps if you play solo in there and can go at your own pace.

[SilkaN]

Problem is that within PotD things usually happen so fast that there is no time to actually learn the skills while inside. This is especially true for the early floors where everything dies as soon as you look at them, and levels are gained equally quick.

PotD is fine for gaining levels. It is not fine for learning a class/job - except perhaps if you play solo in there and can go at your own pace.

It doesn't help you to learn your endgame rotation, yes, but it gives you a general idea about how to play your job.
I'm currently leveling summoner and from what I've learned, it's about keeping up your DoTs on as many mobs and as long as possible, making the best use out of Dreadwyrm Trance, managing your Aetherflow wisely etc.

Some people seem to insinuate that it's PotD's fault when people only know how to press 1 2 3 on their job, but that's simply not true. It's their own fault.

[Linadae]

To be honest, I'm an rper so I'm using PotD to level classes that I never intend to play for real they are really just getting leveled purely for glamor/rp reasons. These classes will never see the light of day in a dungeon or raid.

Though I must admit it is good for teaching you your crisis management cooldowns because generally when a run starts going South...it REALLY starts going South.


It's also not a bad 'trial by fire' for healers.

And to be honest the game doesn't really tell you much about the skill when you get it, if you level the traditional way. I mean how many bards became lunch for every monster in the area the first time you're given Foe Requiem? You actually have to read it and figure out where it goes in your rotation on your own. In my opinion, you should get the skill first, then the class/job quest should be teaching you how to use it not 'random battle/story' and now you're inspired/connected to your soul stone and get a new ability that often has nothing to do with what you just went through.

As for my leveling style, can't say for a normal class since I powered through the last 2 levels on my ninja in PotD and now I'm working on MCH, which doesn't have a class to complicate the leveling system. I did one round of floors 1-50 to get all my skills on my bar and now it's speed runs of 51-60.

[XSamsaraLotusX]

Potd is just a bad thing for this game and the players it have.
This why we cant have nice things .
I see so much 100% bad dps that its just sad.

[Talraen]

The main problem with PotD and learning jobs is that some jobs play very differently in PotD than elsewhere. Monk is probably the best example. PotD has no positional requirements, and keeping your Greased Lightning stacks for very long is basically impossible. These are important skills for Monk and simple cannot be learned in PotD, no matter how long you spend in there.

[Fluffernuff]

The real glaring problem with palace is really that it's a showcase and not a tutorial.

What I mean is, yes, you get all your flashy toys, but you arent able to put them to any meaningful use.

DPS for example. At a basic level you need to follow a rotation in order to even reasonably fulfill your role. Thats fair enough, right? press a sequence of buttons. Got it. 2-3 buttons later, and the mob is dead and your group is 1 room over. Ok, so DPS doesn't really benefit from palace training, surely the other 2 roles can take something out of ther-

People will pull 1 mob at a time. 2 if theyre ballsy. 5 if there's a lure. There's no threat to manage because, again, the thing(s) are dead on sight and you're onto the next room. Tanking is near pointless outside of floor bosses and the fixed prty mechanics. fixed party mechanics obviously being outside of the scope of "learning".

Healing isn't much better off. While youre in a situation where your role is actually more demanding, it fails to prepare you for scenarios outside of palace. This is once again because of the lack of large pulls, stat reduction, and the fact no one is really hurt because pulls are over before they begin.


Palace is a wonderful tool to have access to your tools, and it is FANTASTIC content to bring newbie friends into the game, but it designed horribly as a tool to TEACH. It really is unfortunate, given it's unique access to such things, too

[SilkaN]

The main problem with PotD and learning jobs is that some jobs play very differently in PotD than elsewhere. Monk is probably the best example. PotD has no positional requirements, and keeping your Greased Lightning stacks for very long is basically impossible. These are important skills for Monk and simple cannot be learned in PotD, no matter how long you spend in there.

I'd still say that this is the players' fault for not reading skill descriptions and trying to get used to them, not PotD's.

[Zojha]

I'm hopping straight into 51-60 - I have leveled every job at least once, several twice. I can't stand having my skills locked out anymore >_>

[LalaRu]

Well, as any thing, it may be used for good or for bad.

If I had been 60 on a job but rerolling a new character for any reason, potd is a benediction because the less time needed to get back 60. But if learning a new job, you end up with a load of skills you don't know how they works, and neither have time to learn into a rush-mode content.

It is also a good place for the "completionist" that wants put to 60 all jobs but then skillfull playing just the two or three he likes more.

At the end, potd isn't that evil, before it we had all that fate farming, and things were not so much better on matter of learning skills.