[Drayven]

I am new to this game and am trying to learn as much as I can from forums so I don't slow down other people in game.
One term I keep seeing that I am not familiar with is a "Burn Party". What is this?

[Aksannyi]

There are different types.

Manaburn party = consists of 4-5 BLMs and a refresher job, usually a BRD or a RDM. If MP is managed correctly, can get BLMs some high chains.

SMN burn party = consists of a bunch of SMNs. I'm not sure the mechanics of these higher level SMN parties as I never really play SMN.

Astral burn party = a different type of SMN party which utilizes Astral Flow, Level Sync, and a bunch of gathered mobs for extremely rapid leveling. Most players will never be a part of an Astral burn party.

TP burn party = the term for a typical exp party these days, which, at first was not very popular but gained in popularity as ToAU came out. Basically consists of 1 healing mage, 1 support job (BRD or COR, though less-than optimal parties will eliminate this if none are seeking), and 4 melees. Basically a party where people TP spam their weaponskills and chain pull so that exp/hr is maximized. People typically don't use tanks in these parties.

Probably if people were talking about a burn party, they meant Manaburn or TP burn.

[Elwynn]

It's basically where you get very fast XP (usually getting XP chains) by using one specific type of attack on something that is vulnerable to that type of attack.

Manaburn = group of BLMs spamming nukes, often timed nukes. Sometimes they try to kill BST or SMN pets (low hp) as quickly as possible, sometimes they nuke, sleep, repeat. The same procedure works for solo.

Meleeburn (or TP-burn) = group of DDs killing weak monsters (usually VT, and usually weak monsters like Colibri and Imps) as fast as possible. DNC and SAM are useful for this, both jobs that specialize in TP management. I guess DNC solo could be considered a form of meleeburn.

Arrowburn = RNGs spamming high-damage arrows as quickly as possible. When I leveled RNG to 20 for Wide Scan III, at 15 I found out that I could solo Even Match because Acid Bolts did so much damage. So apparently arrowburn can be done solo.

(And FYI, the trouble with solo is that if you can solo Even Match but not Tough, you will eventually run out of EMs and lose chain.)

The main thing both all these have in common is low downtime (resting for MP, etc.) which keeps chains going. A merit points party (level 75s) can chain 100+.

[Ketaru]

A "burn party" is a group that has a strategy built on the idea of most of its party members all using the same ability or spell (or types of abilities or spells) to accomplish something, usually killing something as fast as possible.

EX:
TP Burn- All meleers in the party us weaponskills as 100 TP becomes available.
Mana Burn- All nukers in the party synchronize nukes and Sleep/Stun/Gravity/Bind.
Arrow Burn (kind of a dead concept)- Party made up of mostly RNGs, back when ranged attack damage was calculated differently.
Jug Burn or Pet Burn- Parties comprised of mostly pet jobs.

[Aksannyi]

Oh yes, forgot about arrowburn parties. No one really does them anymore.

[Ketaru]

Originally Posted by Aksannyi

Oh yes, forgot about arrowburn parties. No one really does them anymore.

Well, I forgot about Astral Burn, and that's a far more relevant concept today.

[Aksannyi]

The problem with Astral burn is that it was GREAT ... until people kept opening their mouths. Now the competition in the tunnel fucked it up.

[wrongfeifong]

don't forget Pet burn.

[Rothy]

What about DRG Burn?

[Elwynn]

Originally Posted by Aksannyi

The problem with Astral burn is that it was GREAT ... until people kept opening their mouths. Now the competition in the tunnel fucked it up.

... and then they moved to Buburimu ... and then they started de-leveling their sync mules there* ... and then Buburimu (on Fairy) went under beastmen control for two weeks (and barely missed it the week before and another since) ... and Yagudo Drinks shot up to 5k each because the materials were only available from gardening and lollogging (I tried it, worthless).

*I didn't actually see this happen; it could've been RMT trying shit

[Drayven]

Thank you all for the info, it makes sense to me now. One more quick question. What is a "sync mule"?

[Aksannyi]

A character whose level is appropriate to use for level sync, so that certain party setups can utilize their level for either better camps or just dualboxing Fields of Valor (which I've done numerous times.) It's probably used more for Astral burns than anything else.

[Firewind]

Originally Posted by Aksannyi

TP burn party = the term for a typical exp party these days, which, at first was not very popular but gained in popularity as ToAU came out. Basically consists of 1 healing mage, 1 support job (BRD or COR, though less-than optimal parties will eliminate this if none are seeking), and 4 melees. Basically a party where people TP spam their weaponskills and chain pull so that exp/hr is maximized. People typically don't use tanks in these parties.

A typical exp party spams weaponskills? Most pick up groups just use a WS every 3-4 pulls and start calling that a TP burn

[Aksannyi]

Spam them to the extent that they can be spammed. Basically I'm saying that people don't hold onto/sit on TP, they just use their WS as soon as it's available.

[Lunaryn]

Burn parties as a general unifying concept may be a little tricky to grok at the moment because they've become such a predominant way of fighting that people don't always know/remember what to compare them against to give the term meaning. Defined loosely enough it is even possible to burn solo, especially since SE tweaked the xp return on mobs lower than your level to make them more viable.

The basic concept of a burn mode of xp is that you attempt to improve your xp/hr performance by optimizing kills/hr rather than optimizing xp/kill. It's not only a question of party composition but also of target selection; you want a mob that gives enough xp/kill that it still adds up meaningfully, but your primary concern is ensuring that your targets will not survive your onslaught for long, and that you have a ready supply so that you don't run out of targets and have to wait for respawn. Melee-oriented burns tend to favor a style that calls for as little stopping/pausing as possible and value MP-self-sufficiency in healers. Magic-oriented burns tend to favor expensive but fast kills that prevent the mob from becoming a threat, and where the kill speed makes up for the downtime. Ideal burn mobs tend to have low HP compared to others of their level.

The contrasting method of xp, one which has fallen into disfavor due to massive changes in xp/hr potential between the methods, is typically referred to as 'traditional'. In this method you build a strong, balanced party that can stand up to difficult targets, and you choose your targets to try to optimize xp/kill. While chaining is still a goal of a good traditional party, the usual expectation is of chaining to 3-5 for a really good party, with resting downtime between chains. A good traditional target should range high enough in level to potentially grant 200xp/kill, and usually cons as Incredibly Tough to all party members (though at high levels ITs become hard to find). Traditional parties work well with camps that have long respawn times and often favor defensively-oriented mobs whose defenses can be overcome. Because of the longer battle times, tanks are a requirement in traditional parties, whereas not all burn parties require them.

Both approaches have pros and cons and both can be screwed up by inept party builders. A typical problem in burn parties is bad choice of targets, e.g. attempting to burn targets that are more suitable to trad parties, especially at low levels. PLs are commonly used to help high-level-burn-style low-level parties take targets typically calling for traditional party methods. A typical problem in traditional parties is overhunting, choosing targets that always return capped xp/kill despite their party being too low level to do a good job killing them. Burn parties have always had an xp/hr advantage over traditional parties but were less globally viable before ToAU; now not only are melee-burn parties widely viable, but an influx of highly burn-ideal mobs have made burn party xp potential an order of magnitude better than traditional party xp potential. Thus far SE has shown no signs they intend to correct this disparity.