[Somajan]

I just got pwned in a bad situation regarding a bad monster chain choice.

I was just in Valkurm at level 18 rest of the party was as high as a level 20, while I didn't like the idea of keeping a level 20 on board we went after pugils anyways. Big mistake. The level gap between the party was a bunch of 18s one whm level 16 (who had died twice already) and that level 20, no 19s. We kept fighting pugils til the puller had gotten us an IT Pugil High evasion and defense. Needless to say we got owned. Although I got there in time to sort of save the party I still charged into the fray hopefully trying to kill that beast and possibly getting a 200 exp bonus, but we had a level 20 in the party, there's no telling how hard that thing was to him.
So since I'm tanking I die first, then the whm does benediction (he didn't know that invincible can take the hate off of bene) and i warp back the the Home Point. Upon going back to the battle site I get killed again because there's no more whm to support me anymore and I end up dying twice within 4 minutes.

Moral is know what you're fighting, keep those huge level gaps out of the party, and never underestimate the speed of Experience Chains, I cannot stress that point any further.
So far I haven't actually lost a battle against a goblin more because of Shield Bash actually working and me keeping the hate making sure all the damage is consolidated to just one character. Plus goblins are a ton easier, but when fighting pugils (Which I stay away from like the plague except for Qufim) make sure that the WHM has enough to take care of the tank or have other warriors in the party incase things get really really ugly. And just simply going for the |\/|4|) experience is really not worth all that effort if it means losing a possible experience chain.

Result was that I only gained about 2,000 experience in a period of 4 hours since fighting Pugils took a hell of a lot of time to kill and that double death making me lose about 840 experience.

[Lily]

Sorry you died, but having that sole lvl 20 was the bad point like you found out.

What I dislike is when you're chaining VT or T for very nice xp, and okay it kinda gets routiney, ppl start suggesting, hey how about this, or how about that - even though the xp really is fine.

Happens lots in Qufim. Clipper after clipper.. "Hey how about the Giant, so what if he's still IT. No? Okay.. the Wight then?"

[Somajan]

Wow, divine retribution or something. I got into an awesome party today and got all the exp back and gained a level, even got buffer x4, in a period of two hours. And yes we were fighting my beloved goblins.

[tomc1988t]

so you had a level 16 whm and a level 20 puller XD thats the worst combo lol you should've had someone your level pull bcuz well......that way monster isnt too hard gobs in the north west part of valkrum (near bard song rune beach) are the greatest for 19-21 ^_^ if you hit 20 i reccomend you stay in grp till it breaks up instead of heading off to jueno

[Rekiem]

Difference in levels make only a small difference compared to how much the monster con for the highest level which is the most important part.

You need to know about the area level. Having someone with 1 level higher than the group can almost drop the exp by half.

This one of the reason why the EXP in Valkrum often suck. People have no clue that past 17, theres almost monster that will con IT, beside a few pugil who are not good for EXP because of Screwdiver that can insta kill almost everyone and cost huge amount of MP to heal back all the HP lost because of the special or a few goblins but there are not enough to have some serious good EXP chaining. At 18, no one should still be in Valkrum and past 23, no one should be in Qufim (you can come back there at 26 to kill Leech) because most monsters will con T or VT for a level 24 character which make the EXP in party almost always below 100.

[Somajan]

Then where would one go at 17? Buburimu Peninsula?

also on my server the norm is 20-25 is qufim, 25-32 is Yhoater Jungle / Yuhtunga Jungle.

[UltimaWeapon]

I left Valkrum at lv.18, you get better exp fighting worms unti you hit 20-21 which then you can move on to clippers and whatnot unti lv.24 which then you COULD go to Yuthunga<sp> jungle or simply duke it out near the tower in Quifm until 25-26. Also, you could go to Battalia at lv.24-25 and pull mobs into those little shelters but only if you have a balanced PT.