[Murphie]

I can't even begin to count how many times I've been through the dunes on my various characters. It is what it is though, and I try not to let it get to me (I don't always necessarily succeed, but oh well).

[raidenn]

I actually made more XP going through Korolloka rather than the dunes. Small party set up too.

[Taermus]

I have come to the conclusion that Dunes XP without friends/lsmates is worthless. Solo to 19 and go to Qufim. It just becomes so painfully irritating.

If you're a mage, the dunes can be actually sometimes easier with newbs. They don't have many expectations compared to people who, say, have all their 75 jobs listed in their search comments.

[Murphie]

Heck, solo to 20, even. I have never had a problem (even on mage jobs) soloing that far.

BRD would be a bit of a hassle I suppose, but that was never a real issue for me.

[bri360]

Wow, that sucks. The worst experience ive had was once when a high lvl player was really po'd at the party leader for something he did to her in rl, so the person kept jacking all the pulls and we were forced to disband. Another one was when our whole (good party) broke up cause of the stupidity of the leader. We were near selbina and some of us died including the party leader. Everyone got a raise but the raiser forgot to raise, or diddnt see the leader and logged. So i ask, after 10 min of seeking, where his hp is, ITS IN SELBINA!!?! I say just hp and he absolutely refuses to hp whatsoever because he thinks that he will regain his lost exp if he gets a raise -_-. Understanding that he is a beginner im kinda and say nicely that sry but once you die even if you get a raise you wont regain your exp. He said dude your wrong yes i will go and get me a raise. I said again, ive been playing quite a long time and ive never regained my lost exp from a raise. still he refuses, and now im getting kind of mad because ppl are leaving the party and I had to tell a person not to come since the pt was all disbanding. Now me and a few others are pretty much yelling for him just to hp and the only reason im still in the party is too prove him wrong now and make sure he finds out that you dont regain the exp so thing wont happen to another party. So sure enough a raise comes after 15 min, and sure enough I was right and he was wrong, no exp regained and he was probly embarrassed. It just frustrated me because me and others were telling him that you wont regain the exp for a long time and he just said yes I will get me a raise! lol I kinda feel bad for yelling at him a little now, but its all ok now and at least he learned his lesson so it wont happen to another party. Well thats my rant

[IfritnoItazura]

1. Paragraphs, please. x_x;
2.

Originally Posted by bri360

So i ask, after 10 min of seeking, where his hp is, ITS IN SELBINA!!?! I say just hp and he absolutely refuses to hp whatsoever because he thinks that he will regain his lost exp if he gets a raise -_-. Understanding that he is a beginner im kinda and say nicely that sry but once you die even if you get a raise you wont regain your exp. He said dude your wrong yes i will go and get me a raise. I said again, ive been playing quite a long time and ive never regained my lost exp from a raise.

You were both half wrong. Raise gives back 50% of experience points lost from death. Of course, for the amount of exp lost at those levels, you might as well HP to Selbina rather than waiting for a Raise for who knows how long.

[bri360]

Originally Posted by IfritnoItazura

1. Paragraphs, please. x_x;
2.
You were both half wrong. Raise gives back 50% of experience points lost from death. Of course, for the amount of exp lost at those levels, you might as well HP to Selbina rather than waiting for a Raise for who knows how long.

1. lol, kk ill remember to paragraph next time

2. Really wow, I never noticed that before, I thought only raise II and III gave back some exp, since most if not all people are willing to hp and be courteous and come back if they must, well still lol, it doesn't forgive him from his stubborn rudeness and he thought all his exp would regain and I said its not worth it to stay and wait for raise for the amount of exp you loose. If he finds out and I party with him again he can partially rub it into my face XD. O well both right and wrong. Still I cant believe he diddnt just hp lol. I guess the reason he diddnt notice, that no exp was regained is becuase he was hoping to regain it all and level back up to 15, but it diddnt quite make it so he was still 14 lol.

[fallenintoshadows]

It is the dunes after all, what do you guys expect? Yes, people should learn, yes it completely sucks but seriously: it is the dunes.

I try to have as much patience as possible when leveling through the dunes, you know it's not going to be the greatest party you ever had so my advice is to invite a friend or linkshell member to make it fun and laugh when it all goes wrong. Which it most certainly will.

You have to remember newbies are just begining to party when they come here, I can't stand being in a VD party where someone is shouting at a newb for something, they don't know any different! Teach them without being a complete ass about it.

As for aggro, everyone learns here how to avoid aggro or quickly zone it. Bats can be a pain because they are generaly unavoidable unless someone has come through and cleared them. Not everyone can afford silent oils, newbies and oldbies: It is quicker to run to the tunnel and kill the bats as a team than complain to a member for not having oils, watch their hp fall to 0, fuss about getting a raise, then wait for them to unweaken.. etc etc. It's easier to just go and help them, advise them next time if they can afford it oils would be helpful instead of screaming through /p chat and waiting for a raise.

