Heya all, Aster E here, and I really, really don't like Pagos for a laundry list of reasons that don't appear to have a fix in sight. Maybe I'll make a big topic about that, or Eureka in general, in the future? I don't know yet. Tonight, however, I have the urge to try to show exactly how ridiculous the grind is right now, at the time of me writing this as I try to get my umpteenth group today alone (and while working on relic #3 of 4 that I actually need).

So, regardless of whether you got to eLV 35 via Notorious Monsters or chaining monsters that are, in several opinions, more beefy than they ought to be, you probably still need a good number of Frosted Protean Crystals, meaning you have to dive back in to killing monsters--or else taking way, way longer on NMs alone, though you do also need a bunch of those anyways for 500 Pagos Crystals--for increments of light. However, as we all know by now, there is only a chance of light dropping at any mob kill.

That's not all. Just because a monster says it gives Feeble doesn't mean it's the same level of Feeble as another mob or NM. Below I have attempted an estimate, possibly inaccurate, as to values given, as determined by half-assed measurements of the progress bar:
  • 1 - Less than a hair's width.
    For those of you still trying to share a spot for those sleeping dragons, listen up. When you try to share a level 40 Void Dragon, at level 35, with another party you cause everyone to lose out, because every suffusion during the early part of a chain will give this amount, and most people won't see their bars move at all despite the "Feeble" message. Even at an assumed constant of one drop per three or four mobs, this will take a long time to get anywhere.
  • 2 - One hair's width
    Let's assume no one is salty in the aforementioned scenario with dragon sharing, and everyone is patient long enough to get to the latter parts of a chain. A single boost to light might look like this.
  • 5 or 6 points - a little nub
    Let's throw out the second party trying for the one dragon, and say that one group is running things rather smoothly in one of two spots where chaining a pair of sleeping dragons is possible. This is the value you're likely to see early on in the chain, without an Adaptation.
  • Up to 9, I want to say, for Feeble?
    Alright, it's your one party, the chain is growing steadily despite the timer shrinking at a stupid rate that definitely puts the northern dragon spot at risk. You are seeing Adaptations. When light drops at a rate I want to define as 28-30%, you will see each suffusion grow at almost double the potency from when you started that chain. Now if only the light was a better constant, and if only the Chain #30 dragon would Adapt to go with it (as that would be Gentle). Between the previous value and this, except a bar per hour.
  • 15-18 - Chimeras, Griffins, and Morbols (oh my?!)
    While still "Feeble" light, this amount is higher than the sleeping dragons in potent value, for sure. If you are lucky enough to get a tick early on in your chain then you might see closer to 15 points; the key term there is "If you are lucky enough." The majority of us probably are not very lucky in most cases, huh? At this point it seems as though the drop rate for light has reduced to 15% or less, so anyone with poor luck who decides to do this in place of the sleeping dragons can very easily receive only a couple ticks, or none at all. If you can benefit from this then all the more power to you and your luck-based privilege, but don't expect it to work out for everyone else. Oh yeah, and this says nothing of the ice sprites or Val Corpses that can show up in the back of the cave where the Chimeras are at.
  • 30 - Holy Cow
    No, I mean that's roughly the amount you can expect from a single Notorious Monster by this name, just southwest of the Gravitational Studies aetheryte. This is one of the higher level NMs, and the NMs don't exactly spawn terribly frequently on most instances, even truly fresh ones as opposed to quickly recycled instances. Lower level NMs give less, obviously, such as Snow Queen giving around 12-14 points.
  • 40 - Louhi?
    Maybe? I think? If you get Gold on Louhi then you've just reached the limits to what "Feeble" might give. Congratulations.

I have not seen enough "Gentle" lights, let alone better, to be able to measure those. I will, however, estimate a full bar as being 150 points of light. I will also estimate, given the delays behind Pagos, how unfun it has been for so many of us, the time of the level grind (whatever process we took), the fact that we need 31 of these crystals for one weapon to finally have a purple background, and how i370 will be irrelevant in a couple weeks here, that this grind for light takes exactly too damn long.

It would be nice if the southernmost dragon of the canyon of lowbie death were moved so it could be chained with the eastern dragon, or vice versa. It would be nice if two parties could share a mob without exp or light rewards taking a huge hit. It would be nice if the drop rates for light were greatly improved across the board.

As more and more people hit eLV 35, some of us needing to complete more than one weapon for various reasons, it becomes more and more imperative that we all have more options available to us, feasible ones. Options that actually work for the average player. Until then, I hope this at least helps someone understand the current situation a little better in regards to what we have to do in order to progress.

Because yeah, progression for those of us who waited so long for content that was promised to be fun, because some of us don't raid hardcore (again, reasons), is locked heavily behind RNG that's on top of yet more grinding.

Again, my apologies for potential inaccuracies to the values. Thank you for reading.