it would be nice if leveling was less exploitable

[Azurymber]

Once again, something new and fun comes out. And instead of experience it, most people find a way to take a shortcut.

This time it's low level blue mages (e.g. lvl 20) running around in lvl 50 zones 1-shotting things to level up. Which is fine except that people leveling up normally have to jump on a mount to find mobs, because so many people are just tearing through them.

If this kind of 1-shot-insta-kill leveling is supposed to be the norm (and I'm not talking about 1000 needles, as that's fine), we should just get an option to boost blue mage to 50 instantly.

It's not game-breaking or a crazy annoyance. But it's just rationally pointless. Why expect people to level a job when half the people leveling it are just going to use an exploit to do it fast? Either don't allow the exploit, or make leveling completely optional (e.g. optional boost).

Again, if exploiters just stuck to a small area I don't think it would be a huge issue.
But when they are clearing zones out rapidly it kind of ruins the leveling process for people who want to play legit.

And obviously people exploiting have no desire to actually level the job.

[SenorPatty]

If it's not game-breaking or a crazy annoyance and it's rationally pointless...why make a thread about this?

[Azurymber]

If it's not game-breaking or a crazy annoyance and it's rationally pointless...why make a thread about this?

Because I'm paying monthly to have fun with a game.
And that fun is being interrupted by people using an exploit to get through the game faster at my (and other's) expense.

And it can be fixed by simply allowing all those people who would exploit to level up fast, an option to insta-level up to 50.

So the many people fasttracking it don't get harmed (they still get to 50 quickly).
And the people who actually want to take their time can level normally without people running through murdering everything in seconds.

[Vaer]

Well technically leveling itself is pointless since you can level normally using 1000 needles and 1 shot things 5+ levels above you legit, so in effect leveling doesn't even matter IMO.

I'd care more if leveling wasn't reduced to just mashing an op skill with a long cast time.

Yeah you can sit there and spam your other spells and not use it but... I don't know I just can't seem to care when you can just 1000 needles 1-2 shot everything. /shrug

[ParfaitMilano]

Even if this exploit was fixed today, there would still be people leveling by having a level 70 friend kill mobs after they tag them, effectively wiping areas in the same manner. With the current method being so widespread now, it's only a matter of time before everyone who wants to do it will have done so and zones will be back to relative normalcy. Taking into account that they say they're patch this in 5.0 means it's a one time annoyance for those leveling the old fashioned way.

Overall, this is a side effect of leveling being inherently unfun for the vast majority of players, but a necessary evil to keep people subbed. People are going to find the efficient route to get past leveling yet another class by using 1 button rotations to whack enemies in zones we've explored and become overly familiar with over the span of half a decade.

[Gemina]

I agree OP, but I won't fault the player base for a dev oversight. It's also not affecting my experience with the game at all, but I am also not playing BLU right now, if ever. They've been doing the mmo thing long enough now to know that players will exploit anything that gives an advantage, and if I saw this coming with pre BLU patch notes, the devs should have seen it as well.

However they get the experience points, it is still necessary and important for them to accrue that amount of exp and not be given an option to instantly get there. I believe there are a lot of BLUs running around now @50 with well under half of their skillset learned. I think the devs probably foresaw the exploit and simply did not care because RNGesus is their franchise star player.

[Hasrat]

Haven't spent a lot of time with BLU, but, isn't leveling kinda almost secondary to the job? You can either grind it out (or exploit it) and still have to go back to get your skills, or just level naturally while collecting the skills you can. Either way, it's still going to take a bit of time.

[Azurymber]

Haven't spent a lot of time with BLU, but, isn't leveling kinda almost secondary to the job? You can either grind it out (or exploit it) and still have to go back to get your skills, or just level naturally while collecting the skills you can. Either way, it's still going to take a bit of time.

up to level 50 you can get most skills (outside of dungeons and dalvag) in less than a minute or 2.
If they made the skill drops rarer then sure. But you usually get them within first 3 kills.

and then for all the dungeon/primal fights, everyone just wants to get carried (e.g. not many blu-only parties going for skills).

[Fawkes]

Leveling Blue Mage from 1-30 is like the most fun you can have with the job, grinding spells at 50 is tedious and the carnivale is just solo guildhests.

[SoulEchelon]

Leveling Blue Mage from 1-30 is like the most fun you can have with the job, grinding spells at 50 is tedious and the carnivale is just solo guildhests.

This right here. I had a blast leveling until around 30-35 collecting spells as I go. Fighting much higher levels with my chocobo in order to learn their spells was fun too. But once you get to about the level range previously mentioned, it becomes a boring slog of spamming 1000 needles and being carried through dungeons/trials over and over to get a rare ability drop.

Basically, blue mage just loses its flair at mid level, and at that point is where people (like me) felt the need to power level. Usually I don't do that sort of thing. I love enjoying content without speeding through it. But I just couldn't. It got so boring and tedious. At the very least, my partner and I focused on lesser known areas and never intentionally stole other players' kills. I also helped other blue mages by switching to a tank class for awhile for mobs like Dalvag and such.

Now at level 50, the grind is even more abhorrent. I feel absolutely useless as a blue mage in these trials, because our damage output is piss poor. We get a few combos, but none of them work because they focus on certain debuffs that bosses are immune to, so the added potency doesn't activate. Can barely tank trial bosses either - their tank busters laugh at mighty guard. Best thing a blue mage can do is spam white wind all day while running around in circles while feeling terrible about being the weakest link in the team.

And to top it all off, the RNG for these abilities is absolutely insane. A full team of blue mages will barely survive most hard trials while taking a good 10+ minutes to defeat it (Why the hell do we not have LB's!?). The droprate for abilities from these bosses is so damn low, it can take hours just to get Ifrit's. Seems the best way to deal with it is to have one person switch classes and carry the team; typically a red mage. But that person doesn't get the drop IF it drops. So the cycle repeats again for this one poor soul that sacrificed their chance to succeed so everyone else does.

Then there's the EX primal abilities....oof. I don't think I'll be getting those.