I can't stand when people complain about members not having oils or maps or knowing where the camp is, they won't find out unless you tell them, and in a nice way! Just help them out and give them advice. It isn't hard and it doesn't take long to show them the way or go kill something for them. Surely the priority is to get everyone at the camp, alive, asap and start exping.

[DakAttack]

I was Rocky in the dunes, and I always had that massive train of fans following me as I ran through the area. Fan... vicious fiends... whatever. The point is I trained them on purpose and I still didn't bite it getting to camp. There's nothing more awesome than saying 'I've got our first pull!' and show up with a precession of goblins.

[Humar]

Ive been through the Dunes three times. The first time was as THF the second as Warrior and the Third as Ranger. And Absolutly none of the times did i ever come up with the problems i always hear about. I have almost always been the leader in these parties and had no problems. Ive never brought oils/invis with me nor have i been with someone that did. Mind you once or twice we had a pl but still.

Avoiding agro is not as hard as people take it for. I rarely have problems with it.

Just be patient...the mobs do move everynow and then. You just have to wait till the gobs face another direction or go far enough away. As far as the bats go yeah sure you cant really avoid them in the tunnels but you could ask a nearby party for help or instead of trying to brave it on your own with a party waiting...the party doesnt always have to be the ones to volunteer themselves to help you...ask them for help and im sure they wouldnt mind. Dont expect them to help you all the time without asking.

But yeah i agree with it is still far more easy to just have the party meet in a safe place and get to camp all together.

[Kuro]

I've been through 3 times on war allone, 3 times on monk, 2 times on samurai, once of thief, ocne on corsair, once on rng

*thinks* thats all i can remember for now.

[Silent Howler]

Originally Posted by fallenintoshadows

As for aggro, everyone learns here how to avoid aggro or quickly zone it. Bats can be a pain because they are generaly unavoidable unless someone has come through and cleared them. Not everyone can afford silent oils, newbies and oldbies: It is quicker to run to the tunnel and kill the bats as a team than complain to a member for not having oils, watch their hp fall to 0, fuss about getting a raise, then wait for them to unweaken.. etc etc. It's easier to just go and help them, advise them next time if they can afford it oils would be helpful instead of screaming through /p chat and waiting for a raise.

With the last couple times I had to get through the tunnels to meet up with a party, I actually made a shout. Sand Bats <pos> {Please assist} {Thank you} ^^

But with the second time, I didn't get help as quickly and decided to see if I could make it on my own. I was SMN at the time, so I used Carby to handle the first group of bats while I ran past the rest. I made it to the zone, but then I get a message, "You could not change areas at this time." Followed quickly by death from the bats. wtf? I have zoned to get away from monsters plenty of times. Why couldn't I this time? And earlier that day, I had noticed the same thing happened to another guy who tried to zone from the bats, being killed in the same fashion as me. I can't think of a good explanation for why that happened except that they may have hit me just as I was zoning, being enough to finish me off and prevent me from zoning.

[slipperhat]

...at least you guys dont get roleplayers... this dick refused to zone aggro because zarak the serpent king will not run from any fight! .. and the pt leader was to soft to kick him ... and it gets funnier when they are higher lvl then you '' hey prick i m higher than you so shut up and listen to me '' him 16war/8mnk me 15nin/7war .. noobs develope an ego as they get older .. the only alt to soloing is JP pts ..

[raidenn]

Originally Posted by slipperhat

...at least you guys dont get roleplayers... this dick refused to zone aggro because zarak the serpent king will not run from any fight! .. and the pt leader was to soft to kick him ... and it gets funnier when they are higher lvl then you '' hey prick i m higher than you so shut up and listen to me '' him 16war/8mnk me 15nin/7war .. noobs develope an ego as they get older .. the only alt to soloing is JP pts ..

You should have gotten a screenshot, thats good comedy :D

[Aksannyi]

Well I've leveled 9/18 of my jobs through the Dunes completely, and all of them have been there at least once. When I come upon the bats, if I didn't happen to bring stealth, I just /shout Sand Bats {Help me out!} <pos> {Thank you.} and usually they're dead in minutes.

Do I expect newbs to know that they need silent oils? No. I think S/E was incredibly cruel to place those bats where they are, knowing that 9/10 newbs weren't going to know that the bats would aggro them.

As for gob aggro, everyone should know by Dunes level that gobs aggro.

And if you're a higher level (30+ is even "high" enough here) you should know what aggros and what doesn't and plan accordingly. Though the first time you go to the dunes, if your nation has it, you should do the OP right off, so the bats never become an issue.