SP pre November patch

[Veasna]

I like the system as it is now, before that november patch i got around 3x more SP than the conjurer in my group because he was healing and buffing. Grinded rank 35-37 on random mobs that gave 199 to 405 SP each...I see nothing wrong with this.

[Aiko]

The main issue is that the old SP system actually encouraged people to "play worse."

For example, you used to get SP for healing your party members. This meant that more damage received by your party members would result in more opportunity for skillups. Eventually people started playing "naked" to increase the damage they received, and mages would cluster close to the mobs to take damage from the AOE so they could heal themselves.

You also had a chance to gain SP for connected attacks. The SP was supposed to scale based on damage dealt, but the formulas were not set up properly. For example, Thms figured out that they would get more skillups by just spamming Phantom Dart than actually landing DoTs like Poison.

Basically the old SP system incentivized inefficiancy instead of rewarding cooperation and quick kills the way the Exp Chain system in FFXI does. Something just felt flat out wrong about the old system way beyond the "random" factor of skillups. Keeping mobs on "life support," dragging out every battle in order to maximize SP gain, and "cure sniping" are just a few examples, but there are many many other reasons why the current system is vastly superior.

[SnowTiger]

At the time, I wanted a flat rate SP system... As a healer, I always seemed to cap out when the DD's were getting junk... We'd move, the DD's would be capping, and the healers would be getting junk. Then we'd find a nice balance, where everyone did well... Except the tank or someone else, who would be getting junk...

I just hated to see some people miss out, and it seemed like someone always did.

But, with that said, roaming around, looking for new camps, and fighting with a bunch of people out in the field was a LOT better than doing leves, and infinitely better than solo'ing doblyns.

Since they changed it, I basically just quit leveling all together. First it was because of the solo trend, and I don't play mmo's to solo... I even craft in parties. But now, it's mostly because of the leves. They just don't appeal to me. Not sure why, but leves just seem to get on my nerves, like they feel repetitive and annoying... But for whatever reason, getting a party of 6+ people, and going out to a camp and just slaying around for 2-3 hours was always fun... Especially when people would be chatty and joking around and such the whole time. Leves just seem like an on-rails experience, and Idk, they just bore me...

Maybe if they had better leves... Like party based defense leves that are actually tough, and not because the mobs oneshot your tank... Like, have a 20 minute duration, with wave after wave of mobs, one after the other. Maybe like garrisons from FFXI, but on steroids. That's a leve I would enjoy... Running back and forth killing filthy peon monkeys for necrologo pages, or running all over just to sit at a spot for 8 minutes and kill a weak crap efts... meh... Just meh, like x1000.

But that's just me. In general though, I definitely think they need to eliminate the star ratings from leves, and just make completely different leves for small, large, and huge parties, then make all the current ones just solo class leves.

[Abriael]

Absolutely not. While the original SP gain was interesting *on paper* it was disastrous in practice.

Why? It actually encouraged NOT to kill the monster, and to try and make it last as much as possible to get more SP. It also discouraged the use of any skill that didn't directly result in SP gain (for instance shock spikes and the like).

Any system that discourages *winning* in a game, and discourages the creative using of one's tools is utterly flawed at it's roots.

[Neptune]

It was good in theory but in a multiplayer situation it was untenable. Pugilist was going to level the fastest since it hit the fastest. In a behest you would have 2 or 3 pugilists hitting something and you wouldn't even get a chance to target the mob before it was dead. If you can't hit it, no sp for you. I think it was a cool system in FF2 but that's single player where no matter what happens you get credit for it.

I wish it was more purely like FF2, with no experience points or skill points at all. Originally I think that was the concept but because they ran out of ideas they threw in EXP and SP. Like if my ice magic went up when I cast ice spells. I think this system is way better for the gain you get within a certain amount of time.. but sometimes I wonder. What do you all think?

[Jinko]

No I hated the original SP system.

[Krausus]

I didn't like that it promoted spamming 11111 taking damage and killing slowly. Though I wish there where better incentives to party grind, maybe more party sp bonus. I think if an 8 man raptor party could pull in say 400-500 sp a kill at mid 40s then it would definitely be worth doing much more then it is right now, that way leves would serve their intended purpose for those that dont have much time instead of the main way to get SP.

[Vicious]

No thanks. we were forced to go easy on the monster so we could get more hits, im glad its gone.

[Atomsk]

No thanks, I like to actually use my most damaging abilities and use gear that is above level 1.

[Galamantyl]

A few months ago...

Me in a party of 3 people...

We fought a bat in Mun-Tuy Cellars...

It kept healing itself over and over again during the entire fight, took a ridiculous amount of time/effort/resrouces to kill...

Only got 100 sp to show for it.



I am in favor of the old SP system.